For most companies, creating video content is a mere checkbox. Companies think of creating video content as something different from how they will be distributing the content and using that data.
Companies that treat video production as a checkbox have lower conversions because they don’t understand how the video is impacted by production quality. This is therefore why video marketing has failed compared to their competitors who are investing the majority of their time, energy, and money into marketing.
In this guide, we will review and break down leading video marketing agencies who help operators migrate from basic corporate film to creating high-quality branded video marketing engines.
Why Video Branding and Performance Matter
In recent years, the business of creating video content has evolved far too quickly for an operator to rely solely on the experience of an agency in creating one high-quality corporate video, placing that video onto a website, and calling that the company’s "strategy."
In order to survive, operators need to take a more aggressive approach to video and create more volume by way of video. They must continue to test video properties while creating a digital presence on multiple channels.
At the heart of this issue is a disconnect between how the buyer perceives video and how the buyer was intending to achieve CPA reductions due to the service the buyer has purchased to create long-term brand equity.
The buyer is attempting to drop its CPA number by way of using the contents of a 1-minute corporate video to achieve CPA reductions, as opposed to being able to simultaneously test multiple different ad placements across fifty different social media channels.
The definition of video marketing agencies has evolved from merely having the right cameras to being companies that use data and analytics to measure the performance and delivery of video products. An agency now manages the entire workflow of a video from the development of the initial script to the addition of final metadata tags.
An agency should be in a position to tell you the average view rate for one of its videos or the impact of its video on conversion. If an agency cannot provide this information to a client, that agency is behind the times.
How to Pick Video Marketing Agencies
To make informed decisions about partnering with an agency, a business leader must take into account how the agency operates, how they price their services, and their ability to meet specific key performance indicators (KPIs).
This does not necessarily mean that they should choose an agency based solely on how their visual style looks (i.e., aesthetically pleasing), but rather on how much influence (impact) the agency will have on the business in question (e.g., increased sales/profit) as well as how well they perform according to KPIs.
The evaluation of each agency may vary significantly between agencies and can ultimately indicate whether or not one will be successful in meeting the ultimate goal of respective agency owners.
While all agency owners share some commonalities, many agencies also take a unique approach when it comes to developing creative and marketing strategies. We have not evaluated them based on the number of awards or accolades awarded, but rather on how an agency affects a business, the amount of transparency in pricing, and how it operates.
The following agencies discuss their strategies based on their evaluation of the market today.
1. Vidico
As one of the top players in the technology space, Vidico is known for their unique marketing strategy (SaaS and eCommerce), whatever the purpose of marketing is to achieve.
Vidico is the first agency to clearly identify "results" (also known as "results based results") as the end goal of everything they do.
Through their internal data analysis, Vidico claims that they have had 1.5 billion video views in the past four years and continue to deliver high-quality video content through all types of marketing campaigns.
The results of Vidico's video marketing approach can be seen in the numbers that have come from Vidico. According to Vidico, they currently have an average completion rate (i.e., "number of people who viewed the final product") of 93% for standard brand videos.
With an average completion time of 56 seconds for an average person, in a world where consumers can look at any content in a matter of seconds and scroll past it immediately (to get to their next item), this is a huge operational advantage for Vidico. The combination of these statistics gives Vidico a strong reason to provide their clients with unparalleled service.
Vidico understands that video should be a direct source of revenue for their clients. An example of this was when Vidico created a video marketing campaign for Bambee that resulted in a 50% reduction in cost per lead (CPL) for Bambee.
By reducing the CPL by $10,000 per month, Vidico saves Bambee a significant amount of money over time, creating a solid ROI for their client. Additionally, Vidico was able to align the creative scripts from their marketing campaigns with the keyword/search intent problem of Cascade and Digital Ocean, allowing millions of views to be generated directly from the content.
Consequently, when you are considering partnering with a company who needs clear attribution, a quick turnaround time, and direct performance data, it is highly recommended that you consider Vidico for those needs; you will be pleasantly surprised.
2. Sandwich Video
Although Sandwich Video is well-known in the industry for using a very different approach than many production companies, it is similar in the sense that they focus on launching large quantities of products and capture earned media value (EMV) through video marketing.
Sandwich Video's main selling point is how they take the latest technology or products that are complicated to understand, and make them incredibly easy to understand and create a sense of connection with the viewer.
Many production companies believe that the best way to create videos is to compete with low-cost, high-volume social media retainer agreements. Sandwich Video creates large-scale "hero" videos as an example of their style.
In terms of their strategy, Sandwich Video has found success by combining the art of "storytelling" with product demonstrations. For example, Sandwich Video created a campaign for Perplexity, a company that focuses on providing consumers with an AI-based "intelligent" search engine, which resulted in a 3.5X higher EMV and a 200% increase in brand recognition for the company.
Sandwich Video also produced a video for Rakuten, which resulted in a 97% reduction in their CPA (cost per acquisition). In addition, Sandwich Video had a major impact on Slack's early success by generating several million views for core product videos on behalf of the startup. If a startup has a major upcoming launch and needs to create a long-term brand-defining asset, Sandwich Video is a great option.
3. Lemonlight
Unlike many production companies, Lemonlight has a very focused audience and their business model is built around servicing small to mid-sized businesses.
Lemonlight addresses the common problem that we see in the production industry, which is the challenge of pricing friction.
As a result of the unique nature of their pricing model and the way they operate, Lemonlight has become one of the fastest growing production companies for the small to mid-market business sector. Lemonlight's minimum project size starts at $5,000, but the majority of projects that they work on fall below $10,000.
The goal of this business model is to allow companies to sample video without needing to put their entire marketing budget at risk for the quarter. Lemonlight has a variety of clients, with 50% of their clients falling into the mid-market category.
Major companies like Hyatt have utilized their services, but where they truly thrive is in creating a consistent and repeating pipeline for businesses to acquire dependable resources for their paid social media and crowdfunding initiatives.
Their method restricts infinite review cycles and establishes definitive boundaries around the work being performed. Because of this, they can keep their pricing exact and maintain shorter timeframes for completion.
4. Superside
Superside is not your average production agency; rather than the traditional way of charging per project, Superside uses a subscription-based approach where customers can receive an unlimited amount of design and video work for a set monthly charge.
This subscription model directly challenges the slower pace of traditional production agencies that charge per project. Speed is more critical than having an absolutely perfect product for most performance marketers.
Superside focuses on helping large enterprises that require a high volume of new assets on a regular basis. They capitalize on recent trends in regards to producing user-generated content (UGC) style videos, creating lots of short UGC videos.
They also incorporate artificial intelligence in their processes to help expedite script variations, editing, and version control. Thus, if a marketing team gets a request for 50 different ad variations to test across social media platforms next week, Superside's subscription model is the most logical approach to fulfilling that request.
5. Croton Content
Croton Content is filling a major gap in the video optimization industry with their services.
Many agencies simply deliver the completed video to their client and consider the project complete. In contrast, Croton Content focuses more on what occurs after the video has been uploaded to its target audience.
Having an amazing video means nothing if no one can find it.
They view video as a marketing asset that can be optimized to allow a higher likelihood of appearing in search results. They specialize in optimizing videos for YouTube SEO, enhancing video descriptions through the use of metadata, testing thumbnails for maximum effectiveness, and adding schema markup to a customer's embedded website.
Agencies utilize various tools to develop their channel frameworks to send visitors through their websites via organic traffic over time. All agencies receive retainers for this work, generally $1,000 – $4,000 per month depending on the level of distribution and the complexity of the optimization.
Channels developed in this manner are a vital aspect for companies that intend to maintain a video library and generate leads through this library over time—essentially making their library a lead generation machine rather than just a one-time investment.
6. Motion The Agency
Motion The Agency, the traditional model for corporate video production, has adapted to meet today's needs.
While most companies are trying to produce more rapid social-based content, corporate communications require security, as well as a high level of professionalism.
Enterprise level organizations usually have many different stakeholders involved in their day-to-day operations; therefore they typically have a much higher regulatory burden than the average marketer.
Motion strives towards providing corporate communications for organizations engaged in corporate environmental responsibility (CER), internal communications, corporate communications, and brand development; therefore they use lower-volume films with better impact versus high-volume films with lower impact.
As a result, their method of production takes longer to produce because of the higher amount of attention they pay to every aspect of the production and because they provide multiple patterns of approval and handle all of the logistics required to create a multi-location film.
Standard Video Production Costs
Industry pricing is not typically discussed openly by video marketing agencies. The standard practice of agencies is to create "custom" quotes which prevents clients from planning ahead accurately.
However, based on our analysis of the data we have available to us, we can determine that there are standardized benchmarks within the video production industry. It is essential to understand what these benchmarks are if one wishes to choose the correct production partner or method that aligns with their specific organization and goals.
The following is a benchmark of what the current marketplace pricing structure looks like:
High-quality animated explainer video, standard use (technologies): $5,000 - $15,000
Live-action brand work: $10,000 - $50,000
Short-form social media content on retainer: $2,000 to $10,000/month
Digital assets in a creator style: $300 to $1,500 per unit
Burning through $50,000 buying a live-action video to test out ads on social media will provide no return, while spending $1,500 on a low-quality creator video that is your primary asset for releasing a new enterprise software could severely impact brand trust.
So be sure your costs align with your anticipated operational outcome!
Final Thoughts on Hiring Video Marketing Agencies
The days of purchasing video simply to have video are over; the most successful modern organizations are purchasing production in order to produce a specific business result.
If your problem is a high cost per lead, you should find an agency that focuses on performance data, rapid testing, and precise metric tracking. If your problem is a lack of market awareness of a complex tool you have developed, you should seek out a premium storytelling partner to generate earned media on your behalf.
If your organization has an ongoing need for new assets for use in social media daily, you should consider adopting a subscription-based model as the most scalable approach to supporting those needs without overextending your existing workflows.
Be sure to evaluate agencies in terms of their output, but request access to their revision management process and how they measure view duration and audience retention. Businesses need to see how video impacts revenue. Companies that question this area have gone from being heavy video costs to driving revenue growth from video.
Common Questions About Video Production
Why do expensive brand videos fail to make sales?
Premium video represents an emotional relationship and broad brand exposure but not an action-oriented (quick purchase) response. Premium videos by their very nature do not have quick hook elements, clear calls to action, or clearly defined product value that facilitate the quick purchase. So if a company is using an awareness medium to perform a conversion function, the performance metrics of that video will be dismal.
What numbers show a video's actual effects on the business?
“Vanity metrics” like total views are worthless. Businesses must look at the following metrics to determine actual business impact:
Cost per lead
View-to-lead conversion rates
How much faster was overall pipeline speed?
The industry best practices are to evaluate how a video on your landing page drives the raw conversion rate of that page. Additionally, businesses should also track the number of times sales teams use it to close a deal.
What slows down video projects?
In most cases, internal client chaos will cause delays to project timelines. Internal client chaos can come in many forms, but often it is related to vague project briefs, too many stakeholders making late requests for changes, and poorly defined key performance indicators (KPIs).
The best agencies put in place strict revision limits and asset checklists that require clients to make quick and decisive decisions.
When should you pay monthly instead of per project?
Flat project fees are appropriate when you want to produce one high-stakes asset such as a major website explainer. A subscription model is ideal when companies are running multiple paid social media campaigns and have fast, weekly testing of creative assets.
In these cases, subscriptions help companies to solve the volume challenge, enabling them to fail fast, test new hooks, and develop winning ads all without having to negotiate a new contract weekly.