14 Jul 2014

Agile Video Marketing: Survival of the Fastest.

What the heck is Agile Video Marketing, you ask?

Well, once upon a time the process of creating a brand’s yearly “Big Moment” marketing campaign lasted from five to eight-months – with distinct stages.  There was a planning stage during which there were rounds of internal agency and external integrated partner check-ins.  This stage generated a stack of strategic, creative briefs that ignited the concept stage followed by pitching the ideas to layers of corporate management – followed by concept revisions, legal oversight and perhaps research validation of the concept – culminating with the production stage – followed by the margaritas stage on location in LA.

Forget all that.  These days, months and even weeks are considered knuckle-dragging in the Content Marketing world.  Many times, we’re talking about not just creating commercials, but multiple-versions of long and short form video content in days – if not overnight.

The demands of quick-turn around video content have clients, agencies, and production teams learning to move at the agile speed of software companies – FYI: agile methodology was introduced by software developers.

Now, it’s all about just doing it – with a rapid response that quickly goes from prototype to new product.  It’s also a nonstop model for innovation.  Think how apps are continually updating on your smartphone.

Think Fastest.

Since online brand storytelling is near-real-time communication, this rapid deployment of content is posing challenges for brands, agencies, and production companies –  in time, money, and quality.

In Shoot Magazine, Matt Bonin, chief production officer at Ogilvy & Mather, talked about how this is creating the next evolution of production:

“Many of my Integrated Production colleagues are hearing the call from clients to solve their content needs and do so at increasingly smaller budgets at real-time speeds. At the same time, clients aren’t satisfied with low-cost corporate video shooters doing the “low-budget” work, while their agencies don’t get out of bed for less than a $500K TV spot. Rightly so, we’ve been saying we should be involved in helping craft all brand messaging; clients are calling us on it.“

As brands strive to engage people with trending, timely, in-the moment content distributed on the fly, it also presents creative challenges that require a disruptive leap of faith for agency marketing and production teams and a high level of client trust.

The Next Evolution of Marketing.

Some say that Video Content Marketing could prove to be as disruptive a change to agency structure as digital was almost 20 years ago. 

As this always-on continuous flow of communication becomes essential for clients and marketers, Agile video marketing will call for a different client/agency/production team structure and mentality for producing work – and a production partner that has high-level creative chops, branding expertise, and project management capabilities that facilitate overnight demands and champagne-on-a-beer budget production skills.

We also need to reconcile that the accelerated need for continuous content will call for a new client/agency/production development process.  As brand channels become more and more like video publishers or programmers, they’ll need content production slates and calendars – many agencies and brands have these now.  They’ll also need a “development team”  that not only launches last minute, near real time content, but also pre-plans for continuous roll outs of video content much like a TV network or a movie studio.

Soaring at 90,000 Feet

Just how fast are timelines shrinking even for national brands?.  At 90, 000 Feet, we recently completed four 2 minute videos for Disney in two weeks – from concept to completion.  The initial concept video was completed in four days over the weekend.  Before that we shot 8 videos and a commercial in a single day for Bayer Health Care and completed the entire multi-platform campaign in just a few weeks.  Before that, we conceptualize, shot, produced and delivered 35 videos for Toyota within a four month period.

And don’t expect the pace to slow down.  Thanks to accelerating technology, it’s only going to keep moving faster.

It’s digital Darwinism.  Either you put on your running shoes or you get left behind.

At 90,000 Feet, we’re agile video marketing and production pros.  We’re an integrated production resource that enjoys a close-knit collaborative relationships with clients, agencies, digital agencies, non-profit enterprises  and all media partners. We have the  in-house capabilities of an ad agency– a team of award-winning copywriters, screenwriters, directors, and producers  – all working within a branded content production house/editorial, and special effects studio.

If you want to know more about the ins and outs of Agile Video Marketing, email chris@90000Feet.com.

Copyright © 2014 Chris Sean Nolan

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