Cost of Video Production: getting more bang for your buck

Prophet equationBusiness leaders who want to produce a video often have grand plans. They want the video to contain a lot of this and that. We need “this” to be in the video. “That’s” something else that needs to be in the video. “This and that” frequently adds up to too much information. Not to mention it can add to the cost of video production. This is why I usually tell clients they don’t need “a” video. Instead, they need a “series” of videos.

Learning From Pros

Let’s take a lesson from one of our clients. A big perk of being a video producer is you get to work with some amazing companies and learn from the people who make them great. I’ve been behind the scenes at United Airlines, I’ve seen how Goose Island brews its beers, and I have the Batphone number for the world’s busiest PR/marketing/digital communications expert Gini Dietrich.

Over the past year, I’ve been doing a lot of work for Prophet. The company is all about business growth strategy. We’ve produced a lot of thought leadership content for them, but our most recent project was a series of straight-up marketing videos and they serve as a great example of video marking done right.

What Not To Do

As I mentioned at the start, business leaders tend to have big plans for their marketing video. They want to include goods and services, the company’s history, feature employees, et cetera… and that’s all great.

In many cases, it’s just too much information, which is a good way to ruin a corporate video. Sure, we could churn out a 5-minute video that includes everything, but in my experience viewers aren’t going to watch it all unless you have one amazing story to tell.

Which is why I recommend breaking-up all of that content in shorter videos and packaging them as a series. Audiences are far more likely to watch if they can select a topic that interests them, and watch a short video instead of clicking on one giant video and waiting for the material they’re most interested in.

It also happens to be a great way to get additional value for the cost of video production. If you were planning to pay for a 5-minute video, you can produce two or three shorter videos for the same cost.

Breaking down a long video idea into a series of short videos provides more value for your marketing budget. Click To Tweet

How You Can Profit From Prophet’s Plan

Now, it’s one thing to hear that from me… your friendly neighborhood video producer. It’s another thing entirely to see it put into practice by a world-class business consultancy packed with marketing experts.

Enter Prophet. The company’s client list is a who’s who of the Fortune 500. They know how to grow businesses, including their own company.

The video series we just finished for them is a classic example. It takes “too much” information for a single video, and divides it up into an effective series.

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Let’s break it down. What Prophet does is help grow businesses, and they do this in three core areas:

If they were like a lot of companies, that would be their marketing video. They would create a single video highlighting each of those pillars.

The problem is they have a lot to say about each of those things. A single video could run 6-8 minutes. That’s too long.

Instead, Prophet’s team decided to make each one of those components its own video, creating a series about what they do. Each is also paired with online written content as well.

Remember, video isn’t about information. Video is about emotion.  So… you get to feel Prophet’s passion through the videos, and get the detailed information from the written content (links to all three in the bullets above).

Makes Sense?

This is how it’s done. You hook people with the emotion… the passion… and back it up with the facts.

Again, I get to work with/for some pretty amazing people, and this is one we can all learn from. Turning a long video into a series provides better value for the cost of video production, and it gives you additional content to boot.

Take it from the pros at Prophet.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau - T60 ProductionsTony Gnau is the Founder and Chief Storytelling Officer at T60 Productions. He’s a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, has led T60 Productions to winning 18 Telly Awards for its corporate videos, and is the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “Lights, Camera, Impact: storytelling, branding, and production tips for engaging corporate videos.”