Why your design agency should invest in video

Is your approach to video content working?

In my six years chairing the Brand Impact Awards judging panel, I've seen a growing trend for polished videos supporting entries. The best examples function as mini documentaries, telling the story of a project from the perspective of the client as well as the agency.

Clearly this route is more accessible to larger, better-resourced agencies. Bespoke video content isn't cheap, compared to submitting some static images with a written supporting statement. Small, boutique studios may struggle to compete on a level playing field.

Putting your people on camera gives your agency an engaging, human face.

But if you only see video as a cost, you're looking at it wrong. With the right approach, it can form a key part of your design agency's content strategy.

Told in the right way, the story of a 'portfolio centrepiece' will draw people in and add depth and colour to your creative process. Putting your people on camera also gives your agency an engaging, human face that makes it more accessible and relatable to prospective clients.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. That means you should pick your battles, as costs can add up quickly. Some projects have a rich, visual story that video can bring to life effectively – others don't.

You don't need a Hollywood film crew to shoot an Oscar-winning masterpiece. But telling that story in a compelling way takes more than a camera operator, a sound recordist and someone to edit it together. You need an editorial eye.

So what does this look like in practice?

Video was a crucial part of my content strategy for Taxi Studio's global Carlsberg rebrand.

There were several strands to be explored, and the close collaboration between agency and client on the project merited input from both sides of the table to tell the full story.

Accordingly, as well as conducting in-depth on-camera interviews with the creative team in Taxi's Bristol-based studio, we filmed several members of Carlsberg's brand team in their Copenhagen HQ.

With three agency-side and six client-side interviews to work with, careful scripting was required to cut between multiple perspectives within a few short minutes. Liaising closely with Taxi's in-house editor, I structured a smooth, engaging narrative for each video.

Read more about the Carlsberg project

For the launch of Wild Thinking, a new book from The Clearing, I worked closely with the agency – and publisher Kogan Page – to put video at the heart of the content strategy.

The premise of Wild Thinking is about asking challenging, provocative questions to get to the heart of a brand. That lent itself perfectly to an interview format, digging deeper into the themes inside the book.

I conducted on-camera interviews with three of the featured brands: McLaren, Dropbox and Royal Ascot. With almost an hour of footage from each interview, I then scripted punchy three-minute videos – as well as shorter cuts for use on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Read more about the Wild Thinking project

There's an art to steering an on-camera interview, particularly if people aren't used to being in front of the lens. If the conversation feels natural, an interviewee feels more comfortable and their answers flow.

This often requires changing the line of questioning on the fly to ensure the most interesting content is captured, and in a usable format. For short-form video, you need engaging soundbites that can be edited together easily.

It's a skill I've honed over many years. At Channel 4, I produced regular short-form video documentaries showcasing emerging creative talent.

During my tenure as editor of Computer Arts, I produced a long-running series of video profiles at top agencies across the UK. These included Pentagram, JKR, The Partners, DixonBaxi, SomeOne and many more.

Rather than just focusing on media-trained founders and creative directors, these videos were designed to present a cross-section of agency life. We interviewed people from different tiers and departments, all of whom had plenty of interesting things to say, but were rarely in the spotlight.

For many clients, my varied experience in the editorial and broadcast sectors, combined with in-depth knowledge of agencies' creative and strategic processes, makes an ideal sweet-spot when it comes to video.

Does your agency need to rethink its video strategy? Drop me a line and let's chat.