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‘It’s not enough to have one TVC’: How Visual Domain is tackling the demands of online video

Visual Domain co-founders Daniel Goldstein and Renece Brewster explain what it takes to run a video production company in today's content-hungry environment (and win a few awards along the way).

Ten years ago, if a brand was thinking about video content, a TVC would be the main focus. Online video was an afterthought, embraced by a select few brands.

It was in this environment that Daniel Goldstein and Renece Brewster launched Visual Domain, a video production company founded with the belief that video could be affordable and simple.

Their aim was to open video to brands of all shapes and sizes, regardless of budget and time constraints.

“Ten years ago when we started, when people thought of a video, they thought it was expensive and hard. Our goal was to get rid of that, and show people how easy and accessible it could be”, Brewster tells Mumbrella.

“Even in the last five years it’s completely changed from needing this one, big hero epic video, to needing multiple pieces of content. It’s not enough to have one TVC, you can’t post that on social media every single day with the same video. You have to post new video every single day.”

Brewster explains online doesn’t necessarily mean short-form social content, but covers everything from web series to personalised customer videos. “The results that we’ve gotten from those really show that brands can actually build an audience online with editorial content that’s not this hard sell, like maybe some of the other stuff that they might have done in the past.”

“We’ve also done a lot of personalised video campaigns, so actually sending individual video messages to their customers, and their audience, which are created just for them and talks directly to them.”

The sudden demand for video content has seen the company expand to around 100 staff, with over 40 full-time in-house editors. The company recently won Production Company of the Year at the Mumbrella Awards, something Brewster’s co-founder Daniel Goldstein attributes to its ability to tackle big briefs in a record time.

“We’re really tried to change the production process and make it more accessible to all businesses, no matter their size or budget or industry,” says Goldstein. “In the past content was very cost prohibitive and very difficult and time consuming, and we’ve really tried to break those barriers down.”

Visual Domain’s Mumbrella Award-winning entry to the Production Company of the Year category

For Goldstein, his team’s efficiency is a direct result of nailing the company’s systems and processes, including creating a custom in-house CRM system that can manage the production process from start to finish.

“Because we’re doing so much content, we know how to do it more efficiently than other brands and other production companies,” he says.

Having the entire team in-house means the company is able to adapt to clients’ growing demands. “We don’t outsource anything,” says Goldstein. “Everything’s done in-house, everyone’s ready to go and they’re all trained in the systems and processes that we’ve developed.”

“All the creative’s done in house. Part of having 100 people in the business is the creative ideas that they generate. We don’t limit people either – whether its editors, shooters, account managers or producers, they all come and contribute to the creative process.”

When Brewster co-founded Visual Domain, she was just 26. Ten years later, she’s looking forward to the industry catching up with her and Goldstein’s original vision.

“We’ve just had our tenth birthday, and we’re still trying to do the same thing. But it’s caught on a lot and brands are realising that it doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t have to be hard.

“Just seeing how much it’s really grown in the past ten years, we feel like it’s finally caught up to where our heads were at ten years ago. Now we’re looking forward another ten years, when things have caught up to where our heads are at now.”

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