When Meaghan Sullivan joined Google Cloud nearly five years ago, video testimonials followed a familiar pattern: high-touch, expensive productions reserved for select customer segments. Fast forward to today, and her team at Google Workspace publishes a regular video series featuring everyone from IT admins to C-suite executives—all recorded remotely by customers themselves.
The transformation didn't happen overnight, but when it did, Vocal Video was at the center of it.
The Challenge: Creating Dynamic Content at Scale With a Small Team
When Sullivan moved to Google Workspace to build out their advocacy and reference program, there was a common challenge. Her team was much smaller than her last, but the demand for fresh, authentic customer stories was just as high—if not higher.
"We really needed to be able to create dynamic content channels beyond just traditional customer testimonials, blogs, and case studies," Sullivan explains.
The team wanted to launch a weekly video series showcasing how customers use Google Workspace products like Gmail, Chat, and Meet to connect, create, and do their best work. But traditional video production simply wouldn't scale.
The math didn't add up. Professional video shoots can cost $50,000 to $100,000 per project. Targeting a regular series was impossible.
The Breakthrough: When Everyone Became Comfortable on Camera
Initially, Google Cloud used Vocal Video selectively—primarily for IT admins and SMB customers who were already comfortable with self-recording. Enterprise executives? Those were still high-touch video shoots.
Then COVID-19 changed everything.
"Once we got into COVID, all those lines got blurred," Sullivan recalls. "Everyone got really used to recording videos at home. Right now I have a ring light. Before COVID I did not have one. I am not a social media influencer. But now a lot of us have these tools in our own homes."
The team made a pivotal decision: try Vocal Video with their entire customer base—all segments, all industries, all personas.
The result? Immediate receptivity.
"We have everybody from IT admins to CEOs and founders to CIOs really embracing this record-at-home capability," Sullivan says. Customers felt comfortable re-recording as many times as needed and appreciated the guided prompts that made them feel supported—just like they would with a high-touch experience, but through a scalable platform.
The Rebrand Challenge: Turning a Nightmare Into a Non-Issue
When Google launched their generative AI product and subsequently rebranded it, they faced a content crisis. The team had filmed numerous customer videos featuring the old branding.
With traditional video production, that content would have been unusable—tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain.
Instead, Sullivan's team simply sent new Vocal Video links.
"We were able to do it literally free of charge other than our customers' time, because we already have the subscription with Vocal Video," Sullivan explains. "Because the recordings only take 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how many times you want to re-record, we were able to get brand-new videos with the new rebrand."
That's something you could never do with traditional video workflows.
The Results: A Weekly Video Series and Beyond
Today, Google Workspace's video series runs every week, featuring authentic stories from customers across all segments. The series wouldn't be possible without Vocal Video.
But the platform's impact extends beyond the weekly series. The team has used Vocal Video for:
- DEI initiatives: Capturing stories from women customers for Women's Equality Day and Women's History Month
- Product launches: Quickly creating updated content when products evolve
- Customer advocacy: Scaling social proof across the entire customer journey
Sullivan's biggest lesson? Don't limit yourself based on assumptions about who will or won't record themselves.
"We thought people would be more receptive to self-recording for maybe IT admins or SMB," Sullivan says. "Moving over to Google Workspace, we had a much smaller team, smaller resources and budget. We said, people are used to recording at home—let's try out Vocal Video with all of our customer base, not just a specific segment or persona."
The barrier to high-quality video testimonials isn't who your customers are. It's having the right tools to make the process simple, fast, and professional.
Ready to scale your video testimonial program like Google Workspace? Start collecting authentic customer videos with Vocal Video today →