Better Times Ahead
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Amidst all the increasingly gloomy news about the economy and the lean Holiday Season that is upcoming, there is a counter current. BVDM is doing well. In fact, we’re doing so well that a reporter came to our office and wrote a story about what’s going on here.
I have been extremely reticent to post the reporter’s piece for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wasn’t sure if the piece would be published, and secondly, when the rest of the world is just fighting for survival, they don’t want to hear about someone else’s successes. For myriad reason, it seems now that the piece in question will not see the light of day as paper and ink. Furthermore, I am hoping that perhaps the positive tone of this piece will, in some small way, help to demonstrate that there is a better path ahead of us, both as individuals and a country.
Without any further preamble, then, here is what the reporter had to say about us:
DEFYING A GLOOMY ECONOMY, NEW MEDIA COMPANY PROSPERS
Even at the depths of the Great Depression, it has been said, people managed to afford a trip to the movies. As another most perilous economic crisis tightens its grip, it appears there’s still a bullish market for the little escape that only entertainment brings, as evidenced in bustling corner of Times Square where an emerging media company is not only surviving but thriving.
Financial markets tremble, stocks tumble, business confidence plunges, but while economic fortunes swoon, Broadway Video Digital Media, an independent spin-off from Broadway Video Entertainment – producer of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, and other hits – is surging. The small start up has leaped into the wild west of new media opportunities to establish itself as one of the nation’s most successful digital video service bureaus with clients ranging from Proctor & Gamble’s soap opera properties, Telenext Productions, to Showtime Networks, Time Interactive, Music Choice and the U.S. Tennis Association.
As summer 2008 began and a souring economy had most companies warily assessing their futures, Broadway Video Digital Media experienced its best month in its history, a trend it has continued. On Monday, September 29, as the Dow sank 777 points and credit markets threatened to freeze solid, BVDM received word that it had secured a substantial increase in its line of credit that will allow it to fund its next round of growth.
For Mark Yates, the company’s president, getting the good news on such a bad for Wall Street was almost jarring. “It’s a little ironic to watch the market plummet on one monitor in the office while simultaneously opening an email on another monitor that says we’re getting an expansion of credit. Amid the doom and gloom and expectations of the worst, we’re coming to work every day and watching our business grow.”
Yet Yates, along with partners Richard Keatinge and Dirk Van Dall, attribute the company’s success not just to filling a growing need in a growing industry, but also to a careful cultivation of client relations, which he describes as the core small business success.
“We’re proof that smaller, more nimble service companies can prosper during slowdowns if they listen carefully to their clients and determine where they’re struggling operationally and what areas are under-funded internally,” says Keatinge, the firm’s executive vice president for strategy and development. “Once we know that, we return with cost-effective solutions specifically tailored for them.”
Among BVDM’s most high-profile work is handling post-production and iTunes delivery for Mad Men, AMC’s award-winning drama series. The company provides customized digital video services, including mastering files for distribution and archiving, adding audio, captions and metadata, information embedded inside the video that tracks content. Metadata has become the lifeblood of broadband video, allowing dramatically enhanced search and find capabilities for, say, an iPod user locating an episode of Bridezilla, that at the same time lets providers measure such metrics as number downloads.
The spread of video to computer and phone screens has spurred content owners to reach into their vaults to make money on every bit they can. Once a deal with an outlet is in place, BVDM becomes the conduit to prepare the material for delivery. The firm already delivers to such major players as iTunes, Hulu, and AOL, as well as all the video on demand providers.
“We’re a 21st century digital version of the old film labs,” says Dirk Van Dall, BVDM’s general manager. “Media owners suddenly need exotic services like tailored compression, archiving, digital delivery, captioning, and metadata for blossoming media outlets. It’s too costly for even some of the largest companies to create in-house, so they need to outsource. But, they know they must rely on a proven, one-stop shop to handle all of these demands for their precious material, and that’s where we’ve managed to make our mark.”
Noting the rush of many new startups to take advantage of this emerging market, he explains that the company collectively offers decades of technical acumen as media owners and distributors. It also positions them well to operate in a volatile business environment. “Our service bureau is a crossroads for scores of high-profile clients,” Van Dall says. “That exposure lets us see what everyone in the industry is doing, the successful and the problematic. We see the big picture so we understand best practices and best-of-breed solutions better than any individual client can on their own.”
In addition to working on the new frontier of digital technology, BVDM also profits from its foothold in traditional video distribution and conversion for broadcast networks and cable channels. “While we’re all looking to digital services as our growth platform, we continue to have success servicing our core clients with their technical needs,” says Yates. “As internal budgets shrink, we step in with critical on-air services they can afford. It’s an important part of what we do and a significant source of our revenue.”
BVDM’s encoding abilities are expected to be a particularly strong component of the company’s services as online sell-through of movies and TV shows dramatically increases in the coming years. A November 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers study predicts that such sales will grow from last year’s record $315 million to more than $1 billion in 2011. Van Dall says his company is primed to secure a healthy share of that booming market regardless of wider economic woes.
“There’s comfort in watching an episode of your favorite sitcom or soap opera,” he says. “You can’t get hide from the bad economy, but you can at least escape for an hour or so.”
As always, I welcome your comments below, so please feel free to share your thoughts.
When It’s Your Own…
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009Welcome to the new BVDM Website.
Those who have ever been in charge of building a Web site will get a kick out of this post, and for those who may have to manage the creation of a site at some time in the future; read carefully and learn.
It started out simply last November when I decided it was time for a new Web site. We solicited 6 proposals from a variety of possible service providers. The responses ranged from costs as low as $1000 to as high as the GDP of a small South American nation. Eventually we carefully selected a great partner, Rich Hauck of Hauck Interactive. With the right partner on board and my own clear vision of what the site was going to be about, everything was in place for a quick and successful project.
But somehow it went comically wrong. We arranged a kick-off meeting in early January, and I provided simple documentation about what the site will do and what it will contain. It was a great meeting, and we all agreed that we had a strict deadline of February 28, 2009. It was tight, but it’s a simple site and we were all committed to getting it done.
Personally, I’m thinking in the back of my mind that I’m going to keep everyone in line, hold them accountable, and micro-manage this thing into a smooth February 28th launch. After all, at any given time, my team and I are successfully managing many six-figure projects for our clients at the same time. We’re the masters of combining technology and logistics. THIS WILL LAUNCH ON FEBRUARY 28th… I’m a leader, and I’ll make it happen!!!
Welcome to the July 14th, 2009, the launch of our Web site, 4 months and 14 days late, and I have no one to blame but myself. How did this happen? I’ve been running successful companies for 20 years, and much of that success comes from an ability to make smart decisions quickly, but somehow, that ability vacated my body when it came time to create my own company’s Web site.
As I look at my notes from January 14th, I see an underlined and highlighted sentence, “Stay focused on primary objective; Website is going to serve a simple set of purposes: Tell the world who we are, what we do, and how we do it.” Sounds great, right? Well, as we began to develop the site, all sorts of new ideas came into my head, and without realizing it, I began considering all sorts of options and enhanced features.
Here’s the list of things I considered adding, and the amount of time I spent contemplating them:
Should we force all our ftp traffic through the company home page?
Time spent = 2 weeks.
Ultimate outcome = Rejected because that’s just rude to do to your clients.
Should we create on online order input and monitoring section of the site?
Time spent = 1 month.
Ultimate outcome = Rejected because direct client interaction is key to building a relationship, and talking with a client about a project often reveals subtle details that need attention.
Should we list our clients on the site and risk having our competition try to steal them away?
Time spent = 2 weeks.
Ultimate outcome = Accepted because not listing them is just too paranoid.
And my favorite of all…
Should we feature a section where our employees can post their favorite stuff like recipes and links to cool sites?
Time spent = 1/2 hour.
Ultimate outcome = Rejected overwhelmingly just because it’s a bad idea.
Although much time was spent considering content ideas, the delays in writing the site copy were the most significant issue delaying the project. The task of writing most of the copy fell to me, and why not? Over the years I’ve written thousands of pages of client proposals. I’ve written the copy for many print ads. I’ve written published articles for trade magazines, and many, many, many memos. I’m a strong writer, if I do say so myself.
Well, somehow writing for your company’s Website induces the most severe form of writer’s block ever known. An overwhelming fear crept in as I tried to describe the business that I’ve worked at for 15 years. My fear was that if I somehow screwed it up, if I got even once sentence wrong, we would lose all of our clients and have to shut the doors for good. So I anguished for months and finally managed to eek out the copy slowly but surely. What’s so ridiculous is that when I read through the site now, I think of how simple it is, and I laugh about the amount of time that went into writing such simple paragraphs.
Regardless, we made it; here we are on launch date. As I look back on my notes of June 14th, I see an underlined and highlighted sentence, “Get the site done; Website is going to serve a simple set of purposes: Tell the world who we are, what we do, and how we do it.” Although I had forgotten that I wrote the same thing five months ago during the kickoff meeting, I find it hysterical that I came back to the same exact place where I started.
To those who have ever managed and helped create their company’s Web site, I offer my empathy. And to all the Web developers who have had to work with a client like me, I offer my sympathy. For those who can’t believe it’s that hard to create such a simple Web site, you just better hope you never have to do it.
Since this the inaugural blog entry for the new site, I want to end with an invitation. Please feel free to share your comments, thoughts, concerns, and criticism with me by using the comment field below. The comments will be moderated so no commercial messages or spam will be allowed, however all appropriate responses will be posted.
I look forward to hearing from you, and again, welcome to the new BVDM Website.
