The commercial ad is usually the most viewed asset created by any brand. Selecting a commercial production company is not a procurement process but rather a creative process. Brand-building through advertising is among the best studied disciplines within marketing, and the quality of production behind such ads determines whether the investment pays off.

Most of the clients that have dealt with mediocre commercial production companies know exactly what they are talking about. A poorly researched brief. Overrunning shooting days owing to lack of location clearance. An editing process that took four attempts when two should have been sufficient. 

At Insignia Productions, we wrote this guide to equip the marketing directors, brand managers and communication managers with knowledge of what a competent commercial production company does, and what to look out for prior to working with them.

What a Commercial Production Company Is Responsible For

But the work done by a commercial production house goes well beyond the shooting day even if that is when the client gets to meet the team for the first time. As soon as the brief arrives, the production house takes up the challenge of turning the marketing goal into a creative concept and making it real in a way that works for the brand on whatever screen.

Pre-production is the period during which everything that needs to be decided before the actual shoot begins is done. Scripting, storyboarding, casting, location hunting, permit acquisitions, budgeting and scheduling all come under pre-production. And they are not just administrative chores. They are creative and strategic decisions that have an impact on the final output of the film.

Post-production is where the film turns into a commercial. It involves editing, colour correction, sound mixing, music, graphics, voice-over, sub-titling and encoding. At Insignia Productions Global, our commercial production services cover every stage from brief to broadcast, which means the creative logic of the first script draft runs through to the last grade.

The Creative Brief and Why It Shapes Everything

A commercial production company can only be as good as the brief it receives, and a great company will take the initiative of ensuring that the brief is improved before they start building upon it. This is perhaps the one most underestimated service offered by a great production partner, the service of asking questions and bringing out unexplored assumptions.

A great brief outlines the target market, the platform, the kind of response desired, the tone, and finally one thing that the commercial must communicate. It does not prescribe the execution of the brief. That is what the commercial production company is for. The brief describes the problem; the production company is supposed to come up with a solution to the problem. Clients who try to solve the problem and brief the solution at the same time are shutting doors to creativity before the most qualified people in the room even get in.

Two weeks of working to get the brief right meant four weeks less of editing after the first cut.

The Director’s Role in Commercial Production

The director is the creative person behind the production. Decisions regarding camera angles, lighting, performance energies, et cetera on set are influenced by the director’s decision. The quality of the director’s decisions is very important in the quality of the commercial produced.

Not all directors can work in every brief. A director with a successful track record in dramatic performances brings a new set of instincts to a brief that requires a quick edit product demonstration as opposed to a director who has a successful reel in terms of table top food and object photography. Choosing the right director for a brief is one of the most important choices a commercial production house needs to make and this choice must not be influenced by reputation only but by the specifics of the brief.

A director’s working relationship with the client in the pitch and pre-production phases also tells much about how the shoot will go. A good listening director with intelligent questions and good options for feedback is a director who will run the shoot phase with the same quality of engagement.

Post-Production: The Craft After the Camera Stops

Often, post-production is the place where many productions come through or quietly fail in their potential. Clients who know only shooting tend to underestimate the amount of work that goes into creating a film in the editing room.

Editing is all about telling the story. It is not about choosing clips, but about building an argument and creating a rhythm. At the same time, the editor has to make hundreds of decisions that affect the way the audience perceives the movie. Thus, an excellent editor can create a successful project based on ordinary shots, while an ordinary editor may create something dull even from great shots. So, in case you evaluate a commercial production company, pay special attention to their editing skills, not just their cinematography.

Color grading affects the emotional atmosphere of the movie. Working on color grading, the colorist uses references and information about the brand and builds the look of the movie which is consistent, intentional and unique. The difference between the grade which supports the brand and the processed footage is obvious for any audience.

Sound design and music are the final creative elements before delivery. Clean dialogue, well-chosen sound effects and a music track that carries the right emotional weight complete the experience the picture has built. These elements are frequently underbudgeted and deserve the same attention as any other stage in the process.

How to Evaluate a Commercial Production Company’s Portfolio

Portfolio says about what the company accomplished. The questions that should be asked are whether it speaks about their capabilities for your brief and how the work is quality-wise when examined critically and not just at first sight.

Diversity of the formats used is important. If a team has experience only in one type of visual format and format, it does not necessarily mean they have a variety of skills needed for your brief. There should be some proof of the fact that the team is capable of changing its register from comedy to drama, from product demonstration to brand storytelling, from broadcast to social formats.

Consistency is more important than the highest level of quality. The reel with three brilliant and twelve average commercials is a completely different thing compared to a reel when the standard is consistently high for various briefs and budgets. This is the company that will manage to create something good for your challenging brief in limited time.

Retaining clients for several campaigns is the most believable recommendation that a company can get. Such a studio does not only perform technically well but also manages to establish trust and communication with the client.

Budgets and What They Actually Buy

The best way of understanding whether one quote is better than another is to understand where the commercial production budget has gone. A quote which is lower may not be as good a deal if it gets to that lower level by doing away with stages or personnel that make an immediate contribution to the end result.

Personnel costs constitute a substantial part of the budget and represent both current market rates as well as levels of experience. A director of photography with more than twenty years of experience shooting in broadcast will command a higher daily fee than a generalist, and you will be able to tell the difference in terms of the grade in what the camera records. This applies across the board for heads of departments.

Location costs, permits and travel arrangements are specific to the production at hand. A one-day shoot in a studio environment will have a different structure from a two-day shoot on location which involves permits and accommodation.

Working With a Commercial Production Company Across Markets

In cases where brands create content across various markets, the selection of a production partner affects issues of consistency, efficiency and cultural credibility. This is because an international commercial production company will know how to handle issues of crew markets, permits, platform needs and culture between different markets.

African markets in particular need production companies that have real knowledge of the local environment. While casting for authenticity in one market such as Nairobi would be different from doing it in Lagos and Johannesburg and an international commercial production company using a standardized international template would miss this point, which is essential in making advertisements work.

We have worked with brands from Kenya, East Africa and internationally on campaigns that demanded both world-class production standards and local culture. This blend of professionalism and culture has been at the heart of every brief we have handled.

Choosing Insignia Productions Global

Insignia Productions Global offers the total capability of a commercial production company to our clients from Kenya, East Africa, and further afield. Whether it’s concept creation and casting or grading and delivery, our productions are made to work, not just to be pretty.

We bring the same rigor of pre-production to every project, whatever the budget, because it is at this stage that the quality of the end result is determined.

When you are ready to take a brief idea to screen, contact our production team and we will come back to you within one business day.