Too good?

cameragod

Well-known member
I was sitting in a plane next to a guy who was the CEO of a major company. Turned out he was unhappy with the monthly video web reports he was doing. His PR department would shoot them themselves over a day. He felt they were taking too much of his time to do and he wasn’t happy with the quality of the result. So I gave him my card and said I could do better. Let’s face it, looking at their stuff, handheld in front of a white wall, off the camera mic, it wouldn’t be hard.
So I got an abrupt call from the PR department grudgingly booking me. I shot it in front of a location the CEO had always wanted to do but had been told by the PR team was not possible. It was lit, looked great and sound was perfect and all shot in under 30min. I cut it and had it loaded to their website in under 2 hours. Everyone but the PR people seemed happy.
Since I had the password I could follow the infometrics of how the video’s on their site were trending. Previously the monthly videos received about 200-300 views with most stopping after the first 30seconds, almost no one watching the full 3 min. My video had over 2,000 views and over 80% stayed till the end. Job done I thought.
Then next moth no phone call and I saw they were back to the PR shot crap video, 158 views.
Recently I ran into the CEO. He had left that company and gone to a new one, so I asked him why they didn’t call me back in. Was it the price?
Oh no, they thought I was good value for money. Saving the CEO’s time was worth a lot more to the company than my half day fee.
So what was the problem?
The PR team felt the poorer video quality would appeal more to a younger demographic
 
I was sitting in a plane next to a guy who was the CEO of a major company. Turned out he was unhappy with the monthly video web reports he was doing. His PR department would shoot them themselves over a day. He felt they were taking too much of his time to do and he wasn’t happy with the quality of the result. So I gave him my card and said I could do better. Let’s face it, looking at their stuff, handheld in front of a white wall, off the camera mic, it wouldn’t be hard.
So I got an abrupt call from the PR department grudgingly booking me. I shot it in front of a location the CEO had always wanted to do but had been told by the PR team was not possible. It was lit, looked great and sound was perfect and all shot in under 30min. I cut it and had it loaded to their website in under 2 hours. Everyone but the PR people seemed happy.
Since I had the password I could follow the infometrics of how the video’s on their site were trending. Previously the monthly videos received about 200-300 views with most stopping after the first 30seconds, almost no one watching the full 3 min. My video had over 2,000 views and over 80% stayed till the end. Job done I thought.
Then next moth no phone call and I saw they were back to the PR shot crap video, 158 views.
Recently I ran into the CEO. He had left that company and gone to a new one, so I asked him why they didn’t call me back in. Was it the price?
Oh no, they thought I was good value for money. Saving the CEO’s time was worth a lot more to the company than my half day fee.
So what was the problem?
The PR team felt the poorer video quality would appeal more to a younger demographic
:( Sounds like a pride issue to me.
 

BluesCam

Well-known member
Things are less and less about quality and more and more about ego, nepotism, price, and cronyism. Plus the "that's good enough, Youtube mentality."
 

Necktie Boy

Well-known member
BluesCam nailed it on the head.

They were afraid of loosing their jobs since the won't doing a good job.
 

svp

Well-known member
Funny story similar to this. A producer and I just wrapped up a very big project for a non-profit. During the initial meetings, their board members threw out the idea of doing their video "YouTube style". We both were very direct with the board and said we won't do that and that the quality of this project will directly reflect the image people have of their organization. Since they were using this as a fundraiser, I suggested we do it right rather than do it cheap. They initially wanted four videos. Two that told the story of two individuals who had gone through their program and two what we called "bumper videos". These are just basically like an MOS soap box type video where random people give their thoughts on a subject using the hashtag they were using for their event.

The board said our quote was too much for all four videos. So they decided to pay us to produce the two personal story videos and they did the bumper videos themselves with an iPhone. On the day of the event, the videos we produced brought everyone to tears and both got a standing ovation from the crowd. The bumper videos? A lot of snickering and ridicule. Because of the quality of our work, we actually got four more projects from other non-profits whose directors were in attendance at the event.

In the end the board members were very happy with what we did and even admitted they should have just paid us more to do everything. It is what it is but I know we have this client locked in and sold on us going forward. Sometimes it just takes doing it right before people realize how important quality is.
 
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