Why do I need a production company? Can’t I hire freelancers or staff?

Yes you can engage freelancers or hire staff. Many broadcasters, studios and streaming services facilitate all three for different purposes.

If you engage freelancers or hire staff you’ll need deal with the administrative (taxes, pensions, insurances etc) load, overheads (property, equipment, technology, software etc) and staff management (performance, training, holidays, new parent leave etc).

When you commission a show with Don’t Skip Media, this process is streamlined. We’ll take care of the administrative load. You’ll be assigned an Executive Producer who will keep you regularly updated on the status of the project. They’ll be your first point on contact for any feedback or concerns.

What’s the difference between a production company and an agency?

Agencies are the sum total  of consultants, strategists and managers all employed by one company. They focus on coming up with strategies, plans, and tactics. At times, larger agencies will have an in-house production teams but most will come up with the concept and engage a production company.

Production companies like Don’t Skip Media focus on bringing those creative concepts to life through editorial and technical expertise.

How do you work with broadcasters, studios and streaming services?

There are a number of ways we’re willing to work with broadcasters and streaming service. The two main ways are as a credited production company or as the show creators.

As a credited independent production company we act like an entity you can plug in and out when you need them. The broadcaster has a pre-existing show and engages the production company to produce the show.

As the show creators the production company is the one who comes up with the idea broadcaster, studio or streaming service pay the company a fee the make the show.

Do you keep the IP of the shows you produce?

We do not make claims to pre-existing or shows where the concept has already been fleshed out. However, IP stands for intellectual property and once you request intellectual input there is potential for that to become part of the negotiations.

Are you consultants, strategists or managers?

Great question. Often terms get conflated and misused. It’ll help to define some of these terms and roles. Let’s work through this in a scenario.

Imagine the audience growth of your show is stagnating and nothing you do in moving the needle much. How do you find out where the problem is? Who’s going to plan a router to success? Who will manage the project? And who will create the content?

Consulting – Generally, consultants possess specialised knowledge from research. Occasionally consultants have worked in industry but often they don’t. Consultants work with clients to provide advice. They also might facilitate workshops to help the team come up with potential solutions. This is the discovery stage.

In this instance a consultant will help you find out why your growth is stagnating and advise you on what your next steps should be. Usually, strategy and management and practitioners (you see where I’m going with this 🙂)

Strategist – A strategy details how the goals will be achieved with the resource you have.

A strategist will gather your goals, take stock of your team, their skills, your budget and even your analytics. Then they provide you with a process of how to achieve your goals, interpret your KPIs and set a plan of action. They may work with a consultant to advise on whether you need a bigger team or budget to achieve those goals. They may also inform the manager on the best course of action. This is the roadmap stage.

Managers – They are Kings and Queens of tactic, execution and optimisation. Typically, they know every last detail and function of distribution platforms (not all distribution is social media) like Apple Podcasts, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. They’ll also be the go to people for analytics and insight. But, they shouldn’t be expected to be the content creators in every medium. Some managers, have some skills in one or two mediums. But they are not normally specialists.

Don’t Skip Media is solely concerned with creating the content in a way that is appealing and engaging to audiences.

Can your company do consulting, strategy and management?

This would effectively make us an agency. Over the years we’ve found that the best way for us to cater to our clients is by trimming the fat and specialising in content production. At the moment our focus is on how the audience perceives content. We explore, put into practice and refine the elements that make a valuable piece of content.