Thoughts on Video Strategy with Danny Rickard of Cella

Key Takeaways

• You can think of your video strategy as a tool for not getting lost. It doesn't have to be a map, but a way to get back from a dead end
• Don't be afraid of testing and iterating. Build in a way to learn from the work you're doing
• Identify your audiences, then identify what you want to show them
• Use your strategy to understand who to hire and when. Not only full time team members, but working with agencies or freelance teams as well
• Honesty about this type of strategy can help ensure you're hiring the right team members

Links & Resources

• Danny Rickard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannyrickard/
• Cella: https://www.cellainc.com/
• Cella on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cella-inc/
• In-House Agency Video's Transformative Moment by Danny Rickard on the Cella Blog: https://cellainc.com/insights/blog/in-house-agency-video-transformative-moment/

Full episode transcript

Daniel Jester:
From Creative Force, I'm Daniel Jester and this is the E-commerce Content Creation podcast. I'm joined in this episode by Danny Rickard, digital media lead at Cella, to talk about video strategy. In past videos we've explored the very beginnings of video production for our fictitious brand, as well as worked through building out a physical space, but we need that underlying strategy to make sure that we are evaluating our path properly. Strategizing for an unknown undertaking can feel scary, but Danny thinks of it like hiking and exploring.

Danny Rickard:
I was on a hike a couple months ago and I hadn't gone on a hike in years, and so I decided it's a nice day and wanted a hike by myself. And I was just walking down the path. And I was like, "I don't really know where I'm going, but I want to hike along the river. And I want to eventually get back to my car." And so just hiking along down, I hit some dead ends and that is what's going to happen in a strategy, is you're going to start. You're going to start walking, you're going to start going down the path, and you're going to go down an offshoot that you think is a way to get to where you want to go and you learn that it's not. And so you turn around and go back down a path and it's about trying different things.

Daniel Jester:
You need enough awareness to know how to get back to where you started, but don't be afraid to explore some other paths. That's kind of the crux of the strategy conversation with Danny. So with that, let's get into this episode with Danny Rickard on video content strategy.

Daniel Jester:
This is the E-commerce Content Creation podcast. I am your host, Daniel Jester. And joining me on the show today, another two guest episode, you might be surprised to hear this. My guest that I'm looking at is certainly surprised to hear this, but Danny Rickard of Cella Incorporated. Danny, welcome to the show.

Danny Rickard:
Hey, thanks a lot for having me. I'm pump to be here.

Daniel Jester:
Yeah. And then our other guest, bringing back to reprise his past appearance is Chief Moneybags of Brand X. Welcome back, Chief Moneybags.

Daniel Jester:
Hi, it's me. Chief Moneybags of Brand X. You may remember me from ... Okay. This is getting stupid. We're just going to push through, guys. Push through. This is all staying in the episode, Calvin. Do not take this out. Feeling slaphappy on a Friday.

Danny Rickard:
Yeah, man. Yeah. Bring it on.

Daniel Jester:
Danny, welcome to the show. We invited you on to have a conversation around video strategy. So for listeners of this podcast, you may remember a few weeks ago that we interviewed David Iscove of Cella, around editorial and marketing and connecting those two parts of your creative production. Danny works for Cella as ... What's your title there at Cella, Danny?

Danny Rickard:
The digital media lead.

Daniel Jester:
And so with you today, we're going to connect you with Chief Moneybags of Brand X. Past listeners of this podcast will remember, we've done a couple of episodes now around video production with Shanah Ferris and Benjamin Grimes of Sammy's. For this episode, we're going to focus on the strategy side of it.

Daniel Jester:
So we know from past episodes of the podcast, that if we want to get into video, and we do, because that's clearly where all of our digital media channels are headed to is at least motion graphics, if not video.

Danny Rickard:
Totally.

Daniel Jester:
And we know that we need to have a strategy. So in past episodes, we've talked about the basics of starting up. When we had Benjamin on, we talked about things from an equipment perspective, identifying a space. And some of the things that we talked about, we acknowledge that we need a strategy. How do we get a strategy? Can we buy at Sammy's a video strategy? I don't think we can do that. Can Cella sell us a video strategy, Danny?

Danny Rickard:
We can help you, definitely, with video to you. But a lot of people that we talk with get a little freaked out about the word strategy because they're not really sure what it means. And really, it's just thinking about where you want to go in a certain capability or with your in-house agency, and also fully understanding where you currently are and what your capabilities are. And what tier type of work are you producing right now? And to get from where you are to where you want to go, it's laying out a path. I don't mean to make a sound that it's easy, but I was thinking about this and I was on a hike a couple months ago and I hadn't gone on a hike in years. And so I decided it's a nice day and a hike by myself.

Danny Rickard:
And I was just walking down the path. And I was like, "I don't really know where I'm going, but I want to hike along the river, and I want to eventually get back to my car." And so just hike it along down, I hit some dead ends and that is what's going to happen in a strategy, is you're going to start and you're going to start walking, you're going to start going down the path. And you're going to go down an offshoot that you think is a way to get to where you want to go and you learn that it's not. And so you turn around and go back down a path. And it's about trying different things. It's about experimenting with different types of video, experimenting with different types of messaging. And it's meant to be fun. It's go going down into the unknown and as long as you know where you want to get to, that's the start of it.

Danny Rickard:
And also not to be scared that that may change halfway down the path. Business is moving so fast, everything's moving so fast. Everything's changing. Consumers minds are changing. Marketers minds are changing. And it's so okay to be like, "You know what? I thought it was going to be this." And then two months in you're like, "Is actually the way we should be going?" So it's ever changing, ever evolving. But the suggestion is just to start. Pick a point and then start. And then pay attention and learn. Learn every day of what you're are doing, how people are responding to your content, and what your audiences need. Because we want to be informing, we want to be helping our audiences. That's why we produce videos. That's why we communicate. And so it's not always about the hard sell.

Danny Rickard:
It's funny, because I know we were talking earlier this week and how it used to be in the eighties. It was like, "Do this and you're going to be happy. Do this and you're going to smile. And do this and you're going to feel great." And now it's kind of like, we want to relay information in our video that helps people, that informs people, that helps them make a choice. Where it used to be the grand reveal, I feel back in the day. Now it's all of these micro moments that remind us of like, "Oh yeah." I saw a video today. And all right, cool. I'm not really in the mood to buy a truck right now, but that's awesome. And hopefully it entertained me. But a few days later you see a similar type of video with a same type of product. And you're like, "Oh yeah, that's right. That's a funny video. And oh, I didn't know about that. But now I do."

Danny Rickard:
\And if we keep reminding people, keep informing people about a certain product that we think that they may need, eventually there's going to be a point where like, "Oh man, that's right. I'm in the market for X. Oh yeah, I remember this thing. Let me check it out." I feel we have so much input now that we need the constant reminding of these products that are out there. And it's just these little micro interactions to be like, "All right, cool. I got that. Yeah. That's on my mind now. I'll probably sing a song that was in the video." Or like we did earlier this week, I'll talk to you about a video that I thought was really awesome and it was about this product.

Daniel Jester:
So in some ways, it's almost as though with all of these micro channels of marketing that you have and smaller touch points with your potential customer base to reinforce what you were saying earlier is that you're not going to blow your big shot with your one commercial that you spent your whole budget on. You can test and you can experiment. We've mentioned in other video centric episodes of this podcast, that video content production is more accessible than ever. We're in a golden age of LED lighting. That's one of my favorite things to point out because we don't talk about it. But LED lighting has come so far in such a short period of time and it continues to grow. It's so cheap. It's amazing. It's an absolute miracle.

Daniel Jester:
Not to mention cameras. Everybody's camera and phone is equipped with basically 4K capabilities and resolution getting higher and higher. And to your point, your strategy can certainly include experimentation. But one of the things that we want to watch out for though is that doesn't mean just taking shots in the dark. What it means, really, to reiterate what you said, is having some sort of situational awareness about where you're at and where you're about to go and how to get back if it doesn't work out. To lean into your hiking analogy a little bit, that's the difference between exploring and being lost, that situational awareness of where you were, where you're going, and how to get back if that's not the way that you want to go.

Danny Rickard:
Yeah. Get back to the car. That's the goal. That's the strategy is like, "Okay." And then how we're going to do that is we have a general idea of the path in our mind that we need to take because of the positions and experience that we have, but to lay it out to not only think about it, but to communicate it to your team. Here's why we're doing things. Here's why you're coming to work every day. That's an important part of the strategy is like, "Don't keep it in your pocket." If you think it's going to change, then let the team know like, "Hey, here's the best case on the information that I have right now of where I want to go with this, or where we want to go with this team, or where we want to go with this capability and I will be transparent you when I think we need to change direction so you're along with me on this path. So you're not going down an offshoot of a path and I think I'm over here and you're over there, but you think I'm with you, but I'm not."

Danny Rickard:
That's where the communication part comes into a strategy. And just being real and human with your team and just don't think that they're going to think less of you if you change your mind on the strategy. You're going to write it down, we're going to post it, and we're going to look at it every day until it changes.

Daniel Jester:
Well, if there's one thing I know how to do as Chief Moneybags, it's be real with my team. Everybody can relate to old Chief Moneybags. Right?

Danny Rickard:
I love it. I love it. Yeah.

Daniel Jester:
And speaking as Chief Moneybags here, I understand loud and clear, Danny, I'm hearing what you're saying, that we don't need to be scared of the strategy. We don't need to commit to a specific path and get us to a specific point. It can be about embracing exploration a little bit to try to figure out what we're going to do. But what do we use as a baseline? Me as Chief Moneybags of Brand X, what should I be looking at about organizationally within my team, or within my brand to start as the baseline for deciding what that strategy looks like?

Danny Rickard:
What we first want to look at is who our audiences are that we're going to produce video for. And once we understand who that audience is, or audiences, then we think about what type of video do we want to produce for them? Is it going to be communicational video, informational video, product videos? Is it a series of webinars? We can go on and on of the different types. But understanding the type of video that you want will then help inform you of what type of producer you need to hire, because while producers are multi talented in a variety of videos, it's great to have someone who has produced the type of video you want produced in their past. And yes, they can be a Swiss army knife and know how to do a few different types of videos.

Danny Rickard:
But having that person with a knowledge of how best to communicate that messaging to the audience is key. And that's where your hiring comes in. That's why going back to the strategy is so important, because it's like, "All right, I think we need to produce these types of videos. Once again, I think this is the best, this is what I'm going off of. And then let's find this person who has this type of experience in their reel that they've done before and that they can help me evolve this team."

Daniel Jester:
That's a great point, because if I want to create a lifestyle traditional, commercial style video that is maybe funny, I'm probably going to hire a different producer than if I want to create a set of videos that feature a slightly awkward bearded gentleman who's describing specific software features to people on the internet. Those are two different producers, right?

Danny Rickard:
Totally, man. And you want one, them to have the experience, but two, you want them to be engaged with the work. The more you can communicate to the producer what type of work they will be producing, the better chance you'll have a good hire on your hands. We do that all the time when we're looking for producers or any video personnel. It's like, "Okay, here's the type of work." Hopefully they'll ask that in the interview, but if they don't, we proactively, our recruiter's like, "All right, here's the type of work that this in-house agency generally produces. I see that you have that in the reel, did you like producing that type of work? Does it really excite you? Is it something that you just come in and do?" And so that's where you start to find that good match of good talent when they get really excited of the type of work that your strategy is yearning for.

Daniel Jester:
I already love that we've got an actionable thing here around our strategy. We identify our strategy and then that leads directly into thinking about how we hire and structure the teams, which we did touch on in previous conversations around setting up video. But one of the things that you're pointing out to me is, and the message that I'm receiving here is that I can, as part of this strategy, say, "We're going to take some of these bigger video projects on a case by case basis. And so we're going to probably work with agencies for the first X number of projects that we do." And we may not necessarily jump in with any one agency, but we're going to say, "We're going to work with this agency to do this traditional television ad campaign. And then we're going to maybe work with another smaller agency to do some other product feature videos or things like that." Something as simple as that, that decision and that awareness of how you want to move forward, that's my strategy that I'm starting to develop here, right?

Danny Rickard:
Totally. Yeah. Coming from in-house agencies, it's all about partnerships. Your in-house video team is going to handle a type of work, a certain tier of work. And you're also going to partner with agencies to help you with the other higher tiers or lower tiers of work, whatever the business is calling for. And in the companies that we talk with, it's different for every company. And so there isn't a mold. And what we're talking about here today isn't a blueprint of how to start up a video team. But it's things to think about, things that the leaders of these creative groups or leaders of the in-house video teams should be thinking about when they do either want to build a team or they want to evolve their team is, what type of work do we want to handle in-house and what type of work do we want to partner with an agency on?

Danny Rickard:
And like you said, it could the agency could handle the large tier one, 30 second promo, and then the in-house group handles those other 15 videos producing those micro moments to support the 30 second promo. And so that comes into the strategy as well. It's like, "What's the story we want to tell with all of our videos with this campaign or what have you?"

Danny Rickard:
And I was talking with a colleague this morning at one of our in-house agencies and we were talking with how video you has evolved, how once again, it went from, here's what you need to do, to more of a feeling and an emotional type of delivery. And we were talking how you don't really have, and it was really weird, I don't know why I was fearful of saying these words, but it was like, "You don't have to have a call to action on every video." And that was something that I feel like, years ago, I remember someone being like, "You have to have a call to action on every marketing video," when I was up and coming, whatever.

Daniel Jester:
That feels like a very salesy standpoint, more than a marketing, if we just want to make that kind of distinction. That feels like a very salesy kind of perspective, whereas I tend to agree with you, and as I've been thinking about it, a lot of the smaller, and I shouldn't say smaller, but the way that I think about social as a marketing channel, it's made up of a bunch of very small marketing channels. I don't necessarily mean audience wise. By small, I guess what I mean is that your content's pretty short lived. But you're right to point out that all of that stuff is pretty emotional. A video ad in Instagram stories is hardly enough time to do much of anything other than be one of those micro touch points with a potential customer and hopefully evoke some kind of an emotion.

Danny Rickard:
Exactly. Make you think, make you smile, make you dance, make you sing the song two days later.

Daniel Jester:
Make me pull my hair out because I've seen it 36 times.

Danny Rickard:
Sure, exactly. But it's in your mind, man. And if the product is something that you need, you'll remember it. But there's some formula, because an example that he brought up, an example that I brought up, were very similar and there were two totally different products, but it was like, it's not saying, "Do this and you will feel better." It was like, "Here's something that people do," and whether it was playing basketball or it was going out to eat or what have you, it was just like, "And when you do that, you may want this product."

Danny Rickard:
There was zero mention of the product. There was two product shots, that's it. Or even just the product logo sometimes. It was not the center as it has been in years past. It's just like, "We want you to feel, we want you to feel, we want to take care of you. We want to help you. We want to make you think of a different way, or we want to give you information that you may need. And what you do with that information is up to you, but we want to be on your mind and we're here for you when you need us," type thing, versus telling them you need us right now.

Daniel Jester:
And so to tie this concept back to strategy a little bit, really the only way to achieve or to even know if what you're doing is working is to do exactly what you say is just to not be afraid of testing things out. And hopefully having a mechanism built into your company or your marketing organization that enables that testing.

Daniel Jester:
One of the things that we want to talk to somebody about, and for any listeners out there, if there's anybody in e-commerce or creative production who can speak to this as somebody with a lot of experience, AB testing is something that I know ... I've worked at plenty of companies that do AB testing, plenty of marketing people are well versed in it, but I feel like it's still one of those things that we haven't really tied the idea of AB testing back into creative of production specifically. It's more like marketing makes the request, and they don't tell you that it's for an AB test, but it ends up being for that. And as creative production in-house and those external relationships move towards a more strategic part of the business, as opposed to this transactional task performer sort of role that it's been, engaging more of those and having a better understanding of what constitutes a good AB test and what you can learn from it and how the creative teams can benefit from that data and experience as well.

Danny Rickard:
And it's so difficult and it's just an ongoing debate and we've all been in the debates in various places over the years. But the main thing is, is find that mechanism, like you were saying, to understand how your video content is being received. And I'm not saying it's what it is, but it is like, what works best for your company to understand how people ... Because sometimes they're just looking at your video. So how are you getting anything from that?

Danny Rickard:
It's like, "Okay, great. I have informed you. And that's wonderful. And now what? Do we know someone bought something that second or a week later, or what have you won that video?" So, I love that invitation to a guest and it almost feels like a, not to produce your podcast for you, but almost like a round table or almost like a panel or something like that, of these varying perspectives. What's working for them?

Danny Rickard:
Going back to strategy is not just starting producing, but understanding how the analysis is going to take place. And you're not going to take the data just for the data's sake. There's a story around it. That's one part of the story is the data. And then you have to make sure that you have someone on your team, whether that's the creative leader or you have a data analyst on your team, what have you, to help break that down into a story that is actionable so then you can iterate on your video work. And that's where the fun comes in.

Danny Rickard:
Going back to the hiring process, is hire the person who has that type of mindset as well, that iterative mindset, that you're going to produce something. And it may not be well received, but that's fine. Let's learn from it. And so the next thing we produce, it'll be a little more sharper than the other one was.

Daniel Jester:
So a significant part of our strategy can be a concept that we've talked about on this podcast before, which is fail fast. And that's an analogy or a term that encapsulates the idea of A, don't be afraid of failure, and B, have a mechanism by which to learn from that failure. And a lot of times that means data and metrics and analysis, and then identifying the story around it.

Danny Rickard:
I don't see it as failing. I just see it as learning. That's all we're doing is learning something, and that sometimes scares some people using that word, but it's just like, upfront is like, "We're going to produce some items, some deliverables, that won't be as well received as we had planned, and we're going to learn from it, and we're going to see what happens next. So if you're into that, come work with us. And if you are, for whatever, too emotionally involved in your work, or you don't quite understand why we're producing three or four different deliverables for something, this may not be the right fit for you, if this is the group that's doing that."

Daniel Jester:
I want to spend, Danny, the last couple of minutes, and this so far has been a great conversation around strategy.

Danny Rickard:
I'm going off your leads.

Daniel Jester:
I want to spend the last couple of minutes just talking about, when we spoke, was it earlier this week? Man, this week is a wild one for me.

Danny Rickard:
It's a heavy one.

Daniel Jester:
When we spoke earlier this week, we talked a little bit and I just want to spend just a couple of minutes talking about it. What we've learned from the adoption of video in e-commerce so far, and where it's worked and maybe where we thought it would and it didn't, and where we think it's going to go. And the example that I used the last time we spoke is that there have been some brands out there who had, for a while, product videos on every PDP page for every product they sold. And it seems like that's gotten scaled back a little bit. What can you tell me in your unique position and experience as a consultant in the industry? What have we learned so far about video content in e-commerce, and where do we think it's going to go?

Danny Rickard:
What we've learned has changed a lot from what's happened in the past 18 months and what's currently happening. And people want as close of an experience as they can get of being in a store shopping for whatever it is. And I take myself out of the video background part of me and being like, "I want to see what these shoes look like on someone." I was telling Ben, I went shopping for a pair of slides for weeks and months. And I'm like, "I want to see when this dude's walking in these slides, what's it look like? Are they slipping all over the place?" Not that they would show that. But like, what does it look like when it's on the foot?

Danny Rickard:
And people want that with everything. The trial and error of shopping for something, having it delivered, be like, "Oh, this isn't what I wanted." And then going like, "Oh geez, now I got to send it back now." And thankfully the sending back part is getting easier, but still, we're busy. We have a pile of items that need to be returned.

Daniel Jester:
Right off camera from me right now. It's a pile of things that are probably past the return window that I don't want.

Danny Rickard:
And so it's like the company's like, "Great." But it's like, if I'm going to get turned off if what I thought I was buying, isn't what I received, I'm going to go to someone else who shows me a video of how this mixer is working or how these clothes fit on someone or what have you. I mean, it's huge in apparel. And is that the color that I wanted that I thought it was? Is that the fit that I wanted? Everything fits differently.

Danny Rickard:
So it's like, "What does it look like?" And I love off of video, but when you have the look of something in a video and then you have a sizing chart next to it. If you're this height and this weight then go for this type of size. Once again, it's two pieces of content that's complimenting each other. And one plus the other one, I'm like, "Great. I'm going to get that because they tell me everything that I need to know and I have confidence that when this has come, I'm going to try it on. It's going to be what I thought it was."

Daniel Jester:
Yeah. Scale is huge with video too, because that's one of the things that's difficult. In stills there's even ways that you can solve for the question of scale. Because like what you're talking about, when you walk into a store, you're standing in the middle of the store and you just have, because you're physically there and present, you have this understanding of how big everything is in relationship to everything else and you.

Daniel Jester:
But when you're shopping online, you don't have that at all. And even if you go on Amazon, even the way that they handle scale on Amazon, which is to measure the product and then put it in relation to an average human form, still doesn't always give you the right perspective in the way that someone interacting with the object in a video could give you. You start to develop a better sense of how big that thing or how small that thing is. Which for me, is one of those weird things. I've bought books before where I was expecting a larger or smaller book and it's the opposite of what I expected. And it's not necessarily an issue that I would return it for that reason, but it's a weird experience.

Danny Rickard:
It's all about the expectations of what you're ordering. And I just thought of more apparel, but like suits. Who likes shopping for suits? I don't. And so if I can go online, like, "That looks cool, and okay, that guy is that height and that weight. That's about me. Great. I'm going to click it, I'm going to order it, it's going to show up and it's going to be great. I may have to get it hemmed or whatever." But if I could do that just based on a video and an accompanying piece of content that tells me the model that's in this video is this height and this weight, and therefore that's the size that you should purchase, I'm going to keep purchasing suits from whoever this is.

Daniel Jester:
Where do we think video goes from here? I mean, I'm assuming, because Instagram at this point is essentially a video-centric social media platform. TikTok obviously, is turning out to be this powerhouse in advertising. I don't know if people were really expecting, but I mean, Applebees is running an ad on Hulu right now that is TikTok dances. So it seems like it's a big thing. Where do we think we're going from here?

Danny Rickard:
It's just going to increase. And it's been increasing for years, every year. It's like, "Oh, there's more people watching videos. And the attention span for videos and the recall from information that's put in videos, the trick's going to be, how do I make my video stand out?" There's so much in our streaming channels, let alone our marketing videos. And I'm not saying there's too much, but I think the game is, how do I make this stand out? How do we make our audience notice me? And then once I have their attention, how do I connect with them and inform them and engage them?

Danny Rickard:
That's what we're all trying to figure out right now, because the first step is getting their attention and getting in front of them. And how do we get in front of them? And what channels do we put them on? And if we put it on this channel, can we use the same video that we use on that channel? The answer's no. And then thoughtfully, what channels makes most sense for our business? Makes sense for our company, for our brand? And not just because the other brand's doing it.

Danny Rickard:
Okay, put those blinders on. What makes sense for us? Let's tell our story and let's inform our audience as best we can and start developing that relationship that will then make them a customer of ours. And then it doesn't stop there. We need to retain that customer and keep fanning that flame and building that relationship stronger and stronger so we're with them for life. And that's a little bit where growth marketing and such come in. But it's just fully understanding, now that we have them, we don't slam the door on them and walk and go to the next one. It's like, we got to keep dancing with them. We got to keep embracing them and entertain them and things like that.

Daniel Jester:
And make sure that their experience, if we sell things, make sure their experience buying things from us is satisfying to them and they feel good about it and they're getting what they want out of it.

Danny Rickard:
Yeah, because they're going to tell their friends, they're going to buy it for their kids, they're going to buy it for their friend's kids. You're going to have all these brand ambassadors because you treated them so well, not only from the beginning, but continuing through the customer journey.

Daniel Jester:
Right. I'm going to make a request here in front of you, Danny, and the 13 listeners of this podcast that if you are a ... I won't limit it to camera bag makers, but anybody who makes a bag of any kind, but in particular camera bags and other sort of technical bags that have specific uses, please start making product videos that show what you intended those pockets to be for.

Danny Rickard:
I love it.

Daniel Jester:
I'm a bag guy, first and foremost. So I've definitely bought bags, just a camera bag, just because I liked it. Not because I needed it for anything. But there's always, without fail, I will buy a bag of some kind that has a little tab on it or a little button somewhere ...

Danny Rickard:
A Velcro piece.

Daniel Jester:
Yeah, a Velcro piece or some kind of a pocket that is clearly intended for something, but I don't know what it is and I can't find out online and nobody on Reddit knows. And it's so frustrating for me. But yeah, I'm going to make that request to all of the bag makers out there. And in particular, who should we call out here? Who's the backpack that I just bought? Osprey. I have a great Osprey backpack that I absolutely love. It was the perfect commuter backpack for me when I was taking the commuter train from my home to our studio in LA. And there's this little pocket and it has a label with letters on it. No clue, no information. Have no idea what it does. I don't know if anybody who works for Osprey listens to this podcast, but if you do, please email me and tell me what that pocket is for.

Danny Rickard:
What was the intention?

Daniel Jester:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:30:47]. What am I supposed to put in there? Because right now what's in there is old gum wrapped up in wrappers because it wasn't going to get anything else dirty.

Danny Rickard:
Yeah. Right.

Daniel Jester:
Danny, thank you so much for your time and your insight. That was a great conversation, fun conversation. And also, thanks to you, Chief Moneybags from Brand X for asking the questions about your video strategy.

Danny Rickard:
Money bags.

Daniel Jester:
Yeah. And to the listeners, I hope that was helpful. We talked a lot about video. We've gotten a lot of feedback from our listeners that they love the episodes that are ... Because everybody right now is thinking about how do we get into video? How do we increase our video? And so when you about strategy, don't be afraid to test. Don't be afraid to start. Don't be scared off by the word strategy. But have some situational awareness, have a plan for collecting data and analyzing and determining and defining what a success or a failure might look like.

Daniel Jester:
And I loved what you said about having some fun with it. Creative production and photography and video product. It's become big business. It's become careers for a lot of people. And sometimes that means it's not as fun as it used to be, but we can still have fun while we do this stuff.

Danny Rickard:
Totally, man. And the approach we take at Cella is like, "Let's just start small. You know the appetite's there, but is it really there?" And so start small on your team. And once you have the strategy, then put it into action and start producing and then you'll quickly see where the appetite goes, where the strategy goes. And then you build your team from there.

Daniel Jester:
That's it for this episode of the podcast. Check out our show notes on this one for more content from Danny and Cella on a wide variety of creative production topics. Many thanks to our guest, Danny Rickard. And thanks to you for listening. The show is produced by Creative Force, edited by Calvin Lands. Special thanks to Sean O'Meara. I'm your host, Daniel Jester. Until next time, my friends.