One Question Unlocked Winmark's Best Franchisee Stories Yet

Winmark, the franchise company behind Play It Again Sports, Once Upon A Child, and Plato's Closet, came to Spoken Motion Studio to film franchisee testimonials at ResaleCon 2026.

The investment wasn't the hard part. Knowing what story to tell was.

Before a single interview was scheduled, SMS built a Story Blueprint — the framework that defines a project's core objective, structure, and guardrails before production begins. One question inside that process changed the direction of the entire series, and turned "we love our franchise" testimonials into something franchisees had never said on camera before.

"Their ability to draw out emotion and find the meaningful story in every interview was pretty impressive. The final products far exceeded our expectations."

— Maggie Flanagan, Senior Marketing Manager, Winmark Corporation

What you'll learn in this case study:

  • The one question that reframed Winmark's entire testimonial series.

  • Why alignment on direction — not budget — is usually the real blocker on video projects.

  • How a Story Blueprint eliminates mid-edit pivots and late-stage scope debates.

  • What franchisees said once they had a clear story to tell, not just a script.