By Matt Cartmell, founder & director CartaComms,

Over a quarter of PR agency and in-house comms leaders have revealed that they still have not found a way of making video work as a marcomms tool, a new survey from video editing platform Binumi Pro has revealed.

The research prepared by The Pulse Business and supported by the PRCA - which partners with Binumi Pro - has revealed that 26% of PR agency bosses agreed with the statement that they are aware of the value of video but have not found a way for it to work for them yet.

This compares to 64% of agencies that use video regularly in their communications work.

Elin de Zoete, Managing Director, PLMR, said that video is “an important and persuasive part of our comms mix for clients”, while Kirsty Leighton, Founder, Milk and Honey, said that video would be “used frequently and will be used even more” by the agency.

However, Liam Herbert, CEO, Chelgate, explained why using video was a disappointing experience, citing “a lack of understanding internally, poor briefing and application of the finished product”.

The biggest reason for agency dissatisfaction was cost. 38% of agencies that have recently used video production companies stated that the experience was more expensive than they would have wanted.

Molly Aldridge, Global CEO and Co-founder, M&C Saatchi Public Relations, said: “Film is a super powerful way to convey creative platforms and ideas and we create a lot of videos to deliver client ideas and then as part of the media outreach to engage customers too.”

But she added that her experience of using a production company was a lot more expensive than the agency had wanted. “I still think production houses are expensive. We have an in house producer that creates them but we do outsource on occasion and those costs seem to rack up and quickly.”

The figures are reflected on the in-house side. 26% of communications team leaders stated that they have not found a way for video to be useful yet. 65% use video regularly for marcomms activities.

Commenting on the findings, Christopher Bo Shields, CCO and Co-founder, Binumi Pro, said: “PR and communications leaders on every side of the industry recognise that video is a hugely important element of their comms arsenal – and yet over a quarter still haven’t made it work for them. The costs associated with using video production companies are still prohibitive for many, and the lack of speed means that videos often miss out on what they set out to achieve.

“Professional-standard video needs to be democratised out of the hands of video production companies and into the hands of the people that are actually using it.”

Binumi Pro and the PRCA will be holding a breakfast roundtable discussion in January 2020 to discuss the findings.

The research was developed in association with The Pulse Business in October 2019.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash