Video Productions Company and Video Content

The demand for video content has exploded, making it the most critical form of brand communication today. Digital video advertising expenditure is projected to surpass a colossal £160 billion ($200 billion) globally in 2025, underscoring its pivotal role in the modern marketing mix. With 89% of businesses now utilising video marketing, the strategic choice is no longer if you should produce video, but how. The decision boils down to two main options: building an internal team or partnering with a professional video productions company.

Each model offers distinct advantages and drawbacks that impact budget, brand alignment, and content quality. Current market data and expert analysis are crucial in making this complex decision and finding the solution that has the best Return on Investment (ROI)

The Video Imperative: Quality and Trust

Before diving into the mechanics, consider this core finding: 87% of individuals state that the quality of a video directly influences the level of trust they have in a brand. This data proves that cutting corners on production value is a significant business risk. With 93% of marketers reporting a strong ROI from video, the goal is to choose the model that consistently delivers the necessary quality and volume. Furthermore, the fact that 78% of online users prefer to learn about a product through a short-form video only intensifies the pressure to execute well.

Core Comparison: In-House vs. Agency

The decision should be assessed across five key dimensions that determine the success of your content strategy.

1. Creative Control and Brand Knowledge

A dedicated internal team lives and breathes your brand every single day. This results in an unparalleled deep understanding of your company culture, tone, and specific messaging, offering complete creative control and faster, easier alignment. This intimate brand knowledge is invaluable for content that requires an authentic, internal voice.

Conversely, an external video productions company provides a valuable fresh, unbiased perspective, bringing innovative ideas drawn from working across multiple industries. This external viewpoint often guards against stale or inwardly focused content. However, as noted by Andrew Frank, a distinguished analyst with Gartner, brands that lack creative core competencies may be surprised at the costs and cultural challenges involved in building a truly world-class in-house capability, suggesting that for high-end creative, a video productions company offers necessary expertise.

2. Cost Structure and Financial Risk

The in-house model involves high fixed and upfront costs for salaries, benefits, ongoing training, and purchasing or maintaining professional equipment. For instance, the annual cost of a single in-house videographer plus equipment is not entirely budget friendly. In the long run, with a very high volume of consistent content, the cost per video is often lower. The main financial risk is having idle resources (expensive salaries and equipment) during slow periods, as your fixed overhead remains regardless of output.

By contrast, a video productions company represents a variable, project-based cost or a retainer fee. You avoid the significant initial investment and ongoing overhead, paying only for the work you need. While the per-project cost for a video productions company is typically higher than the marginal cost of an in-house team’s time, this model is far more cost-effective if your video needs are sporadic. Data from the ANA and Blum Consulting indicates that internal teams can deliver the same resources for up to 60% less than external staffing, but many businesses prefer the predictability and flexibility of the variable cost model offered by an agency.

3. Expertise, Skills, and Equipment

Internal teams often rely on a smaller crew of generalists who may lack the highly specialised expertise and access to the latest, high-cost, professional-grade equipment required for high-production-value projects. Individuals may be forced to act as a “jack-of-all-trades,” covering multiple roles and potentially leading to a limited skill set for complex work.

A reputable video productions company offers immediate access to a full suite of highly specialised experts and top-tier, up-to-date equipment. This allows for higher production quality and the ability to execute complex, high-end campaigns that would be impossible for a small in-house team to handle. This superior specialisation is key:

In-House Limitations:

• Limited access to high-cost equipment (e.g., specialised cinema cameras, advanced drone gear).
• May lack specialists in areas like 3D animation, advanced sound design, or complex VFX.
• Reliance on generalists rather than dedicated experts.

Agency Strengths:

• Immediate access to a full specialised crew (directors, editors, sound engineers, etc.).
• Up-to-date, professional-grade equipment is included in the project cost.
• Ability to execute complex projects that require niche technical skillsets.

4. Scalability and Project Capacity

An internal team’s capacity is strictly limited by its size, leading to slowed delivery or burnout during peak campaigns. Scaling up capacity means an expensive and time-consuming hiring process, which introduces a severe bottleneck during high-demand periods. A B2B study indicated that 59% of companies producing content internally cited lack of bandwidth as their top challenge in scaling video efforts, confirming the inherent capacity limitation of internal teams.

An outsourced video productions company provides on-demand scalability. They can quickly dedicate a larger team and more resources to handle massive campaigns or a sudden surge in content needs, then scale down afterward. This flexibility is ideal for organisations with inconsistent or unpredictable project spikes, making a video productions company the superior choice for major campaigns.

• In-House Challenge:
  • Capacity is fixed and limited by permanent team size.
  • Scaling up requires expensive, lengthy hiring processes.
  • Team can become quickly overwhelmed during project spikes.
• Agency Solution:
  • Provides on-demand scalability to handle massive campaign volumes.
  • Flexibility to scale resources up and down as needed.
  • Ideal for businesses with inconsistent or unpredictable project spikes.

5. Speed and Communication

The in-house model offers the potential for the fastest turnaround time and the easiest, quickest communication. Being onsite allows for impromptu meetings and on-the-fly pivots. Data from the ANA and Blum Consulting confirms that internal agencies take, on average, 25% less time to deliver the same assets compared to external partners, making them superior for rapid-response content.

Working with an external video productions company requires more formal communication and a clear brief at the outset. While their professional workflows are efficient, the project timeline is often longer than an in-house team’s, especially for same-day or last-minute changes.

Real-World Application and The Hybrid Model

For the modern organisation, the most effective strategy is to integrate both models, as the market trend is overwhelmingly hybrid, with roughly 72% of companies utilising a combination of both talent sources.

The medical device company Boston Scientific is a notable example, achieving significant cost avoidance and savings on creative assets by leveraging the in-house model for high-volume, low-complexity assets, according to an ANA and Blum Consulting report. This demonstrates maximum cost efficiency for day-to-day content.

However, even global brands that maintain large internal media divisions still partner with a specialised video productions company for major, high-budget, high-concept brand films that require specialised creative direction and technical expertise. The in-house team handles the day-to-day, authentic content, while the external agency is brought in for the high-impact, reputation-defining campaigns.

Finding Your Perfect Balance

Ultimately, the best decision for your brand depends entirely on your content requirements and budget structure. The optimal approach is rarely a case of all-or-nothing, but rather a strategic blend that leverages the core strengths of each production model.

To summarise the ideal split: utilise in-house resources for quick-turn content and internal communications where speed and authenticity are the priority, and partner with a professional video productions company for high-production-value commercials, complex animation, and defining brand films that demand specialist expertise and on-demand scalability.

Oliver Karstel Creative Agency, founded in 2012, is a specialised business-to-business content and video production agency that blends a data-driven approach with a “clever and creative philosophy. While rooted in photography and video production, the agency’s generalist mindset allows them to evolve into a full-service content marketing firm. Their current arsenal of services includes Graphic Design, Web Development, E-Commerce Development, and SEO, working with medium to large businesses, multinationals, and government entities across a multitude of industries (e.g., mining, finance, logistics, and manufacturing). If you are looking to execute a complex campaign or a high-end brand film, engaging a full-service video productions company like Oliver Karstel Creative Agency ensures you access top-tier specialisation and scalable capacity without the burden of fixed overhead

The agency has specifically developed niche specialities to address the evolving digital market, such as Animation, 3D Modelling, Virtual Reality, and E-learning Development. Core to their offering remains comprehensive corporate video production, encompassing services like Corporate Showcase Videos, designed to communicate core products, achievements, and goals transparently, and Corporate Event Videos, ensuring company milestones and team events are captured professionally. This diverse range of expertise enables the agency to assist clients not only in acquiring but also in retaining customers through dynamic and visually enticing content marketing strategies.

 We are experts at understanding your brand, providing fresh, objective creativity, and delivering the highest possible production quality to ensure your video investments drive tangible results. Contact Oliver Karstel Creative Agency today to discuss your next high-impact video project.