The interview excerpt below is the second of a three-part series we conducted with Maggie Burke, a Video Leader and head of EMC TV. Below, Maggie shares her thoughts on the uniqueness of EMC TV and how other companies interested in getting more from their video investments might get started.

What is the vision behind EMC TV?
EMC TV is a new breed of corporate television.

How did EMC TV get its start?
We started out with a couple of guys and a little tiny studio doing talking heads, which is still where a lot of companies are today.  There’s nothing wrong with it, but the world of video has evolved.  We have evolved along with it.  We now have a team of 10 people doing premium content video, telling great stories in a visual manner and providing that to the broadest possible audience to build brand awareness, thought leadership and ultimately to impact the bottom line of EMC.

I’m sure a lot of storytellers at companies of all sizes would love to emulate the success of EMC TV. What would you say to someone who is just getting started?
The key person you need on your team if you are just building a TV team is a really good strong producer.  You can scale with vendors with camera folks and with technicians and with editors but the producer is the one who understands the story, who understands the messaging, who understands your company, understands your business and can translate into a video story.  So hiring a really great producer is a great start.

Are there enough great stories out there to warrant an investment in video?
The great stories are out there.  Whether you are selling radial tires or you’re selling data storage, the stories are there.  You have to think like a producer to sort of determine what makes a good story. Every story has an arc:  There’s a challenge.  There’s an obstacle to overcome.  There’s a champion.  There’s a payoff.  All of those elements, the sense of urgency, you want to look at it as a producer, like a television producer would.

But even with great stories that deliver good ROI, isn’t it pricey to create a video production operation?
The price point on the technology has come down to a point where you can make an investment in an infrastructure that will allow you to create very professional-looking video on a budget that most companies, I wouldn’t say all, but certainly most companies, even smaller and mid-sized companies could afford.  So with the technology coming down in price, the best way to go about creating an in‑house team is to go after people who have been in the industry.

What would you say to organizations that are trying to outsource all of their production?
I believe it’s strategically important to have an internal core team that can create video content and live broadcasts, and luckily I’m supported in that by our marketing executives who also see the value in that. It would be a lot more expensive to do this by bringing in vendors.  So we have studio facilities that allow us to have a constant stream of programming coming through.  We also just have some extremely talented and knowledgeable people inside the company that when we do scale with vendors, we were able to bring them in on an ad hoc basis and yet we are controlling the messaging again and the look and feel of what the content looks like.

So having an internal production team is important to getting more from your video investments?
Having an internal production organization is important to us because my team knows our executives.  We know the messaging.  We know our products.  We speak the language of EMC and that’s just immensely valuable.  I think that you can always scale with vendors but nobody understands your core business and the core messages like an internal team. And your team also creates the look and feel for all of your content, so you can be consistent as you roll it out.  You have a brand awareness that is created along with that.

Some skeptics would say that there are certain topics, data storage for example, that are too dry to create stories around. Give us an example of a compelling story about big data.
One of our producers and camera crew were in Maine recently doing a story in the Acadia National Park about EarthWatch Institute and the studies that they are doing with big data lakes. A ‘data lake’ is just massive amounts of data that has been gathered which is then analyzes using EMC technology. EarthWatch is using EMC technology to study climate change, bird migratory patterns. They’re studying just a vast amount of data to put together a picture of what’s changing in our climate, how it’s changing, and what if anything can be done to halt the destructive nature of what’s happening.

Even amidst EMC TV’s success, you must face some challenges. What would you say are the biggest challenges for EMC TV right now?
The biggest challenges for EMC TV right now are there are so many great stories out there, and it’s hard for us to do them all.  As with anybody in production, I’d always like to have more great people -- another 2 or 3 producers, another few great camera people and editors. Scaling is challenging sometimes, but I think as we continue to do great work, I’m hoping that we can grow the team.

Where does EMC TV see itself 2-3 years from now?
I think as we look forward 2 or 3 years from now, we just want to scale our ability to continue to do what we are doing and increase our ability to keep more of the projects in house.  We have this wonderful studio space. We also have green screen studios.  But infrastructure aside, the main idea is that we have to continue to do really great story telling.