We are a creative video production agency. It has been our mantra since we opened for business nearly 9 years ago. We have always stood by this, offering everyone our creative proposal work whether they are clients or not.
Because of this many people have seen as us an extension of their marketing departments, often asking us to add our thoughts and solutions to their marketing strategy. We have written hundreds of creative proposals for organisations and brands from finance to sports, and we have done it all for free.
We always have and we always will.
This year we want to go further. Creative ability in video is no longer enough to give video production agencies an edge. It is becoming increasingly clear that companies like ours need to offer clients a more direct return on their spend, using data and audience research to create content that truly engages a target demographic and can be traced directly to sales.
This is something we are continuing to focus on at DHP, our recent work for Lewisham College standing as a good example.
There is also another way I believe production companies can work harder for their clients in 2017 and beyond. This is to use the creative skills inherent in the video production process to create more marketing assets, more impact and more value across the whole marketing strategy.
The skills deployed to make a great piece of video content are wide ranging. DHP employs script writers, photographers, graphic designers, web experts of all disciplines, sound designers as well as sketch and digital artists in the process of taking a project from concept to delivery. This pooling of diverse talent into one place offers fantastic potential to brands and organisations who are looking for high bang x buck in the content marketing world.
The work that is produced in this process shouldn’t be isolated purely in the creation of video content. The multiple assets that are built should be shared across departments, platforms and campaigns to give clients greater value than the initial brief called for; the sum of a videos parts can be broken down to be used in other applications.
For example we were hired to create fully animated video trailers and in-game sequences for the Xbox release of Nero, a role-playing game from Italian company Storm in a Teacup. It soon became evident that the 3D assets we were creating for these sequences could be used in the in-game experience. Rather than recreating these assets from scratch we handed them to the client where they inputted them directly into the game playing experience. Assets we had created for the marketing videos found there way into the actual game!
Through this experience we learnt about game engines and the way 3D assets can be used in a virtual environment. It inspired us to look further into how we could bridge our skill set with the world of virtual reality to expand our service offering and client list. The fruits of this will be seen in an exciting new partnership that we are announcing very soon.
Other 3D video assets that we have created for clients such as Nike and Sky have also found their way onto other platforms including web HTML 5 integration and national print campaigns. Our view is that having been paid to create these as part of the video brief, the client is fully entitled to use these assets however they like. Seeing our creative work used on different platforms and across different media is not only a great compliment, but thrilling to see our creative reach. By sharing our core assets we are having greater creative influence in other marketing collateral and expanding our scope of work and experience.
In a sense I see this as film production companies going open source; handing over individual components and ideas created within the scope of the project (at a fraction of the cost it would be to have them built by other agencies) to be reused for other purposes. By doing this they are making the work they create…work harder.
Not only does this bring greater value for clients, it also helps film production companies expand their scope of work, and service offering. They have the opportunity to influence the entire marketing campaign and nurture skills in other expertise.
It is my belief that video production companies are perfectly constructed and positioned to creatively influence the overall 360 marketing campaign and approach of their clients. If they the use the data that is available to target the perfect audience and open the doors to their individual skill sets they can form a stronger relationship with their clients offering greater value to both parties.
Stay in touch this year to see how we are taking this forward.
Ben Collins, Director
Devilishly Handsome Productions