CMP: What business functions have you produced communications for?
RV: During over 30 years at Prudential you can name it. We started in the sixties, producing film strips primarily for sales training purposes. That evolved into video for sales training. Once we got the video operation up and running in the late sixties, we expanded into a lot of different areas; human resources interviewing skills, employee communications, IT training and so on. We didn’t do an awful lot of marketing, since Prudential sold life insurance through agents. We also produced and managed the three to four national sales meetings each year, including setting up and operating our own multimedia staging equipment. We staged and provided media for management information meetings, reports to the board of directors and we also ran a photographic operation and slide production. We had a full service department that did just about everything.
CMP: Before a client begins a communications project, what are the key things he or she should keep in mind?
RV: One of the problems that clients frequently have is walking into a meeting with a preconception of the media they want to use and not a very clear definition of purpose: “I want to do a videotape to,” what, “sell a product,” or “train employees,” or maybe both. The next question is: “How much is it going to cost me?” Anyone thinking of buying a media program needs to first identify the value they expect to get. What is the return on the investment? How will you measure that? If the client expects to change employee attitudes what’s going to be the benefit of that change? And how can you measure that? Are you going to teach them to be more productive to be able to make more widgets in less time? And if so, what’s that worth? That then begins to define the budget.
Too many clients come in to a project meeting with a list of objectives that they’re trying to achieve in a program. The rule of thumb is that a program must have one primary objective; one change of attitude, one message, one improved skill. There might a couple of minor but related sub-objectives, but the client must know what the viewer is expected to take away at the end.
CMP: So what issues or obstacles do you see communications clients encountering? How would you suggest they avoid them?
RV: Another typical problem is that a client comes to the producer with a project. They say: “We want you to do this.” We say, “Okay. “Who’s going to approve this project?” The client says: “Well, I will.” But it turns out that person who came to you with the project does not have ultimate authority. That can lead to very expensive corrective work to achieve what it the ultimate client really wanted. The person having ultimate authority, the master client, must be involved from the very beginning. The Vice President of a department we did a lot of work for was never in on the early phases -- never saw the scripts, never saw the rough cuts. But invariably when we finished the project and showed it to him, he would feel compelled to change something -- never failed. Very quickly we learned to put in something that we knew he was going to object to so we could take it out easily.
CMP: What tips would you suggest for a client entering a communications project?
RV: Firm definition -- in writing -- of what it is they want to accomplish. It’s not enough to talk about it, you really have to lay it out in writing, and again get the buy-in of all the people who are involved in the project. Don't come in thinking that you know what the media is going to be when you walk into the room with the producer or the production company. Let that company tell you what they believe is the most appropriate media to reach your objectives. A good producer will tell you when you shouldn’t do anything at all. Come into the project meeting with an open mind. Be prepared to listen not to dictate. These days too many clients feel they are experts in producing media or that media is so simple, anyone can produce it. “My nephew can do it on his Handycam in the garage.” “I don't need to go to a big production company to get done what I need to do. Anybody can do it.” It’s what I have come to call democratization of the media. As more sophisticated media tools became available and are more consumer oriented, everybody an now claim to be a videographer, an editor or a graphic designer. If clients feel that anybody can do it, why do they need to come to a production company like CMP? What they’re missing is that the most important component of a media production is the expertise in developing content that reaches objectives. It’s not just about the technology or about the media. “The media is not the message.” It’s about the concept, storytelling and the way the producer handles and develops content that can deliver that message.
CMP: What advice would you give to keep a project within budget and on time?
RV: Preplanning. If you go in with a very clear expectation of the objective -- what you’re trying to do -- that allows the producer to come up with a realistic project plan and budget. But don't change it halfway down the line. As I said before, get that buy-in early on from all the people who have to approve it so that changes are minimal. The client should not be micro managing the process, but should make sure that the producer is keeping him or her in loop. If the client comes up with something they want to do that might increase the cost, the producer feels free to tell you that. Very often, perhaps for fear of losing the job, we’re hesitant to tell the client: “I know you want to do this. I know it’s probably the right thing to do, but it’s going to add $5,000 to the cost.” That’s a hard thing to say.
CMP: How would you say that the results of communication or training programs should be measured?
RV: In the 1970s before Prudential put in a company-wide videotape network, we did a two year study of the value of video as a sales skills training tool. Selected offices got cameras and VCRs. Others only looked at the videotapes we produced. Others relied on traditional training. Then, we measured what Agents learned from each of those different control groups. As a result we were able to prove that in fact video did provide a significantly increased benefit in sales training. People who had the video equipment and used it to role-play as well as watch the training programs learned more and learned it faster than those in other control groups.
But measurement takes time, which is a luxury that’s hard to come by these days. Without that being part of the project, the client will never know the payback. Willard Thomas of Standard Oil Company used to talk about their measurement methodology of pretesting, post testing, and then ex-post testing. You’d test the knowledge or attitudes before people viewed the program, then you’d test them right after to see what they learned or how they changed attitudes then test them again after a period of time to see what they retained. There are some new measurement tools available now, such as the Balanced Scorecard or Key Performance Indicators that can help, but nothing is quite like that standard educational testing model.
CMP: Now, looking towards the future, what trends are you aware of in the industry, and how would you advise people to keep up to date?
RV: The issue facing media production groups now is the role that IT plays in media. In some cases, the IT departments have taken over video departments, as at Goldman Sachs, for example IT’s function is media distribution but then they began to have issues with available bandwidth. So they were anxious to cap that to keep people from trying to send out these huge video files which were tying up server capacity. I heard of one media manager who forced IT to increase the available bandwidth because they needed to distribute a video program the CEO wanted.
The current trend is to have IT heavily involved in facilities design, training centers, board rooms and even media productions because everything is being distributed on CAT5 cables with media production moving from tape hard drives, flash drives and RAID arrays.
But it’s important to realize is that the IT people don't really care about and don’t really want to be involved in content. They are concerned with controlling the distribution, managing the distribution, so that it doesn’t take down the company’s network. What they want is collaboration between the media professional and the IT professional, so that the two work together. The most successful cases that I’ve seen in the over 50 companies I involved in benchmarking studies are where media departments and communications departments have worked together to make happen what is needed to happen to get distribute communication media in the most effective way, and, at the same time, maintain the quality and the content of that media.
CMP: Have you seen any changes in client demands; any trends that are going on there?
RV: Webcasting, obviously. But what is interesting is old media doesn’t go away. New media comes and is added to the toolbox. Just as much video is being shot today as ever. But now it has a simpler look, geared to smaller screens and it’s just being assembled and distributed differently.
The other major change is in client expectations. There used to be a saying, “Do you want it fast, cheap or good -- pick any two.” Well, now clients expect all three. And because of the technology, they’re able to get it. So, media producers are cranking stuff out faster and squeezing their suppliers as well. Are they working longer hours? Yes, they are. But they are doing better quality work, doing it faster, and at ever reducing costs. And clients keep demanding more of that. That will never change.
CMP: So what’s the next big thing?
CR: I don't know that there’s going to be a big thing. I think it’s going to be little things. We thought LCD screens, the Apple iPhone and smartphones were next big things and they certainly have been. But people are beginning to realize that not an awful lot of audiences like watching full motion media on very small screens. And it also doesn’t allow you to show the detail of content that is necessary for some types of presentations. Trying to show brain surgery on an iPhone I think might be a little problematic. The iPad is a partial solution, but the hang up is distribution.
We probably won’t know it’s a big thing until after it happens. It’s the small things that happen that we just need to keep an eye out for. Will the iPad replace the laptop? Perhaps, but that’s not going to happen overnight. |
