The Virtual Production Revolution: Empowering Brands with Cheaper, Faster, Cleaner Content

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, brands are relentlessly seeking innovative strategies to captivate audiences through compelling video content.

However, traditional production methods often come with substantial costs, lengthy timelines, and detrimental environmental impacts.

Enter virtual production (VP), a groundbreaking solution that offers unparalleled advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability – particularly when adopted at a consolidated scale across an organization's entire marketing portfolio.

The Rise of Virtual Production

Virtual production has experienced meteoric growth over the past decade, as filmmakers have embraced real-time graphics rendering powered by video game engine technology like Epic Games' Unreal Engine.

A defining moment was the extensive use of VP techniques, including LED volume stages, on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, starting in 2019. This high-profile example showcased VP's ability to create photorealistic backgrounds seamlessly integrated with physical sets and performers.

The demand for these cutting-edge VP workflows has skyrocketed, with global virtual production market projections estimated to grow from $1.8 billion in 2022 to over $6 billion by 2029. Major studios have invested heavily in permanent LED volume facilities and expanded virtual art department capabilities, unlocking new levels of creative flexibility and cost-efficiency that are transforming how movies and television shows are produced.

The Brand Opportunity

While VP initially gained traction in film and episodic TV productions, brands and advertising agencies have recognized its immense potential for creating highly compelling product and brand marketing content. Traditional on-location shoots with elaborate physical sets and post-production visual effects are being superseded by advertising campaigns produced entirely within real-time 3D environments using VP techniques.

This revolution allows brands to showcase products in any desired setting or scenario, unbound by the limitations and costs of physical production. Major brands like Nike, Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, Ikea, Jeep, Samsung, Burberry, Shutterstock, and Epic Games itself have embraced VP to create cinematic, photorealistic advertisements more efficiently than ever before.

As the technology continues to evolve rapidly, we are likely to witness VP become the prevalent standard for how product marketing videos and commercials are produced across all industries in the coming years.

Cheaper, Faster, Cleaner

Virtual production offers substantial advantages over traditional methods in terms of cost, speed, and environmental sustainability:

Cheaper: By utilizing virtual environments and digital assets, brands can significantly reduce expenses associated with location scouting, set construction, and equipment rental. According to a report by McKinsey, VP techniques can slash production costs by up to 20%, primarily due to decreased reliance on physical sets and logistical expenses. Moreover, real-time visualization and iteration minimize the need for reshoots and post-production edits, further reducing costs.

Faster: Speed is paramount in the fast-paced world of marketing and brand promotion. VP facilitates rapid content creation by streamlining various stages of the production process. With virtual sets and digital assets, brands can bypass traditional constraints such as weather conditions and location availability. Real-time rendering technology allows for immediate feedback and adjustments during filming, eliminating the time-consuming post-production phase. Data indicates that VP can accelerate the content creation timeline by up to 50%, enabling brands to capitalise on timely marketing opportunities and stay ahead of competitors.

Cleaner: Virtual production offers substantial environmental benefits by reducing carbon footprint compared to traditional methods. Traditional film and video production often involve extensive travel, set construction, and energy-intensive equipment, contributing to significant carbon emissions. By minimising the need for physical sets, transportation, and energy consumption, VP techniques can reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% compared to traditional methods, primarily due to decreased reliance on fossil fuels and resource-intensive materials.

Expertise in Execution

While the benefits of VP are compelling, attempting its implementation without proper expertise and guidance can lead to costly mistakes and subpar results. Without expert oversight, brands risk encountering technical challenges, compatibility issues, and creative limitations that could compromise the quality and effectiveness of their content. Inadequate knowledge of VP techniques may result in inefficient workflows, missed opportunities for optimization, and ultimately, wasted resources.

Investing in expert consulting is essential to navigate the complexities of VP successfully and achieve desirable outcomes. The last two years have seen several disappointing VP executions for brands where agencies, production companies, and studios have "learned on the job" or neglected to appreciate the technical and creative challenges (and opportunities) that the medium demands to deliver a quality product.

Expert Virtual Production Consulting: Companies like Final Pixel specialise in providing expert VP consulting services, offering brands tailored solutions to optimise their content creation processes. Expert consulting ensures seamless integration of VP techniques into existing workflows, maximizing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Additionally, professional oversight helps mitigate potential risks and pitfalls associated with VP, safeguarding brand reputation and investment.

The Real Opportunity

While many VP examples for brands involve traditional shoot substitution – replacing on-set or on-location shoots with VP productions – the gains are often marginal and one-off.

More innovative and reusable use cases involve creating 3D sets of brand retail environments or table-top product VP shoots, areas already being augmented (and in some cases made redundant) by Artificial Intelligence.

The real brand opportunity lies in the consolidation of production scope. In 2022, the consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser (RB) revealed a pioneering drive to move 80% of its marketing production projects to VP. RB's adoption of VP technologies has reportedly led to substantial cost reductions, with an average decrease of 25% in production expenses and 40% reduction in production time. Furthermore, by embracing VP, RB has successfully lowered its carbon footprint in video production, with an estimated 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional methods.

These compelling statistics represent an increasing opportunity for brands to embrace VP as a medium to deliver efficient and effective video content – cheaper, faster, cleaner. The key is embracing strategic expert partners to deliver and execute a production strategy that maximizes the benefits of VP across a client's entire portfolio of brands.

Integration with Tech and AI Solutions

Beyond its immediate benefits, the brand content strategy work that enables full-scope VP (such as RB's initiative) can seamlessly integrate and accelerate emerging AI-Tech that automatically produces personalized and scalable content in any shape, size, language, and format – revolutionizing the current content supply chain through innovation and technology.

Conclusion

Virtual production represents a paradigm shift in how brands create video content, offering unprecedented opportunities for cost savings, efficiency gains, and environmental sustainability. Leveraging expert consulting services, such as those provided by Final Pixel, is crucial to unlocking VP's full potential while mitigating risks and ensuring optimal outcomes.

Furthermore, integrating VP with technology and AI solutions enables brands to scale content creation efforts effectively and deliver personalized experiences to their target audiences. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, VP will undoubtedly play a central role in shaping the future of brand marketing and communication strategies.

"For me this is a pivotal moment. Our objective now is to get to a global scale and to produce more than 80% of our production volume in this way in the future." Becky Verano | Vice President For Marketing Operations And Capabilities, Reckitt Benckiser