Chapter 12
Curating, Collaborating, and Outsourcing
IN THIS CHAPTER
Sourcing video creation help
Working with YouTubers
Curating videos within playlists
Creating video takes some skill and quite a bit of effort and can be daunting at first if you don’t have experience in video production. In this chapter, you find out how to engage video creation services, collaborate with YouTubers, and bolster your YouTube channel’s video offerings through curation of other people’s videos.
Getting Someone to Make Videos for You
Sometimes, you may want the outside help of professionals, such as when you want a better quality video or need to create more video than your own resources have capacity for.
If for some reason you don’t have the expertise or resources available to create your own videos, don’t fret, as you have several options, which I describe in the following sections.
You can find options to create video that are good quality, cheap, and fast, but a rule in life is that you have to choose two of these qualities. You can have a video created that’s good quality and fast, but it won’t be cheap. It can be fast and cheap but it probably won’t be good, and it can be cheap and good, but it won’t be fast!
Advertising and marketing agencies
Advertising and marketing agencies are full-service solutions that help with not just your video creation but everything from the marketing strategy through to the analysis and measurement of your campaigns.
Advertising and marketing agencies have teams of people who work to create everything you need for your advertising campaigns. If you choose to work with an agency, you can work with them on a project basis, which is an agreed amount for the scope of work they’ll deliver, or on a retainer basis, where you commit to paying a monthly fee for a set amount of resource hours per month.
The team at an agency may include
- An account person who manages the relationship with you, takes your brief (see Chapter 2), lines up the right resources to deliver against its requirements, and generally ensures you’re happy.
- A planner who researches and creates strategies to make your campaigns effective and is responsible for making sure what you’re asking to be done makes the most sense for your marketing goals.
- A creative team who generate creative ideas for your advertising campaign, ensuring that they are compelling and on brand and will resonate with your audience, delivering to your campaign’s brief.
- A production team who transforms the creative ideas into the various ad formats you require and handles the shooting, editing, and delivery of all your final creative assets.
- A media buyer who takes the creative assets and your media budget and sets up your campaign according to your criteria, making sure that your ads run and reach the right people in the most cost-effective way possible.
- An analyst who takes the reports from the media buyer, analyzes the performance of your campaign, and works with the team to create recommendations for improvements.
Working with an advertising agency will likely be the most expensive of the options available you to create your campaigns, with projects often costing in the tens of thousands of dollars and more. Agencies come in all sizes, from smaller independent shops to larger established agencies with big famous names. The largest of clients will pay their top-tier advertising agencies millions of dollars a year in retainer fees and expect their advertising campaigns to not only deliver to their business goals but also to win industry awards.
If you have the budget for an agency, research local agencies in your area who may take on clients with your size and budget of project. You can reach out to these agencies to set up a meeting to discuss your needs and determine whether you are a fit for each other.
Video production companies
If you’re looking only for video creation help and don’t need all the services of an advertising and marketing agency (see preceding section), you can find companies that specialize in video production.
Unlike full-service agencies that create marketing campaigns of all types, video productions companies focus only on the creation of video needed. These agencies can create anything from advertising creative to video content, such as entertainment, educational, or inspirational videos.
A video production company will have a dedicated team that includes
- An executive producer who oversees the project and ensures things happen on time and in order.
- A supervising producer who looks after everything on set, manages the production day to day, and keeps an eye on the details.
- A cinematographer or videographer who frames the shot so that it looks beautiful and shoots the footage
- An art director who makes sure the set looks good
- A sound person who makes sure that the sound is high quality
- An editor who handles all editing duties
Local freelancers
Depending on where you live, you’ll likely have great local talent available to help you with creating video. Even in the smallest of towns, you can find local freelancers through online listing sites, on community pin boards in your nearby grocery store, through the recommendations of friends and family, and in local publications.
The real benefit of using a local freelancer is that you can meet them in person to explain what you’re looking for and get a sense of what it’d be like working together.
Sometimes you’ll need to work with a local resource, for example, if your video needs require shooting footage of your retail store, which means you’ll want someone who is able to travel to your location.
If your local resource can’t provide all the services you need, then consider using them in combination with other options. For example, you may find someone locally who is able to shoot video footage that you can then have edited using an online marketplace service (see the next section).
Advertising agencies, video production companies, and local freelancers will all want a clear brief from you. Check Chapter 2 for how to create your brief.
Online marketplace services
I’m a big fan of online marketplaces that let people access skilled individuals to help them in creating their video creative. I’ve used these marketplaces many times in the past with success.
For example, take a look at Fiverr.com, shown in Figure 12-1. On this site, people post their services available, along with their rates, timelines, examples of their work, and ratings and testimonials from people who have used them. In the Video & Animation category on Fiverr, you can find people who can create
- Whiteboard and animated explainer videos
- Intros and animated logos
- Slideshows and promotional videos
- Editing and post production services
- Lyric and music videos
- Spokesperson videos
- Animated characters
- Short video ads
- Live action explainer videos
FIGURE 12-1: Fiverr offers access to people all over the world who can help you create video content at reasonable prices.
To maximize your chance of success with online marketplaces, follow these tips:
- Work through in detail what you want before you request anyone’s services. Create a clear brief that provides all the information upfront. (See Chapter 2 for more on creating a brief.)
- Find a service provider whose services closely match what you’re looking for. Also, request examples of work they’ve previously completed that meet your criteria.
- Be communicative up front, taking time to clearly explain what you’re looking for. You’ll be able to negotiate the final price with the service provider, especially if you’re looking for something more than their standard packages. Most sellers like to discuss the project before committing to it. Continue to be communicative throughout the process, responding to questions promptly and following up with any missing information.
You get what you pay for. These people are skilled creatives and should be paid accordingly for their work. Sure, they are more cost-effective than using companies because they may not have the same overhead costs, but creative work still takes time, effort, and skill, which all cost money.
The biggest pro of using online marketplace services is that you can work with anyone in the world. However, the drawback is that it’s unlikely you’ll find someone who is local to you who can come shoot video footage at your location. That’s why these services are great for video creation for certain types, such as explainer videos, which do not require a visit to create the content.
These online marketplaces offer lots of services you might find helpful like video promotion and distribution, help with setting up video ad campaigns, digital marketing, business consulting, market research and more.
Video creation tools
As more people turn to video as a part of their marketing mix, new tools, services, apps, and programs are popping up to help meet the demand and to fill the gap of expertise by providing templated and automated options. These services are especially good for the creation of video advertising creative.
If you search Google for video creation tools, you’ll find links to many options. These tools use templates for videos that let you drag and drop in your text, image files, video clips, and other creative assets.
Video creation tools make it easy to create marketing videos without much editing knowledge. These tools allow you to experiment with their templates to see whether they can work for you. Most video creation tools operate on a subscription service basis where you pay a monthly fee to use their tools, making them an easy and cost-effective place to start.
On the down side, the templates are more restrictive, so you’ll be relying on finding a template that you can make work for the video you’d like to create.
Collaborating on Videos
Sometimes you don’t need to directly create any videos yourself or use services like production companies or online marketplaces. (See the section “Getting Someone to Make Videos for You” for more on these options). You may be able to achieve your marketing goals by collaborating with YouTubers who can create videos for you that they host on their YouTube channel.
YouTubers are the video creators who have their own established brand with large audiences of people subscribed to their YouTube channel. They may also be referred to as influencers because they wield a certain amount of influence and credibility with their fans.
It’s common for an influential YouTuber to make a video featuring a product that fans then buy because they trust and admire the opinion and choices of that YouTuber. These YouTubers already have a large and engaged audience, and they regularly make content for their own channel. Marketers can tap into their audience by working with them in collaboration to create a video that features their products or services. YouTubers work with brands on a regular basis, and it can be a lucrative revenue stream for them.
YouTubers must maintain a level of authenticity at all times. Their fans don’t like it when the YouTuber sells out to shill a product that doesn’t make any sense for them or their audience. Any integration of product must be a good fit for the YouTuber, something they would use and can believe in.
For marketers, the pros of working with a YouTuber to create a piece of video content is that you can tap directly into an influencer who has credibility with the audience you are trying to reach. YouTubers can make a review video of your product, simply mention it, provide a tutorial or unboxing of your product, or find other methods to highlight and integrate your product in a natural, authentic way.
The pros of collaboration for marketers are that
- You can reach a desirable target audience.
- You benefit from the influence and credibility of the YouTuber’s endorsement.
- You help to create brand awareness and trust.
- You potentially drive sales and usage of the product.
On the other hand, marketers must give up a certain amount of control when working with YouTubers. You can’t dictate how YouTubers will make their video, and they likely won’t provide any approvals on the video itself. They’ll simply take your brief and integrate your product into one of their videos in the style in which you’ve agreed, but they won’t read from a script or deliver canned marketing messages. Their fans would know that they are shilling for a product rather than delivering great content.
The biggest challenge with working with a YouTuber as a marketer is to find someone who is the right fit for your brand, product, or service.
Here are a few options, described in the following sections, that can help you connect with the right people:
- Email a YouTuber directly.
- Work with a multi-channel network (MCN).
- Use a YouTuber marketplace.
Email a YouTuber directly
Perhaps you’ve found someone who you think is a great fit for your brand, and you want to work with them. Look on the About tab on their YouTube channel to find their email address. Many YouTubers list a business-inquiry email address.
This approach is typically where most marketers start when they want to work with YouTubers but I don’t recommend it. There likely won’t be a process in place that can help protect the marketer or the YouTuber, and it’s easy for projects that take this approach to struggle through to completion while keeping both parties happy. Strong communication is required to ensure success, along with a complete and comprehensive understanding of what is being requested and what will be delivered.
Work with a multichannel network (MCN)
A multichannel network (MCN) is a group that represents many different YouTubers and their channels and often extends beyond YouTube into other digital and nondigital media. The MCN team represents the YouTuber talent and helps connect them with brands who want to work with them on paid marketing initiatives, sponsorships, endorsement deals, appearances, and other opportunities like TV shows and book deals. An MCN is a bit like a talent agency, a production company, and a media network combined.
Examples of MCNs include Machinima, Fullscreen, Kin Community, AwesomenessTV, and Style Haul. These teams can be a better approach for collaboration with YouTubers because they bring a level of process and professionalism to the project.
However, MCN budget levels tend to be higher, — in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars — especially where their biggest YouTubers are concerned. Proceed if you have the budget to match.
Use a YouTuber marketplace
Online marketplaces help you connect with YouTubers and influencers across other platforms. They typically work by providing an interface where you create your campaign requirements, including details like what kind of videos you’re looking for, the product or service that would be featured, the audience you’d like to target, and your available budget, which you then submit to the marketplace. YouTubers can respond to your campaign brief, allowing you to select people to work with.
If a YouTuber is paid to use or feature your product, government regulations require that they disclose the paid endorsement clearly in their video.
Curating Other People’s Videos
You can add video content to your channel without actually creating any video content or breaking any laws. YouTube allows your channel to create playlists. Not only do playlists combine your own videos into themed lists, they can also include videos from other people’s channels as well. This approach is known as curation, where you collect videos from across YouTube into themed playlists (see Figure 12-2).
FIGURE 12-2: The result at the top of this page is a playlist featuring more than 50 different videos from a variety of YouTube channels.
For example, if you run a quilting supply company and people make videos of the quilts they make using your patterns, materials, and equipment, you can curate a playlist of videos across YouTube from other people’s channels to feature these quilts. You can call it “Our Customer’s Amazing Quilting Videos” and include all the videos that specifically relate to your company’s products. When people search for quilting videos on YouTube, your playlists can appear in the results. Playlists are a great way for marketers to collect together content that may be related to their brand, product, or service, but that isn’t directly owned by them.
A healthy YouTube channel will have a combination of playlists featuring videos you’ve created, along with playlists of videos you’ve curated from across YouTube. Playlists aren’t essential, but they’re a great way to expand your channel’s offering without having to create hundreds more videos.