Red Bangle’s technological innovations navigating video demand and brand content space in a dynamic landscape

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Lakshmi Rebecca, Co-founder, Red Bangle.

How has Red Bangle successfully addressed challenges in meeting the growing demand for films and videos over its 7-year journey?

We’ve spent the last 7 years solving a specific problem for large and fast-growing businesses – meeting their ever-growing demand for films and videos across continents, formats, and genres. We built a professional creative and production team, a curated community of filmmakers across 100 countries, and the processes and the technology to solve this problem at scale.

Today, we’ve made over 4000 pieces of film and video content. Along the way, we’ve built strong relationships with clients – learning from them and learning with them. While our global offerings around film and video as well as on-demand video crews continue to grow, we are now stepping into a bold new game in the India region.

Building on our learnings from crafting films & videos across brand marketing, corporate communications, PR, CSR, and employer branding across industries ranging from gaming to healthcare – we have decided to forward integrate our services.

How do brand content solution providers navigate the challenge of maintaining authenticity and transparency in their campaigns?

The society we live in is one of vocal opinions and online activism. People are both loyal and divided in their loyalties. Therefore, for brands today, engaging around an ideology or a social or environmental theme is more important than just selling products and services.

Therefore, at Red Bangle, we encourage brands to go beyond the immediate product benefit and business goals, to take a holistic approach that considers the context the target audience lives in, and the socio-economic and environmental trends that influence purchase decisions and lifestyles.

We start by looking at brand values that can be extended to a socially- or environmentally-relevant meaning, and using this as a foundation – communicate and campaign in an engaging manner. This is a strategic direction that then translates into how we ideate and craft content, and distribute it for the client. It’s an inside-out approach that will be sustainable and authentic, and not an outside-in one. The “why” and the “why now” are top priorities, along with the “what”, “how”, “where” and “when”.

What opportunities and challenges does Red Bangle anticipate in expanding its presence in India as a Brand Content Production company?

Red Bangle sees a significant opportunity for growth in the large B2C enterprise market. This is the segment the company plans to focus efforts and maximize potential. However, in pursuing this opportunity, the challenge of scaling up operations while maintaining quality becomes paramount. We recognize this challenge and have proactively prepared to address it. By prioritizing quality throughout our efforts to scale –  by way of the right leadership, processes, and technology – we aim to ensure that our strategic solutions and services remain effective, efficient, and aligned with the high expectations both within our organisation and from our clients.

How has the landscape of brand content solutions evolved over the years, and what key trends do you see shaping the industry’s future?

The marketing landscape is continually evolving. We have seen that with the explosion of digital media, no brand can just make one TV commercial and believe that that one piece of content will create a lasting impact. Today’s brands need multiple pieces of content that address consumers/prospects at different stages of the consumer journey. 3000 pieces of content instead of 3 pieces of content, at a lower price per piece and with faster turnaround times.

Traditional agencies generally lack the capabilities required to handle diverse content formats and mediums and to create content at scale. This limitation has led to the emergence of key trends aimed at addressing these challenges:

Trend 1: Integrated Solutions – Clients increasingly demand comprehensive solutions for their marketing communication needs. They seek a one-stop-shop that can handle all aspects of their marketing, rather than having to deal with multiple agency silos. This trend has been observed in major mergers or new agency launches, such as Wunderman Thompson merging with VML and Omnicom Advertising Services.

Trend 2: Openness to Explore New Mediums and Formats – Established companies are now more open to exploring innovative ways of reaching and engaging consumers. An example of this is Britannia’s “world of biscuits” campaign, which utilized generative AI. New-age agencies play a crucial role in assisting brands to stay relevant in today’s ever-changing landscape.

Trend 3: Brands want to engage agencies on a project-basis or on an outcome-basis. No more retainers.

What role does technology play in Red Bangle’s streamlined processes for content production, and how does it contribute to the company’s overall efficiency?

From how we capture briefs, schedule projects, store files to review videos – we’ve built a unique proprietary technology that allows us to do all of this and more on the cloud. At scale, this means, we’ll be a leaner team, won’t drop the ball on project deadlines and clients can make as much as content as they need, and still never go hunting for a file again.

At scale, we’ll probably be at least 20% more efficient than most of our counterparts – given the technology investments we have made and continue to make.

How important is the integration of storytelling in brand content solutions, and what impact does it have on audience engagement and brand perception?

Storytelling makes the world go around. From a child that’s told a story at bedtime, to how a friend narrates a holiday experience to another – it’s all storytelling. Storytelling is what makes the smallest of things humane, memorable, sticky, worth sharing. And contextually-relevant storytelling is what builds brand loyalty.

So, whether it’s a young audience for a music brand or an older audience for an earthy cosmetics brand – how we communicate what we communicate matters. The narratives we craft, the more relatable the brand stories are, the more human-, emotion-centric and shareable the content is, and the more the audience can engage or participate with the brand’s content as individuals and as communities – all matter.

What unique value does Red Bangle’s CONNECT service bring to content distribution strategies, and how does it contribute to maximizing reach and ROI?

CONNECT helps brands take powerful content out to their audience on the right mediums, at the right time. From detailed audience profiling and targeting, tailored media plans, performance marketing, analysis and ROI measurement – CONNECT runs on data and drives results for investments in brand content.

What’s most important is that with THINK, CREATE, PLAY and CONNECT all being within the organisation – which is designed to solution together for the client – the research and understanding around the target audience drives not just the strategy, but also how the content is then distributed to create a brand CONNECT.