Interviews

I’ve been passionate about moving image from an early age. At 16 I learned editing on bulky VHS edit systems the size of a family car, and then as a projectionist - cutting and splicing reels the old-school way and absorbing film every day.

Around 6 years ago, I was freelancing in Manchester as an editor and caught online video content. It was digital, exciting, breaking new ground and ever changing. I was hooked, so I scrapped the TV work and decided to make great, exciting work on new platforms ever since.

We work for all sorts of clients, from global brands to local charities. We’ve recently worked with Boots, Toyota, Barclays and Sleepmasters . As well as working with well known companies, one thing we love is working with start-ups and new brands. The challenge of communicating a new concept is really good fun.

Mostly referrals. We work hard to make sure clients are happy, and we’re lucky that they pass on the message!

Like a lot of creative agencies, we live and breathe other people’s brands but marketing our own always causes the most heated discussions! We’ve always tried to keep the Fat Free Media brand off-beat and informal, and let the videos to the talking.

As most of our clients are linked to marketing in some way or other, they can see through a sales spiel, so we keep our messages short, informal, and written as if it was spoken out loud. That said, we do want to develop our SEO content strategy over the next 12 months, so this approach may need to be adjusted slightly to keep it consistent - and targeted to keywords.

We’ve worked hard to develop relationships with a bunch of different marketing, design and digital agencies, who offer our video services to their clients, either in partnership or under a white label. If we do a good job and build their trust, they come back to us for more. Thankfully, that’s often the case, which is why so much of our workload is through longstanding relationships with clients and agencies.

Based on recent workload, I would say it would be 50% Animation, 25% Video Production, 25% Video Marketing.

Animation for web is has become a lot more popular recently and rightly so. You have complete freedom to create stunning visual content and explain complex concepts in a much more simple way.

My desk may sometimes be messy, but digitally our projects are highly structured. It’s essential to keep things in order. We have projects that develop from a single video in English to 20 different versions in 10 different languages on 5 different devices.

Having a solid system makes sure that even the client's goalposts change, we're on top of things every step of the way. We also have a project manager Kate, who comes from digital marketing background. Having her on board is essential to make sure projects are kept on track.

Asking a lot of questions. I think it’s important to discover not only the corporate objectives, but the core brand personality; how that works together can be the beginning of some great video content. We make it clear to clients that we are not just a faceless rate card, we are on their side.

Filming an ad in Poland with a Polish client contact on-set. In the evening we all got asked to join him in a big wooden bath-house drinking Polish wine and singing songs. I’m still not sure if that was a local tradition or the guy was just a bit weird. Nice wine though. Making films puts you in some strange situations.

I love brainstorming new concepts, that’s the part that is the most exciting. I definitely don’t like the travelling; on the M1 and M6 at rush hour after a shoot - with Steve Wright on the radio – torture!

Plan the delivery from the word Go. Video is powerful, but the success will be how it’s integrated with other marketing channels/tools.

Some businesses invest in video, pop it in a corner of their website and think “What now?” We always work with clients to plan how content will be distributed and accessed and set out objectives to show what it will achieve for them.

We get stuck right in, when the moment is right of course. We’re lucky to have a great project manager on board who comes from a digital marketing background, which definitely comes in handy.

Clients may be new to video content, but we’ve seen many campaigns of all shapes and sizes, so our strategic advice is quite commonly part of the service. Some clients will have their own big ideas that work brilliantly, and in that case we just make the magic happen!

There are the occasions where clients come to us with a definite idea about what video they want, but we know that what they’re planning isn’t an effective use of time, effort or energy for anyone involved. In those situations, it’s about reading between the lines to find out what they want to achieve, and developing a concept with them that everyone is happy with.

Getting it on paper is important. Creative ideas can be interpreted many different ways, so it’s important to get projects on paper early on and get everyone on the same wavelength. So then, we know before any frame of video is made, the client is 100% onboard and knows what to expect.

Put it this way, you’re trying to promote your business and you buy a press ad in a paper. It will cost a fair few quid for a few inches squeezed next to all these other messages. How many people got your message? No idea. Who even read that page? No clue. How many sales did you make as a result of it? Impossible to tell. It’s an expensive shot in the dark.

Put the same budget into video content and you have a track-able, engaging tool presented directly to a highly specific targeted audience, with enough analytical data to satisfy Johnny 5. It’s entertaining, engaging on an emotional level, and you can prove its success with real-time results. A lot of the time, you get this all for the same cost as running one single print press ad.

There’s lots of great ways to do it practically within a campaign. But fundamentally, the same hard analytical data used within websites can be harnessed for video content too.

Building content around other track-able toolsets such as e-mail marketing analytics, social media sharing helps prove the effectiveness, but another great way is when a viewer calls up and says “I loved your video.” You can’t beat that for effectiveness!

It completely depends on the context and objective. Some videos scream and shout, some are quietly confident. The good ingredients are planning, passion and patience - and a good video production company. I know one, if you’re looking!

Do make video content that is engaging and communicate your message in the purest way.

Don’t bore your viewers. Make exciting content and get the viewers on your side.

Do think about delivery. No point making a video about your cool new iPhone app if the video doesn’t play on iPhones.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Use all tools available to you consistently and make them all work together.

Video is already absolutely huge, but the future holds more targeted content and interactivity. Video will grow to be more two way traffic, with users interacting with content rather than just absorbing it.

Also, with platforms like Facebook, you’ll be able to know so much about the viewer and deliver content completely tailored for them. It really is an exciting time for video content and we’re in the best position to make the most of it!

Continuing to make really great content for our clients. Building our specialism in innovative video content. Playing with some shiny new gadgets in our kitbag.

1. Put pride and integrity in everything you do.

2. Learn when to say No.

3. Never stop learning.