Video agency in Toulon: UGC, TikTok and creative ads
In Toulon, everything faces the harbour: 70% of the French fleet is based there (Var prefecture, 2023, cited by Géoconfluences), and the Navy shapes employment as much as the images you can shoot there.
Scroll to learn more ↓︎Shooting, editing and publishing for brands in Toulon
In Toulon, everything faces the harbour: 70% of the French fleet is based there (Var prefecture, 2023, cited by Géoconfluences), and the Navy shapes employment as much as the images you can shoot there. The commune had 179,116 inhabitants in 2023 according to Insee, and the daily market on the cours Lafayette remains the best barometer of local life. Esekai, a Paris studio founded by Tony Lo that has worked with more than 350 brands, comes down to the Var to film your creative ads, your UGC and your TikTok formats where your customers live: the quays, the halles, the beaches of Le Mourillon.
See our work179,116 inhabitants between Mont Faron and the harbour
Insee's 2023 census gives Toulon 179,116 inhabitants, on a very tight territory: 4,181 inhabitants per km². Two other figures matter to a brand. Retirees make up 28.8% of Toulonnais aged 15 or over, and the unemployment rate for 15-to-64-year-olds reaches 13.5% the same year. A retailer aimed at the local customer base is therefore speaking to two very different audiences: seniors on Facebook and Instagram, receptive to calm testimonials and neighbourhood faces, and younger working people (sailors, students, defence employees) who scroll TikTok between shifts. You do not shoot the same creative ad for each. For the first, a shopkeeper from Le Pont-du-Las or Saint-Jean-du-Var talking about their trade to camera. For the second, very short hooks, ambient sound and subtitles that can be read without sound.
The Navy, Naval Group and the Technopôle de la Mer
The naval base is the Var's number one employer: 15,000 sailors and 20,000 staff including civilians, or 12% of the working population of the Toulon Provence Méditerranée metropolitan area, according to a study published by Géoconfluences in 2024. Naval Group is described there as the département's leading industrial employer, and 1,300 of its employees have worked since January 2016 at the Technopôle de la Mer in Ollioules, next to the Pôle Mer Méditerranée and SMEs in maritime security, naval engineering and marine energy. Around it orbits a subcontracting sector (maintenance, electronics, engineering) competing for the same technicians. For these companies, a useful video is nothing like a sketch: portraits of engineers in the Technopôle's offices, close-up workshop tours for LinkedIn and Meta, the testimonial of a former sailor who moved into civilian life. On sensitive subjects, we build the story around people and leave out of frame whatever must remain confidential.
Cade, art deco halles and the cours Lafayette market
The cours Lafayette market is held every day except Monday and stretches for a kilometre under the nettle trees, food in the morning, traders in the afternoon. At the bottom, on place Louis Blanc, the cade wagon serves the wood-fired chickpea galette that is the town's pride. A little further on, the halles built in 1929, with their art deco façade and rooftop, bring together 25 food artisans. It is the dream setting for the culinary content expected of a TikTok agency in Toulon: the cade cut live, the cheesemonger's gesture, a tasting filmed by a customer as UGC. For a restaurant on the port or in Le Mourillon, a Reel shot during the lunchtime service, terrace full and boats of the Vieille Darse in the background, brings in more than a photo shoot. Cruise passengers and ferry passengers for Corsica, often there for just a few hours, choose their table based on this kind of video.
From Faron to Le Mourillon: when and where to set up the camera
Mont Faron offers the overview of the city, the port and the harbour: an opening shot that places a brand in two seconds. Lower down, the Tour Royale, fortified in 1514 under Louis XII and bought back by the town from the Navy in 2006, gives a stone setting resting on the water. The beaches of Le Mourillon serve all year for sport, wellness or fashion content, preferably early in the morning, before the bathers. On the calendar side, Jazz à Toulon sets up its free concerts every summer on the squares of the centre: the streets are full, and a TikTok shot on a terrace that evening speaks to residents and holidaymakers alike. In winter, the low light on the quays and the clear pavements make outdoor filming much simpler. One constraint specific to the harbour remains: the mistral, which requires protecting lavalier mics and planning sheltered fallback shots.
Preparing a shoot between the station and the Vieille Darse
It all starts at Toulon station, a few streets from place de la Liberté: the Esekai team (director, camera operator and, if the brief requires it, a UGC creator cast for the project) sets down the equipment and films from the morning. The groundwork is done beforehand, from Paris and by video call: writing the hooks, the shot list, the recce photos that you send us of your shop or workshop. We keep the cours Lafayette for the morning, when the stalls are full, move on to your premises in early afternoon and finish on the quays or in Le Mourillon as the light drops. Every video agency in Toulon knows this: the arsenal and Navy installations cannot be freely filmed, so we frame from public space and check authorisations in advance. In one day, we leave with the material for several creative ads, UGC and a TikTok series.
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.
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