Case Studies x3*

- IGN -

Business Overview:
'IGN Entertainment' (also known as Imagine Games Entertainment) are an online media company who focus on creating media revolving around the video game industry. They do this across multiple places on the internet, including social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter, video sites like YouTube, and even their own dedicated website. This online content can vary from written articles to video content, on industry news, rumours, and reviews on games that release, each created by various employees across their massive company, some from dedicated IGN offices, while others are employed as Freelance workers and work from their own locations. This means that many different types of employees are required to run their business the way it is currently running: journalists, researchers, video editors, presenters, social media managers, and so on, all working together to create the final versions of the various online products us as the consumers are eventually fed on a daily basis.

Sales and Marketing:
Over the years, IGN has created themselves a massive social media presence, across all types of social media; as of 2021, they have 34 social media accounts across 112 countries, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. On top of having all of these presences constantly active and posting, each has amassed huge followings, with their Instagram and Twitter having over three and eight million followers respectively, with their YouTube having a subscriber count of over sixteen million. Each of these accounts will often make posts that either refer to or directly link to their own website, gaining lots of reads and views across each area. On top of these already established accounts, the company is known to report on new and relevant information in the video game industry often, sometimes earlier than most other areas (like reviews of yet-to-release games or reporting leaks and rumours of upcoming releases), attracting new viewers constantly, even if just for that one review or story.

Operations and Resources:

Due to a lot of the company's income coming from their posts and content across different types of social media sites, they must make sure that whatever they post follows the rules in place by each website, so that they are both allowed to post said content there, as well as make money from it. For example, when posting a video review to their YouTube channel, each piece of content must fall in line with the 'Community Guidelines' of YouTube so the video and/or channel does not get removed, while also falling in line with the 'advertiser friendly' guidelines, so the site will believe the content to be safe enough to allow advertisers to place their ads on the video, gaining revenue for the site and IGN as a result.

While IGN does have offices located all over the world, where computers and studios are held that allow the content the company are known to post to be made, the company is also known to hire 'freelance' workers, where the employee will do the work they are set from their own location (such as their home for example), using their own resources. The types of job roles filled by freelancers are mostly ones like journalists or video editors, but presenters have been known to work from home in the past too, such as during the Covid-19 outbreak of 2020, meaning that a 'set' for the background of video content will be setup by said presenters for when they record the scripts they are given.

Staff and Management Team:
With a company as large as this, producing as varied and as much content as they currently do at the amount they do, a lot of job roles need to be filled by a lot of people in order to keep everything running as smoothly and quality as possible. For example, on the surface level, many journalists, researchers, video editors, presenters, social media managers, and artists are constantly needed, with other jobs such as people to be in charge of the finances obviously being needed as well, like any business would. All of these job roles seemed to be paid ones, with the company often advertising on their own site in articles when they are looking for new people to bring onboard the company, either locally or freelance, always emphasizing how they "strongly encourage people of every race, gender, sexual orientation, and background to apply".

Planning: 

When it comes to the original video content the company regularly creates for their viewers, lots of planning goes into each one. This includes physical planning, such as the sets recorded on, and making the audio and video being as good as possible, as well as more obvious planning such as having script writers and supervisors producing what will be said within it.

Finances: 

A lot of the revenue earnt by the company seems to come from advertisers, with ads being placed all over the content on lots of their platforms. On their own website and YouTube channels for example, ads are placed before, after and around the content, whether this be their videos or reports, gaining the company revenue whenever a viewer or reader sees and/or clicks on whatever advertisement is shown to them. On top of this type of advertising on their original content however, IGN also often posts content made by others, such as trailers for upcoming games and movies (big or small in the industry), as well as sometimes paid promotion, gaining direct income from the people behind those products paying to promote whatever it is they want promoted.

Executive Summary: 

From the IGN Films 'About' Section;
"Sharp opinions and ground-breaking content for games and entertainment for more than 265 million fans across 34 platforms and 112 countries."

- LambdaFilms -

Business Overview:
'Lambda Films' is a British video production business, with company locations located in Cambridge, London and Norwich. There main focus in collaborating on projects with clients, varying from "cinematic, stylistic video production, compelling storytelling and contemporary, design-led animation".

The company communicates with their clients, finding out details such as their proposed budget, type of project and other similar factors, the continue to work with them and their own employees to create from the ground up, including filming and post production, the complete video project to the standard that both parties are happy with. Once this is all complete and the client is satisfied, a final payment will be received from the client to the company.

Sales and Marketing:
The site for the company presents proudly previous pieces of work and projects that they have worked on in the past, displayed under a 'Featured Content' list on the websites home page. This is done in order to immediately show two notable things about them, this being the quality and types of projects the company is constantly capable of and can do for clients if they decide to use them, and the types of clients they have collaborated with in the past (including names such as the DVSA and Nintendo), to once again and credibility to the company and their work & reputation.

Operations and Resources:
As stated above, the company has three locations across England, within which the employees of the company work on the projects they have agreed on helping with. This would be where a lot of the tools needed to create work for clients would be, such as the computers powerful enough to run the programs they need (Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects), as well as serving as concentrated spaces for the employees across the country to work.

Staff and Management Team:
The companies' website lists six job roles, filled by eight people, which make up the company, resulting in the completely finished projects worked on by the company that meet the quality they want. These roles include a 'Creative Director, filled by Ryan, a 'Commercial Director', filled by Alex, the 'Producer', Hillary, the 'Production Team', consisting of David & James, the 'Editors', Darren and James, and an 'Animator', Milly.

Planning:
The 'Contact' section of their website has three options, starting with 'Discuss your project', which allows people who are interested in working with the company to send in their basic details such as names and contact information, as well as state their budget, the type of project they want to collaborate on with the company and a brief of the project to then send directly to the company. Next to this is also the option to 'Request a meeting' with someone from the company, in order to discuss an idea face to face.

Finances:
Based on the 'budget' input option on the section of the website which allows potential clients to reach out and start planning whatever project they may want to be made with the help of LambdaFilms, it seems possible that a large percentage of the money which is needed to pay for the videos and/or animations to be made to the standard expected is acquired from the clients, with the company taking responsibility for finding and getting a hold of the needed equipment and creating the video within the given budget restraints. On top of the budget required, for example to hire equipment and spaces to create, an extra amount of that money received from the client will be kept unspent during the creation as to make a profit for the company from each project and stay afloat financially.

Executive Summary:

From the Lamda Films 'About' Section;
"Welcome to LambdaFilms // Your video partner // This isn’t a job, it’s a passion. // We’re a bunch of people who enjoy being creative, having fun and rewarding our clients with great work // APPROACH // Each project is a collaboration; you give us your objectives and we’ll give you our creativity. // We aim high, producing cinematic video and design-led animation. // OUR WORK // Award-winning, effective and on-trend. // We produce all sorts, but we truly thrive when working on projects that make a difference to people, and the world. // YOUR VIDEO TEAM // Foodies, cinephiles, dog-lovers and gamers… // We’re a company of character, populated with individual quirks but united by a love for making awesome video and animation. // Come and say Hi."

- TrettFilms -

Business Overview: 
TrettFilms is another British video production company, located in Norwich, creating "story-driven" video projects, varying from commercial to corporate video. As opposed to simply receiving a vague brief and working off of that to create their projects, the company focuses on communication with the people commissioning the projects as to ensure what they will make will be exactly what is wanted. Work is done on both the pre and post production of the videos, ending off each project with ensuring that what has been made is to the standard requested, before proceeding to distribute said videos and receiving the agreed payment.

Sales and Marketing:
Much of the publicity achieved for the company is achieved from the business collaborations that the company often take part in, working with places like Virgin Media and Sainsburys then publicly distributing these projects, gaining a name for the company as a result. On top of working to paid client briefs though, multiple social media accounts also exist under the 'TrettFilms' name, with official Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts online. These social media presences act as both ways to promote the business, posting stuff like behind-the-scenes photos and information, while also acting as homes for independently made short-films and video projects made by the company, either to show off what the company is capable of and to improve those skills a bit more at the same time practically, always teamed up with a link to the website so people can contact them to consider working with them if they are intrigued by any of the posts enough to do as such.

Operations and Resources:
Due to the nature of the media created by TrettFilms (this being mostly corporate and/or commercial content), there are multiple rules and regulations the company must follow and have the projects fall in line with, as to make sure that the content produced is allowed to be aired on television for example. These rules can vary from simpler obvious things like no inappropriate language if the project is made to be aired on television, to child talent legislations if actors under the age of eighteen are planned to be used, and so on.

Staff and Management Team:
The company is owned and ran primarily by the two brothers the company is named after. These are Josh and Matthew Trett, who between each other run the entire company, with the help of temporary crew members, either paid of volunteering on work experience, when needed for job roles within a project that require some extra help, such as during a shoot. 

Planning:
When it comes to the types of planning needed in order to run this business as well as it does currently, communication between the company and the clients is a very important step. Quite like other video production companies, constant communication between both parties occurs throughout the entire process of coming up with the initial brief ideas, to checking the finer details and ensuring both are happy with the final product before naming the brief as complete. Once the actual production process begins, more planning will be done and handled by the company, potentially booking performers, locations, dates and equipment needed for example.

Finances:
When the company first was formed, the Trett duo funded the business themselves, making use of their own joint incomes to fund what they needed in order to properly run the company to the standard they wanted to. More recently, however, this has changed due to the success of the business, with it now earning enough to fund itself while still leaving the brothers in a place at the end of each brief completion with a profit for the two.

In some scenarios, the cost of a project will not be covered by the Trett brothers but instead by the clients, allowing the company to work on the brief while not losing as much money and making more of a profit as a result, as things such as production and post will be already covered, on top of the cost then charge clients for commissioning the company in the first place.

Executive Summary:

From the TrettFilms Films 'About' Section;"

Here at Trett Films, the story drives everything we do. Whether we are producing a cinematic television commercial or an internal corporate video, it drives the heart of our work. No matter the company, the audience, client or product, it always comes down telling their story in the best way possible whilst still delivering top results.
Setting this as the structure for the way Trett Films operates means our content is more engaging, more emotional and more honest. We leave traditional methods at the door and encourage our clients to think outside the box.
As film fans, we choose to adopt techniques and disciplines from our favourite directors, movies and TV shows and channel these into our work on a concept, creative and practical front."

Analysis:

Based on the research I have done into the three businesses detailed above, I have come to the conclusion that I will take the most inspiration from many of the business practices acted on by 'TrettFilms'. In particular, the financing decisions they ended up on (funding the business by themselves until it and the clients money made enough profits to fund both them and the company itself) seems like the most likely for my own, while the small independent size of the company also appeals to me much more than running one with lots of employees and responsibilities that come with those kind of factors does to me. While I completely realise that both 'LambdaFilms' and (especially) 'IGN'' are both, at current day, very successful in their own ways, they both seem like much too large, in some ways corporate, businesses for my own liking. Although, the idea of eventually broadening out my reach to outside of the Norfolk area does appeal to me, due to the extra variety of projects and potential profits that could arise from such a decision, if made at the correct time.