Sikander Iqbal, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
 

Chick-fil-A Getting into the Video Business

Posted August 23, 2023
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Every business is getting into video. This is good news for anyone who wants to break into the industry.

As the world becomes more and more video-centric, almost every business is realizing that they need to get into video for themselves.

While sourcing job posts for the jobs section of the site we came across an opening at Chick-fil-A. This wasn’t a job opening for a fry cook or cashier but for an entertainment producer. Here’s the description for the job:

“The Entertainment Producer is a new project-based role at Chick-fil-A, charged with overseeing the day-to-day creative production of a new video and podcast series. This new role is charged with realizing our annual slate to make Chick-fil-A’s soon-to-be launched PLAY entertainment app a valuable experience.”

As you can see this is going to be a big operation for Chick-fil-A. This isn’t just managing the company Tik Tok or uploading a few YouTube videos, this is a whole video endeavor with a media app from the company. 

It used to be that if Chick-fil-A, or any business for that matter, wanted video they would turn to a big production company to make an an ad for them. This would be a very costly endeavor and would result in a handful of ads running on TV or the web. (Remember the cows protesting to eat more chicken campaign?)

Now, two important changes have caused companies like Chick-fil-A to shift their media strategy. First, production costs have become much lower. With smartphones and other low-cost production tools companies no longer have to depend on production companies with all the gear and experience to make video content, they can have in-house staff who can manage just as well, and churn out a much higher volume of content. Secondly is the reimagining of what kind of content a company needs. Gone are the days when all a company can do is a simple advertisement, now entertainment can be a way for a company to promote their products. Whether it’s a video series or podcasts (as outlined in the job post) companies can utilize new distribution networks, like social media (or their own apps in this case) to make entertaining content to create connections between brands and consumers. 

Ironically, this is not so dissimilar from early television with whole programs sponsored by a single company — like Texaco Star Theatre. The difference now is that instead of relying on a handful of studios and networks to produce content, thanks to the internet they can produce and distribute it themselves. 

What Chick-fil-A ends up doing with this soon-to-be-released ‘entertainment app’ is yet to be seen and whether they use it just to push ads is possible. This does, however, offer an interesting opportunity for companies to change the way they think about their content and this is part of a larger trend across businesses around the world. 

For you, this means that there are going to be a lot more video jobs out there for you.

 


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