Ian Buck: “When We Create Together, Everybody Wins”
After navigating through the worlds of PR, traditional advertising and social content, Ian Buck came to a startling realization: it was nearly impossible to recruit a video crew to produce short, low-budget films for internet use. Back in 2012, platforms like YouTube, Vimeo and Vime were on the rise, yet Canadian companies were making little use of them because no agency was offering to produce this type of content on a marketable scale.
The answer to this gap came in the form of Notch Video, an online marketplace where businesses can find a unique solution for their video production needs. With a network of creative professionals spread across the country, Buck and his team of 11 showrunners act as the intermediary between the talent and brands, tailoring audiovisual demands in a nimble fashion that is congruent with the language and speed of the internet. In today’s talk, Ian opens up about Notch Video’s business model and how companies and creatives alike can benefit from it.
How did you come up with the idea for Notch Video? Have you always wanted to work in production?
I come from a very diverse background; I’ve explored many different facets in marketing. In 2012, I was the VP of Earned Media at a prominent advertising agency here in Toronto. Content marketing was just starting to make waves back then. Businesses were realizing that they needed to reach users across many platforms, because we weren’t consuming content in a passive way anymore, with a TV or magazine article conducting a one-way conversation.
As those changes were happening, it became clear to me that video is the one piece of content that always resonates with an audience, as well as with brands. It simply works the best. The only reason why everyone wasn’t using it was because of a misconception that it is nearly impossible to create a video on a short budget or on a tight schedule.
It came to a point where I just thought… it can’t be this difficult. On many occasions, I had tried to find a video crew for internet films and stopped at a dead end. The demand was there — brands wanted to produce it, people wanted to consume it. I knew that talent was out there too, but it was scattered. So I decided to create an online space where everyone could work together on a video project.
I suppose you could say that Notch was operating as a database in the beginning?
Yes. When I met my business partner Yotam Dor, he had started something at the Savannah College of Art and Design where he would take all of these multi-disciplinary teams and match them with a brand to create different projects. His training was in film, while my training was in marketing. So we started talking.
Our mission was to make something new, and for that we spent about a year scouring the internet, searching for the talent and building a database.
Our original idea was to create a marketplace, like an AirBnb for video production. Seven years ago, when a person Googled “video producer Toronto” for example, they would get the worst results. Independent filmmakers were out there producing content for the internet, yet they weren’t marketing themselves in a way that they were easily found. We took our time to do a thorough search and vet everyone, so we could have a trusted virtual guide.
How did you become a video production agency?
We actually pivoted very quickly. As we were developing our business model, we realized that brands don’t necessarily want to talk directly to the director — they prefer to have a middleman who is more experienced in briefing the video crew and guiding the team. What was more surprising, though, was when we realized that creators aren’t comfortable talking directly to brands either. We stepped in to fill that gap.
Do your clients respond positively to your network now?
Definitely. There is a lot of flexibility and nimbleness that we can offer, which are our main differentiating factors. The reason why we started a new type of agency is because you can’t retro-fit an existing agency to work like this.
The advertising model is broken for this type of content.
Don’t get me wrong — traditional agencies can handle the big branding projects beautifully. However, when you get to the actual production of content, you don’t need a huge team of account managers, creatives, producers, strategists, and so on. It’s too slow, it’s too expensive and it’s unnecessary. So we’ve replaced that.
How is Notch Video run today?
We have a team of 11 people here in the studio to work with the brands, helping them come up with the right strategy and creative concept. There is no in-house video production crew, though — the actual shooting and editing is done through our network of filmmakers from all over Canada. Together, we make everything from small, looping three-second videos for social media to high-level commercial films. What is unique about our model is that we can actually be profitable at a $2000 video and a $200,000 video. And everything in between.
This is clearly a sustainable model and quite beneficial to the clients as well. What about your community of creators?
Well, the truth is that the model works because of our community. We couldn’t have done it without them. We started by manually building this list, but now we don’t have to — there are people applying to be a part of our network every day, filling out their profiles on our website. Creators actually want to be part of what we’re doing and they love it.
How do the filmmakers benefit?
It’s no cost of entry to them and there’s no exclusivity either, so they are free to create for their own clients as they please. What we are building is an online hub for content creators. If you need to hire someone, you can find them here. If a creator needs work, they can apply and we’ll try to fit them as best and as often as we can. With that, I think the filmmakers see a lot of upside. Our goal is to just keep bringing work into that network so that everybody wins.
