A chance encounter with someone who worked in TV got Renece Brewster initially hooked on video.
Eight years ago, she co-founded one of the country’s most successful video production companies, Visual Domain, delivering more than 200 videos a week.
Much later, a chance encounter with an email marketing campaign from a local supermarket gave her a new idea: to create personalised videos offering a completely new way for clients to connect with an audience.
Data Collective was launched in July 2015 and creates data driver personalised videos in seconds, combining her two loves of tech and video. Still the CEO of Visual Domain, raising kids and training for a marathon, Brewster shares what she’s learnt about business and leadership, and why she eats a Magnum in bed every night.
Tell us about how you came up with the idea for Data Creative?
As a communications medium I love video! It is so emotive and engaging and after co-founding Visual Domain a video production company 8 years earlier I had seen time and time again how it delivers results. Data Creative was really born from the thought process of “how can we make this better”. Funnily enough it was actually an EDM from my supermarket that included “my weekly specials” that sparked the idea if they can make these EDM’s personalised why can’t we do that in a video? The Data Creative platform combines video content and data to create personalised videos, the result is personally relevant, one to one communications that our clients can deliver to their audiences.
The Data Creative platform is API integrated with our clients CRM, database or online form which means we make the creation process as seamless as possible as videos are triggered via determined data milestones. The Data Creative platform can personalise things like the video content that goes into the video, graphics, text, stats, voice and decision making points and interactivity, however what is probably most exciting about this is that its all done in real time! This means we can create a video in under 4 seconds and deliver it to the individual in just the right moment of time. This is perhaps what excites me most about the platform because we have the power to be so timely with these emotive communications and we’re seeing the result of this already!
What’s the most exciting thing about working in video? What do you love about it?
I actually really love the emotional and personal connections that come with producing video content. At Visual Domain we were creating over 200 videos a week for some of Australia’s leading large and small businesses. Our success not only came from the results that the videos gave our clients but I also think it was the experience we gave our clients. Waking up in the morning knowing you’re going to be staring in a video is for most of us not a typical day and I think this vulnerability and trust we developed with our clients is really what attracted me to the space and where I get the most pleasure from working so intimately with them. While Data Creative is very different it still has this very vulnerable and trusting nature. Clients essentially share their strengths and weaknesses in uncovering their data and where they have identified they can be communicating better. Success is far more measurable too and the ROI we’ve experienced with each campaign to date has been mind blowing so its incredibly rewarding to see something you’ve created work so well.
Did you plan a career in video production, how did it get started?
Not at all! My background was tech and online marketing and operation, video production came about by a chance meeting with my business partner who worked in TV at Visual Domain 8 years ago but ever since I have been hooked. Now I get the ability to combine tech and video together and in such a scalable way I’m excited to stretch our capabilities globally.
This is your second major business, the first being Visual Domain. Is it any easier the second time round? Do you find yourself making less mistakes?
I certainly have a much better understanding of what I’m getting myself into the second time around. Running and owning your own business is such a rollercoaster, not just day by day but hour by hour. I think it tests your character and what your capable of both mentally and physically in almost every way. The second time around I’m certainly eyes wide open to the things I learnt at Visual Domain. I know how important building the right team is and staying on top of cash flow with military discipline. I have a little more confidence so things that might have stressed me 8 years ago are taken in stride but this is a whole new world I’m entering. I use to sell a video production for $5,000 now I’m integrating my platform with billion dollar companies working with their security and tech teams and understanding global markets! No doubt I still have a lot of mistakes to make but hopefully now I have the experience to make them quicker and learn much faster than before.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt about leadership and how did you learn it?
You’re team are everything and if they have a problem, you have a problem. It doesn’t matter how trivial it might seem or how much I might have on my plate at the time, your team are everything so they need to know you have their back no matter what the situation. I definitely learnt this the hard way. Stressed, stretched and scared in the early days I failed to trust the team as much as a should and when things were tough I was too caught up with what i was dealing with to have scope for them. This is now a non-negotiable no matter what I’m dealing with in the business they always come first.
Is it true you eat a Magnum every night before bed? We read this in another profile. Are they paying you to say that?
Ha ha, sadly yes its true and no they have not, I really need to get on to that! From Monday to Friday between kids, business and training for a marathon I literally do not stop ever! Eating a magnum in bed each night is often the calm indulgent highlight of my day!
