what is a creative video agency
What is a creative video agency?

Short Answer:

It’s a hybrid with the best parts of video production company + an advertising agency.

Many people know what an ad agency is.

How Ad Agencies work and why they have an impact on brands

What is an ad agency? They are a company that specilizes in advertising content and often has a staple of in-house staff of their own that makes advertising content 24/7. They bring together creatives and third party service providers like video production companies or film crews to actually produce content for their customers (companies looking for tv commercials for example).

Rarely do companies just want a single ad or a single piece of advertising content – more often advertising is more holistic and multi-dimensional including a mix of media type etc.

An example: a new movie is coming out. You see a bus with an ad on it. While you ride the bus, you notice billboards. When you get downtown to your stop, you notice a LED wall that has an ad for the movie. You order lunch and Uber Eats has special bags that have an ad for that movie which your food is delivered it. Your kids meal has a toy from the movie. You log into Facebook and see an ad for that movie. You do some research and watch a Youtube video, with a pre-roll ad for that movie. You check your phone for the schedule of the bus going home – and there’s an ad right there. It’s barely lunch and you’ve seen ads for this darn movie in like 10 places.

Ad agencies help strategize the right plan, coordinate, and execute that plan.

What are the Benefits of Using an Agency?

Ad agency benefits and disadvantages: some benefits are that they have creative talent that has a good pulse on what’s popular. They know what is trending in the past year, what has been working, they know the ad industry.

Some challenges for ad agencies is their ability to attract and retain top talent. Companies hire agencies for their designers and creatives to be top-notch. Their talent can make or break the business.

Another challenge for agencies is how they can stand out from their competitors. When every company is creative and can claim their bold ideas, how can you actually know what you are getting?

Looking for an agency that has a niche – whether that’s an industry or just a size of project or size or type of project.

For example: at Provid Films, we specialize in content that’s typically beyond what you’d do in-house but often below a full-blown ad agency. We do video projects where you want to stand out – you want maybe more of that agency look but without the agency price. That said, we do happily work with agencies to deliver agency quality work. We’ve even had clients who we pitched projects on but they “went with a competitor” – only to find out they’d hired another company that then turned around and sub-contracted us to be the service provider. Kinda awkward, and funny knowing how much they probably spent in markup had they’d just booked us directly.

The biggest draw back of working with an agency is probably just the price. We don’t knock agencies, they have a special talent and they do a lot of work. So when a company only wants a single video made – it’s silly just going through an agency. But when clients want a number of pieces of content and ads – they get what they pay for!

How to find an advertising agency: One great way to find an agency is through the different professional associations like the American Marketing Association. Every event we’ve gone to has been interesting and full of great people doing large and interesting (to us) projects.

Other Services Provided by Ad Agencies: Like mentioned above, there is a breadth of content that agencies work to create. It takes a team to put together these plans of content and lay them out and research and know what is going to get the unique results a brand is needing.

They work on creative campaigns – and then design content (whether that be print, tv, radio, or internet advertising – they then book that advertising time and space – they plan and execute the ad campaigns – they research and conduct surveys – and often suggest other services to help a client see success for their advertising budget

Think of it like this: you approach an advertising agency to help you from the beginning conversations all the way through to execution and follow-up on future campaigns. Working with an advertising agency is not limited to a one time deal – it’s an ongoing relationship that grows and increases in value over time.

Many of the creative advertising agencies in Minneapolis and St Paul MN work with the same clients again and again for years (if not decades) – similar to how our creative video agency works.

Contrast that with what happens with most corporate video production companies in Minneapolis / St Paul / the greater MSP area of Minnesota. Most of the time when a company needs to produce a video, they already have their marketing planned out. They know where the video is going to be presented (say for example an event, a livestream, a website or company is asking them to supply video content for their “About Us” page or an event is going to play their promotional video before a big sales pitch or diving into a talk).

Most companies aren’t looking for marketing assistance when they hire a video production company – they’re simply looking for a talented camera crew, a DP, and a video editor that will put together a video that meets their predetermined requirements (determined by someone other than the video company).

It’s not how video production companies want to work – most middle to higher end production companies in the Twin Cities want to see themselves as “filmmakers” for the small screen – but often that’s just not the case. Often jobs come with creative handcuffs.

How is the Creative Video Agency Evolving?

What we’re seeing in 2017 is a new evolution of customer needs.

Video content is no longer reserved for the big budget “traditional” advertising agencies.
In the past corporations and even small businesses used to rely on large advertising agencies like Fallon Worldwide, Mithun, and Carmichael Lynch to produce high quality commercial videos. The problem with this model of business is that for every video, whether it be a large commercial aired nationwide on broadcast TV or simple social media post video would require the resources and system of those large agencies to be turning.

Anyone who knows about large factories knows that they have high overhead costs. Often, the minimum to create any type of video for a website would run $50,000+ (as a starting point) with large commercials running $500,000+.

The opportunity exists when many large corporations like Comcast, Servicemaster, Deloitte, and Austin Mutual Company (customers of Provid Films Creative Video Agency) need to create quality content for smaller projects like their non-profit community engagement initiatives. Many of these situations run on a total budget (including community outreach) of just $50,000.

It’s easy to recognize the PR value in your company doing good in the community – but how do you justify a $50,000 video of a $25,000 park beautification project?

The root of the situation is simply that video is now growing in the “prefered content” form for many customers and companies are now required to output more video content for smaller and smaller projects.

That’s what makes creative video agencies unique!

When Provid Films (a creative video agency based in Minneapolis MN conveniently near MSP International Airport and serving clients nationwide) founded, it was the unique perspective of the founder Travis Johansen who has both a degree in business marketing and a certificate in business management. With an emphasis on the success of a client’s business that goes well beyond the typical video production company, their approach is rooted in the success of a client’s marketing goals.

Video marketing is a powerful tool when used effectively to market and grow a business or organization.

Provid Films works as a creative video agency to not only produce your video content with a talented script writer, storyboard design, DP, video editor, but also the marketing design of your video campaign so you don’t end up with a great marketing video that never gets viewed.

The best way to make a great marketing video is to start with the right team of professionals.

Start with a free design consultation. We’ll ask questions that discover your true goals, identify, and even design solutions that achieve your dreams wherever possible. Yes, this first discovery session is free. All you have to do is request it.