In-House vs. Full-Service Video Production
Companies are quickly seeing the importance of integrating video into their online communication strategies. Whether it is viral videos to increase brand presence, informative videos that help educate customers and position a company as subject matter experts, or the increasingly popular product videos that online retailers and consumers demand: video is important and will become a higher priority for online sites.
Video Needs to be Created: Easier said than done – to do it right. There are basically two options here:
1. Create it all in-house
2. Utilize a full-service production company
A lot really depends on you and what’s best for your company. Let’s examine a bit further…
In-House Production
For product videos in particular, eCommerce sites struggle with the ability to execute production internally. It’s relatively simple to produce several dozen products, but turning around thousands of videos is another story. Zappos is a great example of a company needing tens of thousands of product videos and taking the plunge to fulfill this on their own. Their goal is 50,000 additional product videos by the end of 2010. How are they doing this? They will have at least 10 full functioning video studios with over 45 employees dedicated to their video efforts.
This is quite a big undertaking – all to cover less than 25% of their SKUs. Even for a much smaller company, the process of having 1 full functioning studio, allocating several employees to manage it, and dealing with all the logistics of scripting, on-camera talent, and production & editing, can be quite overwhelming.
Full-Service Production
Having a full-service studio handle production can be an attractive option because it almost always provides companies with superior video quality, consistency, and the ability to have premium videos created in a fraction of the time. Many businesses simply don’t have the resources to do it in-house and others just don’t want to deal with all of the logistics that go into efficient production. However, full service production may not be the best option for companies with very few products, or for videos that are specific to a key employee such as a weekly message from the CEO.
Deciding on production options comes down to scale and availability of resources. Whether produced in-house or with a full-service company, the good news is that online video can provide a tremendous impact to site engagement and conversion. We recommend taking the time to develop a clear picture of what your goals are with online video and then assessing what it will take to properly implement your plan.
About Video Aptitude
Video Aptitude is a full service video strategy and production company for the web, providing turn-key services for eCommerce Sites, Manufacturers and Professional Service Firms. The Video Aptitude team handles strategic development, scripting and casting, production logistics, editing, and complete fulfillment to provide companies with premium video content and easy-install player code. Learn more about our services or contact us today