This Brand Video Cost Us a Ton of Money

Hi, my name is Eric, and I’m the founder of You Betcha – a video production company here in Minneapolis. Like all my fellow video production company owners, I love to encourage clients to invest in video. But I can now (finally) say that I’ve actually done it myself.

Here’s the crazy part. Even with all my past experiences, it was terrifying.

As a team, we’ve produced lots of videos. So I didn’t necessarily expect to be scared when I jumped headfirst into this process.

But the fact of the matter is that doing video production the right way is expensive. And it’s scary to pay for things that are expensive. (Surprise!)

I wasn’t worried about how the video would turn out. I knew I was in good hands since this is, in fact, the team I always work with.

What I actually wondered was: “Is this going to work? Is it going to do absolutely anything for my business?”

You can watch the video here, or skip down below to read my thoughts on the process.

Why Did We Set Out to Do This?

We always encourage others to invest in video, but it’s because we actually believe in it. And if we actually believe in it, then why wouldn’t we have our own brand video?

To get a bit more specific, we decided to take the leap because we wanted to have the opportunity to speak directly to our ideal client via video. Yes, we can simply show off client work and hope to be noticed based on the quality or effectiveness of that, but we felt like going a step further.

What if we could actually address what our clients might be thinking at the exact moment that they come to our website? What if we could show them that we understand them and what their process looks like?

We were hopeful that producing this video and putting it front and center on our website would help our clients to understand a bit more about us and why they would or wouldn’t want to work with us.

It cost us a lot of money, but in the end (spoiler alert) we’d do it all again. But more on that later.

What Was So Expensive About This?

Definitely not the equipment. We owned all of the stuff we shot this with already: lights, cameras, microphones, accessories, and all the like. In fact, our only expense in this category was a slider that we rented $85.

The studio we shot in didn’t cost much either (comparatively.) We’re members there, and love to utilize it when possible. (Here’s our subtle plug for Honest Studios).

We spent maybe $40 on props and another $100 or so to feed the team. If you’re doing the math, all of these expenses still aren’t adding up to much.

But then there were the people. Lots and lots of great people who lent their talent to the production.

The Crew

First of all, we had our team director, Andrew Stecker. It’s a director’s job to take ownership of the huge responsibility involved with bringing a script to the screen. Andrew guided the performance of our actors, the way we captured them, and the entire crew as well. Fun fact: Andrew also played the part of the narrator in the video.

Zac Anderson, also a You Betcha team member, was our Director of Photography. His role was operating the camera, making creative lighting decisions, and working with Andrew to make sure our shots looked great.

Ben Carlson, yet another You Betcha team member, ran audio on this project. Good audio is an extremely important part of any video, and we relied on Ben to capture crystal clear, clean takes that aren’t distracting and sound great.

Casey Pearson, a hair and makeup artist, was essential to this production as well. She made sure all of our actors looked their best on camera. And that includes me for the small role I played. And making me look good on camera is no easy feat. (Side note: Check out Casey’s work at http://caseypearsonartistry.com/).

Finally, there was me (essentially a creative director for this project) and my wife Brooke (roped into this as a production designer). But of course, I didn’t have to pay myself, and Brooke surprisingly didn’t think to ask either. I hope she’s not reading this, because she will not think it’s too late.

You probably already have a good idea of what a creative director would do on a project like this. But just in case, suffice it to say that I had some kind of hand in making the project happen from start to finish.

A production designer is responsible for the look of the sets we’re working with. In this case, Brooke wasn’t actually on set, but she designed the look and feel of the space we’d use and we simply placed the props.

Finally, we circled back to Zac and had him edit and color correct.

The Cast

Great videos usually don’t stop with a great crew. Even though we used a couple of crew members to fill minor roles, we still needed the touch of a few professional actors to make this video great…or even decent (if you’re familiar with my acting ability).

To find our cast for this video, we put out a casting call – just like we would for most client videos. Our search led us to Theresa Alvarado for the lead role. As you can see, her talent really brought this whole video together.

The voiceover guiding you through the video is thanks to Andrew Stecker. We may describe him as a director, but he’s also a working actor here in the Twin Cities.

The cast was rounded out by Kim Hermes, Justen Jones, and Jeremy Frandrup – each of whom was essential to creating a great end product.

Why We Made These Investments

Someone out there is always going to have better video equipment than you – probably because you could take out a second mortgage on a house and still not have the cash for a truly top-of-the-line camera.

But creative people aren’t so easily topped. Bringing in unique perspectives is essential to creating a more diverse, interesting, funny, or all-around better video.

If you’re investing in a video, don’t think of it as an investment in fancy equipment. If that’s all you’re getting, you should rent some and shoot the video yourself. You’ll save a ton of money. Instead, invest in creative professionals that offer great perspectives you simply can’t yourself.

Was it Worth It?

Yes, absolutely. Expenses and all, this project was 100% worth it. Although it was expensive to produce, it allowed us to speak directly to our own audience using the same tool we employ for our clients – video.

When our clients post the videos we produce for them, their audiences usually come back with a massive response. But we’ve found that when we post the same work, it doesn’t get nearly as big of a response.

Why? Because we don’t have the same audience. We make client videos to be seen and appreciated by their audience, not ours. 

But for this video project, we were our own client. And we must have succeeded in speaking to our audience, because posting this video led to us reaching about 6,000 people in just 6 days. That may or may not sound like a lot depending on who you are. For us, that’s about 40x the size of our typical audience for a post on social media.

But the success of this video didn’t just stop at a view count. It also led to a couple of leads through our website, some networking opportunities, and much more that remains to be seen!

And keep in mind, the video has only been online for about one week. We’re looking forward to tracking its performance over the next few weeks and months!