Recording Growth

Given the relentless march of technology, you might think the video production industry would be moribund.

Beyond the more than 100 million videos on YouTube, professional-grade video editing software has never been easier to obtain. Furthermore, smart phones are equipped to allow users to upload video at any time, from anywhere.

Despite that trend, Ren Scott's video production company is growing. In fact, revenues from the production side doubled in recession-dominated 2009.

“A lot of people are falling apart,” Scott acknowledges. “But we've got people knocking on our door.”

Combine that growth in production services with a media-buying operation that handles transaction volumes of roughly $2.5 million, and you get Ren Scott Productions, a young Tampa-based company nearing the $1 million mark in annual revenues.

Bay area residents may recognize the owner: Scott is a former evening news anchor for ABC Action News' 5 p.m. program. Few probably know about Scott's previous experience with N.W. Ayer, an advertising agency formerly based in New York, since purchased by the Paris-based Publicis Group.

With this newest venture, started in 2005 following his departure from the evening news, Scott has gone back to his old ways, building advertising campaigns with televised and Web-based video products.

RSP specializes in the niche 30-minute infomercial that advertises medical services. Over the past two years, Scott says his business has worked with more than 100 doctors from 150 markets.

His company's work has caught on with clients across the country, with customers as far as Pennsylvania, California and Montana calling his office looking to work together.

Furthermore, he's proud of the return on investment his products have been able to generate for his customers. One medical client in Springfield, Mo., receives an average of 165 calls per week from an advertisement that costs $12,000 a month.

In Tampa, RSP works with Dr. Richard Castellano, a facial plastic surgeon. The television advertising he buys generates roughly 100 leads in an average month; as of today, Castellano is booked for the next two months out.

Scott's company has also recently collaborated with Magnetic, a Tampa-based web design company, to add new, front-and-center videos to each page of their revitalized website. Since that change, Magnetic's Web traffic has doubled.

RSP has had an impact on local charities, as well. Its video work helped the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay raise $354,000 to support their non-profit organization — a record-breaking number made more impressive by doing it in the midst of a recession.

That success helped RSP win the honor of 2009 Philanthropic Small Business of the Year, awarded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a group with 30,000 members and 206 chapters worldwide.

Even considering its recent successes, RSP probably won't pursue large-scale client growth anytime soon. Instead, Scott hopes to develop his company's ability to meet all of its clients' advertising needs — in many respects, a sort of ad agency for the small and middle market.

The company's next step to increase that ability will be focusing on its own image, making sure potential clients understand the full range of what RSP can do. “We spend so much time refining other people's messages,” Scott says. “Now we're refining ours.”

But already, Scott is proud of what he's been able to accomplish with his young company. “I've really started to understand the value of what we do,” he says.

— Alex Walsh