Marcus Richards
Boxset Media is an award-wining video production company based in Nottingham. We’ve been making videos for a wide range of international, national and local clients since 2009.
Our motto is Video Made Simple. We demystify the video production process for our clients, making it easier than ever for businesses of any size to make an impact with video and make more money. Basically, we talk in plain English and not confusing technical jargon!
We’ve worked with high street banks and national broadcasters through to local accountancy firms and small charities, and they always keep coming back for more!
Tell us about yourself?
I’ve always loved video editing and video production since an early age. I remember editing my first video back in secondary school in the late 90’s in fact! Plus I’ve always loved storytelling, whether it’s in books, music or film, and strong storytelling is vital to an effective video. So I guess they both came together to set me off on this path!
Since then I worked hard through college, university and was accepted onto schemes that led to me travelling the world as a successful freelance camera operator and subsequently launching Boxset Media in my early 20s.
Over a decade on and we’re proud to have one of the most diverse client lists with what seems like a never ending stream of positive feedback from our clients across Google, Facebook and Trustpilot.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
As Entrepreneurs, our very nature means that we’re forever coming up with lots of new ideas! Plus, it’s easy to get paralysed by all the opportunities out there with developing technology and social media.
So the advice I wish I had when I started out was to simply act first and figure it out later. Too often business owners get into ‘analysis paralysis’ and overthink things which eventually leads to inaction. If there’s something you want to do in the world, get out there and do it! You can work it out as you go along – everyone else does!
As Guy Kawasaki “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” Stop getting in your own way and start making a difference.
What problem does your business solve?
We help people connect better with those they want to serve.
Maybe they want to communicate the value of their offering to prospects, motivate their internal teams or provide greater value to their customers, we help all businesses communicate better with their audience using video – but without any fuss of faff!
The reason video is the best is quite simple really. Video has been proven to consistently outperform almost every marketing and communication tool out there. For example, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in the text.
So quite simply there’s no business out there that can’t benefit from video!
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Before I launched Boxset Media in 2009, I’d spent my whole career up to that point working for various video production companies across the UK. And the one things that frustrated me time and time again was how complicated everyone made the process for clients.
I’m not sure whether it was to inflate costs and make their service seem more valuable, or whether they genuinely weren’t sure how best to go about things, but I felt that too many businesses were finding it different to make an impact with video because of these barriers put upon them by other production companies.
Things like the overwhelm of starting a video campaign, uncertainty over costs, how trackable the ROI is – these are all genuine concerns of businesses wanting to use video. But I wanted to dispel all these myths and create a company that made video production simple and effective without the jargon and complications!
What is your magic sauce?
We always put our focus on the storytelling. Storytelling is vital to video production and we put that at the top of the list every time.
We don’t get distracted by the latest trend or shiny object – we put all our focus on telling a compelling story for our clients first, and then work on the most effective way to tell that story with video.
It could be a simple explainer video with fun characters, a cinematic brand video or something in between – we always get the messaging and the story right before anything else.
Audiences buy into strong stories, not flash gimicks. We’ve all seen a summer blockbuster that has more fancy visuals and loud music than strong characters or a compelling narrative! It’s the same for video marketing!
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Not everyone can afford video production services, especially if they’re just starting out in business, so we’ll be bringing our ‘Video Made Simple’ System to even more businesses than before!
We’ll be expanding Boxset Media’s free video marketing training materials, creative resources and template packs to help businesses of all sizes make better videos faster.
We’re also continuing to serve our existing loyal customer base, some of them who have been with us since we started over 13 years ago, as well as welcoming new clients on a nearly-weekly basis.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Having a positive mindset is everything. I’m a fan of the classic Henry Ford quote – “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” It’s so true! Having the attitude to act on ideas, passions and beliefs is hard at times, but it’s worth it!
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We love working with businesses of all sizes to help them communicate better to their audience. Whether they want a quick chat or email exchange to discuss their video messaging, a fully fledged video production or if they want to go the DIY route using our free training , we’re here for everyone.
If you’re not sure where to start, get hold of our ‘Video Content Roadmap’ – you can get this for free from our website at www.boxsetmedia.co.uk. It’s a easy to follow blueprint that helps any business plan their video content strategy with ease and start to build trust with their audience and make an impact.
