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Why In-House Marketing Departments Need to Go Outside for Their Company Videos

LET’S BEGIN BY SAYING WE TOTALLY GET THE IDEA BEHIND IN-HOUSE MARKETING DEPARTMENTS

The people in marketing departments are experts at knowing their company’s personality, and the notion of in-house marketing departments saving time and money certainly makes sense. In-house marketing departments have proven valuable for many things like managing customer data, doing media planning, and ROI tracking. But just like so many things in life, no one entity can solve all needs. This is especially true when it comes to outstanding video production. Of all the marketing channels available, few have higher visibility and expectations than a video that connects and resonates with an audience. Videos are two dimensional, they’re sight and sound. They’re the calling cards of companies worldwide and available on one channel or another 24/7. So, why are in-house marketing departments frequently not the right solution for a company’s video needs? Here are five reasons to consider:

NO SHARED LEARNING

Let’s say you’ve built a well-rounded in-house marketing department that includes some video equipment and a videographer who can also edit. On the surface, that sounds pretty good. But there’s an important factor that’s been overlooked: there’s no shared learning. With an outside video production company, there is a healthy and continually changing resource pool of different lighting directors, producers, camera operators, grips, casting directors, animators, editors, and so on. Each one of these people are hired for a project because they work in a specific discipline for a vast array of clients. The end result is a lot of shared experiences happen during the course of a production which will certainly enhance the end product. None of this happens—or at best is much more limited—with an in-house video marketing team. And when it’s your company, experience and gravitas matters.

YOU’RE LIMITED BY YOUR IN-HOUSE VIDEO EQUIPMENT

Want a drone shot but don’t have a drone? Or someone certified to use it? Want to shoot on the move but don’t have a gimbal? Want to greenscreen something but don’t have the greenscreen? Your equipment shouldn’t dictate how you tell your story. It’s too important.

THE DREADED “CAN’T SEE THE TREES FOR THE FOREST”

People who work in in-house marketing departments get conditioned to a certain way of doing things, a certain way of thinking. Almost imperceivably, workers get conditioned to “The company way.” Mind you, that’s not necessarily bad. But it certainly can be when you’re looking to alter perceptions in something as important as a video. What the company wants to say and what the customer needs to see and hear is often as different as an oak tree and a pine. When you’re in that daily corporate matrix, it can be difficult to see the trees for the forest. Also, videos almost always get repurposed for other channel uses. Meaning, what was once just a video for an internal audience suddenly becomes messaging for an external audience. Or, what was once meant to be a sizzle reel on your website, has now become part of a Facebook ad that’s not getting the response you were hoping for. People who make videos and nothing else know what will and won’t work in the competitive marketplace and social media. They’re used to taking multiple uses into consideration and plan versioning tailored for different audiences because they’ve done it a hundred times before. In-house marketing departments? Not so much.

NO ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Another challenge with in-house marketing departments is there is no economy of scale. If you’ve built up a well-rounded marketing department but underutilize them, the unit cost of your department can become out of whack. What many companies do to combat this is have their in-house marketing personnel wear multiple hats. That’s certainly a logical idea. But think it through. How long are you going to keep an animator when she’s being used as a graphic designer? How long are you going to keep a creative copywriter when he’s writing RFP’s responses instead of doing actual conceptual writing? Outside video resources will expand or contract its personnel depending on the assignment. Meaning, even though you’re using an outside resource, there are better economies of scale.

Based on a recent work study conducted by Workfront, a project and software management company, about 80% of in-house marketing staff feel overworked and understaffed. This might seem like the exact opposite of the previous paragraph, but is it? Could this be because in-house staff are wearing too many hats? Or, are they genuinely too small for the company’s needs? Either way, it’s still an economy of scale problem.

SLOWER ACCOUNTABILITY

In-house marketing departments are like any other advertising agency where numerous projects flow in and out of the department like a factory. Indeed, ad agencies and in-house marketing departments are idea factories. One project might be an email blast, another might be the production of a digital banner campaign, another might be the planning of a theme and producing support materials for a trade show. In this type of steady, lots of work turnaround, the factory has to keep producing, whether its internal or external. But unlike an external ad agency, if the in-house marketing department misses the mark on a project, or two, or three, the consequences are likely to be less severe than with an exterior agency. Fingers are quicker to point at an outside resource if they didn’t “hit the mark,” and you know what? That’s probably fair. After all, “They’re the experts.” Accountability will happen with an in-house marketing department too, but it’ll happen slower. Meaning, lost opportunities and potential revenue in the meantime.

MANY MAJOR COMPANIES ARE RE-ASSESING THEIR IN-HOUSE MARKETING

The pandemic changed how we think of work, and where. A lot of great marketing and creative talent has gotten used to working remotely due to COVID, and that’s what they choose to do, work remotely. Because of this, not to mention the other five subtopics of this blog, companies are reassessing their in-house marketing departments. Intel, J Crew, Splenda, and Prudential have all trimmed back in-house marketing teams in recent years. Yet, the demand for high quality conceptual videos is stronger than ever. All of which brings us back to looking outside for your video needs, even if you have an in-house marketing department.

THE MOON COMES AND GOES, BUT THE COST EFFECTIVENESS REMAINS

Sometimes you can look up and see the moon, sometimes you can’t. But you know it’s always there. In a similar way, Hybrid Moon is a video ad agency you can rely on when you need us, and not have to pay for when you don’t. We’re a video production company for sure, but we also do more than just “bid and shoot” a video project. We can work with you about the “why” of your video and develop a strategy that takes versioning and differing audiences into consideration. We can do a deep dive of your competition and their video presence. We can plug into resources around the world, not to mention provide expertise in different types of shooting, whether it’s aerial, on the water, multiple land locations, live events, etc. We can supply a crew of 50, or keep things more guerilla style. We can develop the script, tell emotional stories that take you from Point A to Point B, provide compelling testimonials, shoot webinars, provide an original music score, help you track your video’s effectiveness, and more. Think of us as a part of your in-house team, just not a part you have to pay for every day.

Category leading companies like Nike, Lowe’s, ExxonMobile, Fiserv, United Technologies, Carrier and others have turned to us for their video needs. So, the next time you want a great video to complement your in-house marketing efforts, look outside. Look to the Moon.