Creative Content: The value of our proposition.

To state the obvious, the video content landscape is booming.  Commercials, branded content, entertainment and feature films, or often even some blend of all of the above, are targeting consumers on every screen size.

The result is a plethora of providers all battling for attention in the market; large agencies navigating their way through a multi-platform digital landscape, production companies trying to grasp the way of direct-to-client work, and one-man bands utilising accessible technology to create beautiful work on a shoestring.

I’m a small agency owner; the typical story of a one-man band who took it a bit further and woke up one day with 13 staff and the associated overheads. We’re also based in Glasgow, Scotland which adds a different dimension to targeting, meeting and winning heavyweight global clients (positive and negative but that’s for another day…).

From an inside perspective, the current landscape is one of huge opportunity for a new breed of content studio like us. Spend on online content is rocketing, we have an existing portfolio of large brands and some hugely successful campaigns that have reached a target audience of millions across the globe. Yet, as much as we have huge faith in our portfolio, work and the incredibly talented team at Cut Media, it doesn’t mean the phone is constantly ringing or briefs coming in the door.

Our work is certainly of a niche. Due to my background in the sport we established ourselves initially in the surprisingly large world of mountain biking. Naturally, that progressed into wider adventure sports and travel films, all whilst the company literally lived through the rapid progression of video platforms and these online communities. We understand this landscape very well, but have always taken the outward approach of not pigeon-holing ourselves to a niche and so, we didn’t ever consciously have a meaningful ‘value proposition’. Our website used to state:

‘Digital Campaigns Crafted Through Inspiring Video Content’

It was ok, but it sort of covered all bases and wasn’t something that really told our audiences who we were or what we do. We’re full of ambition and proud of our heritage. We want to produce the absolute best work in our niche, but we also want to stretch ourselves creatively outside of that too. Because of this, our value proposition was always suitably vague, but the reality was a company without a solid direction. 

Dialling into your value proposition is more than just working up a line for your website, it sets a cultural statement internally and becomes the differentiator from competitors. 18 months ago, we began working with a non-exec director Lawrence Weber (formerly of Karmarama agency in London) and the value proposition was the first thing he picked up on. What makes us special but allows our ambition to flourish?

It didn’t take long to get stuck into discussing the way we collaborated with, and presented performing talent, particularly athletes. As this went on, I had a lightbulb moment. It was right in front of me but I hadn’t seen it before. Projects with athletes have always been our favourite and, in fact, how the agency really began. Before setting up Cut Media, I was a pro-level cyclist and it was my film collaborations with friends, who were often top riders, that created the brand, culture and brought the work. It sounds obvious now.

“We are a Content Studio. We collaborate with brands and athletes to create content that connects with global communities through screens of all sizes.”

The statement gives us the authentic message of what we truly believe we do better than others. It offers a unique benefit to our audiences and enables us to be the differentiator in a crowded market but is broad enough that it doesn’t restrict us to solely the type of work we’ve created in the past. It also internally galvanises us in a direction that meets our ambition; to work with sport brands and those who are investing in sports talent and want to activate that investment.

The other aspect where our proposition developed is that we moved away from the term ‘agency’ and now refer to ourselves as a content ‘studio.’  Ultimately we love to make stuff, from the idea to the execution and our studio is where that happens.

We have always grappled with our position as a hybrid of production and creative agency so we collectively decided that 'studio' best covered what we truly are. We develop creative, manage the logistics and have the quality client management to match but ultimately we craft the content ourselves under one roof and that is what makes us who we are.

Defining our proposition has been simple but crucial to our growth. I wouldn’t say the phone is going crazy ( yet :) ), but since we embraced our proposition, we have delivered on projects featuring athletes such as Lewis Hamilton, Valentino Rossi, Geraint Thomas, Real Madrid FC and again, with long-time collaborator and YouTube legend, Danny Macaskill – all projects with the type of clients that we love to collaborate with and that continue to drive our ambition forward.

Perhaps the defining piece of the puzzle for me was a month or so back. We were doing a pitch to a large European financial company who are a major investor in sport. Their marketing director signed off the meeting with ‘I love how you present athletes at the core of your work in the most credible way.’ That felt like confirmation we’re on the right track now.

In a crowded market, constructing your value proposition may seem vital, yet for us, in the midst of running the day-to-day it just didn’t get the time it’s worth. I would go as far as to say that dedicating the time to really think about it, and ultimately amending it to reflect our work more definitively, has without doubt been a game-changer. 

Stu