Friday 16 May 2014

Should Buying Video be More like Buying a Suit?


If you were to ask a tailor where you should buy your new suit he’s likely to tell you that you will only get something wearable if you have your suit made bespoke and preferably purchased from him.

He’ll no doubt point out that quality doesn’t come cheap. That a suit from him will be comfortable to wear, prove to be a sound investment that will last and that being made to measure it will be a true reflection of your persona that others will respect.

I would be the first to acknowledge that there are suits and there are “Suits” and that there is a multiplicity of “grades” or variations in both the quality of the material, the skill of the producer or the time taken to create the garment yet each of these has a place in the market. Which supplier one ultimately chooses to use will be dictated by both the purpose of the suit and your budget.

So why should buying a video for your website or social media marketing campaign be any different?

It must be quite ego boosting to have something bespoke produced when it has been made from the best materials, is beautifully crafted and admired by everyone but is it appropriate to your real needs?

If you just need a work a day suit, because everyone is telling you that you need one, would the first thing you thought of be to make it yourself?

The suit manufacturing industry is mature and has over time settled into a well established order of supply based on quality and price with bespoke at the top and various grades of “off the peg” at the bottom.

The vast majority of established film / video suppliers come from backgrounds based on creating high cost, bespoke content for broadcast or corporate clients with large viewing audiences that justify the expense.

The market for website video is however quite different to that of mass audience media production and in my view therefore requires a different approach.

In order that businesses might benefit from using video it first needs to be affordable and one way of achieving this is to make it more akin to buying an “off the peg” suit than commissioning something bespoke.

M&S sells over 250,000 mens suits a year and yet everyone that wears one is an individual. The suit itself is really no more than a piece of visual communication and in this respect is similar to internet based video which is also simply a combined audio / visual communications tool.



Like bespoke tailoring, video production is a creative process and as with all things creative it’s the thinking and client interaction time which makes it potentially expensive. If one can take a good portion of each of these out of the production cycle then this inevitably allows one to take costs out of the whole process.

A more systematic or methodical approach to video production which is based on experience also allows one to keep costs down. However, this approach can only be financially viable for the producer if the buyer accepts that they are purchasing something “off the peg” rather than bespoke.

Provided one has confidence in the supplier based on their previous experience, reputation in the market, evidence of similar work, testimonial endorsements and declared guarantees then buying a video should be as simple as selecting a suitable type, paying a fee and waiting for it to be delivered.

Or does the thought of having to trust your supplier without being able to micro manage the end result fill you with dread?

There really are only a couple of other ways that allow the cost of video production to be reduced.


  • Take out the cost of the cameraman by shooting the raw content yourself. On the face of it this sounds like a plan but fails to take account of the things you are not paying for when you use a professional camera person. Your time, the cost of the equipment, sound quality, the potential need for light, video / film production experience and a visual perspective.
  • Just use some photographs, a half decent recorded script, some free online software and do it yourself. Feel free to fill your boots if this is your kind of thing. This isn’t to say that it’s not a viable option for the production of a half decent video, just one that you will have to invest some time exploring yourself to discover its limitations.


I favour an “off the peg” approach because I’ve been producing website videos for long enough to know that many people think they need a tuxedo, a luxury they can’t afford, when all they really need is a good looking boiler suit.


Image source Flicker by Louis Vest

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