In this guide
If you’re commissioning a video, asking several production companies to pitch can seem like a sensible way to choose. You get a range of creative ideas, see how different teams interpret the brief and compare their proposals. Then you pick the strongest idea and the company you think will deliver the best result.
It can feel like you’re reducing the risk. Instead of committing to one company, you get to see what several would do with the project before making a decision.
The difficulty is that you’re judging those ideas at a point when each company may know relatively little about your organisation, your audience and what the video needs to achieve.
As a video producer, that’s my concern with competitive pitching. A persuasive pitch can make an idea feel right before anyone has done enough work to establish whether it suits the project.
The pitfalls of competitive video pitching
The idea is built on assumptions
A brief is a starting point. It may not explain what your audience already knows, why previous communications haven’t worked or which parts of the subject are hardest to explain. If those questions haven’t been explored, the company has to fill in the gaps.
You can end up comparing several confident answers to a problem that hasn’t been properly understood.
You become attached to a concept too early
A clever idea, a polished storyboard or an impressive reference video can win your team over. Once that happens, the conversation tends to move towards making that particular video.
If later discussions reveal that your audience needs something different, changing direction becomes harder. People have already approved the idea, and may have sold it to others in the organisation.
The presentation gets more attention than the production
A pitch deck shows how well a company can present an idea. It tells you less about how the team will prepare an interview, manage a difficult filming location or turn a complicated subject into a video people can follow.
You still need to establish who will do the work and whether they can carry it through. A strong presentation is one piece of evidence, not the whole assessment.
The proposals can be difficult to compare
One concept might need several locations, performers and animation. Another might rely on interviews with your staff and footage filmed at your workplace. Those are different productions, with different demands on your budget and your time.
The totals alone won’t tell you which offers better value. Check what each approach requires, what’s included and which assumptions could change the cost or schedule.
Start with the problem the video needs to solve
Before asking for creative ideas, explain why you need the video. Who will watch it? What do they need to understand? Where will they see it, and what should they be able to do afterwards?
Imagine commissioning a staff induction video. An impressive montage might make the organisation look good, but new employees may need to see how to enter the site, where to report and which procedures to follow. Those requirements should shape the script and the filming.
Use a video production brief to record the purpose, audience, intended use, deadline and known constraints. Flag anything you still need help working out.
What to assess before choosing a production company
When you’re choosing a Melbourne video production company, you can learn a lot before asking anyone to develop a bespoke concept.
- Watch complete examples of relevant work. Ask what the client needed, why the team chose that approach and how the finished video was used.
- Meet the people who will do the work. Find out who will plan the project, film it, manage the edit and keep you informed.
- Pay attention to their questions. Are they exploring the audience and the problem, or have they already decided what your video should look like?
- Check the process and client feedback. Ask what you’ll approve before filming, how editing feedback is handled and what previous clients say about working with the team.
Our article on signs you’re working with the wrong production company covers other things to watch for, including vague promises and problems left for the edit.
Develop the strategy with the selected team
I recommend choosing a production company based on its work, experience and approach, then developing the strategy together. Agree on the scope and cost of that planning work before it starts.
That gives the team time to understand your organisation, speak with the relevant people and test its assumptions. You can work out what the audience needs to hear, who should say it and what you’ll need to show.
Agree on how you’ll review and approve the creative direction before filming. The treatment, storyboard or reference videos should help you see how the proposed idea answers your brief. Choosing the team first doesn’t mean handing over control of the project.
Our corporate video production service explains how planning, filming and editing fit together.
If you decide to run a competitive pitch
Your organisation may require a competitive process, or you may have a well-developed brief and want to compare creative responses. In either case, make it possible for the companies to give you a considered proposal.
- Give each company the same brief, budget guidance and access to relevant information.
- Allow time for questions, and share relevant answers with everyone taking part.
- Specify what you expect: an outline of the approach, a treatment, or developed scripts and storyboards. If you need substantial creative development, consider a paid pitch with an agreed scope.
- Assess the reasoning, team, scope and production plan alongside the creative idea.
Ask each company what it still needs to learn before production. A useful proposal should make its assumptions visible.
Watch the discussion
In this conversation, I explain why I’m cautious about competitive pitches and what I recommend clients consider before choosing a production company.
The dangers of asking video production companies to pitch · 2 minutes 47 seconds
Original discussion transcript
Read the original transcript
I am going to say strategy doesn’t get enough attention because the visual content has a creative bias. And so when a client approaches me for the first time, or a repeat client, they see a portfolio, they think, oh, those are beautiful images, that’s a really great video. I want that. And we get tied in, or they get tied into this idea that if it’s beautiful, if it’s shiny, it’ll work, and sometimes I feel like, oh, well, we should really slow down and think critically about what this is doing for someone’s business.
Something that I feel is very important in the early stages of production is not pitching for a project. And I think this is one of the classic places where businesses go wrong: they go out to the market and ask companies to pitch for a video project. And there are two main reasons why I don’t think there’s a good way to go.
One is asking us to do unpaid split speculative work.
However, the other reason, which is really more important from the client’s point of view, is asking companies to come up with ideas and solutions without having a full understanding of the problem.
Companies will go out there and create storyboards or find examples of videos that look really cool. They’ll find videos that have been done in the same industry as the prospect, and they’ll put together a pitch deck to sell an idea. The problem is that they haven’t got a full understanding of what the problem is yet.
The client may be seduced by seeing these wonderful videos, beautiful storyboards, or all of this hard, unpaid work that’s gone into creating an idea and actually be seduced by it. Once they fall in love with that idea, they will want to make the video.
A far better approach is for, from a client’s point of view, is to get to know a company by understanding who they’ve worked with before, what their approach is, who’s involved in the business, what their track record is, what customers and previous customers of the video production company have said about them and learn enough to understand whether these are the type of people you can work with and whether you think they have the potential to solve your problem.
Once the company’s working with the video production company, that’s the time to do the strategy session, where the video production company can get a really deep understanding of who you are, what you do and what your particular problem is. And then they’ll come up with a solution that will address that problem. And they’ll end up with a far more effective video.
Commissioning your video
Video production pitches: frequently asked questions
Comparing ideas, quotes and production companies.
Is asking for a quote the same as asking for a creative pitch?
No. A quote sets out the proposed scope and price, with assumptions and exclusions. A creative pitch presents an idea for the video and may include a treatment or storyboard. You can compare costs, experience and production approaches without asking every company to develop a bespoke concept.
Is competitive pitching ever useful?
It can be, particularly when the purpose and scope are well defined and each company has access to the information it needs. Assess the reasoning behind each idea, the people who will deliver it and the assumptions in the proposal. A strong concept still needs a capable team and a workable production plan.
Do we need a finished brief before contacting a production company?
No. Start with what you know: why you need the video, who will watch it, where it will be used, your deadline and any budget guidance. Explain what is still undecided so the production company can help you work through it.
Do we have to commit to the whole production before developing the strategy?
You can ask whether the company offers a separate planning stage. Agree on its fee, scope and what you will receive before starting. That gives you a defined piece of work to assess before deciding on the wider production. Each company will have its own terms.
Before you ask for a pitch
A competitive pitch gives you ideas to compare. It doesn’t remove the need to understand the project or assess the people who will deliver it. Start with the job the video needs to do, look closely at the companies’ work and have a conversation with your shortlist. Then decide how much creative development you need before choosing your production partner.
Ryan Spanger is the founder and managing director of Dream Engine, a Melbourne video production company established in 2002. Over the past two decades, he’s produced hundreds of videos for businesses, government departments, universities and healthcare organisations across Australia. Ryan specialises in helping organisations explain complex ideas through clear, engaging video content, with particular experience in corporate communications, training and education.
