Keep it Close to Home: The Benefits of Local Video Production
Many savvy marketers have a reflex to always search for the most prestigious and experienced video production agencies around. When you’re investing in a video marketing campaign, you will want to know beyond a doubt that your brand is in good hands. With this mindset, though, you’re likely to underestimate the value of staying local when hiring a video production agency. From location scouting to long-term partnerships, there are many reasons to stick with a local video production agency. We’ve put together a list of the reasons we think are most important.
Scouting Sets
Politics and film production have one very interesting parallel. Both require an advance scouting team to arrive in advance of the politician or actor to scout out locations. In the case of video production, a scout working on behalf of an out-of-town video production is looking for the perfect set. They probably spend a lot of time googling locations before they fly out, but the reality is that there’s no way to get the perfect set for your next video if you don’t hire a local video production firm. An in-town firm knows the owner of the cute coffee shop that would be a perfect backdrop for your next explainer video. Knowledge of the great locations around the community is an invaluable offering that only a local video production agency can provide.
Relationships
Cultivating relationships is an invaluable and important effort for all video production agencies. However, most agencies only focus on reinforcing these relationships with their clients. This is a short-sighted way to approach relationships, that only focusses on maximising revenues. There are many other relationships that a local video production agency can build, and these benefits accrue to the client as well. For example, onscreen talent is a very valuable resource in video production. But good talent is very hard to come by. A talented local video production agency is able to keep in touch with the actors around town and maintain a positive relationship.
Another field where cultivating relationships is important is in locations. As much as knowing locations is important, knowing the person who controls access to the location is just as important. It’s no use knowing the perfect nearby waterfall to serve as a backdrop if you can’t get authorization to film there. In times like that, it’s valuable to be working with a local team that builds positive relationships with the community and who will make sure that you get the best possible video for your next marketing campaign.
Equipment
When your video production agency has to fly – or truck – in from out of town, they have to make decisions about what equipment to bring along. This almost certainly means that they will be required to leave some important items behind, which means that they will end up renting that equipment, and passing the fees along to you, the client. Even worse, they could end up having to purchase that equipment and billing the cost back to you. Moreover, rented equipment is never a perfect substitute for a videographer’s own equipment. Even if C-stands are fairly well standardized, every little consideration makes a difference. The last thing you need is to get an imperfect product because the video tech can’t figure out how to perfect the lighting hue.
Flexibility
Local video production agencies are always around. Which means that they can spend as much, or as little, time as you like on your video. When the production team needs to travel to your location, then such flexibility is not available. No matter how professional and talented the agency that you hire is, the flexibility that they provide you will always be limited. Sure, this can happen if you hire a local video production agency that has an overflowing basket of projects on the go, but even in that case, you are still more likely to work out a solution if you are working with locals.
Cost
This point was touched on in part by each of the above paragraphs. Alongside quality, cost is one of the most important considerations in every video project. Nothing adds to the bill as much as having to fund the travel of a team and their equipment into town to start shooting your video. Whether it’s plane tickets or gas money, it’s an unnecessary cost to add to the bill for your next marketing video.
Think about some of the other paragraphs above. For example, if your shooting can’t wrap in the original amount of time you set aside, then suddenly the cost of plane tickets has (at least) doubled. As we mentioned, the added cost of equipment rentals is passed over to the client.
Why does your company opt for local video production agencies? Tell us about your positive experiences with local agencies in the comments below!
