Episode 8
How to Develop Your Production Company (ft. Viva Media)
Matthew Watts is a creative producer and director who does business under Viva Media, a Toronto video production and animation company crafting smart ads and messaging for businesses and brands. The Telly Award winning team has since made work for the likes of TD Bank, TJX Canada, and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In this episode Matt sits down with Dario and Kyrill for a practical conversation about developing a production company from the inside out: what clients are actually buying, how to build a production process that serves you and the client at the same time, and why SEO is one of the slowest and most worthwhile investments a small shop can make.
Key Takeaways
- Value is the whole job. Matt’s stated goal is for his clients to succeed, and the way to get there is to provide value, both in the work you produce and in the relationship you build around it.
- The production process is never finished. Producers should be constantly looking to improve how they work, treating the process itself as something that gets refined project after project.
- Pre-production carries the rest of the project. A heavy focus on pre-production is what allows everything downstream to run smoothly, which makes it the highest-leverage stage to invest in.
- Set very specific deadlines. Matt manages timelines with tight, explicit deadlines for delivery and for client feedback, which is what keeps a project from drifting.
- Build a process that works for the client too. The goal is efficiency on both sides, not just internally. A process the client can actually follow is what makes the whole thing repeatable.
- Client pushback is useful. Rather than treating pushback as a problem, Matt sees it as valuable because it opens the door to communicating openly with the client.
- SEO changes who can find you. Without it you are leaning almost entirely on word of mouth. With it, people can discover the business organically, which is a fundamentally different growth channel.
- SEO is slow, and that is the point. It is not easy and results take a long time to arrive. The job is to do the research and keep at it rather than expecting a quick return.
Value, Value, Value
Asked what clients are really looking for when they reach out to a production company, Matt’s answer starts somewhere other than the deliverable. What he wants is for his clients to succeed, and the way to make that happen is to give them value. Crucially, he splits value into two halves: it lives in the work you produce for them, and it lives in the relationship you develop with them. Neither one alone is enough. Beautiful footage attached to a frustrating experience does not earn the next project, and a warm relationship that produces work which does not perform will not survive a budget review.
That two-sided definition of value is one of the most durable ideas on this show, resurfacing in improving the client experience and in the long game of deepening client relationships. It is also the honest answer to what a client is buying when they choose a video production company in the first place.
Evolving the Production Process
The core of the conversation is process, and Matt’s view is that producers need to constantly look for ways to improve it. His heaviest emphasis lands on pre-production, because that is the stage that determines whether the rest of the project runs smoothly or turns into a scramble. From there it becomes a question of managing timelines, and he is specific about how: very specific deadlines, both for delivering the project and for receiving client feedback. Feedback without a deadline is how a two-week edit becomes a two-month edit.
What makes his system work is that it is efficient for the client as well as for him. A process only holds if the people on the other side can follow it. That is the same discipline laid out in the corporate video production process, and the pre-production emphasis echoes through later episodes on scalability, collaborating, and pre-production.
There is one more counterintuitive piece: Matt says client pushback is sometimes very valuable, because it creates the opening for open communication. Treating resistance as information rather than obstruction is a producer’s skill, and it connects directly to what the show later unpacked about what makes a great producer.
SEO, and the Patience It Demands
The last stretch is about being found. Matt highlights SEO as something that can transform a business’s ability to get noticed online, and frames the alternative plainly: without proper SEO you are relying heavily on word of mouth. Referrals are wonderful until they are the only thing you have, because they are not a channel you control. Search visibility lets people find the business organically, which changes both the volume and the type of leads that arrive.
He is equally clear that this is not a shortcut. SEO is not easy and it takes a long time for results to take effect, so the work is to do your research and keep at it. That slow-compounding view held up well: the show returned to it years later with adaptability, sales, and SEO and growing a video business with Google Ads. For anyone weighing search against referrals, it also pairs with new ways to generate leads and, when a lead is ready to talk scope, a competitive quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Matthew Watts?
A creative producer and director who founded Viva Media, a Toronto video production and animation company making ads and branded content for businesses and brands.
What is Viva Media?
A Toronto video production company and animation studio crafting smart ads and messaging for businesses and brands. The Telly Award winning team has produced work for clients including TD Bank, TJX Canada, and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Site: vivamedia.ca.
What are clients looking for from a production company?
Value, in Matt’s view, and it comes in two forms: the value of the work you produce for them, and the value of the relationship you develop with them. The underlying goal is for the client to succeed.
How do you improve a production process?
Focus heavily on pre-production so the rest of the project runs smoothly, manage timelines with very specific deadlines for both delivery and client feedback, and design the process so it is efficient for the client as well as for your team.
Is SEO worth it for a video production company?
Matt argues yes, because without it you rely heavily on word of mouth, while SEO lets people find your business organically. The caveat is that it is not easy and takes a long time to show results, so you have to do the research and keep at it.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
Viva Media is a Toronto video production company and animation studio founded by Matthew Watts, crafting smart ads and messaging for businesses and brands. The Telly Award winning team creates commercial, corporate, animated, and social content for clients including TD Bank, TJX Canada, and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Learn more at vivamedia.ca.
