Social Media Video Production
Social media video production is a pretty baggy term – sorry – but this is where we make films to deliver across your various digital channels. We’ve worked hard on understanding exactly what types of content work on the different platforms and how to get the best engagements and results.
Once upon a time you could make one single film and that could do for your product launch, TVC, corporate video – and then bung it on Facebook too and forget about it. But the rapidly fragmenting world of social and broadcast video has made things a lot more complicated.
What is Social Media Video Production?
Social media video production is probably the largest service category for Hocus Pocus Studio. We make films for: Facebook campaigns, Instagram ads & stories, YouTube prerolls, Linked-in as well as native websites and ad networks.
When you look at the data surrounding social video, you can’t really argue with the benefits of having social at the heart of your video marketing strategy. But social channels are all different, all have their own nuances, so here’s a few things we’ve learned:
1. Initial impact. Those first few seconds are absolutely critical. Everyone knows this but few act on it
2. Keep it short. It’s harder to be succinct but you’re going to have to try, because nobody wants your 45min keynote speech to be the cornerstone of your social media video strategy
3. Consider using animation. We’ll often use a mixture of production techniques, but results tell us animation performs particularly well in social media video production
4. Plan for audio off. By all means have a nifty sound track but most likely nobody’s going to listen to it. Use text rather than VO. If you’re using live action, you’ll need subtitles
5. Pick your platform carefully. Each social media platform has its own benefits, standards and nuances. Easy to waste money by targeting the wrong channel
6. Call to action. What do you want people to do at the end of your video? Whether it’s making a cup of tea or spending a mint on your new widget, give them a nudge in the right direction
7. Focus on quality. There’s so much terrible content clogging up the wires, the good stuff stands out. That’s where we come in ?
Some Examples
Here’s a social media advert we made for 3M for the launch of their new Scotch-Brite Fresh sponge. The challenge here was to make a very different type of advert to the normal washing up spot. So we went for a super colourful, graphics driven creative with lots of bounce and personality.
The USP of the new Fresh sponge is that food doesn’t stick like it does with a traditional scourer – and we wanted to represent that literally to some degree, without the food looking yucky. It was delivered globally so the text could be localised. Makes perfect sense with sound off. It’s bright, colourful and clear with the message.
Here’s an example of little snackable social films we made for LEGO (agency: Edelman). They were made to show different ways you could use LEGO to play games, inside and out, as well as just building stuff.
Everyone’s looking for ways to encourage nippers away from screens, so here are 3 great ways of doing that. Working with such lovely illustrations and bright colours made it a real pleasure to animate.
How Much Does a Social Media Video Cost?
Every social media video is different – or at least should be – so there’s no such thing as a standard price. As with most creative & film production, you’ll find a big range of prices and standards of videos.
We think our work is priced competitively, but we do have high standards and employ some really great talent. Our core team has over a decade of working together, so we have experience of coming up with solutions for a range of budgets.
How Long Does It Take to Make?
Of course it depends on how ambitious we’re being with the production, but for a 2d 30 second animated video we’d expect that to take around 4 weeks, and we can double up on resources if you’re looking to make more than one social media video. Here’s the drill:
1. Fill in the brief. Yeah I know we all want to get stuck in right away, but this initial part really helps us establish your goals, mandatory CI stuff, and anything else grown up and important we need to focus on. Write the script and visual direction. This is the genesis of the whole film, where we get the story going. Normally we can crack it in a week, sometimes it’s two.
2. Style frames & motion test. Here we hand over to the people with interesting hairstyles and alternative life-choices to do the cool stuff. We’ll give you a half-dozen or so frames at ‘final’ quality (sorta depends on the style, but normally always final) and a short motion test. Then you lavish us with praise and we get on with it.
3. Full storyboard. This is our bible really, where you get to see the graphics & script all laid out together. Now’s the time to pick up any significant amends.
4. Record the voiceover if it’s needed. Sometimes at a studio, sometimes the artists’ record at home, depending on the level of direction required. Either way, we get to tweak until we’re happy.
5. Animation. This is the part where we go into our secret motion lab that’s in a hollowed out volcano in the Alps. It’s stacked with the most talented animators on the planet – we just don’t let them leave. They do their stuff and knock your socks off.
6. Music, sound design, mix. Get your beats on and wrap it all up. This part really does bring everything together.
7. Publish your social video and wait for the awards to start rolling in. OK about this stage you’re already filling out the purchase order for your next video.