Promotional content for every screen

Television isn’t what it used to be. Streaming, binge watching and conversing on social media are now the norm and the sheer volume of content dwarves what it was just 10 years ago. As a result, broadcast and cable networks must compete even more fiercely for audiences.

Nicholas Economides, Creative Manager at Fox Networks Group Germany (FNG), is no stranger to the challenges his industry faces and he’s had a front-row seat for many of the changes that have taken place behind the scenes. After several years in theatrical marketing in the United States, Economides moved to Munich to head up the FNG Germany creative services department. With the dramatic increases in content and consumption, promotional departments must not only keep pace, but ramp up the volume and velocity of the content they create.

FOX is an iconic market leader known for producing award-winning entertainment content. With a large portfolio that includes the FOX entertainment channel, as well as the National Geographic and National Geographic Wild channels within the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, the promotional department for FNG Germany is always working to find creative new ways to promote the network’s entertainment content.

“When I started about three years ago, it was basically an on-air department, meaning we cut trailers and promos for TV spots, with maybe a little bit of social media on the side,” says Economides. “That strategy has shifted dramatically. We’ve exponentially increased our efforts in the digital space. Today, about two-thirds of our output is digital and only one-third is on-air.”

Switching to a faster workflow

By creating technologies that get out of the way, Adobe helps teams like the FNG Germany creative services department produce a high volume of creative content that reaches viewers across multiple devices, channels and locations. This year, the team expects to produce about 1,500 spots, split evenly between original work and localisation projects that re-purpose content from the United States. The department also regularly deals with tight deadlines. “Usually we have about two to three days tops to deliver two to three spots,” says Economides.

When Economides first joined the FNG Germany creative services team, he and his colleagues used Avid, alongside Adobe After Effects for some motion graphics and visual effects work, but found this set up to be less than ideal given increasingly fast-paced project demands. Because Avid creates its own media files, the team would have to render and import each file and each new version when working with After Effects.

After seeing that technology was getting in the way of production and preventing the team from adapting to modern viewership demands, Economides decided to switch the department to Adobe Premiere Pro. The team completed two or three days of hands-on training with an Adobe-certified instructor and then started to transition from the Avid workflow to one rooted in Adobe Creative Cloud.

“You shouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of technology and if you’re finding yourself being frustrated with the software you’re working with, then it’s probably worth considering a change,” says Economides. “The transition from Avid to a wholly Adobe Creative Cloud workflow saved us a tonne of time given our high volume of graphics and many different outputs, allowing us to focus more on creative efforts.”

Meeting digital demand

The idea to change editing software proved fortuitous, as the group now comfortably handles its increasingly large and digitally driven workload. Adobe Premiere Pro speeds up the editing process and supports the production of content with interchangeable aspect ratios, meaning less work when optimising a video for a social network, online or broadcast spot and more time to spend on creative endeavour.

“When I look at the work log that we have now compared to a couple of years ago, I don’t think we would be able to deal with our current volume in an Avid workflow,” says Economides. “The seamless integration between Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects is a huge time saver.”

Several departments use Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise in parallel with the creative services department, including the marketing, PR and digital teams, which use Adobe Photoshop for image editing and Illustrator for graphics.

Built-in efficiency

The creative services team takes advantage of the seamless integration between Premiere Pro and After Effects, which eliminates the need for time-consuming renders, imports and updates and provides a smoother, more collaborative experience among the individuals working on a project. Additionally, editors can edit raw files and other formats in Premiere Pro, speeding up content localisation.

“We’ve been able to work more quickly than before so that’s already a huge improvement,” says Economides.

Now, Economides is looking to expand his team’s use of Creative Cloud for enterprise with new features, including Motion Graphics templates for increasing efficiency in versioning promos. The team also does a lot of work with audio and translations, especially when localising content for the German, Austrian and Swiss markets. The new Auto Ducking features in Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro, which are powered by Adobe Sensei, will automatically cut the time it takes to balance dialogue and music within a single track.

By adopting an integrated workflow, the FNG Germany creative services team not only handles the volume demands of production, they also output content for more channels to reach consumers across apps, social networks and devices. As a result, the network can continue engaging audiences to keep them coming back to the FOX content they love.

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