A Word of Caution for Your In-House Branded Content Studio

We love branded content. We’ve been creating a lot of it for clients, and we’ve also watched more of it being created in-house by branded content studios, because the demand to produce at the speed of social media doesn’t stop.

Maybe you’re getting ready to build one. Here’s what to think about first.

The Volume Trap

Content marketing calendars demand two to three posts a week. That’s a significant production burden. When margins are thin, the natural solution is to staff your studio with people who “get social media” and hand them an iPhone.

The problem: most of what gets produced this way is disposable. And if breaking through the clutter is the actual goal, disposable content is working against you.

Two Things Worth Knowing Before You Build

First: define what “quality” means for your brand before you hire anyone. Not production value in the abstract, but specifically: what level of execution reflects well on your brand versus what level actively undermines it? That threshold is different for a B2B software company than it is for a consumer lifestyle brand. Know yours before you start producing content at volume.

Second: the skill gap is real. Knowing how to use a camera and knowing how to direct a piece of content are different skills. Knowing how to edit and knowing how to tell a story in edit are different skills. Staffing for the tool and hoping the craft follows is a common mistake.

What Actually Works

In-house studios that succeed tend to have one of two things: a genuinely skilled editorial team with real production chops, or a clear lane that keeps them away from the work that requires those chops.

The mistake is blurring the line, asking an in-house team to produce work that requires a production company, at a pace and budget that only works for social-native content. You get the worst of both.

Figure out the lane first. Then build the team that fits it.