Video Production Company vs. Advertising Agency: Which Do You Need?

If you’re planning a video ad campaign, you’ll quickly run into two kinds of companies: video production companies and advertising agencies. They overlap, they sometimes subcontract each other, and their websites can sound alike. Here’s how they differ and how to tell which one you need.

What a video production company does

A production company makes the video. That means the idea and script, casting and locations, the crew and cameras on the day, and the edit, color, sound and graphics afterward. You walk away with finished files, formatted for wherever they’ll run.

What a production company traditionally does not do is decide where the ad runs, buy the media, or tell you whether it worked. Once the files are delivered, the job is done.

What an advertising agency does

An agency plans and runs the advertising. That includes the strategy (who to reach, with what message, on which channels), the media buy itself, and the reporting. Larger agencies have creative departments; many hire a production company to actually shoot the spot.

The trade-off is distance. When the people who make the ad and the people who place it work for different companies, small things get lost between them: the cutdown that wasn’t shot, the vertical version nobody planned, the creative that keeps running after it stops working.

Where the two meet

Some companies, especially in local and regional markets, do both. They write and shoot the commercial, buy the media on connected TV and social, and report on results. That’s how we work at Snowy Peak Films: we make the spot, place it, and report on one number, what it costs to put a booked job on your calendar. See how the full program works in our commercial production and TV advertising overview.

Which do you need?

Choose a production company if

• You already have a media buyer or an agency you’re happy with.
• You need a specific film, such as a brand story or training series, that isn’t an ad.
• Your team will run the campaign in-house.

Choose an agency if

• You need strategy and media across many channels, including print, radio and search.
• Your budget and timeline call for a large team and you’re outsourcing production anyway.

Choose a team that does both if

• You want the people who shoot the commercial to also plan where it runs.
• You’re moving into streaming TV and want it sequenced with Meta rather than launched all at once. Here’s how we approach CTV and OTT advertising.
• You care more about cost per lead and booked jobs than about impressions.

A note for law firms

Personal injury and trial firms run into this question more than most, because their markets are crowded and their ads face extra rules. We cover how production and placement work together for attorneys on our law firm advertising page.

Frequently asked questions

Not sure which you need? Request a free quote or call 720.398.4668. We respond within one business day.