Use the 4 Ps Of Video To Organize Your Production
The 4 Ps of Video Can Help Keep Any Type of Production On Schedule and On Budget.
If you’re a little nervous about the process of video production, and want to make sure you do things the most efficient way, check out the 4 Ps of Video.
It’s a handy checklist that will help ensure you have everything you need.
What Are the 4 Ps of Video?
You’ve probably heard of the 4 Ps of Marketing. They’re the four marketing plan elements that most of us learned in business school—product, price, place, and promotion.
The checklist approach is so simple and memorable, I figured why not apply the same idea to video?
Why does video need its own list? Because so many business owners are using video today.
According to one study, 87% of businesses were using video marketing in 2019, up from 63% in 2017.
So it’s more important than ever that you understand how video is produced and how you can ensure that it achieves the objectives you want it to achieve.
The First P: Purpose
The first P in the 4 Ps of Video is understanding your video’s purpose. Why are you producing a video? What are you hoping to achieve? What do you want the viewer to do after watching?
Are you building awareness for a product? Driving traffic to a website? Creating social media content to help generate leads?
Once a video’s purpose is clearly defined, it will help other important elements fall into place. For example, the call to action, or CTA.
The Second P: Price
The next important item on our video production checklist is determining its price.
Many clients call and ask for an estimate, but don’t want to tell me what they’re willing to spend.
It’s a little frustrating, because productions can be tailored to fit different budgets. As you can imagine, there’s a big difference between a $500 video, and a $5,000 video.
Knowing the ballpark price up front enables me to tailor the creative approach, and work within those parameters.
The Third P: Planning
The next P on our list is Planning. The planning stage is when we work out the details. How many cameras do we need? How many hours of shooting? Are we building props? Scouting for locations? Casting talent? Is there room in the budget for a makeup person?
Are we writing a script or taking a documentary approach? Do we need a storyboard?
What’s the weather going to be like? If we’re shooting outdoors, what time of day is best? Does the sun light the background better in the morning or the afternoon?
It’s always smarter to plan ahead, and not make things up as we go. A little planning goes a long way.
The Fourth P: Production
And finally, the last P in the 4 Ps of Video is Production.
What are we shooting, and in what order? Where do we need to be?
When the actual shooting is complete, there’s still plenty of production to go—editing, audio mixing, color correction, music searches and more.
Bottom line, if you understand and discuss the 4 Ps at the beginning of a project, you’ll ensure that things go smoothly throughout the production process.
Once you’ve agreed on the purpose of the video, the price, etc., there’s not much room left for mistakes or miscommunication.
So for your next production, follow the 4 Ps, and you’ll most likely end up with the exact video you were hoping for.
About the Author:
Harry Hayes is the owner and executive producer at Content Puppy Productions, a corporate video production agency based in Charlotte. Before starting Content Puppy, he spent 20+ years as an advertising writer and creative director.
