Regularly statistics come out stating that video will make 80 to 82% off all internet traffic by 2021 or 2022. Regardless of the year or the percentage, it is a huge number and one marketers can’t ignore.
Statistics gathered by Google
It gets even more interesting for us marketers when you read viewing habit statistics gathered by Google. While the number 1 reason to watch video is unsurprising to relax and unwind, the reasons #2, #3, #5 and #8 are to learn more about something the viewer is interested in or even passionate about. With that in mind, it is not surprising that 81% of businesses state that video is part of their marketing strategies. (Source: Social Media Today)
Once expensive and exclusive video making is now accessible to anyone with a smartphone and there is an array of editing softwares and online services making it easy to create great quality videos for a very limited cost. As a consequence, a relevant question for any marketing organization would be ”do we really need an agency to produce our videos?”
The answer is the usual ”it depends…”
There are many different types of video content you can create and below is a non-exhaustive list of them:
- Branding
- Animation
- Educational video/Tutorial/How-to Videos
- Unboxing video
- Documentaries
- AR/VR/360
- Product Review/Testimonials
- Behind-the-Scenes/Company Culture
- User-Generated Content (UGC)
- Interview/Q&A
- Vlog
- Web series
- Webinar
- Virtual event / Live streaming
- Company news
- Employee portrait
Depending on the type of video you could either 1) let the agency do it all, 2) do it all yourself, or 3) a combination where, for example, you film and the agency does the editing.
Unboxing videos, vlogs, UGC, Q&A sessions, short company news are examples of video types most organizations should manage to make themselves. A good idea could be to let an agency help you set up a studio at your office (the importance of good lighting can never be underestimated!). The agency could also create some start and end screens to use on all your videos for a consistent look and feel. With a good start package, you should be able to produce good content yourself with your time as the only cost.
At the other end of the spectrum, and only looking at the technical aspect, creative AR/VR videos will require equipment and software that wouldn’t make sense for most organizations to acquire but that an agency might have. And of course, any high-quality videos (branding, documentaries, company culture, web series, etc) requiring creativity and an experienced film crew will be best done by an agency.
Personally in my ”pre-agency” life I used to film interviews and testimonials of conference attendees that I gave to an agency for editing (yes, it was Phosworks :-)). That way I got good video content for a fraction of the cost of having someone both filming and editing and I was able to publish more content more often.
The best thing you can do is to discuss this topic with your agency. A good one will be open to help you produce your own content because it will know that the more videos you create yourself the more you will want to create with higher and higher quality leading to more and more business for the agency. A win for you, a win for the agency!