This post is part of an ongoing series called Going Deeper where we look at branded content production through the lens of the world’s most important question: why.

Last week we concluded our list of reasons why you might want to be thinking about branded content as part of your marketing mix, and hopefully we were persuasive in our arguments, and so your natural next question will be how you go about actually procuring some branded content.

Typically, brands work either with a traditional advertising agency, or – increasingly more common – directly with a production partner – a production company that specializes in branded content. And as soon as you have some sense of what type of branded content you’d like to produce, and you have a sense of your budget, timelines and eventual audience, it’s time to start looking for that production partner.

This week we’re going to look at a couple of ways to start to look for potential candidates: recommendations and comparable work experience.

Recommendations

It’s all about who you know, and who they know. Ask your network of marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs – both on social media and IRL – about production partners they’ve worked for and what their experiences were, good and bad.

To ensure you get a diverse list of options, talk to people in your network who come from different backgrounds. If you only ask people who are the same age, race and gender, you’ll likely get a homogeneous set of recommendations.

If you get recommendations, make sure to check out their body of work. Most production companies will proudly display their best work on their website for you to see. And that’s great, but feel free to dig a little deeper on their YouTube or Vimeo profile, and particularly look to see how they’ve handled work that feels similar to what you’re hoping to achieve – but also bear in mind that client budget and approvals can have a big bearing on how final pieces turn out.

Experience

One way to find the ideal production partner is to sift through YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram or Facebook to find examples of branded content that you like (and that feel fairly similar to what you’re trying to do) and then figure out who produced those pieces.

Often you’ll see a company name credited as a Producer in the credits underneath the video. Google that name and take a look at what else they’ve done.

Use keyword searches to find production companies that have produced videos that may share common ground with your brand and its values.

Next up we’re going to look at some of the characteristics of production partners that you’ll want to bear in mind when evaluating which one is the right fit for your branded content project.