- Changing Direction
- Unlocking the Sales Process
- Exploring the Range of Commercial Work
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Exploring the Range of Commercial Work
Now that we've gone over marketing, sales, and contracts, let's talk about the different types of commercial work that you might have and how to approach the projects you book.
Corporate Video with a Heart—Nonprofit Work
The first type of commercial jobs we got were relatively small gigs for local nonprofit organizations (FIGURE 4.6). Keep in mind that doing work for a nonprofit doesn't mean non paid. Nonprofit is just a tax status that an organization has, allowing it certain tax benefits. Some of the largest companies in the world are nonprofit organizations. There will be times when you'll be approached by a nonprofit that really does have a very limited budget, so in certain circumstances, as a way to give back to your community, you may want to offer pro bono work. In addition to using your talents to help the community, oftentimes these organizations have donors with deep pockets, either high net-worth individuals or large corporations.
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Figure 4.6 Girls for a Change (GFC) is one of our long-standing nonprofit clients. It has grown to a nationwide organization since we first started working with them.
From a marketing perspective, working for a nonprofit is a great way to get your work in front of prospects. These types of projects are a great way to break into corporate video production, especially if you are a wedding and event videographer looking to make the transition.
Small- to Mid-Sized Companies
Next are small- to mid-sized companies. These may include companies you are already working with if you are a wedding and event video producer (for example, photographers, coordinators, venues, and so on). If you do a wedding or event video, give a copy to the key vendors with a note telling them you have a corporate video division that could produce a promotional video for them. Promotional videos are a great way to get your name out and market your business.
Another source of work for companies in this range is local businesses that want to run a commercial on the local cable station. Contact the cable provider in your area to see if there's an opportunity to provide your services to their advertising clients. You could collaborate with the cable provider to have them offer the service (with their branding), but the video itself will be produced by (that is, "powered by") your company. The downside is that the cable company gets the credit for the work, but the volume and consistency of work may be worth that trade.
The Big 'Apple'
The title of this section is inspired by the work we did for Apple Computer when they hired us to produce a string of customer testimonial videos. When you start working on high-profile videos for a client with a global brand, it's a whole new ballgame. Let's talk about some of the general issues you will face.
Because you are dealing with a global brand, there are going to be strict rules and regulations you may have to abide by in how you represent that brand in your video. The corporation will most likely insist on tight control over everything from the fonts you use to the color scheme to how you display the logo onscreen. If you want to save yourself a lot of headaches during the process, make sure at the start to get a representative from every department of the company that will have a say—legal, marketing, product management, and the advertising or PR agency if applicable. Most large companies have entire manuals dedicated solely to how the various company branding elements must be utilized in ads and other types of media. Get a PDF of that manual and make sure your shooters and editors are familiar with the rules.
With respect to creating the team of client and studio representatives, it's a good idea to have one primary point of contact on the client team. You don't want to have to communicate with 15 different people in order to get something done.
Final Thoughts
The last thing we'll say about commercial work is that it represents one of the best forms of repeat business. Due to the time and energy involved in finding a video vendor a company can entrust with its brand, once you're on board, as long as you deliver quality and consistent work on time (and on budget), you'll most likely have that client for life.
In Focus: PixelPops Design
A company that has enjoyed one of the most successful transitions from wedding to corporate that we have seen is: PixelPops Design of Dallas/Fort Worth, owned by Lance Gray and Brian Gunn (FIGURE 4.7).
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Figure 4.7 PixelPops Design is owned by Lance Gray and Brian Gunn.
The company was formed in 1999 from the merger of successful and independent wedding and event studios owned by Gray and Gunn. They went from doing high-end weddings to doing corporate work. Their primary reason for the change involved a similar frustration we had—finding bridal clients willing to invest the amount of money required for the level of work they provided. The progression was slow for a few years as they honed their skills in serving the corporate video market, but once they hit their stride, success was huge.
Their corporate client list reads like a "Who's Who" of well-known and respected brands: Google, Intuit, Fossil Watches, MBNA, Charles Schwab, Expedia.com, Cisco Systems, Hotels.com, and many, many more local and regional companies (FIGURE 4.8). Besides video production, their suite of services also includes rich e-mail and Web site design, DVD authoring, interactive Flash projects, film transfer, and mass disc duplication.
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Figure 4.8 Screen shot of PixelPops video production work.
They have even kept a toe in the wedding and event video market by targeting some of their testing and design services to the wedding videography community. Lance is also a master of Adobe Photoshop (he writes a monthly series of Photoshop tutorials for EventDV magazine called "Graphic Thoughts"), and the company sells a line of Photoshop educational DVDs. Their 2008 revenues were nearly $1 million. Not bad for a couple of ex-wedding videographers. 
In Focus: Kris Simmons
Like many professional videographers, Kris Simmons (www.mindyourvideobusiness.com) found that the easiest way to break into the video industry and the fastest way to start receiving income was to offer his services as a wedding videographer (FIGURE 4.9). After several years of shooting and/or editing 40+ weddings a year and making just enough money to get by, he realized it was time to make a major change in his video business. It was time for him to go corporate or to go home.
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Figure 4.9 Kris Simmons manning a jib on the set of a corporate shoot.
He shared his experience with us...
I believe the straw that broke the camel's back for me was the first time I was hired to videotape a grand opening of a new business that was followed by a reception.
The finished product was a 10-minute highlight reel of the event and my total time investment for both shooting and editing was 8 hours. The rate for that corporate job was $1600. At the time, $1600 was more than I was averaging per wedding package and those shoots/edits easily took anywhere from 20 to 40 hours to complete. I've never been a math genius, but it didn't take long for me to figure out which project paid more and with less hassle.
After this realization, I started spending more time cultivating leads with local businesses and organizations, and less time marketing my wedding services. My main corporate service offering at the time included meeting & event videotaping/editing services and duplication services. That list of services has since grown to include just about every video, webcasting, interactive media and/or audiovisual service imaginable.
In 2004, I officially stopped taking orders for wedding videos and eliminated it altogether from our service offering. From that point, we have been a full-blown corporate video production agency and have built a client list of over 200 companies.
Since making the transition from weddings to corporate, my business revenue has increased over 1000% and my personal income has increased by more than 400% and continues to improve each year.