Spike Productions

No one can accuse Spike Productions of being slow off the mark. The production company is taking huge leaps forward via online broadcasting

It’s high quality production services are in demand from businesses recognising that television is a powerful medium and one that can communicate a clear message to a huge audience. Spike has positioned itself perfectly to capture the growing Web TV market which enables businesses to extract huge value out of their corporate films by streaming them at a high quality on the web.

“We recognised several years ago that this was the future of corporate communications”, said joint Managing Director Warren Mauger. “The video has always been a strong communication tool but by integrating it with the power of the internet the reach is enormous”

The medium also provides fantastic value for money, better than any traditional format because Web TV films can be precisely targeted at clients and individuals through e-mail and the success of any campaign can be monitored, all done very cost effectively.
Internet television is fast becoming mainstream mainly due to the widespread adoption of broadband within the home.  52% of people within Europe are now regularly online with average internet use per week being 14.3 hours.  This compares with only 11 hours for regular television and this trend is set to increase over the coming years.

With specific reference to online video, 81 million of the 129 million broadband users in the U.S. watch TV or movies online. 
As a consequence of this trend, the annual value of pan-European online advertising is projected as being £10.8 billion by 2012, more than double that of 2006.
All this makes a compelling argument for having a comprehensive forward thinking online strategy. One of the areas Spike helps businesses is internal and external communications. In these instances businesses will need to communicate across many countries and using the new medium this can be achieved with minimal impact on time whilst having a direct high-impact result.

Spike has developed a product know as Spikecast which is a turnkey solution for businesses wanting to stream their films and communications. The product has evolved to provide clients with great flexibility regarding how they want the site to look. It couldn’t be simpler: viewers can access the films by simply linking from the website and the films open up in a branded window, films can also be security protected with passwords if the information is of a sensitive nature. The benefit to businesses is that there are no complicated system changes for them and they can avoid slow internal procedures that would need to be adhered to for website changes. In addition clients have their films encoded by a highly experienced team which means they have a high quality look on screen, and do not keep freezing. This is essential when brand equity is important.

Spike’s joint Managing Director Liam Le Guillou said, “Some companies we work with are just beginning to realise the money they can save on staff flying around the world to give intermediaries information that could just as easily be done virtually. A business can effectively turn itself into a broadcaster if it has big communication needs and as former broadcast news professionals and programme makers the Spike team is well placed to help with this.”
Spike can also offer a cutting edge technology which can stream films at full screen broadcast quality which is leading the way globally in terms of the quality and the rich data it can provide clients. In addition the player works on almost all computers and does not require the user to download any software such as Real Player or Microsoft Windows Player. This can also work on computers which do not have access to high bandwidths. Blue Islands recently used this to show one of its television commercials produced by Spike in France via the FR 5 television channel’s website

Where as television advertising used to be king, it has now been knocked off its perch. The benefits of well produced films and adverts are still recognised, however, these are moving from traditional channels and onto the internet. Online advertising last year grew in the UK by an astonishing 41% and forecasters predict at least another £600 million will move away from traditional media to online this year. In contrast to the rise of the internet, television advertising is down 4.7% and radio 5.2%.

Spike has evolved from being a production company offering very high quality film services to a creative agency, still with corporate film at its core but now offering full communication services. The highly skilled team can handle the whole process from conceiving an idea, filming and editing it then streaming it online for an audience to watch. In addition, the marketing professionals in the team can advise clients of how to exploit the distribution channels available to them for their films and how to maximise the number of people watching them.

Liam Le Guillou said, “We have a group of individuals who are all talented in their own right but when we come together and work as a team the results are phenomenal. Everyone is continually raising the bar from the creative process through to customer service. The latter is at the heart of everything we do, we don’t just say that we do all we can for clients we really do go out of our way to make the experience as effective and enjoyable as possible.”

Warren Mauger says, “We already have the team and years of experience which enable us to deliver the quality demanded by clients. We are working on some exciting deals which should see us offering the best service in the UK and possibly Europe for our clients and be leading the way in the quality and rich data available from our products and services”
To see a short film about Web TV and how it can benefit your business log on now to www.spikecast.co.uk. Visit www.spikeproductions.co.uk to see examples of Spike’s work.