Simon Veksner: Make videos or die
March 16 2015, 11:42 am | | 18 Comments
By Simon Veksner
Creative Partner, DDB Sydney
With SXSW here again, it’s an appropriate time for us to take a moment and ponder what the future of our business might be.
Okay, stop. The answer is so obvious I’m surprised it even took you that long.
The future of our business is video. READ ON…
18 Comments
Love this Simon!
Marrianne
I agree everyone’s watching videos – but they’re not on YouTube or Facebook to watch ads.
To me, ‘we need a video’ is today’s ‘we need a Facebook page’ – do we really?
Simon, I couldn’t agree more and not just because it’s my business. ‘Inexpensive’ videos will only become more and more important to all concerned parties. Clients need them and creative people do too as they are tired of being told their idea is too expensive. The trick is to be able to make videos in the lower price bracket and make them well. As we all know, whatever the price tag, the content of the video needs to be great in order to engage people. One thing is for certain, we’re all going to be busier!
Damien.
Pick TWO:
Good, Fast, Cheap
Simon, I run a fundraisng agency and with the tight budgets we deal with everyday I have to agree with you wholeheartedly. At HEARtFELT we’re currently doing a campaign for Uber’s new flying doctor service where we’ve sprayed (harmless ink) their logo under the wings of real park pigeons. Cost us a loaf of bread, a landing net and a can of water- based dye. Problem is if we pay a production company to get involved – Ka ching! So intern tapped an old gopro onto a pigdeon and away we went. Don’t ya love digital natives!
I can’t believe what I just read.
Why don’t we all just get out our iPhones and start shooting commercials on them. I think the latest iPhone even allows you to shoot slow-motion. Fancy!!
Correctamondo. What makes me laugh is the fact that we can’t even use the word “TV’ anymore. So instead everyone is making ‘online video content’. Thing is, it looks just like a tvc, often ( but not always) with the same size budget. Go figure.
I love the cheap and cheerful attitude to film & video craft. I mean why would you ever want to ensure that clients find the money to pay for quality work, especially when you can just strap a go pro to a cat’s head! Won’t this just be wonderful when they take the same attitude and approach to strategy and creative!
I think it’s already happening.
To all those lamenting loss of quality. I don’t want to either agree or disagree with you.
I just think we need to be careful that we’re not under-appreciating the forces of change.
It was arguably a higher-quality bus ride when there was both a driver and a conductor. Today, there is no conductor. Soon, there may be no driver.
The world changes and we need to figure out what to do.
Just to be clear, let me repeat that I’m neither agreeing or disagreeing with your argument about quality.
The real problem are the planners and marketing directors who read a magazine saying ‘content is king!’
Said article goes on to say consumers are spending seventy percent of their leisure time online interacting on social networks rather than watching their shitty ads on tv.
What the ‘farketers’ don’t realise is people don’t want to interact with your brand. They don’t care about your nappies or your shitty car. I’m fact, these people are actually trying to get away from you.
Don’t talk to them. Don’t try and own their ‘leisure time’, unless you have something genuinely interesting to say. No, not something you think is genuine or something you think is funny. Something genuinely funny.
Then you can spend your entire media budget on production and that shit will get shared around like Van Damme doing the splits.
if millennials are so clever, how come they always shoot their video content portrait?
Who cares about quality said “Won’t this just be wonderful when they take the same attitude and approach to strategy and creative!”
Well, it’s been happening in creative for a while. And it shows.
I think No Frills Prod Co summed it up. But I think there is one more element – control.
If you don’t spend the money you don’t get control.
If you are worried that the people in the background of shot are wearing the opposing brands colour? Without a wardrobe person and budget for clothes there’s very little we can do (try telling extra’s what clothes to bring from their own wardrobe… nightmare).
If you’re worried it’s raining on the day you want your summertime brand to shine? Without a weather day in the budget or money for sky replacement there’s little we can do.
That being said, I’ve made my best work on the smallest budgets because of brave clients. If you want total control over every element of the production, you’re going to have to pay for it. If you want a good piece of content, you’re going to have to be brave.
Well said Farketing. Too many people have their heads in their ass and can’t see the bigger picture.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
There will still be a need for high end, well crafted pieces of film that require decent size budgets. No question. There is now also a requirement for quicker turn around pieces of video content that can be made at a lower cost. Given there are SO many more channels these days, there is a need for a broader range of production models. Put simply, there are many more things to be made. And of course, whatever the budget, the quality of the final piece still relies on the idea and the creators.
Oh how I long for the days of just making great advertising that sold stuff.