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Stand out, a podcast from P2 Content Creators. A show for marketers, brand buffs and creatives who share a passion for stand out content. Hosted by David Flanagan, Director of Content and Strategy at P2.

TRANSCRIPT

Flanners:
Hello and welcome to the P2 Stand Out Podcast. I’m David Flanagan, Director of Content and Strategy.

Marc:
And I’m Marc Collister, General Manager of P2.

Flanners:
We’re the video creation experts for ambitious retailers. And today we’ll be talking about the importance of having your video experts involved as early in the campaign planning process as possible.

Now Marc, we both come from two different backgrounds in creating video. Maybe you can kick us off with all your years of experience of producing video content and tell me what’s been some of the pitfalls you’ve recognise of not having video creation experts involved early in a planning process?

Marc:
Thanks, Flanners, appreciate that intro. What I found in the past is a client can come up with this great strategy. Then someone comes up with some great creative around it to cut through, stand out. But by the time they get down to actually producing it they realise the budget they’ve set aside is actually woefully inadequate to get that creative produced. And there’s kind of a couple of ways around that. What I found worked well in the past for us, we’d go back and look at what that strategy was, what the creative was, what the essence of what they were trying to do is and come up with an idea that captures that essence but fits the budget. Or the other option, which is, you know, works well as well as you actually give them a cost, forget about what their budget is, tell them this is what it will cost to do what you want to do. And then it gives them the option. A number of times people go back and find the money or they just have to alter their expectation and the execution a little to fit the budget. But if we had been involved up at the beginning, that could have all been handled and crafted along the way.

Flanners:
What I love about that is that, remembering, putting my marketing hat back on when I was on that side of the fence, I’d always have ambitions of what we would love, love to do in the campaign, and then we’ll speak to yourself in that instance to go, look, this is what we’re trying to strive for and you understand our ambition, and then you give us the reality check of what we can afford. But what I love is from that end of thinking, it’s solution orientated. Because I’m still in the boat of I need to create something to advertise or promote and create some video. I just don’t really know and in that instance how much things cost. So I really enjoy those conversations with someone coming back, as you describe, with here’s what you can really afford, it does a really tight job, but if you really want to do what you want it’s going to cost a certain amount of money. And that’s the value add when working with a producer with that much experience, that gives me a solution which I love. Putting my other hat on, working and creative agencies. If we don’t have a conversation with the producer at the beginning, it’s a complete waste exercise. Because we get quite excited, right? Creative development, there’s a lot of energy. Talk about blue sky thinking? That’s what we’re shooting for. It’s like, oh, this is awesome! We could do that! We can own summer! We can do this! We can boil the ocean! And all those sort of exciting things. But what it needs to be useful is balance, right? So we need to have some expert next to the creative person/the strategy person at the start. Otherwise, you can see what happens, right? It goes everywhere.

Marc:
And it’s interesting, too, because if you leave that till the end, if you don’t get your production experts, your video creation experts involved until the end, then suddenly you’re up against a deadline. Very rarely does that deadline change. Right? If you get right down to that pointy end and then suddenly you’re having to pivot and reevaluate what it is that you can achieve for the budget, you know, you’re having to rethink things, readjust the creative and potentially a bit of the strategy. And then you’ve just got less and less time to then actually make the content, make your stand out video, to hit your deadline. And then that can blow your budget as well because anything’s possible if you throw money at it. You can get more resources in and you can do all that. It’s not necessarily the best use of your money or your resources, but it can be done. But again, that’s not a good allocation of that budget. So the sooner you get us involved, the better.

Flanners:
We all know when we’re building a campaign, when you get close to deadline, the pressure starts to mount. And you kind of go, right, is everything coming together? Renders take longer than you ever want them to take to get to the next edit. You can’t get avails of the talent you want for voice overs. All of these things start adding up when you’ve got very little time at the end and if you’re having to make creative decisions under duress you’re not quite making the best creative decision because you put so much pressure to there to build the work. We know what the compromise is, right? And you say it compromises can be overcome with budget, but you’re better off spending that budget back in the production phase to get the better talent who does a better performance, which gives you better materials to edit a better product. So we know that if you can put those markers in early enough, it goes a lot smoother, right?

Marc:
The flip side to that, as well is, if you really do have a really set budget and you know, you cannot spend a penny more than sometimes it’s better to do something simple, you know? It’s better to do something simple and do it really, really well than try and do something really crazy and complex because you think that idea is amazing, but you just don’t actually have the budget to execute it well. It just won’t look good. It won’t do the job you need it to. And when we’re talking budget it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a six figure budget or a five figure budge, you’ve got to have an idea that fits that budget. So if you’ve got $300,000 to spend, fantastic. But if you come up with a $500,000 idea, that’s not going to do anyone any favours. So getting the people who are going to actually create that video involved early on, and they can be part of thinking about that strategy and helping you realise that strategy. They can be involved in coming up with the creative with you as well. But again, I just stress the sooner that they’re involved, the better, because you’re going to make sure that you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck. And then by the time you get to actually producing it, they’re all across it. You also get rid of that point where then they have to digest that, they have to think about it, they have to work out the budget. By the time you’re ready to go, everybody is on board and everybody knows what they’re doing.

Flanners:
Yeah, 100 percent. And I’ve seen that many times from the start of the process when we’re conceptualising and trying to figure out what the strategy, what’s the job of the creative to do, what’s the task of the campaign? So if it’s to launch a new brand to a new drinker and we need to understand who they are and what work. And then the logistics of that, if you’re trying to campaign out on location. I far prefer having someone from production in those conversations when those ideas are being formulated, because if that’s just a complete no go, there are other solutions, there’s always a creative ideas. What’s worse is when the whole team, creative team and the client team can get all excited around one particular solution, and they’re at loggerheads with the production. And it’s a budget debate and it doesn’t have to be. It can have a budget debate strategy and creative development stage to go, but it’s not feasible to shoot in Berry. But we can shoot at Ku-ring-gai, you know what I mean? We can still go to on location, but not to this first location, which is highly desired. And the creative team have written a script to say, you’re going down these winding crevices down the river you. Yeah, there’s lots of those places available. Let’s work smartly with our production team to figure out how we can build these things early.

Marc:
And that’s a really good point, because let’s say early on, everybody’s got really excited about Berry, and that’s where they want to go and they want to do it. And then it’s like, OK, well, you’ve just really increased all your crew costs because it’s outside of a certain radius from Sydney. And it’s their accommodation and how do they get there and you’re doing all that. Whereas if you’ve done it somewhere closer to Sydney, you’ll get the exact same outcome, but it’ll cost you less. And if you get that kind of thing in people’s minds early on, then by the time we get to execution, people are just excited about, oh, it’s going to be down this windy road and that’s awesome. As opposed to being excited about it being Berry and then disappointed that it can’t be Berry. Or, they have to spend more money for it. So they’re excited about the right thing, which is the outcome.

Flanners:
Exactly. And you’re absolutely right because a lot of this is momentum sustaining momentum and confidence, right? Because, any idea, it’s made up. It’s invented. It only exist when people believe that it will work. So the belief and confidence in an idea is critical. As you say there, if people start to think, well, if it’s not, Berry can’t work then? It can, it can! Berry was an example is not the thing. So you’re absolutely spot on. It’s those decisions early when we’re all collaborating at the start, it becomes clearer because then the idea is more robust and we’re all more confident than it can be delivered. And there’s so many unexpected parts in production. How long you’ve been doing this for, 20 years? We’ve all been on it for ages and every production is unique. That’s what makes them exciting. There’s commonalities and there’s disciplines, but there’s always a factor, the X Factor, which you can’t plan for 12 weeks out from production, you know? The weather, for one, is awesome. Performance ability, availabilities. When it gets down to the finer details there’s always things which ebb and flow, which is great. But if you’re confident at the beginning of the process, these little meanderings, when you’re right, the end, it’s OK because we all know what we’re trying to build. And that’s the benefit I find of having a tight team of strategists, creatives and producers baked in from the beginning.

Marc:
I was reminded recently as well a motion versus action, which is: motion is where you’re planning and you’re strategising and you’re thinking about things, which is all very important to do. But you can get a bit stuck there as well and feel like you’re doing something, but you’re not actually achieving anything until you get to action. Action is where things happen. So bringing your the video creation experts in early on while you’re in that motion phase brings that action happening parallel to the motion. So you’re getting kind of best of both worlds. So the motion is still happening, it’s still important. But then you’re thinking about the action right off the bat. You get to a point, you’re like, OK, enough motion, let’s move on and you’re ready to go.

Flanners:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. You’re spot on. You’ve got to have have milestones and decisions made periodically so then you are in action, not just spinning plates, which can be quite exciting because it’s all frenetic at the beginning, but you need to get it right. So what is the strategic intent here? Is it an awareness job? Or are we explaining the hell out of something? We’re explaining something, great. OK, so it’s all around making sure that it comes through crystal clear, brilliant. Creatively, how do we explain this thing in a way that people are going to be interested in? Great. Then you’ve got two solutions that each are clear actions. So then when we get to the business of making it. You’ve gotta employ a director, right? So we got to say it’s all about clarity and it’s all about speed, or whatever the outcome is. So the director knows strategically and creatively that’s what he’s working with, or she’s working with, brilliant. So it’s all aligned. It’s all designed. Again, clearly, one eye on the end goal of making the content. Action is driving or shaping the process.

Marc:
Absolutely. And I think, if I were to boil it down and sum it up: it’s making sure to get the most out of that budget don’t get stuck in that motion phase for too long and move to action. Know when to move to action at the right place. And if you involve those people who are going to do the action early in the motion piece, then you’ll get the most out of that budget and you’ll get the best result that you can for the money you have. And I think that’s really what everybody wants.

Flanners:
100 percent, I think that’s the exciting thing of working as we got in our model in that we bring both of those perspectives together. So from marketing and creative side and production and post-production side, we have that broader foresight of seeing how a project can come together completely versus traditionally there’s different agencies sometimes working at different portions of the campaign. So the post-producers or the producers aren’t seeing the concept until, as you say, far later in the process where possibly a lot of time has been spent in motion getting to, you know, an approved script before it actually clicks into action mode. Which we know it works far better when it’s combined earlier, which is pretty exciting. Hmm, brilliant. Well, thanks for listening. That’s it from us.

Marc:
And if you’d like to chat with us about this or anything else, please jump on to P2.com.au and get in touch.

 
NEVER. NOT. STAND OUT.
 

Marc Collister
General Manager / Partner, P2.
marc@p2.com.au

David Flanagan
Director of Content & Strategy, P2.
flanners@p2.com.au