Episode 7
How to Solve Problems with Story (ft. Signature Video Group)
Chris Stasiuk is the founder and creative director of Signature Video Group, a full service creative video agency in Toronto. He started SVG in 2009, and by the time of this recording the team had worked on north of 600 projects. Their specialty is a useful way to describe the job: helping clients solve complex business problems creatively, and with video.
This conversation sits at the heart of what Creatives Grab Coffee is about, and it turned out to be the first of four. Chris is one of the show’s original guests and would return in episodes 18, 57, and 110, which makes this episode the opening chapter of the longest-running guest relationship in the show’s history.
Key Takeaways
- Lead with the problem, not the video. SVG’s stated specialty is helping clients solve complex business problems creatively and with video, which puts the business outcome ahead of the deliverable in every conversation.
- Story is the mechanism. The premise in the title is that story is the vehicle that carries a business problem to an audience in a form they will actually absorb and act on.
- Volume turns instinct into process. More than 600 projects since 2009 is the kind of repetition that produces judgment, and it is the reason a shop at that stage can quote, scope, and staff with confidence.
- Full service means owning the whole arc. SVG operates as a full service creative video agency, which means being in the room for the strategic question rather than arriving once the brief is already written.
- Longevity is its own credential. Being eleven years into the business in 2020 put Chris among the more established operators the show had spoken to, and the company has since passed 1,500 projects.
- This was the start of a long conversation. Chris returns in episodes 18, 57, and 110, so the ideas introduced here get revisited and stress-tested across five years of industry change.
Solving Business Problems, Not Selling Videos
The way Signature Video Group describes itself is worth sitting with, because it quietly reframes the entire job. They specialize in helping clients solve complex business problems creatively and with video. Note the order. The problem comes first, creativity is the approach, and video is the medium that happens to be best suited to the task. That is a very different posture from taking an order for a finished deliverable, and it changes who you talk to at the client, what questions you ask, and what you are ultimately accountable for.
That outcome-first framing is the thread the show has pulled on ever since, from creating results based videos to providing strategic video. It also answers the question most buyers are really asking when they start researching what a corporate video is and what it is supposed to accomplish.
Story as the Vehicle
The other half of the title is the how. A business problem stated plainly is a memo, and memos do not move people. Story is what turns a strategic objective into something an audience will sit through, remember, and act on. For an agency positioned around problem solving, narrative craft is not decoration on top of the strategy, it is the delivery mechanism for it.
Creatives Grab Coffee ran two story episodes back to back here: the previous week’s conversation on how to tell effective stories with Minifridge Media, then this one on putting story to work against a business problem. Getting from the problem to the finished narrative is the whole point of a structured corporate video production process.
Eleven Years and 600 Projects In
Chris started SVG in 2009, which made him eleven years into running the business when this was recorded, and the team had already cleared 600 projects. That number matters more than it looks. Volume at that scale is how a company stops guessing: you learn what a project of a given shape actually costs, which clients are worth keeping, where timelines really break, and what you should decline. It is the difference between having opinions about the work and having evidence about it.
The show has returned to that long-horizon view many times since, in lessons in longevity and building a video business that lasts. It is also the experience base that lets an established shop speak plainly about what a video costs instead of guessing at a number.
The First of Four Visits
What makes this episode worth revisiting is everything that came after it. Chris came back in episode 18 for proposals, sales strategies, and remote shoots, again in episode 57 for navigating the future of content creation, strategy, and innovation recorded in the week OpenAI’s Sora landed, and again in episode 110 for new year goals, growth, and generative AI. Four conversations across five years with the same operator is an unusual record of how one agency thought through an era that reshaped the craft.
Signature Video Group has grown considerably in that time, past 1,500 projects for brands including Amazon, Intel, and Coca-Cola. Listening to this episode first, then following the thread forward, is one of the better ways to use the CGC archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Chris Stasiuk?
The founder and creative director of Signature Video Group, a full service creative video agency in Toronto. He started the company in 2009 and has since led more than 1,500 projects for brands including Amazon, Intel, and Coca-Cola.
What is Signature Video Group?
A Toronto full service creative video agency founded in 2009. SVG specializes in helping clients solve complex business problems creatively and with video, and is among the highest-rated creative shops on Clutch. Site: signaturevideogroup.com.
What does solving problems with story mean?
It means starting from the client’s business problem rather than the video itself, then using narrative as the mechanism that carries that problem and its answer to an audience in a form they will absorb and act on.
How many projects had Signature Video Group completed?
At the time of this recording in October 2020, SVG had worked on north of 600 projects since launching in 2009. That figure has since passed 1,500.
Has Chris Stasiuk been on Creatives Grab Coffee before?
This episode is his first appearance and he is one of the show’s original guests. He returned three more times, in episode 18, episode 57, and episode 110.
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.
Signature Video Group is an award-winning full service creative video agency in Toronto, founded in 2009 by Chris Stasiuk. The team specializes in helping clients solve complex business problems creatively and with video, and has produced more than 1,500 projects for brands including Amazon, Intel, Coca-Cola, and Autodesk, making it one of the highest-rated creative shops on Clutch. Learn more at signaturevideogroup.com.
