In House or Out House... Pros and Cons and Poor Choices of Words.

I'm no Mike Deluca, but I used to be obsessed with his "On the Slate"article like rants and ramblings filled with his highly opinionated views of what he spends most of his waking hours on. So, now that I have discovered Linkedin again, I think I may have an audience that will love or hate me, so time to start pounding out the vernacular ramblings of an (almost) old man yelling at the clouds. This week it's about advertising production, next week could be about frame rates or "all the K's"... who knows what article or happy hour conversation will get me going.

But as you read this, remember, I love you, I'm here for you, and it's not rocket surgery... it's salesmanship wrapped in make believe. Keep your spelling and grammar corrections to yourself. I have a life to live, cha cha, and if the thinking machine I'm using doesn't catch it, I sure as hell wont...

We have all seen the reports in Adweek and Adage, on countless blogs, and Forbes articles about the pros and cons of in house production companies that exist within agencies or the brands themselves. The problem is they are ALL correct. Every point of the pitfalls and advantages is 100% accurate. But why? How can two warring opinions of a multibillion dollar industry be both pointing out. the right sides of the arguments?

Simple, because production of video content is not simple. It is currently one of the fastest evolving mediums of communication both in the techniques and technologies needed to acquire the content, the changes in the post production process, and the almost weekly changes in the needed delivery channels for said content. So yes, in house production can be: cheaper but more expensive, quicker but slower turnarounds, high quality or poor quality, creative or bland, effective or useless, profitable or a total loss.. etc, etc. So what is the right choice? How do we, as business owners, brand ambassadors, and creative directors, make the decision thats best for our message?

I would say, just follow your gut and intuition, always review the options, and chose the best route.

But should we grow and develop our own in house capabilities? Or is it not worth it? This is the real question the powers that be are constantly asking. And if they have already made that jump, then how do you keep it relevant? This is where the real work comes in. This work happens parallel to producing great content and executing for your clients. This happens daily, with a dedicated staff of leaders and artists always learning, and ready to implement.

First, it's in the processes. The evolution of the medium has decimated the standard processes that have been developed for over 100 years by experts in the field and an entire army of crew, accountants, managers, and producers. Those industry standard practices have been mostly abandoned on the agency and brand side and have wreaked havoc on work conditions, growth and creative development. So many have "known better" and shortcutted the process because the technology allowed us to, and in the end the industry suffers for it. If you can create a foundation of processes then you can develop and grow from those processes to fit your own business goals. Many call this Standard Operating Procedure/Process, aka S.O.P.

Let's lose the word "Process". It is to set in stone. The word itself doesn't lend itself to that organic nature of an evolving creative timeline and execution. Let's go with PLATFORM. Standard Operating PLATFORM. A Platform is something you can take off from, but provides a solid base to return to when things get dicey. Platform allows you to build tactical or strategic process from the safety of it and then return each time to do it again, refuel, reconvene, call for reinforcements, and launch again. And that is a perfect way to look at it because every video production is different. They each have to be attacked with fresh eyes and ideas.

Now the people. If the right people are in place then you will succeed. Who are those people? Those people are driven by a desire to create and constantly eager to learn and change how they work. Sadly, those people you will nurture and grow, so be ready to open the cage and let them fly. They will always want to explore the world and see what adventure awaits them. But don't worry... if you found those people, you will find more, and take pride that your company produced such spectacular talent for the world.

Once you have the artists in place who satisfy your base clients video and production needs, now you begin the real work. Partnerships. Your producers should begin creating, or have already established, relationships with high end NON in house production companies. If you have the 100% trust of your clients and they just want you to "get it done" the best way possible, you will be able to deliver on the lower costs, best quality options by eliminating the one major flaw in the current production model:

The Competitive Bid.

If you are operating on a solid budget for your campaign... and I mean the 250k or more for a single ad deliverable or two, then scrap the bid process. It is inherently flawed from the get out. (and yes i'm ready for the community backlash on this one... but sorry fellow pro co owners, I never operated my business to pay for lavish vacations or grossly over inflated profits, so I'm all good pulling the curtain back). If you as a client or agency have to start an email or a call with any inkling that you are asking a lot for the budget or the words, "the budget isn't what we want", or anything like that, then JUST CALL YOUR PARTNERS AND TEAM UP WITH YOUR IN HOUSE TO BEGIN CREATING THE BEST SOLUTION POSSIBLE. Don't waste the time and energy director hunting for reels... Your money will not go where it needs to go. It will be inflated to cover loan outs of directors who aren't repped by those companies but are desperate to win so bad they will toss good money after bad, and for hidden fringes and mark ups that if you audited your last handful of shoots would make you cringe on how much WASN'T put in front of the camera.

Don't believe me? Shoot me an email and lets talk. I have collected an assortment of unscrupulous AICP bid forms, one of which shows a pro co pocketed over 85K on a 175K Shoot by marking up day rates to double what they actually paid out, inflating department hard costs bids to hide profits so they could show a smaller production fee, and marking up so much for post, the post house who actually did the work got the reputation of being ridiculously overpriced, despite the fact that they were providing below market rates to the pro co.

Creating a solid relationship with a few honest and transparent production vendors will be your greatest weapon. You will be able to provide your clients with an amazing solution to their problem at every step of the creative production journey. Your team will grow and flourish along side the expertise of those outside vendors and it will extend your operating levels way beyond your operating budgets.

And before I go... you have got to lose the individual Branding of your in house companies. It is by nature mis leading and threatens the very relationships you are trying to forge. They have stand alone websites, different email addresses, and the window dressings of a boutique independent company when in actuality they are the profit arm of a financial holding company. Just use the agency name and add STUDIOS to it, or MAKERS, or something! Make it a department within your organization, split the P&L, for all we care (hell that actually would help, but more on that later), but OWN IT. Make it part of your culture and DNA. Stop pretending it's something else.

Now got make some cool shit!

Your favorite hand talker.