Turning Brands into Content Companies

In this digital-first world, consumers can find a wealth of fun, informative, and entertaining content only a click away. Some brands struggle with how to make their voices heard in a crowded market. An occasional marketing campaign no longer cuts it. Brands need to have an always-on approach that constantly reaches out to consumers and provides new content across digital channels.

Companies need someone who understands both modern media and traditional broadcast storytelling. That is where Simon Green steps in. After working as an editor and post-production specialist on BAFTA-nominated programs for Discovery Channel, Channel 4, and the BBC, Green founded his own post-production and content company, Green Rock. The company now helps major brands, including BBC, NatWest, Ford, and Netflix, connect with an always-on digital world.

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“Every brand has the power to be a content company,” says Green. “Whether they’re a healthcare provider or a retail chain, brands have stories that are just waiting to be told. By getting those stories out there in a creative way, we can help brands engage consumers across broadcast, digital, and social channels.”

Looking towards the cloud

Green Rock started nine years ago as a post-production agency that wowed clients with its professional and creative work. “It was really exciting to build my own post-production workflow from scratch,” says Green. “I figured ‘If you build it, they will come’, so I filled the office with top-of-the-line Avid and Final Cut Pro workstations.”

Over the years, the company grew by leaps and bounds. By the time that Final Cut Pro X came out, the Green Rock team was struggling with the question of how to scale and collaborate efficiently. Troubleshooting production problems could be a pain, as every editing station used slightly different hardware, software, and firmware versions. Final Cut Pro X didn’t have the features and functionality that Green was looking for, either.

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“I decided it was time for something different. I took a serious look at what I thought the industry was going to look like in five years,” says Green. “But then I started looking further: where do I want to take this business. If I was an industry leader, what kind of future would I create?”

Green saw the growing need for content and predicted that the future for production would be about agility, efficiency, and collaboration. Editors, designers, producers, and other creators need to share work with people located anywhere in the world. Teams need to work quickly without worrying about how to convert or securely transfer files, even between platforms. And to accomplish that, Green needed to look into the cloud.

Working with new partners

Migrating to cloud storage was an easy first step towards a cloud-based production model. For the next step, the Green Rock team took a close look into how cloud capabilities could add to the applications themselves. They had already started testing Adobe Premiere Pro CC as a replacement for Final Cut Pro.

With Adobe Creative Cloud apps, team members work with the same software and versions across all platforms, eliminating technical troubleshooting that once took up too much of Green’s time. Adobe Team Projects, a feature build in to Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC, takes collaboration directly into the cloud by allow the team to work on files simultaneously and share edits without overwriting other peoples’ changes.

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For Green, there was another important reason to switch to Adobe Creative Cloud: the relationship with Adobe. “If we’re going to build a workflow and a business around Adobe products, we want to be able to talk with them and understand their roadmap for the future,” he says. “Adobe is eager to talk with us, build a relationship, and receive feedback. We feel confident that we’re growing in the right direction with Adobe.”

Growing through branded content

Brands today are looking for a wide range of content across mediums, from Snapchat to YouTube to broadcast television. This demand has helped Green Rock grow dramatically over the past several years, but to continue scaling efficiently, the company needs to remain flexible, agile, and cost-effective.

Using Adobe Creative Cloud to incorporate cloud capabilities into production is critical to scale by promoting whenever, wherever collaboration. Office space is scarce and expensive in London where the company calls home, so expanding offices isn’t always the most efficient use of funds. Instead, the team has adopted a “pop-up” strategy of renting space in less expansive locations as needed for specific projects.

This is where Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Team Projects in particular, shine. Freelance creators at pop-up offices simply download the latest versions of Creative Cloud apps onto their computers, and they can immediately start working with staff at headquarters.

“With Adobe Team Projects, we can be more flexible, agile, and cost-effective, which allows us to meet the always-on needs of branded content clients,” says Green.

The future of content

Green Rock continues to push the limits of creativity with Adobe. The company is currently working to integrate Adobe Creative Cloud with Adobe Experience Cloud. With these two solutions working together, designers will be able to create digital assets using Creative Cloud apps and upload them directly to Adobe Experience Manager. Then, data gained through Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target on how content is performing can be fed back into the creative process to provide insight into how the company can optimize creative even further.

“Technology is moving at such a fast pace that many companies are scrambling to keep up,” says Green. “With Adobe Creative Cloud, we’re finding ways to work directly with brands and make it easy to share their stories with consumers.”

Simon Green will be presenting in the Adobe stand at IBC 2017 on Friday, September 15th at 4:00 PM (7:00 AM PT). His presentation on Saturday, September 16 at 10:30 AM (1:00 AM PT) will be live streamed on the Adobe Premiere Pro Facebook page (@premierepro).

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