Television in the age of custom broadcasting

The business of content: workshop 2.

By 2009 YouTube had gathered real traction in Australia and some media people were forecasting the end of custom magazines.

The thinking was simple: brands could now produce and distribute stories in video format and reduce costs by not paying for the printing and posting of paper-based channels.

By this time new technologies had also reduced the production cost of broadcast quality video content. For the first time it was accessible for brands to use it on all their owned and earned platforms including television networks.

Given easy distribution and lower costs, many of us thought the emerging branded video business would benefit television stations and their associated production companies the most.

Ten years later and we’ve been wrong on both counts. The major custom publications are not only still still here, they are now the highest circulating magazines in Australia.

Also surprising is that the predicted explosion of branded video is mostly benefiting the companies with no inherent capability in broadcast content.

Digital agencies and magazine publishers have been clever by carefully managing the migration of additional client investment into newly resourced departments who mostly outsource the actual production.

The producers inside the television networks haven’t yet had the same level of success and their external production partners have been largely limited to OTT extensions of the programs they make.

As brand investment in video continues to increase and the commercial opportunity around production and distribution of content becomes more valuable, there’s now questions around what kind of service providers Brand Management will work with and how much they do themselves via internal content departments.

The answers will evolve over the next few years. We’ll likely see several delivery systems tried and tested before the marketing industry settles on a preferred model that best meets the needs of business and delivers measurable video led content solutions in the most productive way.

More on that later but first it’s important to understand video and why it’s so important.

Video in focus

Of all the tools available, branded video is the most important element in Content Marketing which is an industry estimated by PQ media to be now worth around $7b in USA and forecast by Technavio to grow at a (CAGR) of 16.2% between 2017 and 2021.

It has applications all the way through the sales funnel, can drive the internal communications required for digital transformation and is a central pillar in online customer experience.

Video is more effective for product demonstration, adds credibility to thought leadership and is the most engaging and entertaining medium for company storytelling.

A recently published IBM Cloud Study reveals that YouTube usage grew more than 300% from 2014-2016 with users uploading 400 hours of new video every minute. In 2017 users watched 4,146,600 videos every minute.

By comparison the number of Facebook Posts shared each minute has increased 22% between 2013 and to 2016. The number of Tweets increased 58% between 2013 and 2017. The total amount of people using the internet grew 42% to 3.8 billion users between 2014 and 2017.

From my experience new technologies such as mirrorless cameras, drones, editing software, sharing platforms and multi-tasking capabilities within crews have reduced the production cost of content more than 75% since 2006. Broadcast quality video content is accessible to most brands.

New Television, Online, IFE, OTT and OOH distribution opportunities have made it possible for marketers to integrate their video channels, reach an aggregated audience and change the economics of the brand owned media model. 

CMS (content management systems) previously used exclusively by large media companies are currently being reformatted to meet the emerging needs of the larger brand owned broadcast production departments. This is likely to improve performance of branded content and in some instances facilitate revenue opportunities via subscription and pay per view.

According to Stackla in 2017, 83% of surveyed marketers said they would like to create more video content.

Marketers, consumers and video

Data on this subject is in short supply in Australia but for the sake of discussion lets follow the lead of the USA: Wyzowl have published the results from their fourth annual state of video marketing survey. 570 unique respondents of marketing professionals and online consumers gave the following feedback in December 2017:

“Marketers rely on video to help them do their jobs. Video is often cited as a tool that helps drive various areas of business performance, and the numbers back up those claims:

·97% say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

76% say it helped them increase sales.

·47% say it helped them reduce support queries.

·76% say it helped them increase traffic.

·80% of say video has increased dwell time on their website.

·95% of people have watched video to learn more about a product or service.

·81% of people have been convinced to buy by watching a brand's video.

·69% have been convinced to buy software or application by watching a video.

·85% of people say they'd like to see more video from brands in 2018.

·72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.”

 So, what’s the problem and where’s the solution?

When you study the business of content in the USA, it can be hard to understand why more brands aren’t making video a priority and increasing funding for the medium in Australia.

More surprising is the number of businesses not using video at all or investing so little, that the resultant poor-quality content becomes an ongoing embarrassment to the brand.

From talking to people in companies it seems many Australian brands are actively looking for a video solution but need 2 things before they can kickstart their programs:

* help with the internal business case to fund it.

*clarity around what sort of company to buy services from

Let’s briefly deal with the issue of strategy and funding first.

How Marketers can fund their content journey

The best way for Marketers to secure a new budget for content is to help General Managers and CFO’s understand exactly why the investment needs to be made and where it will improve the business over an agreed amount of time.

An important part of your proposal will need to involve ROI and the metrics you’ll use to measure success and document progress.

It’s also necessary for your colleagues to understand the business needs to make a regular investment in a content journey as opposed to a marketing campaign.

And to help General Managers and CFO’s understand the idea of a journey, its useful to lay it out in a process and focus on the business outcomes they’re looking for most.

One of the tools that can help source additional content budgets from management is called The Content Continuum. It’s a model (and shortly an app) that takes a business on a step by step journey from thought leadership and sustainable brand differentiation through to improved e-commerce and increased shareholder return.

Content strategies and formats are designed for each step in the process and ROI can be measured via metrics developed in consultation with the channel owner.

This is completed in a workshop that includes real world case studies and a clear action plan. A good way to help source your budget is to include other stakeholders such as General Managers in the session. You’re likely to find they can add value and will support your idea once they understand it.

After completing a workshop using The Content Continuum or a tool like it, you’ll know how to better integrate and co-ordinate your owned media assets and engage audiences across your platforms.

You’ll then be able to develop strategies using brand and media partnerships to supplement your weaknesses, increase reach and improve the productivity of your content.

Metrics will be identified and can be used to measure success, benchmark progress and continuously improve ROI over time.

In other words, you’ll have a content and channel plan that helps secure the internal funding you’ll need to get the journey started and the tools to measure its performance.

Understand your needs and choose the right partners

Once you understand your content journey and have alignment internally you can document what your needs will be and make good decisions about how to deliver the required broadcast strategy, production and distribution capabilities to your business.

You’re likely to have 5 options (and hybrids) for this here so let’s briefly look at each one.

Please note I’m assuming you already have digital assets such as websites and social media channels so this is written exclusively to deal with your emerging branded video and broadcasting future.

The digital agency

Chances are you’ve used a digital agency for a relatively small amount of video production because they produce a website which needs low cost video content to improve engagement and to drive traffic via search.

A digital agency is unlikely to have existing internal capacity to produce and distribute broadcast quality multi-platform video content that can stand alone on your branded channel or be shared with media partners such as television networks, IFE, OOH or via streaming option such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. You’ll also have to question their credentials in brand journalism and ask how they’ll fill the gaps in their offer.

A digital agency is likely to be great for campaign work and websites and is probably ideal if that’s the limit of the ambition for video in your business.

If you need to do more, have a great working relationship with a digital agency and want to use them going forward, talk about your video needs and understand how they’ll fill the gaps in their capability to meet them. 

The content agency

These businesses used to publish custom magazines and through good management have evolved their service into custom publishing text and stills based digital content as well. More recently, some of them have started offering video services albeit to mainly complement brand owned websites.

They’ll probably provide great brand journalism, good service and video expertise to a point that sits below what you’ll need to earn audiences on standalone video platforms and partner networks.

Although not core business, the good ones may help develop broadcast formats and secure distribution agreements. It’s certainly worth talking with them if you have a great existing relationship and they know your story.

Content agencies typically don’t produce video content in-house and won’t be the lowest cost option however they can be a great choice for light to medium volumes of consistent video served in an editorially appropriate way.

Television networks

They own the distribution channels and while audience numbers are generally declining still hold the natural advantage in the integrated video services space. The initial cost will be higher, but the right television program idea and commercial arrangement can deliver a sustainable media differentiator for your brand, a valuable audience that helps justify your initial investment and all the premium quality video content you need for your owned media platforms.

According to PQ Media product placement and brand integrations grew 13.7% in USA in 2017 and has been increasing in double digit growth since 2009. It’s also helping networks maintain or grow revenues from advertising space despite lower audience numbers.

You’ll find networks in Australia too are working hard to improve their branded content capabilities and provide better opportunities for brand owned media.

If you’re a large advertiser, it’s worth exploring if you can negotiate a brand owned television program or a sponsorship of an existing program property as part of your media deal. If you do, make sure your content ownership and distribution objectives are clearly understood and protected during the process.

You should expect the television network’s focus will be their own programming, ratings and advertising revenue so they may have limited resources to manage the specific needs of your marketing team.

For these reasons you should feel comfortable with both your producer along with the production and approval process before commencing a long form program production and OTT video project.

Branded production companies

If you’re not a large advertiser and your needs are video and potential crossover solutions involving television, IFE and OOH and brand partnerships then a specialist branded content producer is probably your best bet.

The good ones will be able to understand your brand, communicate with your internal stakeholders, develop your format and channel plan, integrate your stories into good quality content, negotiate a distribution agreement with the media, manage all aspects of your production including talent, music and licensing and provide edited cutdowns at the right length to suit all your digital platforms.

These days most of them also have the capability to run your video channels on YouTube, Linked In, Instagram and Facebook as well.

Choose a smaller, local company for this. They specialise in the branded space so they’re more likely to understand your needs and better interpret how your message can fit into a story arc.

Their overheads and costs are likely to be lower too. This will have a direct impact on the ROI measures you’ve established with your management and the longer-term viability of your video led, content marketing program.

Internal production studios

Red Bull were one of the first to do this way back in the 90’s and in the USA brands such as Marriott, Dell, Progressive Insurance, Pepsi, Go-Pro and several others have set up their own, internal content publishing companies. Better control of IP and confidentiality, lower costs, improved ROI, faster turnaround and integration with other functions in the business are the major reasons driving these decisions.

This is happening here too. Since 2015, several major brands in the travel, health, finance and education sectors now produce and distribute their content, including broadcast in house.

And it may be happening faster than we think. At the time of writing this article a search of major employment sites suggests there are more than 4000 jobs in Content Management in Australia.

Typically, internal studios are the emergent solution for businesses that have evolved into heavy users of content for both internal and external communications and have needs beyond the marketing function. It can work particularly well for companies who invest heavily in training or sell high interest products and services, both directly and through distributors and who operate globally.

Changing market conditions suit internal production companies.

The current attitude of television networks towards content partnerships along with a raft of new video platforms, OOH TV and streaming channels such as Stan, Netflix and Amazon Prime have created more options for distribution than there were in the past.

Technology has made production less expensive and many highly qualified people are available to work directly and flexibly for you as employees or contractors.

In my experience the company owned production studios in Australia have generally not been planned. They are more likely to have evolved as the need to the control costs increases along with the business demand for more content.

Talk with General Managers and Marketing Directors who have worked with this setup and they’re likely to say internal studios are cost effective and have growing importance in their business. They’ll also say they wish more time was invested setting them up properly at the beginning.

If you’re looking at this kind of resource the first step is to ensure your business has a content plan and there is internal alignment with what that plan is. This must include metrics and discipline around ROI and how your content will be measured.

The right people need to then be empowered to make content decisions and roles and responsibilities clearly understood to avoid disrupting current employees and marketing workflow.

Management systems and processes need to be developed and documented.

They should deal with intellectual property, talent, content origination, workflow, access, distribution, archiving, delivery technology and security. Pay attention to who posts social media and how your business can work as a team to drive engagement and reach. You should also develop a framework for how your studio works with internal stakeholders along with external media, agency and brand partners.

And it’s a really good idea to get specialist help before you start.

While this internal solution is not for everyone, my guess is that after working through various agency and hybrid type models many more companies will be managing content production and distribution themselves and doing it internally by 2021. Cost efficiencies and volume will likely drive this.

Thanks for your time and for more information on how I can help with your strategy, company, channel or project please contact me on LinkedIn.

All the best

Graeme Thomas

Next month we discuss Brand Partnerships and how to make them work.