Azusa Pacific University's School of Business and Management came to Mallard with a recruiting challenge. A generous endowment had positioned APU to build a leading School of Accounting, but the profession carried an old stigma, and prospective students, especially the growing Latino population across Southern California, were not seeing themselves in it. On top of that, every university recruitment video looked the same, a voiceover laid over B roll of students with textbooks. APU needed films that felt nothing like the sea of sameness and made accounting and business feel exciting, human, and full of possibility.
Mallard Agency, a Dallas video production company, produced a series of cinematic films for APU, captured over a two day shoot on campus. We started with strategy, developing full creative treatments for each film before a single frame was shot. "Strength in Numbers" reintroduced accounting through a natural conversation between a student, a professor, and a successful alum, proving the field is about clarity, community, and opportunity rather than spreadsheets alone. "More Than a Word" brought the School of Business to life through quiet, powerful moments of mentorship, leadership, and service that showed what community actually means at APU. We also produced a focused founder interview to support Firm Block, a venture tied to the school. Every concept was built to feel aspirational and real, casting the university in a light that makes a high schooler stop and pay attention.
APU walked away with a library of story driven films built to move prospective students to action, designed for campus visits, admissions outreach, YouTube, and email. Instead of blending in with every other school, the university had work that felt genuinely different, anchored in real people and real stories across three stages of an accounting and business career. For a school working to reach new communities and make its programs feel exciting again, the films gave them a way to show it rather than tell it.
Like what you see? Just wait until you see what we have in store for your brand. Mallard is a Dallas based branding, marketing, and video production agency that helps turn ordinary businesses into extraordinary brands through a proven system for effective marketing. When you’re ready to move forward with confidence, we’re ready to build with you.
