PUSH BACK. PLEASE.

Things are going well. The videos look great. The views are up. The boss is happy. So naturally, the instinct is to do it again. Same formula. Same approach. Maybe a tweak on the colours.

And that’s the beginning of the problem.

There's a saying worth keeping in your back pocket: "What got us here, won't necessarily get us where we want to go." Video production is no different. Storytelling evolves. Equipment evolves. The social platforms your audience lives on? They evolve faster than anyone can track. If your videos are a carbon copy of last year's work, you're already behind.

And here's something most customers don't realize — creatives actually want to be challenged.

Years ago, local TV stations turned out restaurant commercials by the bushel (they could afford TV back then). Most of the commercials looked the same. Show the building. Show the food. Show the owner (and perhaps their dog).

Then along came The Santa Fe Grill. The owner was, to put it diplomatically, particular. Scripts went through draft after draft. Nothing landed easily.

We went through dozens of music cuts, landing on something that was a cross between Flight of Bumblebee and Tequila! (Grant can still hum it to this day).

We auditioned several announcers until we picked a stand-up comedian from Vancouver. The voice-over session lasted an hour, with every type of delivery we could come up with.

And we shot the commercial with an (new at the time) 8mm prosumer digital camera that allowed us to dial down the frame rate, effectively giving us a lag effect that became our commercial’s “look”.

The result? A full restaurant (most important) and a Silver award at the Television Bureau of Canada Awards (it got Grant a raise).

This never would have happened without a challenging client.

Don't be afraid to push your creatives.