One film or three: how to spend the same budget

A film is a fixed cost to start and a falling cost to repeat. The first one carries the research, the look, the templates and the decisions; the second one of the same kind is a fraction of the work. That is the whole argument for thinking in rounds rather than in single films.

One careful film

Right when the message is genuinely one thing, the audience is one audience, and the film has a long life, a launch, a flagship, a story that will be shown for two years. Wrong when you have four audiences and one film, because everybody gets the version that was not quite for them.

Three films in a round

Right when the message is one system told at three depths, or one product with three entry points. The look is decided once, the templates are built once, and the marginal cost of the second and third is small. This is usually the best value for a first engagement, and it is also the fastest way to find out what your audience actually responds to.

A studio running continuously

Right when films are a recurring output rather than a project: a weekly explainer, a product that ships monthly, a training library. The price per film falls furthest here, and the thing you are really buying is that somebody else holds the standard.

How to choose

• Count the audiences, not the films. Two audiences means two films, or one film that is wrong for one of them.
• Count how long the message will be true. A film about a price is a film about a date.
• Count the explanations again in six months. If it will be needed repeatedly, buy the system, not the film.

And look at your colours in motion first, on Nine's free page, not because it is free, but because it tells you whether the look is right before the budget is committed to the look.