Creative+Code

A Gut Punch, Kinda…

We were on our way to the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in New Orleans to see Snarky Puppy when my client, one of my dearest clients, told me something that was a bit of a gut punch.

As the rain glistened on the windshield, and I struggled to parallel park on Rampart, he said,

“Wes, You can't put creative services and technology together in the same company, you have to pick one. Your prospects will always be confused about your value if you try to do both…..”

We were talking about the challenges I was having in communicating what the hell we were doing with our Creative Services+Technology business model in version47. His comment came from the position of a client who valued getting his business needs met in a creative way, which ultimately took the form of a video. That's what HE was buying when he engaged with us, and to his ear, what I was describing wasn't that.

Custom Tools

And while his advice was correct and wise, I didn't take it. Snarky Puppy closed the set with a Shofukan encore, and on the way home, I told him exactly what I'm going to tell you today.

Yes, clients are buying access to having their business needs met in novel, creative ways, but the dollars spent on Creative Services are making less and less sense without the leverage that technology provides in the form of Custom Tools.

My name is Wes, I'm a creative director and a filmmaker. My company is called version47, a video production studio. I'm partnered with a Software Developer and together we do commercial video work that seeks to deliver MORE content to our clients by combining the worlds of creative and code. We are pioneering in the category of custom video automation, and I'm going to start with an explainer video that defines this category as we see it.

3 Acts

In this talk, I'm here to tell you that the new paradigm of creative services will require you to take what you know well—Creativity+Craft—and add to it that which you may not know yet: the integration of Technology into your craft in new and interesting ways.

Right now, this is something of a differentiator, but my position is that in the years to come it's going to be the cost of admission to Creative Entrepreneurship.

• •Act 1: Research around what our clients are actually buying from us.
• •Act 2: Unpacking the mirage of value that AI offers, with a framework for Value Creation.
• •Act 3: Case studies in the growing category of Custom Video Automation.

Why Care?

As creative entrepreneurs, we're increasingly put on the spot to prove our worth to clients in ways we haven't before. The single biggest challenge we face? Proving ROI.

It's my hope that you leave this talk with both inspiration and concrete takeaways to apply in your business.

Hooked on a Feeling

If you work in Creative Services, you probably already know that initially, clients buy the feeling of a problem being solved creatively by a human partner they connect with.

The ®evolution is about cultivating and protecting that initial chemistry while ensuring it translates into long-term, valuable partnerships—always looking for new ways to deliver more, often by building customized tools.

Some Assumptions

The New Mandate: Scale, Speed, and Proof

The human connection is still the product—but the market demands it in a new package.

Two forces drive this:

1. Scale: Atomizing ideas into multi-channel campaigns.
2. Proof: Flat budgets and client demand for measurable ROI.

The AI Mirage

Clients turn to AI for shortcuts, but often discover what I call the AI Mirage: a gap between the tool and the accomplishment.

Michael Lee, VCCP London: “The real opportunity is using AI to become more effective—not just more efficient.”

I call this the saving money is fucking boring dynamic. Efficiency is boring. Creating new frameworks of possibility? Not boring at all.

A McKinsey study proved that top-tier creative drives 67% higher organic revenue growth. Using the tool without the craft leaves that growth on the table.

Value Creation in a Shifting Landscape

Value Creation is how we answer the ROI question.

The Value Pyramid

Top (Intangible)

Authenticity, resonance, relevance, brand trust.

Iteration lives at the top, because evolving over time always wins over one-shot attempts.

Middle

Dynamism—things “talking” that normally don't, adaptability, foresight.

Bottom (Easy to Measure)

Efficiency—save time, save money.

Before There Were Custom Toolsets…

Commercial video once belonged to an elite few. That changed with YouTube (2005), Canon 5D MkII (2010), MP4 standardization (2012), and Adobe Creative Cloud (2013).

The next frontier? Custom Toolsets.

A Hockey Game in Nashville

My journey began in 2010 at a Predators vs. Blackhawks game, phone in hand, struck by the feeling of following the action. That spark led me into video production and eventually to building custom video automation tools.

A Tale of 2 Creative Directors

version47 is made up of myself, the Creative Director of Content, and my partner, the Creative Director of Code.

Together, we're proving that when creative pros and creative technologists collaborate, clients win.

Videosplainin'

Every good business video has three things:

1. A Roll: What you say
2. B Roll: What you show
3. Brand: Graphics that wrap around it

That's the essence of design-driven video content.

Iterator

Our tool, Iterator, leverages creative rigor to deliver more video content from the same production investment.

It's not about shortcuts—it's about creating Creative Archetypes that allow both quality and quantity.