What Happened in 2019?

When Leo Falkenstein and Michael Rosenberg started Consume Media in 2012, they were finishing up their third year at the University of Georgia and decided that starting their own “company” sounded more fun than getting summer internships.

Consume Media began by creating video content for concerts and parties around Athens. They figured the worst-case scenario would be that they’d have some fun and get better at using cameras. Best case scenario, they’d make some money and maybe this thing would last.

A lot has changed over the last 8 years, but two things have stayed constant. 1. Consume Media still exists. 2. Consume Media still makes videos.

In the beginning, the stakes are so low. Quitting is easy and nobody would blame you for getting a “real job.” But success keeps you going. You gain a tiny bit of momentum. You get a paying client. You create something that makes a client happy. You get a faint taste of the fruits of your labor.  

Leo and Michael loved creating videos. They figured video would continue to impact the future, so they bet on video. Thus far, it has worked out.

Fast forward to 2020, and Consume Media has a whole team of talented individuals, a well-known client base, and has developed a reputation as an established video marketing agency. 

2019 was a year of growth for Consume Media. We increased our revenue by 30%, tripled our number of clients on retainer, and created our most labor-intensive project to date. Internally, our team grew, our departments evolved, our culture developed, and we increased capabilities. Externally, our client base grew (which involved some travel), our industry knowledge has flourished, and our clients now get more out of their assets than ever before. 

Here is a year in review at Consume Media!

In 2019, our fam grew from six to eight.

Reid Shapiro became our first full-time employee focused on sales & business development.

Lawson Powers was added as an assistant editor and has also turned out to be an audio engineer extraordinaire.

Lindsay Baratelle, our talented producer/director, is our newest member and joins me as our number of female employees has expanded to two! Yay! 

As the business and team has grown, roles shift and evolve.

Leo and Michael still do a ton of work in the weeds, but a large part of their jobs has evolved into overseeing and managing the business.

Louis Galanti now has a post-production team (aka Lawson) which has allowed him to be far more efficient.

Jason Tyre has flourished as an editor and camera operator and has also started to take a more creative lead in the production process.

My role has evolved from being mainly digital marketing focused to being more customer success focused, which has also involved me more in the production process.

As we expanded the Consume team, we also developed more established departments: Success and Creative.
The Success team encompasses business development, strategy creation, project management, marketing, and, of course, customer success.

The Creative team handles the actual creation of the video content, everything from scriptwriting, filming, and editing.
That said, one of the many things we love about having a small team is that by the end of every video project, each team member has put their hands on it. The more minds that contribute to a creative project, the more robust the finished product becomes.

As our team has grown, our company culture grew too. Basically, we started having more enforced fun.

We had some office outings (including a Dave Matthews Band concert!), implemented a quote of the week and beverage of the week (think Kombucha, cold brew, etc.), and welcomed a few more office dogs to the family.

In the name of improving our product, we welcomed some new gear and equipment to the Consume family!
We made a few purchases that allowed us to increase our capabilities (like a camera dolly track) and some things that allowed us to improve existing skillsets (like fancier tripods).

Our biggest and most important purchase falls somewhere in the middle – a production vehicle, AKA Stan the Van! While we have a fantastic studio at our office, the majority of our filming takes place on-site. As you may imagine, transporting gear is a huge and frequent undertaking. Not only does Stan the Van make the life of the production team significantly easier, but it also means Leo and Michael’s cars no longer have to be gear transportation workhorses!

Our tentacles have expanded within Atlanta and beyond. We acquired a lot of new clients in 2019, most of which came from referrals. Whenever a client refers a friend or new employer to us, it means the absolute world.

We put customer relationships and happiness at the center of everything we create, so when someone trusts us enough to send more business our way, it’s genuinely touching. 

That being said, we did have a few instances of someone seeing our video out in the wild (usually LinkedIn), thinking I want this same video for my company, reaching out to us, then becoming a client. This is how we found ourselves in Dallas creating a video for AT&T Stadium.

In 2019, we traveled more than ever before!

We visited San Diego to create a video strategy for Sola Salons, Dallas to film at AT&T Stadium, Kansas City to film with Filtronetics, an electronics manufacturer, and all over south Georgia with Georgia Farm Bureau.

Most importantly, we took our editor/camera operator, Jason, out of the south and on his first airplane! Don’t worry, we held his hand the whole time.

Whether it’s through a referral, an agency, or people finding our work on their own, we are always thrilled to attract clients in different geographic locations.

We are always hungry to learn and grow our expertise across many different industries.

In 2019, we created video strategies for SaaS companies, municipalities, insurance agencies, stadiums, non-profits organizations, wealth management firms, NFL teams, fashion companies, and more.

We pride ourselves on being industry-agnostic and are always hungry to learn more about our clients’ industries. In 2019, we learned more about SAP integrations, tourism marketing, and Georgia’s agriculture industry than we ever imagined! Speaking of which, did you know that agriculture is our state’s #1 industry? 😄

We are constantly looking for ways to provide our clients with more value. In 2019, that largely came in the form of repurposing video footage for different uses.

Whether it’s for ads, micro-videos for organic social, or other video projects- we have become more efficient and strategic at repurposing our client’s content to help them get the most bang-for-the-buck.

We created more social media ads than ever before and saw these ads decrease our client’s cost per acquisition. Micro videos (5-15 second videos used on social media) were also a huge trend we saw more clients posting in 2019.

For several clients, we were able to film one day of b-roll and repurpose that content across several different video projects, helping to save them time and money.

2019 was dope, 2020 will be doper.

We have goals for 2020, but realistically, we are going to take this one-day-at-a-time. We’d like to expand into media buying, retain our current clients, gain larger ones, grow our team, and expand our network and reputation.

Our industry is constantly evolving and we plan to keep our finger on the pulse and evolve with it. Our clients will continue having new needs and goals, and we will continue thinking outside the box to achieve these goals with video.

We’re really excited for 2020. In fact, the selfie of Leo below is our 2020 mood. Thus far, we started a podcast (listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get podcasts 😎) and now have an unlimited supply of peanut butter pretzels, so I’d say the year is off to a great start.