How Our Content Creation Agency Can Help Your Brand
As a digital demand consultancy, there’s a wide, almost dizzying, range of things we do here at Digital Surgeons. One of those things happens to be content creation, which is really no surprise considering it’s been in the crosshairs of nearly every agency over the course of the past decade.
But many of those agencies never took a stab at it, while some legendary ad shops threw a ton of money at in-house studios that fizzled rather quickly. Yet at the same time, some agencies—big and small, new and old—have successfully added the capability by progressively and pragmatically investing in talent and gear, eventually launching their own in-house studios.
At Digital Surgeons, we’re fortunate enough to be grouped with the latter of those agencies, and what follows is a brief overview of our in-house content creation agency, affectionately known as DS Productions.
Starting a Content Creation Agency Inside Digital Surgeons
Since the inception of our content team in 2017, we’ve slowly but surely grown from a team of two to a team of six. And this six doesn’t even include our eight in-house designers, many of whom flex in and out of content production projects due to their immense talents in animation, motion graphics, and photography. Not to mention our partnership with Steve Walter, a professional photographer who serves as our studio’s creative director and permanent artist-in-residence.
But none of this happened overnight. Nor was there a sudden infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the idea. What it all started with, truthfully, was a mindset. And, of course, a need—one for both our partners and ourselves. Because to survive in this industry—hell, in any industry—you have to evolve. You have to follow the steps of the consumer and be willing to invest in the things they’re doing, the places they’re going, and the content they’re consuming.
Lucky for us, we did that.
With a background in television, our creative director of story, James Dowd, naturally took the helm of our young content team a few years ago. It was really more like a duo back then, as he and I saw a need for fresh content for both DS and our partners, which forced us into working with freelance vendors early on and learning everything we could from them.
At a certain point, content work of all kinds—video and photo production, animation, writing—was hitting us at the same time, and it was at this point we realized the need for our own team.
Since then, we’ve added two full-time videographers, a social media content producer, and a third writer to the fold. Our team is bigger and better than it’s ever been, and we’ve begun to do so much content creation work that in late 2019 we officially launched DS Productions—a content creation studio right here in our offices at District New Haven.
Much of this growth and success is owed to the amazing opportunities our partners have afforded us over the past few years. It’s also due to the fact that our team is built for the needs of today’s brands. We’re not only creatively and technically sound—we’re fast, cost-effective, and most importantly, our work…works.
So here’s everything our content creation agency can do to help your brand.
Video Content Creation for Brands
Whether your brand needs a video to tell its story, a special piece of branded video content, a handful of videos for social ads and pre-roll, or videos for a new campaign or content series, we’ve got you covered. And as an in-house production studio, our video capabilities span the entirety of the production process, including the following:
Video Pre-Production
- Video Ideation & Story Concepting
- Treatment & Script Writing
- Location Scouting
- Storyboarding
- Casting (if models are necessary)
- Music Sourcing
Video Production
- Shooting
- Sound Recording
- Directing
Video Post-Production
- Video Editing
- Music & Sound Editing
- Graphic Treatments & Motion Design
- Sound Design & Sound Effects
- Color Grading
Photography Content Creation for Brands
In today’s digital landscape, polished, professional photography can make all the difference between customers, candidates, and investors choosing your brand over another. That’s why it’s imperative your brand has a photographic quality that matches—or even exceeds—the quality of your product/service and people.
With Steve Walter typically leading the charge, we’ve produced a variety of photography for a diverse mix of partners, including projects focused around:
- Product Photography
- Food Photography
- Recipe Photography
- Lifestyle Photography
- Corporate Headshots
Audio Content Creation for Brands
Podcasting is bigger than ever. Streaming platforms have completely reshaped the film, television, and music industries. And radio, remarkably, is still cruising along just fine. So needless to say—though I’m going to say it anyway—there’s never been a better time for your brand to invest in audio production. It can be a full-blown podcast (like this one that we did with Freshpet) or radio/digital radio ads (like the ones we did with Jarlsberg®). Who knows—it could be both. Either way, what’s important is knowing the opportunity before you and taking advantage of it by diving headfirst into audio production and working your way into the ears of your consumers.
Thinking of investing in audio production? Here’s how we can help:
Audio Pre-Production
- Ad Script Writing
- Podcast Ideation, Episode/Season Stories & Outlines, Script Writing
- Voiceover Talent Casting
- Music Sourcing
Audio Production
- Audio Recording
- Voiceover Direction
Audio Post-Production
- Audio Editing
- Music Editing
- Sound Design & Sound Effects
Animation Content Creation for Brands
From how-to and learner videos to simple cinemagraphs and GIFs, animation content is an effective way for brands to communicate to their audiences across multiple platforms.
You may be rolling out a new product or service that’s hard (or boring) to explain. Animations can make those hard-to-explain or boring topics fun and intriguing for people to learn about, predominantly because animation content is more satisfying to our senses. We’re more attracted to stories that are told with a combination of words, sounds, and visuals than we are to stories told any other way. And that’s exactly why short, snappy GIFs and cinemagraphs work so well, too. Moving images are undeniably fun and exciting for us to come across, and they stand out particularly well when they’re used in places where people see standalone images or videos, like on Instagram.
Here at DS Productions at Digital Surgeons, our team is capable of delivering you just about any kind of animation piece, including:
- 2D Animations
- 3D Animations
- Cinemagraphs
- Animated Illustrations
- GIFs
What It’s Like Creating Content with Us
Naturally, our team is made up of several highly creative collaborators. This means we love working together throughout every aspect of the content production process, from planning through final delivery.
What this means for you totally depends on your preferences. We’ve created content with partners who’ve essentially become direct members of our team, joining in on the collaborative fun and throwing ideas at us. We’ve also worked with partners who prefer to be intimately involved in the planning and rollout phases of the process, requesting we handle the middle, creation-heavy phase using the parameters and guidelines they’ve provided us in the upfront. And we’ve even worked with partners who prefer to stay away from content creation entirely, which is usually due to a combination of them having other priorities and commitments but also because they trust us to deliver exceptional content that performs.
So with all of this being said…
Are You Ready to Make Content for Your Brand?
Give us a shout. We’re always happy to answer questions, chat about creativity, and work with brands eager to create interesting and captivating content. And if you want to reach out to me directly, shoot me a note on LinkedIn.
