Why Direct-to-Client Work is Necessary

What makes this industry one of the most interesting to work in is its continual evolution. Over the last few years we have seen a number of changes in the way the industry operates, and significant changes continue afoot, none more so than the way in which direct-to-client work has become a more accepted part of the industry framework and is something that numerous production companies are now openly embarking on.

Where once this would be seen as a covert operation, the direct-to-client route is now prevalent due to sheer volume of content work, and the vast number of young, ambitious production companies who need to develop their relationships, their roster, their coffers and most of all, their profile.

The infinite space that is the internet, combined with the fall in TV viewers, has raised the profile of content, encouraging intelligent, funny, engaging and brilliant film, and all without the constraints TV commercials have to abide by.

Budgets for on-line and internal films are rising, but it is also true that clients are also active on YouTube and other social media channels; their websites have content, and, in our experience here at Kode, the client is happy to work directly with a production company or a director on the smaller scale but regular productions.

That isn’t to say that the traditional model of client/agency/production company has altered beyond recognition, far from it. Agencies are still the place for clients to receive the dedicated creative team, account manager and producer that can make Lynx or Guinness such notoriously fantastic commercial brands.

At Kode Media we have spent our formative years working directly with clients such as adidas, Unilever, Sky Bet, L’Oreal, Uniqlo and Nike. We know that this route is capable of sustaining us to a degree but have channelled much of our recent energies into working with agencies because we appreciate that, no matter what, it is through them that we can work on bigger projects, establish ourselves within an industry that is, regardless of numbers, still a small, almost incestuous one where relationships and word of mouth are worth so much more than a business card in a pile of business cards.

Production companies aren’t alone in embracing change; the dramatic rise in in-house production facilities at places like BBH (Black Sheep), VCCP (Kin) and Fallon (Fallon Film) has enhanced our necessity to work directly with clients. It has also surprised me that an industry like ours has taken quite so long to compete with in-house facilities. Anything that is cost-effective and retains the client under one roof seems something of a no-brainer.

I would say that production companies working direct-to-client is a good thing. Budgets have already tumbled, production time scales are ever-decreasing and so, in order for those not dining at the top table to succeed, every-and-any project is pivotal to our future survival.

In effect production companies have always been evolving but as with everything (it seems) change occurs with staggering frequency. How will the production company of the future look? My instinct is that brands will house their own production companies, or production companies will have their own accounts, although not for above-the-line work, but in a similar mould to how brands separate their accounts amongst agencies, I can see production companies ‘owning’ part of a brand’s content output.