Six Shenandoah Valley businesses, one remote campaign
Empowering local businesses through video storytelling.
Dean GyorgyCo-Founder, Hero Network · March 2025The story
Hero Network ran its first fully-remote production campaign in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, a milestone in our mission to help local businesses and communities tell their stories through video.
The campaign, in partnership with the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (SCCF), showed how far the remote approach can scale.
A common challenge
Short-form video is a huge opportunity for small business owners: low production cost (a smartphone is all you need), free distribution on social, and a high return on effort. According to HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing Report, short-form video delivers the highest ROI of any content format.
Despite the opportunity, many small businesses never get started. The reasons are familiar: no time, no idea where to begin, and no comfort being on camera.
A superpower of Hero Network
Hero gives small businesses a guided, fully-remote way to make video using just their phone. Collaborative, effective, affordable, and empowering. Owners do not learn software or schedule a crew. They have a conversation, and finished videos come back.
The videos
It's easy to post “Watermelons are 99 cents.” It's hard for us to share our community impact and get people excited. It was definitely easier to be interviewed and have the work done, because I would not know where to start.
Highlights
- Burrow and Vine reached an 8.54% engagement rate, more than double their 3.98% average.
- Every business saw improvement, ranging from 150% to 650% increases.
- View counts increased for all businesses across both platforms where data was available.
Standout performances
Community connections: the ripple effect
When local businesses share their real stories, something happens. It is not just about views or likes. It is about real connections, and building trust with an audience.
These videos do not just reach customers. They touch neighbors, inspire locals, and strengthen community bonds. The reactions are not just comments. They are conversations. Each like, share, and comment is a deepening relationship between a business and its community, and it carries into foot traffic, word of mouth, and a stronger local economy.
We saw general visitor increases that week. It's hard to share our community impact and get people excited, but this does it.