The launch film we made for InVue’s OnePOD Max won a People’s Telly Bronze in General Animation at the 2026 Telly Awards. Unlike the main Telly categories, the People’s Telly is not decided by the jury alone. Judges draw up the shortlist, and the public decides the winners.
It is our second People’s Telly. In 2024 our What If? spot for Carnegie Mellon won People’s Telly Silver in General Branded Content, alongside a Silver from the judges.
That makes it a different kind of proof. The same film also won Silver in Craft: 3D/CG Animation from the Telly Awards Judging Council, which we wrote about in inside the 3D animation behind InVue’s Silver Telly. One award says industry judges rated the execution. This one says ordinary viewers chose to watch it and liked what they saw.
How the People’s Telly is decided
Entries in the People’s Telly categories are first shortlisted by the Telly judges. The shortlisted work is then published on the Tellys’ own rating platform for a two-week voting period near the end of the competition. Anyone can watch it and rate it from one to five stars, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners come from those public ratings.
The Tellys receive more than 13,000 entries a year from every US state and six continents. To place in a public vote, a film has to hold the attention of people with no stake in the product, no brief in front of them, and every reason to click away.
A security product is not an obvious crowd favorite
OnePOD Max is a retail security display: the mount that holds phones and tablets on a store wall and keeps them there. Its best features are mechanical and hidden inside the housing. On paper, it is the kind of product that produces a dense spec video watched only by people who have to watch it.
We made the opposite choice. The film runs on a concept-to-reality arc that starts with points of light assembling into a microchip, travels inside the mechanism, shows the product unlocking a device through InVue’s OneKEY app, and ends on the retail floor. There is almost no text on screen. Warm amber light carries the viewer from one moment to the next. The engineering is all there, but it arrives as a story with a beginning and an end rather than a list of specs. We go deeper on that approach in selling a product nobody can see.
The response showed up long before the award
The public vote confirmed something InVue had already seen. The campaign has passed 1.3 million views, and the feedback came from every direction: partners, sister brands and customers all asking who produced it.
Inside InVue, it landed the same way. Taylor Topper, InVue’s Senior Director of Marketing, shared one reaction from her own team: “Every time I see the video, it makes me want to buy a OnePOD Max, and I work here.” That is the reaction a launch film is for, and it is rare for a product most people never think about.
In her words, the film is “dynamic, on-brand, and tells the product story in a way that’s both emotionally engaging and commercially effective.” Her full account is on the OnePOD Max project page.
Built to be seen everywhere
A film can only win a public vote if people actually see it, and this one was built to travel. The :60 hero film was one deliverable among several from the same 3D build: cutdowns for Instagram Reels and LinkedIn, sales enablement pieces for InVue’s team, and trade show content for the floor.
Keeping text to a minimum helped too. InVue sells globally, and a film that explains itself visually works in any market without re-editing or a stack of translated versions.
What the sales team got out of it
A public vote measures attention. A launch film is also measured by what it does after the launch, and here it handed InVue’s sales team a tool that does the explaining for them.
A retail security display is a considered purchase, often weighed by several teams in a retailer, each with different questions. The film answers the shared ones in a minute: what the product does, why the mechanism matters, and how it fits the store. That frees the sales conversation for the questions that are specific to each retailer, which is where a good salesperson earns their keep anyway.
Because the film explains itself visually, with almost no text, it also works where sales teams actually use video: on a trade show screen, or as a link sent after a first meeting.
Why we enter work for awards
When we delivered the film, we suggested InVue enter it into the awards circuit. Awards are third-party proof. For a client, they give an internal champion something concrete to point to when the next budget conversation comes round. For a studio, they are evidence a prospective client does not have to take on trust.
The Tellys accept work produced within a two-year eligibility window, and the next season opens for entries in October 2026. If you have made something you are proud of, it is worth a look.
What the vote says about technical products
A technical product does not need a technical film. It needs a clear story, real accuracy, and a reason for the viewer to keep watching. Get those right and the audience will meet you halfway, even for a security mount. If you have a product like that, our animation production work is the place to start, and how to brief an animation studio shows what to bring to the first conversation.
In summary
- InVue’s OnePOD Max launch film won a 2026 People’s Telly Bronze in General Animation, an award decided by public vote.
- Telly judges shortlist the entries, then the public rates them on a five-star scale during a two-week voting window.
- A security mount is not an obvious crowd favorite, so the film tells a story instead of listing specs, with almost no text on screen.
- The audience response came first: more than 1.3 million views and partners, sister brands and customers asking who made it.
- The same film won Silver for 3D/CG animation craft from the Telly judges, so it was recognized by both the industry and the public.
