#Longform: In the local and regional market, Echo positions itself as a global boutique Production House

This article is also available in Vietnamese.


The SEA region has long been a fertile playground for numerous advertising and production companies. However, the “quality over quantity” principle has set extremely strict penetration barriers allowing only a handful of local players to enter this attractive field. 


Echo Production House is among a few of these who get the chance to exhibit its production ability and core values to both the local and regional markets.

 




In 2007, Echo Production House was founded by Yann Williot and Lien Dang in Ho Chi Minh City. Their goal was to become a Global Boutique Production House! As well as focusing on domestic areas, Echo expanded its market to Singapore in 2017. Here they could offer the best support for agencies & production houses in SEA, who are searching for reliable partners to shoot in Vietnam. 


Since then, the brains behind this team have been seamlessly delivering TVCs, digital videos and production services in both local and regional markets. 





Echo’s agility helps them adapt to overcome difficult obstacles that come their way. This is considered as a survival kit in the advertising and production industry. Now that trendspotting and multicultural communication are indispensable, this concept creates an agile backbone for disrupted ideas and executions to flourish. In this Covid-19 era, the production ability in fluctuations across various environments is even more pivotal.


After years of applying “agility” as their core philosophy, Echo’s reach now stretches beyond Vietnam boundaries to become a preferential production house in the SEA area.


From Regional works: 


The mission of bringing Vietnam’s services to the SEA region officially began in 2017 when Echo first penetrated the Singaporean market. To succeed in regional-scaled pitches, Echo has to compete with big names from Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines, who have decades of experience. 


However, the good thing about regional jobs is that their pre-production stage is usually longer compared to the local ones. Thus, Echo can have more time for anticipating up-coming schedules and organizing their team properly, resulting in a higher standard of film production! 



These include Publicis Groupe Singapore, with whom Echo produces high-quality commercial projects for P&G’s regional office. 


 A cut from a collaboration of work between Echo - Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore for Downy Regional 


This commercial was an appreciation of Vietnamese woman’s values in a TVC called “Ariel Hero” aired on International Women's Day - by Echo and Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore  


Back to Local works:



This is attributed to their meticulous selection of projects and a thorough command of both local and regional markets’ production process. 


As a result, although their main direction in the past few years is to focus on providing production services on the regional scale, it is noticeable that Echo has been well sustaining their position as a reliable and qualified brand in the Vietnamese production industry for more than a decade. 


A commercial shot by Echo for the insurance firm FWD Vietnam



Since 2007, Echo has been working closely with a reliable network of suppliers and professional crews on the most challenging projects.


This new-coming project for a deep tech start-up is just one among various works that many clients/agencies in Vietnam approach them on a regular basis. 


Digging deeper into this local shoot, the firm’s representative shared that this collaboration was built on a well-grounded trust and understanding between 3 parties: the brand - production house teaming up with creative freelancers - talents (Wowy and De Choat).


A. Echo Production House with Client 


Having been partnering since early founding days of the startup, Echo is trusted to be in charge of this whole campaign - including the strategic, creative approach or even the KOLs booking. Plus, the strategy and principle crafting of this project is also assisted by reliable and well-chosen advertising freelancers in Ho Chi Minh City.


B. Echo with Talents


The exciting coincidence here is that nobody, even the production house, was aware of the championship of De Choat in Rap Viet in the first place. 


Having been operating in the local market for a considerable time, Echo possesses a wide networking of Vietnamese artists available for this project. Thanks to the impression of Wowy as a proactive and good-acting talent, combined with his impactful presence on the successful TV show Rap Viet, Wowy was invited to star in the project, together with De Choat


According to sharings from the production house, the motives behind choosing rapper De Choat include his impressive aura and special appearance on the stage, which are significant advantages for a project that requires face recognition.


Rapper De Choat


The team also anticipate that even the participation of hottest rap talents can be blurred by the overwhelm of this music genre in commercials after the success of Rap Viet. As a result, they decided to convey the main messages in comedy instead of MV as usual.


BTS image of Wowy and De Choat on a comedy shot for the face recognition startup


In Echo’s perspectives, there are no differences in the quality they deliver between their regional clients and the locally based ones. In fact, the gaps only lie in the working culture and flow, which are perceived as both opportunities and challenges to them. Moreover, since the team is still producing in Vietnam with the same suppliers and partners, Echo just needs to make sure that they have a proper communication channel and a mutual trust.





In other countries, most of the production projects have to be temporarily halted during this time. However, this is not the situation of Echo team, which succeeds in keeping shooting under strict epidemic control situations in Vietnam. 


Being a co-founding member of ME Group, since 2020, Echo has taken advantage of considerable consultancy and support from their solid network of foreign expertises facilitating this whole remote working process. During the lockdown period, online workshops were efficiently conducted to showcase this unique strength and gain trust from foreign clients.


Remote production in a collaboration with another ME Group member - Ginger Shots for the Philippines market 


Remote production with WPP Singapore for the Chinese Market


Beyond all expectations, to Echo personally, Covid-19 means an opportunity to prove themselves as a “real game-changer”. Not only manage to maintain their workflow during that hard time, Echo even discovers innovative approaches to their production procedures relating to logistics, budget savings, or time management that are applicable in the new normal.





In retrospect, a few years ago, Vietnam still had a gap in domestic production capabilities compared to big players in the regional market, Bangkok for example. But recently, the improvements made by the industry players and suppliers in expertise and technical aspects have been closing this void. Vietnam production teams are now able to bring out the same quality works with less support from oversea parties. 


Echo perceives this as signs for a promising future of local industry: Vietnam as a solid option for regional jobs. 


Vietnam has long been an attractive shooting and filming destination for our breath-taking landscapes: long white sandy beaches with crystal-clear water, epic waterfalls and a diverse range of urban and rural areas in which civilization and multiple species harmoniously flourish.   


Echo promoted the tranquility of Ha Long Bay to foreign partners through a shot for Korean Airlines 



Simultaneously, more job opportunities mean bigger room for leveling up the local level of productions as well. 


Vietnam exposed its full potentials in a beautifully and professionally executed shot by Echo - “Don't Miss it!” for Sony: 



Echo - a production house starts small, then constantly proves its positive impacts in regional and local markets. With its strengths, from their agile way of working to the priority on smooth communication and transparency, Echo has created a story that speaks for its own brand name:


“A small frog brings big echoes to the world.”


Trúc Quyên / Advertising Vietnam

#Longform: In the local and regional market, Echo positions itself as a global boutique Production House

Trúc Quyên

Trúc Quyên

Content Creator | Advertising Vietnam

08 Thg 01 2021

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