Video Agency in Sète: UGC, TikTok and Reels on the Singular Island
A fishing boat gliding along the canal, a tielle coming out of the oven at Les Halles, a water joust in the middle of August: Sète almost films itself.
Scroll to learn more ↓︎Shooting, editing and publishing for brands in Sète
A fishing boat gliding along the canal, a tielle coming out of the oven at Les Halles, a water joust in the middle of August: Sète almost films itself. You still have to know where and when to set up the camera. The town had 45,337 inhabitants in 2023 according to Insee, and its population has grown by 0.8% a year since 2017. For the restaurants, shops, hotels and port businesses of the singular island, we prepare the shoot in Paris and come to film on location, in a day or two.
See our workA Small Town With the Reach of a Big Port
Sète remains a mid-sized town: 45,337 inhabitants in 2023, 18,025 jobs in the town and 1,872.7 inhabitants per km², according to Insee. But its name carries much further than its figures. According to the Archipel de Thau tourist office, the town was born of a project of Louis XIV, with the launch of the port in July 1666 to link the Mediterranean to the Thau lagoon and the Canal du Midi. This past of port, fishing and canals is something everyone recognises in an image. For a local brand, it is a rare advantage: a few seconds of quay or boat are enough to place the video, without a voice-over. The downside is the competition from holiday images. An ad that settles for the postcard gets lost in the feed; it needs a face, a product, a reason to act.
Ferries, Fish Auction, Pleasure Boating: the Port as Employer
According to Port Sud de France, the regional body that manages it, Sète is the second decentralised French port and the main French port for ferry passengers to Morocco, with services to Tanger Med and Nador. Its fish auction hall was the first in Europe to be computerised, as early as 1967. Around it are pilots, dockers, fish wholesalers, logistics staff and boat-maintenance yards. In the town, Insee counted 1,864 employer establishments at the end of 2024, of which 72.4% have 1 to 9 employees and 6.1% are in industry. For a maritime company that is recruiting, nothing beats a portrait shot on the quay, at dawn, with the sound of engines. For a service SME, a series of short videos in which the team explains their job gives LinkedIn and Instagram material for months.
Tielle, Les Halles and the Wednesday and Friday Markets
Les Halles de Sète hold a market all year round, from 7:30 am to 1 pm and until 2 pm in summer, according to the Town. On Wednesdays, the open-air market spreads through the pedestrian centre, rues Gambetta and Alsace-Lorraine; on Fridays, it moves to rue Victor-Hugo. From June to September, craftspeople hold a night market on Thursdays on place du Galion and on the Lido promenade. For a fish restaurant, an oyster seller or a bakery that sells tielles, this is the setting to show: product in close-up, the vendor's gesture, the customer's first bite. These Reels also work for the oyster bars of the Étang de Thau, which visitors look for on Instagram before coming. A UGC creator who does their shopping at the Wednesday market and comments on what they buy makes a video that is credible with Sétois and holidaymakers alike.
Mont Saint-Clair, Théâtre de la Mer and the Saint-Louis Jousts
Mont Saint-Clair offers the overview of the town, the lagoon and the sea: it is the obvious opening shot. Below, the Pointe Courte district, the Cimetière marin sung by Paul Valéry, the murals of the Musée à Ciel Ouvert and the Théâtre de la Mer, a former fort designed by Vauban according to the tourist office, each give a different atmosphere. The Lido beaches stretch for 12 km for swimwear, sunglasses or sports brands. The calendar weighs heavily here: summer strings together the Saint-Louis jousts, Jazz à Sète, the Worldwide Festival and Fiest'A Sète. These weeks suit an atmosphere video with people everywhere; for a calm product shoot on the quays, spring and autumn are more comfortable, with a softer light on the coloured façades.
From Paris, a Day Set by the Light of the Port
We arrive in Sète by train from Paris, the station being a few minutes' walk from the canals. The shoot is prepared remotely: script, hooks to test, creator casting, locations and time slots, permits if we film in public space or on a quay managed by the port. The day starts early, when the boats come in and the light is low on the water. Les Halles and the market in the morning, interiors and interviews in the hot hours, terrace or Mont Saint-Clair at the end of the day. In parallel, a UGC creator records several versions of the same video, with different openings to compare results in paid campaigns. Our Paris editors then take over, and you receive files ready for TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Why creative ads deliver better results
An ad that looks like an ad gets skipped in a second. A creative ad works on the hook, the message and the format so it is watched to the end, then tested and adapted for as long as it converts.
Get resultsContent built to capture, engage and convert
Our approach to creative ads
Every video is designed to be tested, measured and then improved.
Strategy & audience analysis
Market, goals and audiences: we choose the angles to test.
Visual creation & ad copywriting
Scripts, shooting and editing to each platform's codes.
Testing, iteration & continuous optimisation
We compare the variants and roll out the winners.
Frequently asked questions about our video production studio
Another question? Write to us, reply within 24 hours.
Write to usChoose your slot now
30 minutes with our team. You leave with a content plan, even if we don't end up working together.