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Digital Agency Scaling Video Production with Frame.io Integration
Company Situation
The company operates a digital advertising agency specializing in creating video ads for solar installation companies. Their team currently consists of about 15 editors, with plans to grow to approximately 40 by the end of the year. The agency produces a high volume of video content, generating roughly 400 video ads per month, with output steadily increasing as their company base expands.
Existing Workflow
The agency leverages Frame.io for video storage, collaboration, and review. All raw shoot footage and ad creatives are uploaded to the platform, which serves as the central hub for briefing and editing. Editors primarily use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects to produce the ads. The agency pays editors per piece of edited footage, and editors currently download and upload footage manually to work on projects.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
As the team scaled beyond 15 users, the agency encountered significant challenges with Frame.io’s pricing and storage model. They were forced to move to an expensive enterprise plan with steep annual fees, including a significant jump to an expensive enterprise tier, with further costs projected to increase substantially for necessary external storage. The storage allocation per user was far less than expected, creating bottlenecks in handling large volumes of shoot footage (approximately 3TB currently, projected to grow to 25-50TB). Additionally, the manual process of downloading and uploading footage wastes editor time, limiting overall output and slowing delivery of ads to companies. These issues impact their ability to ramp up production efficiently and keep ad delivery turnaround times fast, which directly affects company satisfaction and campaign performance.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a pricing and storage model aligned more closely with the agency’s scaling needs. Instead of limiting storage per user to a small quota, Shade provides a pooled storage system with 1TB per user included—meaning 15 users receive 15TB free, scaling to 40TB for 40 users without hidden costs. Additional storage is priced competitively at $480 per active terabyte per year, roughly 60% less than the agency’s current Frame.io quote. Crucially, Shade integrates directly with editing software, allowing editors to access footage live within Premiere Pro or After Effects without the need for time-consuming downloads and uploads. This streamlines the post-production process, enabling editors to increase output per hour and reduce turnaround times significantly.
Benefits
- Cost Efficiency: Significantly lower and more predictable storage and user seat pricing compared to existing enterprise plans.
- Scalable Storage: Pooled storage model that grows with the team, accommodating large volumes of raw and edited footage seamlessly.
- Improved Workflow: Direct integration with editing tools eliminates manual file transfers, accelerating editing cycles.
- Faster Delivery: Reduced post-production bottlenecks enable quicker ad delivery, improving company satisfaction and campaign results.
- Flexible Team Growth: Ability to onboard more editors without disproportionate cost increases or storage constraints.