Outsourcing Production and Technical Requirements
DOES YOUR FIRM NEED TO HIRE A DEDICATED VIDEO PRODUCTION TEAM OR WILL A CAREFULLY SELECTED PARTNER SUIT YOUR NEEDS BETTER?
Whether you’re an expanding PR firm or have a client who is pondering the question of whether to bring the production of various content channels in-house, take three minutes to read the article below before you decide one way or the other.
An in-house team definitely has a range of solid benefits: they are uniquely placed to understand your business thoroughly, including your brand values, products, services, and clients. They are likely to be more upwardly mobile as they aren’t encumbered by the needs of other clients like a production company.
Paying overtime to them will likely be more cost effective depending on their type of employment contract and because they are part of the company, you can usually trust them to be privy to certain sensitive information.
Solid argument, right?
On the flip side, bear in mind that finding key people who have the relevant experience and buckets of talent is not likely to be an inexpensive undertaking. Finding a producer who can write, a writer who can direct or a director who can edit is like trying to find that diamond in the rough and if you’re limited on what you can pay people, it’s even harder. Moreover, depending on the range of content that you’ll likely need to shoot, do your key hires have experience in that particular format? Training videos are different to marketing videos and social media videos are entirely different animal altogether.
Many companies will entrust the production of their video content to existing staff members, which has equally complicated outcomes in many cases. Just because the young guy in IT with the iPhone and Instagram feed appears technically proficient, does he have the in-depth knowledge that production professionals develop over years of being on sets day in, day out?
Remember: If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.
Besides the cost of having to edit something that was badly produced into to an acceptable standard, also consider the true expense of putting out videos that look less than professional. This reflects on the quality of the products and services you or your client offers. This may have an immeasurable detrimental effect.
The Benefits of Outsourcing Production Needs
A long-term production partner can save a company or PR firm substantial amounts of money over time. Consider how there will be no need to pay the company any benefits or health insurance needs. This can be a significant saving over hiring full-time professionals. Equally, most production partners are business people themselves and therefore know how to use their experience, skills, and resources to run your operational needs as an extension of their own, thereby saving money all around.
Also, consider how outsourcing production can infuse a greater degree of creativity into content requirements. When in-house departments are stretched, pressure might be asserted to make sure high volume demands are met. Outsourcing often adds a fresh or alternative perspective, meaning that creativity continues to flow. The right partner will also give you better all round results because not only do they know production inside-and-out but also how to apply various other skills like marketing approaches into the mix. And ultimately, production companies only get paid when the job is done well and on time, so the primary focus will always be making sure that deadlines are met and standards are rigorously upheld.
Hopefully, this brief article has given you some insight into the benefits of using either an in-house team or carefully selected partner. No matter what your needs are, 21st Street Creative can help.