Skip to main content
Monthly Archives

January 2016

Jan 25
Love0

SEO So What? What Are The Real Costs On Video Marketing?

By Corporate Video Production, Digital Marketing

How To Balance Message With Production Quality

Ok, so lets talk money. When it comes to producing video your budget is going to be the key factor in how good the final product is. Yes, there are fairy stories about films produced by companies shot on a mobile phone going “viral” and getting millions of views. And you may also be told that it’s all about being creative on limited budgets. But lets be honest, how many videos went viral this year? Can you name them? The truth is that only a handful (and we’re talking single figures here) of videos “go viral” so if that is part of your video marketing plan then you should be realistic about what you will actually achieve.

Search Engines Love SEO

There is also a school of thought that says “any video marketing content is good for your business” and that by simply having any video content on your site is a positive force due to its effect on SEO (search engine optimisation). If you’re not too familiar with this then let me break it down a little. Search engines LOVE video. There’s a much better chance of your company getting to the top of the search pages if you have video content on your website and on your social media pages (Youtube etc). This led to many SEO experts advising that “even video shot on your mobile phone” would have a positive effect on your business.

You’ve probably seen “video blogs” or “company welcome” videos on corporate websites that companies have shot with low production values in the hope that just having “any video content” would be a step in the right direction.

The approach assumes that viewers don’t expect high production quality from some corporate video and that the low budget “blog” type films are actually an endearing and honest way to engage them.

real-costs-of-video1

How Important is Production?

The idea being that as long as there is actual content being delivered (eg, advice, tips, news) then the picture, sound and production quality is not important. This is plain wrong and makes a dangerous assumption about what customers expect and demand from a business or organisation.

Let me give you an example. This was a real conversation that actually happened.

Business – “We’ve shot a 30 minute intro film for our business to help us increase SEO. Our internet marketing advisor said that having a long film on our site would be great for helping search engines find us and new customers engage with our brand. We were advised that quality wasn’t important as a search engine couldn’t distinguish between a professionally produced film and one we shot ourselves”

I need to re-iterate that this was actually a real conversation! A company actually did this! Yes, really. I’m guessing that no one (apart form the business owners) ever watched the whole thing.

There are many things wrong with this approach.

First Brand Experience

One of the most important things to remember when producing online video is that it will most probably be viewed be someone experiencing your brand for the first time. That’s a good thing. New customers are what this is all about.

But the power of online video is such that it’s not a static element. If you’ve marketed the video well then you’ll have probably placed a copy on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and twitter etc to maximise it’s distribution.

This means that your new customer may only ever experience and view your film out of the context of your website. It may be embedded in a Youtube share, or linked to on twitter. Therefore it wont be surrounded by the rest of your website as backup to its own presentation strengths and branding quality.

So if you’ve intended to create content with low production quality in the hope that the surrounding website will add the extra polish that you’d normally associate with your brand then you may have made a mistake.

real-costs-of-video2

All the Viewer Will See Is The Video

When the content is embedded, shared, or linked to by social media in many cases all that the viewer will see is the video itself. Every initial impression, assumption and conclusion they have about you will be developed from viewing the video alone. That’s why every element of the video you produce should have the polish and quality you expect from all the other elements in your marketing toolbox.

Lets imagine that you’ve produced a film that doesn’t really capture your usual quality or brand ethos but you decide to put it online anyway to help drive those all important search stats. If this works then your company may rise up the search pages and generate more visits. Great. But the top hit I the search traffic may be this video so all the new customers generated will all land on your less than ideal video. If the video then creates the impression that your brand values aren’t that high then the net result of the whole exercise will be making a negative impression on more people!

To argue that it’s all about delivering content NOT production quality is counterproductive. If I need to give a potential customer my business address then the quality of information I am about to give them relies on me accurately passing them my address. However I don’t hand write my business cards in the belief that as long as the information or content is correct (ie my address is spelt correctly) then the quality of the delivery mechanism (ie – a hand written business card) is not important. We all know the truth here.

Communicate Strength of Brand

As businesses we spend time and money ensuring that our marketing communicates the strength of our brand and the quality we deliver. Every aspect of the way in which we present ourselves will add to the way in which new customers perceive our business and the trust they have in what we offer.

If you really think that you can output low quality marketing items in the belief that “its better than having none at all” then take a look at some of the most successful companies in the world today – Apple, Samsung, VW. Everything you expect from these companies products can be seen in the way they present their online video. But, hey! I hear you say, “these companies have millions to spend on production and my company doesn’t!”. Well yes, you’re right. These companies will spend serious amounts of cash in order to present high quality video production values. But here’s an example of SME client that we recently produced video for who had a modest budget but a clear understanding of the quality they required and the importance of presenting every aspect of their brand in the best possible way to new customers.

If you would like to read more about how to boost your production quality, read our article about grip. If you’d like some quality SEO advice for your business then we’d recommend our own guru Mr Ben Read.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 25
Love0

Can a video marketing company help my business?

By Digital Marketing

A Look at The Power of Video Marketing

As a busy video marketing company we know full well that the most common use for a video produced by a business is that of the promotional video. Let’s face it, at the end of the day we all want to drive sales of our product or service. That’s why we come into work each day and that’s why we produce videos for business – to help them increase sales.

The Customers’ Choice

Customers today are choosing the way and the terms in which they engage with our businesses. They are the ones choosing to press play on the video window that pops up on our home page or YouTube. They are the ones clicking share or comment on our videos. So it’s crucial that we create video content that will engage them and encourage this engagement with our brand.

Let me ask you a question, how many times have you visited a website which has a video as part of its front page? Now, when you first land on the page what do you do? Do you instantly start to read the copy? Do you search for a photo gallery? Or do you click play on the video. I’m guessing that 9 times out of 10 you’ve clicked play!

Why We Watch Video

Well, lets face it, watching a video is a lot easier than reading a page of boring product copy! It’s more convenient and relaxing and it’s also a process that we are naturally at ease with. We’ve grown up watching TV, VHS video and recently DVDs and BluRay so effortlessly absorbing and interpreting information delivered via moving screen image is an acquired skillset that we don’t even give a second thought to.

Watching video feels natural and most importantly, we feel in control. We have the power to press stop or pause. When considering video marketing this is a crucial element as the process becomes much more of a partnership in that the vendor produces content and the customer is empowered to either experience that content or to ignore it. It’s this single required customer action (ie pressing play) that helps to create a bond between the brand and the viewer.

video marketing company

Endorsing Your Brand

It’s like producing a poster to promote your product and allowing the customer the option of either putting the poster up themselves, or simply ignoring it. If they choose to put the poster up then they have effectively endorsed your brand and announced their approval to all their peers.

If a customer shares or comments on your video then in a similar way they’ve essentially endorsed your company and signalled to others that “this is a brand that I want to freely engage with.

It’s these elements that gives video marketing its power whether you produce you video in house or engage a video marketing company. Good content helps all brands build a lasting relationship with customers.

When this happens the brand has achieved something much more positive and lasting than good old fashioned marketing comms and advertising. They’ve actually achieved audience and customer engagement and started a relationship that will ultimately drive sales.

This is the power of video marketing and why promotional video in all its guises is one of the most essential tools a business can have to increase its customer base.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 25
Love0

How do I write a brief for a Corporate film?

By Corporate Video Production, Video Production Explained

Corporate film

Whether you are producing your promotional or corporate film in house or using an external production agency, a key part of the corporate video production process is starting with a detailed and considered brief. A good production company will ask the required questions to establish most of your needs but if your staring at a blank page scratching your headand not knowing where to start then hopefully the guide below should be of use.

We put together an overview of some of the key factors and information that need to be agreed, established and communicated within your video brief.

Audience

Before you start the brief for you corporate film you need to ensure you know who your audience are. Who are you communicating to? How do they like to talk? What sort of tone and style of presentation is the most suitable for the audience to convey your message effectively.

So here are a few questions that should form the base point of any video production brief:

What is the desired response to the video?

ie – What do you want to achieve? Does it need to drive sales? (probably), deliver messaging or enhance your brand.

 

Corporate Video Production

What is the one key message that you want people to take away from watching the film?

A common mistake made in the corporate film production process is to try to load your video with too many messages. Ultimately this will bombard the viewer and result in not one single message being conveyed effectively.

Once these parts of the brief are agreed they will form anchors for the entire project and should influence many of the other elements that will follow within your brief. Your desired viewer response and the emotional reaction you’re aiming for will play important roles in answering all the other questions within your final brief.

Next up you need to think about the actual content and look of the video. The things you should consider are as follows:

People & Voices

Do you want to use talking heads, Voiceovers, interview testimony or actors within your video?

Tone

Professional, friendly, light etc

Production Values

What sort of screen and picture quality are you looking for? Everything is shot in HD these days but the type of camera you use, lighting and crew can dramatically whether the images look high end or more user generated.

 

Corporate Video Production

Feel of Vocal Content

We’d always suggest producing some sort of script even if the entire video is to be made up of interviews material. Producing a script with your desired interview quotes or “perfect world” soundbites will allow the director to develop interview questions that are “leading” and designed to elicit the responses that you noted in your script.

So now your brief should be starting to flesh out and give you a clear picture of what you want to produce. The next step is to consider and agree the presentation approach. There are a few common routes (as well as some other creative angles) that work well for promotional and corporate film. So selecting from one of the methods below assures you that you are using a tried and tested approach:

Company Figure

Delivering most of your corporate film’s vocal message and script from a key/senior company staff member gives the film authority and personalises the brand. The delivery can be either scripted (but beware that this doesn’t feel too cold) or taken from an interview situation (this is a good approach as the script will feel natural even).  You can prime the subject before hand so that they know roughly how the replies need to sound. Here’s an example of this approach.

Corporate Video Production

Customer Testimonial Film

By using you customers to tell the story you instantly get a film that feels honest and is something that viewers should empathise with. Scripting is rarely used in this approach as you’ll want your customers to come across as 100% authentic. Here’s an example of this style of video.

Voiceover

By using a voiceover that delivers the messaging over your action footage your video should instantly take on an increased production value. The strength of this approach is that you can carefully plan the script to exactly cover every single message you want to include. Additionally, as the voiceover recording is usually done after the filming has taken place you have the opportunity to tweak or amend the script in accordance with the actual film material you have captured.

 

Mixed Approach

By combining some of the approaches above you can present a balanced corporate film that has the ability to juxtapose your corporate messaging with real customer testimony and re-enforced by your key personnel. This is a strong combination but you need to be careful that the finished video doesn’t become overlong and boring due to trying to cram too much in. Here’s  project we recently produced using this approach.

So many of the factors we’ve covered above form elements that need to be considered in the corporate film production process from pre-production and even whilst physically shooting the project. However your brief should also include detailed descriptions of items that will be produced after the main filming has been done and the video is being edited. These elements are:

Corporate Video Production

Graphics

Do you want to use logo animation and illustrations? If so agree how any brand guidelines will be delivered to the editor.

Soundtrack

Do you want to use a musical soundtrack to form a soundbed that runs underneath your vocals?

And there you pretty much have it. There are other items that you may wish to include but the above gives you a blueprint of all the essentials of the corporate film production process and we do hope you find it useful.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 25
Love0

Marketing Videos – How to get them right

By Corporate Video Production, Video Production Explained

Marketing videos and budgeting

A cold hard truth is that your corporate video or video marketing tends to look as good as its budget. There’s a direct correlation between how much budget you allocate to your marketing videos and the production quality of the final video that you will produce. However the way your final film looks is not always the most important factor when producing promotional video (good video marketing should always be wary of “style over substance”) and there are of course exceptions so here’s a few thoughts that may be useful when budgeting for your next corporate video production.

Find an Agency That Understands

It’s usually true that you very much get what you pay for when it comes to marketing videos. Creativity, knowledge and skill level should be a given from any good quality, experienced production company and many of the associated costs will be pretty much industry standard costs. So finding a video production agency that understands your product and your customers should take priority over finding the cheapest.

Making a huge saving on your video production wont really seem that exciting if your final video marketing doesn’t effectively engage your customers.

Of course there are cost effective options such as sourcing a resourceful self-shooting director/producer (or one man band) for your film but generally if you’re looking for high impact and high quality on screen then you should budget accordingly.

marketing videos

Your video should reflect the values of your product

To identify where you need to be budget wise it’s useful to look at your product or service and its perceived category. If you are selling within a luxury sector or using factors such as “high quality”, “reliability”, or “forefront of technologically” within your sales offering then any marketing videos you produce should directly reflect these values.

Customers’ perception of promotional video and its production quality is a subtle and often subconscious area that should not be overlooked. Viewers will make a firm judgement call on you and your brand within the first few seconds of your video so matching their expectations with your video’s quality is vital.

Consider the Retail Price Point

Equally the retail price point of your product or service should also be considered when developing budgets for marketing videos. If your product or service has a relatively high purchase price, then the value adding factors which make the purchase worthwhile should be clearly visible within your video. The quality of your video should reflect the price paid by your customers for your product or service.

This should also apply to any post purchase video material such as user guides or user training. If you purchase a brand new quality car then you wouldn’t expect the user manual to be supplied as photocopied paper. So if your producing video marketing to add value post sale then it still needs to reflect cost to the customer.

Research Your Competitors

It’s also important to look at your competitors to assess what level of production they have gone for and how effective their marketing videos are. High budgets will certainly give you higher production value but it doesn’t always follow that they deliver the your message in the most powerful way.

Alternatively if the values you trade on are quirkiness, creativity or fun then there’s more scope to present your video marketing using these traits and focus on originality rather than high quality/high cost. In fact sometimes lower production values can offer charm, earthiness and create engaging video marketing that really hits the spot.

Reflect Your Product

Its very much a case of ensuring that your video output accurately reflects not only your product (and its value) but also the value and importance of the purchase to the customer. Your video should match their expectations of not only the product, but also the purchase experience and user experience.

So rather than starting with a figure when planning your video production budget, start with a goal. Let your customers, your product and your brand be the measure of the level of production your marketing videos need and you’ll emerge with a much more suitable and effective asset for your marketing.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 25
Love0

Video Marketing – What are the Social Media Basics?

By Digital Marketing

A Guide To Producing Video Marketing For Social Media

Using social media, video marketing and viral marketing videos to increase your brands visibility and customer engagement is a vital part of any marketing activity. It engages the customer in friendly territory and creates a powerful bond if done correctly.

If you have, or are planning on producing a promotional video or video marketing content then social media is a persuasive and engaging platform for you to connect with new customers.

However many companies and organisations still drop the ball in this area and make small mistakes that render such activity much less effective. Here some tips on how to easily maximise the use of social media for your video marketing. Firstly we’re assuming that you have (or are going to have) some video marketing assets that you want to get front and centre on the social media spectrum.

Drip Feed the Excitement

But before we get into what to do with your video lets step back a little and look at how you can even use social media while your video is being made. If you’re on the actual film shoot with your in-house guys or an external production company then make sure you take a few photos of the shoot and tweet them to generate excitement. If you take a few then don’t use them all at once. Instead drip feed them as single image tweets on social media (twitter) to generate a slow build of expectation. Use hash tags like #behindthescenes #onset etc to help users find and share your photos.

Viral Marketing Videos

Upload & Tag

Once your promotional video is complete then there are several strands to your social media plan.

Firstly upload the video to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. Tag it respectively using tags that aren’t too long and are separated with commas.

Then (and this is important) make sure you include your url in the films description. This creates a back-link to your site and helps to generate traffic in the direction you are aiming for.

You can also overlay live clickable links back to your site using youtube but you’ll need to register the content with them first so that they can verify the video is yours.

Embed

You should also embed the video straight into your own website. This means that the video sits on either youtube or vimeo but can be played directly through your site. The main benefit being that you don’t need to host the film on your own server and because you are harnessing the power of the youtube and its built in video player. Critically, this ensures that your film can easily be viewed on any computer or device available without any new video payer software being required.

Youtube is obviously the most popular video site out there but you should not overlook Vimeo for embedding the film into your own webiste. Vimeo gives you great insight into how many times people have viewed the embedded film on your site and where they are located in the world allowing you a clear way of measuring the impact of your film.

Tell the World

So now you’ve got copies of your film on Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo and your own website. It’s now time to tell the world about it!

A key mistake that businesses make is to only tweet a link or announcement about their new promotional video once. Many Twitter users may miss your original link if they follow numerous tweeters and so repeat tweeting is essential. Using a scheduler such as Social Sprout helps a great deal here. It’s really easy to use and allows you to load up tweets with links then schedule them to repeat on any given day. You can load up an entire months worth of social media activity and simply let the site do the hard work of spreading the word. It also allows you to send the same message to facebook, linked in and google + so it saves lots of time.

Viral Marketing Videos

Don’t Be Shy

Other social media sites that can be great for maximising your video marketing exposure are Google+ (you’ll be surprise how many people now use it!). Pinterest and of course Linkedin. Don’t be afraid of over saturation as many social media users dip in and out of each platform so the chances of them seeing your message repeated too many times are slim.

Behind the Scenes

Now remember those photos you took on shoot that you tweeted individually? Now is the time to make further use of these by creating a “behind the scenes” gallery (something that people generally love to see). You can upload all the shots to a gallery in facebook, on your own site, or pinterest and include backlinks to the embedded video on your own site. This helps further boost interest once the intial launch has passed.

One thing that I really want to stress is that none of this is either complex or time consuming. All of the actions described above require little technical knowledge and go a long way to making your Viral Marketing Videos work at their maximum potential, giving it every chance of engaging new customers with your brand.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
Love0

How Long Should My Video Be?

By Digital Marketing, Video Production Advice

A Guide to Viewer Retention

Getting the length (or duration) of your promotional video or video marketing content right is essential to ensuring your target audience actually watch your video in its entirety. Pretty much every time we click play on online video we cast a quick glance to the bottom right of the video window to see what the duration of the video is.

The Importance of the Start

If we’re not fully engaged right from the start and the duration is above 2 minutes there’s a strong chance we will click away before watching just over half of the video. Depending on your product and target demographic this critical window of initial engagement time can get shorter – If you’re targeting under 25’s you’d better get the first 10 seconds of your video marketing bang on or your dead in the water.

Before we look at the figures its worth mentioning that there are several problems caused by viewers not watching a promotional video right to the end.

Firstly we don’t want them to miss any of our key product or service selling points. If a viewer stops half way through they may be missing the piece of information that’s critical to their own purchase decision making process.

Secondly, we don’t want the viewer to miss seeing the CTA- which many videos have as their closing message.

Finally, google ranks sites with videos that have high levels of “completed plays” higher than those with high video click away rates. So if everyone only watched less than half of our video Google will rank it lower in relevant search listings.

The Statistics

viewer-rention-stats

So lets look at the stats to see how the length of your promotional video impacts on the average amount of your video that actually gets viewed.

It’s not going to be a massive revelation to most people that shorter videos achieve many more “completed plays” than longer ones. We all lead busy lives and if you’re selling B2B then time is always critical so mainlining your message quickly is the most effective way of ensuring that your entire message is received. If your promotional video is under 2 minutes then nearly 55% of every person who hits play will watch the entire video (this sounds low but its actually a good benchmark to aim for).

If you’re video runs a little longer there is a drop off in these completion stats but its interesting to note that there is not much variation in completed plays whether your video is 3 minutes or 10 minutes in length. Videos with durations between 3 and 10 mins achieve an average of 37% completed plays. So if you’re video is going to be over 2 minutes, don’t worry if it ends up being 4 or 5 mins as the stats over the 2 min mark are similar.

However if you need to present a much longer video of over 10 minutes then the drop off rate is steep with an average of just 27% of viewers reaching the final frame of your video.

Obviously some video productions require a longer duration due to the nature of the content and the messaging required. If this is the case then load the key information in the early part of your video to ensure you deliver your key messages before the viewer can click away. A good idea is to have a CTA that appears either throughout the video (in the form of voiceover or text) or to keep repeating the CTA at intervals throughout the video.

Structure

Think about your video in the way a newsreader would present the news. Start with the main headlines in brief. This ensures you deliver a quick overview of your key values and selling points from the outset.

You can elaborate on the detail of these key points in the remainder of your video knowing that you’ve delivered punch and impact at the start. This will not only help encourage viewer completed plays but will ensure that you have delivered the guts of your message to any viewers who do click away.

So what can we takeaway from these stats. Well obviously the main point is to be brief. Shorter promotional videos engage viewers and keep them watching. If you’re video marketing content is under 1 minute then it will achieve more than 200% the amount of completed plays than a 10 minute+ version would. Impact is key so strong messages clearly and quickly delivered will produce a powerful video marketing asset and help drive those sales.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
Love0

Colour Grading advice from experienced video editing company

By Video Production Advice

An Overview of Colour Correction and Grading

As a busy video editing company we know that adding an extra touch of production quality and polish to your promotional video can make all the difference and any advantage you can gain over your competitors should be considered when producing video marketing. By tweaking the colours of the footage shot for your final video you can produce images and footage that are much more visually appealing and that have an enhanced cinematic look to instantly grab the viewers’ attention.

Why Use Colour Grading?

But “why bother?” you may ask, “if my video works then why should I spend any more time and budget messing around with the colours?”. Well, as previously mentioned in other articles, viewers make a snap judgement call on your brand, product or service within the first few seconds of any promotional video. So presenting something that borrows a few tricks from the big screen communicates a message of high quality and professionalism right from the get go.

In the movie world this process is known as grading or colour correction. But at its most basic form, it’s simply adjusting the colours of the footage to produce the most beautiful image we can.

Now I should add here that this is not an expert in-depth tutorial for editors and movie makers but simply a quick look into grading and what it can add to a corporate video production.

We usually find that we end up doing a little colour correction for one of the following 2 reasons.

Firstly, as mentioned above, to enhance the production feel of the overall film.

And secondly, to correct any ugly or unpleasant colours or lighting that certain shooting conditions create.

Depending on the camera you are using you’ll have a different look and feel to the footage you shot. This look and feel will dictate what is required in post to produce a better looking final image.

Another factor will be whether you are shooting “on the fly”, which can be something that is required at live events. When shooting on the fly you have less control of existing lighting conditions, subject and composition so the grading part of the post production tends to involve fixing the image rather than enhancing it.

However if you’re in a studio or location where you have full control over lighting and subject then you should be able to generate good looking footage that can then be enhanced further in post.

Focus on Skin Tones

Every video editing company will tell you that as a rule, one of the key things to achieve when grading is to create realistic and beautiful skin tones. We like to add some other tweaks to footage to enhance the high end feel but aiming at getting the skin tone right is a good starting point.

From there we may want to enhance the contrast, adjust the blacks in the image, add balance or push complimentary colours into the light and dark areas of the images.

Here’s a couple of examples of what can be achieved:

video editing company

Firstly we have some footage shot “on the fly” at one of our clients’ event launches. We had no control over lighting and the product on show was LED screen based so this in itself created quite an unpleasant blue light cast. The footage that we shot felt too cold (due to the products LED pixels which tend to emit a blue-ish hue). It also felt very heavy in the dark areas and generally didn’t fill us with warmth about the brand or product portrayed.

We were able to correct the footage using simple controls found in even basic editing software. The alterations we made were as follows:

Reduced the white areas strength to subdue the unpleasant light created by the product (LED screen)

Slightly lifted the dark areas of the image to stop it feeling too heavy acheter viagra naturel.

We added a little saturation to the colours.

Then we pushed yellow/red into the light and mid tone areas of the image, and pushed blue into the darer areas of the image.

A good tip is that if you push one colour into the light areas then you achieve a pleasant result by pushing the colour at the opposite end of the colour wheel into the corresponding dark areas (or visa versa). This doesn’t always work but in general these opposites in the light/dark areas compliment each other and produce a nice looking image.

The final result was that we had warmed up the image a great deal and created a balance to the image overall.

video editing company

In this image we were shooting on a high end camera which allows us to control the colour grading in the final image very tightly. The footage itself is shot using a log format which although when initially viewed looks flat and not very appealing, contains all the colour information we need to grade the shot in a variety of ways. This gives us much more control on colours and the final look of the image and allows us to present more dramatic and cinematic looks to the final film.

Now all this may seem very superficial if your producing corporate video or video marketing and we agree that no video should place style over substance. However, our 15 years experience as a video editing company has taught us that customers opinions are impacted upon by the initial visual judgements they make when encountering your brand. So by adding a little grading or colour correction to your video marketing ensures that you present a film that maximises its potential to achieve a positive instant reaction from new customers.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
Love0

What does it take to be a good Video Producer?

By Video Production Advice

An Overview of What The Role of Video Producer Entails

Whether you are producing your video marketing or corporate videos in house or outsourcing to an agency finding a good video producer is key. If you’re working solely internally then you’ll need to delegate the role to a colleague or maybe assume the role yourself. If you’re outsourcing you’ll need to know how to identify a good candidate or agency to handle your video production brief. To help you in this process here’s an overview of what a good video producer will bring to the table and some notes on what the role entails.

What a Good Producer Does

Essentially a video producer will anchor the whole project form brief and conception to realisation and delivery. They will have hands on knowledge of every part of the process. When this is done effectively it ensures that the key messages within the original brief are maintained and delivered in a way that accurately reflects the vision and desired target viewer.

There can be lots of elements within the overall video production that will all individually contribute (or detract from) the projects success. Each one of these elements—no matter how small—can massively impact the final video so the producer should be holding the reins at every step to maintain the cohesion of the project and the message delivered.

So here’s some key points to keep in mind whether your assuming the role of video producer yourself or looking for a good external video producer.

Be the Customer and the Brand

Getting under the skin of the targeted final viewer is really important at an early stage. It should help the producer make informed calls on style, direction and tone of the video, and also steer the creative. Producing a video that engages and connects is the ultimate goal so understanding what factors will achieve this connection from the outset are key.

Equally understanding the culture and values of the brand you are representing is another big element in many of the initial decisions that the video producer will need to take.

Video producer

Manage the Schedule

Your promotional video may only take a week to produce or it may take a year. Many projects require filming that is sometimes spread over weeks or months so having a foot on the timings from the outset is also very useful. A clear schedule should be produced showing pre-production (ie all the stuff that happens before filming takes place, shooting and post-production (editing etc). This schedule should be communicated to everyone involved in the project an updated often online paypal viagra.

Knowledge is Power

Having a good understanding of any—and all—of the elements within your project will do 2 very useful things:

Save You Time and Money

As a video producer I personally want to have a good technical and artistic grasp on everything from lighting to sound, animation to casting and scripting to mastering. One of the main reasons to do this is to accurately manage the costs. People can get very exited when producing video and knowing exactly what the right tools each step of the project are will prevent you from overspending.

Everyone likes to work with the latest kit and best toys. Ask a camera operator which camera they would suggest for a job and you can put good money on them advising a camera that sits in the higher end of the budget scale than the cheapest option!

A good producer will know what is the most suitable tool for all stages of the production from choice of camera to lighting spec. The cost saving that can be achieved here can be significant. Remember, higher spec kit wont always increase final viewer engagement.

Video producer

 Be Clear

Communication within a video production is critical. It falls to the video producer to ensure that this communication happens, that it is clear, and that it is communicated to everyone within the production. If your project is a large one then there will me many areas that require agreement and understanding on an ongoing basis whether this be agreeing scripts or storyboards, managing shoot logistics, or handling the post-production workflow.

Creating an effective communication channel from the start of any project is key.

Review the Costs at Every Stage

This is a no-brainer but again it’s easy to get carried away and lose sight of small items that can impact on final budgets. Your initial costs may include a few floating elements as occasionally there will be items within the production that can’t be nailed down at briefing stage. A good producer will ensure that the potential spread of these floating costs is clear so that top and bottom end budgets can be agreed. Revisiting the costs throughout the production process is also useful to ensure value is being delivered at every stage.

If you’re using an agency make sure you confirm that the costs provided are all inclusive and that items such as buy-out, multi format delivery and usage are included.

Step Back When Reviewing

Having a close eye on all elements of the production is not without its drawbacks. One of the most common problems a video producer faces is getting too close to the project and losing their creative judgment and objective appraisal.

Its important that the producer takes a step back from the production at regular intervals to provide a clearer overview of how the production is shaping up. Trying to do this “on the hoof” whilst the production is ongoing can be challenging so its wise to allow some time and space to periodically review the project.

At the end of the day the person who produces your promotional video or video marketing must perform the challenging feat of being both subject expert and end consumer while at the same time bringing a wealth of knowledge about the actual video production process.

It’s by no means a walk in the park but knowing what the role requires before you start production means you can select the right person for the role who will deliver video production that meets any brief perfectly.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
Love0

Video Production Costs

By Corporate Video Production, Video Production Explained

A guide to video production costs

Its rare to see a price list on a video production company’s website and to be honest you should be wary of any company offering “off the shelf” prices and packages for video production. Every brief is different and the type of production required (and therefore budget) can vary widely. However to provide some transparency and insight into budgeting for your promotional video here are some common video production costs.

Not all the items below are required on every project and some of them have wider cost ranges than others depending on what your requirements are.

You can also pay a lot more or a lot less for most of the crew and personal costs shown here. This is usually based upon the experience that the brief demands for each crew member.

So here’s some common elements that you may require in your production and a guide on costs. These are based on a very common brief that we often get for producing a corporate video which requires location filming of simple action or actuality footage, some talking head interview shots and possibly a voiceover and/or model requirement.

Pre-Production Costs

This includes the services of your producer in providing project management, scripting, project logistics and scheduling. This particular element does differ but as a rule budget allow roughly 10% of the overall production costs for Pre-production

Cast

Good models, actors and voiceover talent will cost between £150 – £300 per day including usage buyout. You can certainly pay more (depending on talent required and their current demand) but if you’re paying less there’s usually a trade off in terms of talent and commitment.

Video Production Costs

Crew Per 10 Hour Shoot Day

Director – £400 per day and upwards depending on experience.

Camera Operator/DOP/Sound engineer- £350 per day and upwards depending on experience.

Equipment

Camera Kit per shoot day (this kit should include camera, tripod, lens, monitor and cables etc)

£250-£350 per day for a camera kit that will give you a basic corporate look (such as a Canon C300)

£750 – £900 per day for a camera that will give you a stunning cinematic look (such as a RED Epic)

Sound

Radio microphones £50 per day

Video Production Costs

Lights

Basic interview lighting kit including 3 x heads with stands (1x 150w, 2x 300w) £40-£70 per day

Location

Studio hire (small studio – talking heads size) £500 per day

Location agency (real location/set hired through location agency for special requirements) £1000 per day and upwards

Post Production Costs– Editing, Animation, Mastering etc

The amount of time you need to edit your project depends on the amount of material shot and the complexity of the requirements but as a guide editing should come in at £350-£400 per day (this should include editor and edit suite but not Director who can sometimes be required to sit in the edit).

So there you have it. Depending on your project you may need some (or many) other elements or you may only require a couple of the items in this list.

Hopefully this gives you some advance steer on where you Video Production Costs may need to be to achieve the type of video production you require.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
Love0

Should You Hire a Marketing Expert?

By Digital Marketing

Marketing Experts from a Business Owner’s Point of View

There are a myriad of different marketing experts available to businesses today. A quick glance online will find every Tom, Dick and Harriet offering their services as a “marketing expert” or “consultant” and even traditional graphic design agencies now present themselves as “marketing solution agencies” such is the power and demand for this service and expertise. But often business owners (and I’m talking about myself here) are reluctant to hire external marketing experts. There’s often a believe that much of the skill base required can be found (or developed) in themselves, or internally within their organisation.

My Experience

Personally I had the view for many years that “no one knew my business or customers as well as me” and “if I can grow a business form scratch I can certainly keep it growing”. However sadly, I was wrong.

Now I need to be clear at this stage that I have nothing to gain for banging the drum of any particular approach (whether you do this internally or engage the services of an external expert). This is simply an unbiased view based on what happened to my business when I hired an external marketing consultant.

As a business owner, director or manager there will always be a certain level of creativity, drive, and ambition that has been required in getting to where we are today. As a business owner myself these attributes can sometimes manifest themselves as a “can do” or ” anything is possible” attitude. These are strong (and essential) traits that are essential to success but they can also sometime generate a barrier to seeking external expertise for specific tasks.

Now let’s be honest. Anyone could spend time researching, developing and realising the best way to market their business. Successful marketing is not some dark art, or something that only a gifted few can bestow. Given time we could all become half decent marketeers and develop an effective campaign. But this is time spent not doing the actual things that make the business money. It’s time that we should be spending focusing on the core of our businesses and spending it on marketing would pull us away from the many of the day to day essentials.

So hiring an external marketing expert is worth considering. Its something that we have done successfully over the past year and we have seen significant benefits and our business has grown as a direct result.

growth

Finding & Hiring External Consultants

We’ve learned a lot about the process of finding and hiring external marketing consultants so here’s a summary of what has worked for us:

Marketing experts come in many forms but the majority focus currently on digital marketing rather than traditional media.

Digital marketing experts can be useful to help you plan and deliver a google PPC campaign, increase natural traffic to your website (SEO), make your website a better user experience, identify new opportunities and a whole host of other areas.

Now not all digital marketing experts are created equal and many will specialise in one or two of these services. Some will also specialise in specific sectors. It’s also worth mentioning that some will specialise in billing you way too much so by all means don’t get into bed with the first one you come across.

The key is to shop around and talk to lots of people before making a decision.

You’ll probably have an inbox that’s constantly bombarded with emails from companies and individuals promising you the world if you pay them for their marketing advice so selecting the right person or organisation for you can be a challenge.

Here’s a few other things that you should keep in mind:

Decide exactly what you want to achieve

Having a goal or firm idea of what you want your forthcoming marketing activity to do is critical to finding the right person to help you achieve that goal.

Don’t rush

Again, as a business owner I’m impatient, I want to drive things forward and push projects into realisation pas viagra. But allowing time to do your research is key.

social-logos-01

Talk to lots of marketing experts

This will give you a feel for who you think can understand you and your clients. Have a look at their track record but also allow yourself to be guided by your gut a little. You will need someone who you can work with so understanding and empathy is pretty important.

Don’t be scared it’ll cost £000s

We have marketing consultants who work for us on a short term basis for fees in the low £100s. Many marketing consultants can negotiate individual packages to suit you so don’t be put of by thinking that you’ll need to spend truckloads just to get anywhere.

Be open to new ideas

The worst thing you could do was pay an expert for insight and advice only to ignore it all because it’s suggesting something that’s new or untried for your business. Trust in their research and expertise

Hiring a digital marketing expert was one of the better moves I’ve made in my 16 years of running a business and allows me to focus on the core whilst still driving the brand out to new customers and opportunities in ways that are innovative and accurate.

So there you are, take it or leave it. As mentioned I’m not here to sell you anything. I’m simply sharing our experience in the hope that it may be useful in driving your own business forward.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Close Menu