Love Letter

In time for Earth Month, Beekeeper’s Naturals and its founder, Carly Kremer, professed their unguarded love for bees with “Love Letter,” a dreamy ode to the work and products bees provide the planet every day. Concepted internally by the brand’s in-house creative team, the campaign was directed by Jess Colquhoun and produced by FIN Studios, and brings Kremer back to her roots as a real beekeeper, keeping her as hands-on with the spot as she is with her company.

As the soul of Beekeeper's Naturals, she has historically let the mission speak louder than her name. This project changed that. While going through boxes in her parents' basement last year, Carly found a letter she had written as a child--handwritten, unprompted, about her love for bees and her fear of a world without them. She re-read it decades later as the founder of a company built entirely around protecting those same creatures, which felt like anything but a coincidence.

The film grew from that moment. When FIN Studios auditioned dozens of actors to narrate the titular Love Letter, the team unanimously agreed that Carly’s own voice should star. It wasn’t the plan, but it was the one thing that was true.

Background
While studying abroad in Europe as a student, Carly began suffering from an autoimmune disorder that she couldn't treat with antibiotics due to an allergy. A local beekeeper recommended propolis--and it worked. That single experience sent her down a years-long rabbit hole into the science of the hive, the launch of Beekeeper's Naturals, and eventually, inspired this campaign. Because the brand built its business without traditional TV advertising, the film is what they chose to do with their abundant success. For its first foray, the work exists entirely in service of the bees--the reason this company was founded--with no product demo, before-and-after, or call to action.

Jess Colquhoun blends hands-on filmmaking techniques with modern innovations to produce the most true-to-life depictions possible. She shot Carly entirely on film, as opposed to digitally, for the careful intentionality that shooting on film requires in production and post. With less freedom to edit or re-do takes on the fly, the film captures the most authentic frames with an elevated sense of color and depth that feels very tactile and authentic for audiences.

A second iteration of the spot features a letter read by Carly and a young girl, who share their own appreciation for bees (and their fuzzy legs) and the important pollinating work they perform every day. The kids connect the dots between their flower-filled adventures and important products like honey and royal jelly, which contribute to the well-being of humans worldwide.

With a child on set, the bees in this film were deliberately AI-generated--a cautious choice, not a shortcut. A real child needed to move freely and fearlessly on camera, which meant removing any actual risk. On the second day of the shoot, with the young talent off set, the crew filmed real bees at a working hive, which gave the visual effects team irreplaceable references: the actual weight of a bee in flight, the way light catches a wing, the organic unpredictability of a colony at work. The bees were rendered from these observations by FIN Studios Director of Design & VFX Damien Nemire-Pepe. Lead Editor Ling Ly incorporated those elements into the cut seamlessly, ensuring safety without sacrificing immersion.

Beekeeper's Naturals began at a farmer's market in 2017 and blossomed into a nine-figure brand sold in 37,000+ retail locations across the US, including Target, Whole Foods, and Walmart. This film marks the brand’s next chapter: using its platform to share its story with a wider audience and deepen what Beekeeper's Naturals stands for beyond the product.