SpeedMedia, a bicoastal post-production studio, is headquartered
locally in Venice Beach and turns 10 this month. We sat down with Kenny
Francis, President of the company, to ask ten questions about their ten years.
1. WHAT DOES TEN YEARS IN THIS INDUSTRY MEAN?
For any business, that’s a mark of success. This industry has a high
turnover rate, at every degree, so one of our greatest strengths has been
maintaining solid brand and studio relationships, building our own brand equity
in the process. At the time we started the company High Definition
television content was new to the marketplace, with only a handful of vendors
that had updated technology and systems that could handle this larger file
size. Most existing vendors were using antiquated machines and
methodology in an attempt to distribute HD, causing major bottlenecks at the
station level. We built SpeedMedia in anticipation of this new trend,
which allowed us the flexibility to properly manage our clients post-production
and distribution needs, while giving us a technological advantage over the
competition.
2. HOW HAS THE POST PIPELINE CHANGED IN A DECADE?
Now everything is “immediately.” Lightning fast is now the new norm. Ten
years ago there was a decent amount of time in production schedules for editing,
spot tagging, trafficking, clearance, every part of the Post process… these
days everything is expected to immediately happen. There’s been a huge sense of
time compression because the exception has now become the rule.
3. CAN YOU FORESEE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE?
Staying relevant as a company, as a vendor to our customers and trying
to evolve with the times and their needs. What worked 10 years ago creatively or
productively doesn’t hold the same weight. We’re living in an age of online
campaigns and guerrilla marketing campaigns where advertising has already
become so wildly diversified… staying relevant is key. SpeedMedia prides
itself on anticipating industry trends, and is nimble enough
to reconfigure our equipment to cater to these new specifications.
We were the first company to have equipment necessary for 3D content, and
now we are gearing up for ultra high definition finishing and distribution.
Our clients have the piece of mind knowing that SpeedMedia will
always be ahead of any technology curve.
4. WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR COMPANY AND THE
INDUSTRY?
We’re constantly accruing new business, so we’re looking forward to building onto our list of stellar accounts. As veterans in this marketplace, we’ve seen a lot of competitors come and go, but we were here before most of them. And we’ll be here after the latest tech trends fizzle out. As a new technology launches, emerging companies compete, one acquires them all and becomes a monopoly, and then the cycle repeats itself. We have been through a few of these cycles, and plan to see many more in the years ahead.
5. HOW DID YOU ESTABLISH THAT FOUNDATION?
Well, besides just building a business, it’s been about building a
home for our talented team, and giving them a platform to grow. Our team is family.
My uncle used to tell me. "If you concentrate on building a business and
not the person, you will not achieve.
But, if you concentrate on building the person, you achieve both.” Many
of our biggest competitors just look at the bottom line and focus on building
an empire, acquiring others along the way, catering to investors… SpeedMedia
has been focused on building a team and prides itself on supporting one
another.
6. WOULD YOU DESCRIBE FOR US THE SPEEDMEDIA STUDIO?
It’s as comfy as possible. We’ve been in the same place for ten years
now, a block away from those iconic Venice letters. It’s a great place to be and
why we’ve never left. It’s a home away from home for our employees. We’ve got
big couches, a kitchen, televisions, even our own stocked bar for the monthly
company mixers. Stop by and you’ll see a little bit of Matrix code scrolling
down some of the walls, as this historic building was actually Joel Silver’s
production office back in the day. If
these walls could talk…
7. WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR CLIENTS?
It all started with Burger King Corp. I had a long-standing
relationship with the company, ever since my days back at Amoeba (Santa Monica
based advertising agency). I held a number of positions there, learned the
business inside and out. The experience and relationships cultivated there
helped me bring Burger King in as an anchor account to help launch SpeedMedia
back in 2007. We now work with a wide variety of brands, from Adidas to
Old Navy and Expedia to Jaguar Land Rover.
8. HAS THE AREA AROUND YOU CHANGED?
Venice is a living and breathing city, now more than ever. Despite silicon
beach moving into the area and putting a serious premium on real estate here,
we’re staying put. It’d have been cheaper to move inland a bit more, but then
that’s all it would have been an office, not a second home. We’d lose some of
our identity for sure.
9. WHAT’S IT LIKE RUNNING A BICOASTAL BUSINESS?
In our business it’s important to have a presence on both coasts. We have
some great clients in NYC and it’s nice to actually be local for them. Styles
of business on the east coast are a bit different than in LA. It actually used
to make more sense back in a tape-based workflow days, for national logistics.
We had a real-time exchange between coasts, creating physical handoffs. Now
we’re basically hard-lined together, operators in SoHo working remotely with
Venice Beach and vice versa, sharing assets and equipment, collaborating simultaneously
in perfect harmony, 24-hours a day. All thanks
to our proprietary order management software system MATRIX. This one of a kind system allows SpeedMedia
the unique ability to seamlessly integrate with every digital distribution
network globally via API tap-ins with our various technology partners. Thus, providing SpeedMedia with the largest
global footprint for delivery of digital content.
10. WHEN DID YOU KNOW
IT WAS TIME TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
Well, we were at the end of one of these cycles in the marketplace and
many of our brand relationships did not want to go along with the Monopoly that
was forming. That’s when we created
SpeedMedia. We listened to our clients,
and wanted to make sure they had a logical and reliable alternative in the
marketplace for post-production, distribution, and asset management. And here we are 10 years later.
Outside of the office, Kenny is a big fan of Harley Davidson
motorcycles, surfing, and a former 90’s limbo champion of Los Angeles. For more information regarding SpeedMedia capabilities
and services, please contact: info@speedmedia.com.
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About
- SpeedMedia is a digital service-provider for the
advertising and broadcast industries. Through its state-of-the-art facilities
in Los Angeles and New York, the company offers seamless
execution across all areas of post- production, distribution and asset
management. With its unique, integrated approach, SpeedMedia is able to give
clients the ability to consolidate their digital delivery into a single
workflow, resulting in a more cost effective and efficient handling of assets,
from initial concept to final execution.