Hiring a video company vs. going in house

These days a lot of organizations are feeling the pressure to create video, and sometimes a lot of it. Video is table stakes, and everybody wants to be in the game.

But video isn’t cheap, and more and more I see clients struggling with the idea of working with us, an outside creative services vendor, versus the cost of bringing on a full-time hire or two to handle all the ongoing video needs that are now cropping up for them.

Video production gets complicated quickly!

Of course, I’m biased, but I think there are lots of good reasons to keep using outside companies like French Press to produce your video content. For example:

• We keep up with all the newest video technology and trends so you don’t have to. We use our knowledge and research to support our clients in developing a strategy about what they should make and how they should approach it.
• We can scale easily to avoid bottlenecks in workflow. What if every department at your organization wants to develop a video piece for your sales conference? At the same time? We’re built to handle that.
• We have a strong, stable process that keeps video deliverables on time and on budget.
• Making high-quality video requires people with a wide range of skill sets. We approach each project with the right group of people with the right skills to get job done efficiently and effectively.
• Nobody knows your brand better than you do, but working with outside teams like us can help inspire new and fresh ideas in your video work.

I could talk at length about all those things, but for now let’s just talk MONEY.

Is having an in-house video team cheaper?

The perception is that having an in-house videography team is cheaper than hiring a creative services company like French Press. But the more I think about this, the less sense it makes to me.

Imagine, for example, you’re in the Bay Area, and you choose to hire two full-time people to handle all your video production. You’ll need to pay for their salaries, of course, plus all their benefits and employment taxes, and don’t forget professional development costs. Then you’ll need to buy them a computer, and seats for all their software, and whatever other supplies they’ll need. If you don’t let them work totally remotely, you’ll have to put them someplace, with space and a desk. And don’t forget, you have to manage them, with all that entails.

And then there are the costs related to the shoots themselves: cameras, lights, sound equipment, hard drives, insurance, permits, location rental costs, talent, audio production, sound design, transportation, music licensing, scouting, hair and makeup. And snacks! Don’t ever forget snacks!

It’s hard for me to imagine how that could cost less than $300,000 a year.

What could you get from French Press for $300K in a year? Well, you could get:

• A fun animated piece like this one:

• AND a thoughtful marketing piece, like this:

• AND a beautiful mini-documentary piece, like this:

• AND a smart explainer done with motion graphics, like this:

• AND a half a dozen or so short pieces shot in our studios, like this testimonial-style piece:

or this educational piece:

AND you’d still have budget left to re-cut all these videos for various social settings and other uses.

Plus we’re the ones who will be managing the people and the process. We get the permits, we handle the insurance, we host the casting sessions, we find and rent the locations. Sure, you’ll still have to manage your stakeholders, and there will still be internal deliverables for your team. But someone would have to manage those with an in-house team as well. And we bring the snacks.

So, if you’re considering building out an in-house video team in order to save some dough, I’d suggest taking the time to talk to a creative services team like ours to run the numbers and think about the different payment options (Per project? Per hour? Retainer?).

It really could be that choosing to work with an outside vendor will be more cost-effective in the long run, and have other significant benefits as well. We’re happy to help you look at your situation and figure out the real costs. Let’s talk!