When it comes to the production of film advertising — goedkoop is duurkoop
?I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the quality of television shows on offer in 2024 is unquestionably brilliant.?And this really matters to marketers. Because you’re vying for the attention of the same audience — and the quality of these?shows has spoiled your audience.
These days, your audience is?endlessly entertained with top quality and choice. Quality in direction, writing, casting, performance, dialogue, editing and visual effects?(VFX).
When I grew up in the 80s and early 90s we could watch anything we wanted as long it was MacGuyver, Airwolf or The A-Team. The production quality of the advertising at the time was as good as anything else you found on TV, too. The ads had the power to compete for the attention of what was, to be fair, a pretty captured?audience.
Fast-forward to 2024 and you’ll barely find a friend who’s watching the same thing as you as there are so many options and the quality of the shows rivals any Hollywood film. We’re living in the golden age of television. OK, the concept of TV has changed somewhat from terrestrial to satellite to streaming but, in terms of the quality of TV shows available right now, it’s never been?better.
Think about the sheer quality of?Stranger Things,?Game of Thrones?or?Masters of the Air, to name a few, and it's significantly better than you could ever have imagined 15 years ago. Hollywood stars barely?considered doing TV?20 years ago, and now even the top?film?directors are making a TV?series.
Yet how are we in adland doing? If we take an honest, hard look at the advertising films (both TV and online) we’re producing now, I see two different types of work happening:
And if this article had a TL:DR, the point is this:?invest in the quality production of your film advertising or don’t bother at?all.
Happiness = reality – expectation. Right now, the expectation of those watching anything they want on any screen they choose is sky-high and the reality is a bit, well, inadequate.
We all know how it goes. Marketers and agencies choose or produce an idea with a predetermined budget rather than selecting the right idea for the brand and audience and then working out how much is needed to make that happen?properly.
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TV is so damn good these days. If you want to compete for attention in that medium, you’d better be damn sure the quality of your work matches. But you can’t do that the way it’s being done right now. Budgets are too low, production timelines are too short, and ideas are a bit vanilla. Oh, and this is a contentious one: there’s too much money spent on media with a boring or poor?ad.
What percentage of all campaign budgets goes to media vs production?
I’d love to know the answer to this question: If it’s 90/10, I wouldn’t be surprised but I would guess it’s closer to 95/5. I believe that, if that swung to 80/20 or even 70/30, the work would be better; it would demand more attention, more love, and have significantly better?results.
Anyone who follows the marketing pages of the internet has seen Adam Morgan and Peter Field 's work on?The Extraordinary Cost of Dull. Essentially, it may be summarised as follows: It will cost you ￡10m more in media spend to achieve the same results with a boring campaign than a creative one (the study was done in the?UK).
As John Hegarty rightly says, creativity is 80% idea and 80% execution. Yes, making something great requires 160%. That’s how far work has to go to stand out, and you can’t achieve amazing results with poor or underinvested execution — the production quality, in other?words.
If you're placing your ads in between?Yellowstone?and?Succession, you’d better have something that looks and feels just as?good.?
This article was written and first appeared in MarkLives.com
Owner, Director - Spitfire Films
3 个月So True. And Dull is the ultimate crime when your business should be entertainment. Even Hitchcock said it: “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.”
Head of Marketing: Volkswagen South Africa
3 个月I firmly believe in investing adequately in production. If you are bombarding consumers timelines, at least reward them with something watchable. But at the same time, no production budget can save a bad idea. Start with a great, unique idea and the rest will follow ????
Production
3 个月We've seen a huge cut in production budgets while media budgets are incredibly high. I agree fully that if your TVC is not up to scratch it honestly doesnt matter how much money you throw at showcasing it. In this day and age its all too easy to skip a commercial.
Multi-Talented Creative: Award-Winning Videographer, Producer, DOP, Editor, Actor & Writer | Expert in Visual Storytelling
3 个月If I may offer my take on what was well said: This makes me think of buying a piece of property... you aren't building a granny flat in between two 12 bedroom mansions and then think: "no one will notice". No. If you want that specific address/space you need to understand that it comes with a certain level of weight, responsibility and investment. In Short - Your creative real-estate needs to fit into the neighbourhood!
Group MD: RAPT Group - Financial Mail Agency of the year “22 | JHB | CPT | Lagos
3 个月Can’t agree more production value is everything but I think it’s flawed to believe great production and reduced cost cannot go hand in hand. State of the art unreal engine production can do both. Marketing budgets are under pressure and as an industry it’s our job to show not just interesting advertising with high production value but also better return.