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| Robert Hanley |
Every day on a busy street in downtown Seattle the door to
Starbuck’s very first store opens, as it did forty-three years ago, inviting
customers to enter, to smell, and to sip its earthly delights. Every night tens
of millions of sports fans begin their bedtime ritual by clicking on ESPN’s
SportsCenter as it broadcasts from the same Connecticut location where it all
began in 1979 with a small live audience. It’s comforting to know that, in a
world that changes so quickly, some things built on simple principle and sheer
quality still thrive from the roots up. Such is the case with Home Video
Studio’s first ever and flagship studio located in the Castleton area of
Indianapolis, Indiana.
One morning, over twenty-five years ago, Robert Hanley, too,
opened his doors with a dream of providing
“Video Services for Everyone”. Hanley
had begun his video career strictly as a producer/director/editor, but he soon
found that he was tiring from the “feast and famine” life of living project to
project. Taking the knowledge and experience he had gained he retooled his
production business into a video production services business. This new company
would focus on offering video services that other production companies couldn't
or wouldn't offer but that were definitely needed. Soon Hanley had created a
cottage industry by focusing on transferring old 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm films
and tapes, as well as Photo Video Keepsake montages, editing, and duplication.
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| Hanley on location 1986 Mohave Desert |
From this initial enterprise over sixty similar studios have
launched all over the United States, Canada, and even Sweden. Yet, the
principles he built this video services “empire” upon (a Star Trek fan, Hanley
calls them Prime Directives) are alive and well in the daily operations of the
flagship studio.
“This is a working studio,” says Hanley, “and it’s a
valuable part of Home Video Studio in many ways. The first is that is a profit
center. We made nearly $20,000 in January, which is typically our slowest month
by far – and that was with me out of the office for a week attending the
Consumer Electronics Show.”
Second, it is a way to stay in touch with the marketplace. Hanley
explains: “My day could easily be consumed by the affairs of running an
enterprise that has over sixty members as well as several staff members. But my
office is directly above the studio, and I make it a point to be involved in
the retail side of our flagship operation. Markets change, technology changes,
people change…and I want to keep my finger on the pulse of our end users.”
Which brings us to the third way Home Video Studio –
Castleton operates, namely as a sort of laboratory. “We have over sixty studios
who look to us for new ideas, new direction, and new technology suggestions,”
Robert points out. “We use our flagship location to test new equipment,
different operations procedures, new software and technology…lots of things. We
have proven plans that work for the studio’s success, and they are conceived
and tested here at our studio before we disperse them out to the other
studios.”
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| Robert Hanley CEO, Home Video Studio |
A great example of this lately has been Facebook
advertising. As most people know
advertising is expensive, no matter the medium. Robert had never tried Facebook
advertising but had a hunch it would be a great fit for advertising video
services. Not wanting to recommend it until he had some solid numbers on its
effectiveness he put Facebook Ads into the old “test tube” to see what might
happen. What happened has been a smashing success, more than Hanley has seen
with any advertising medium in many years. “Now we are relentless with Facebook
Ads. We run them seven days a week. But we wouldn’t have known without this
studio doing a little testing first. Now I can recommend it to any studio with
no trepidation – in fact if a studio isn’t doing Facebook Ads I get concerned!”
Like any successful enterprise
Home Video Studio – Castleton
has a great team, and many of the staff there look after the studio while
performing tasks for the HVS parent company as well.
Hanley remains the most hands-on with
marketing, advertising, and managing sales leads for the studio. Teaming with
him is Bob Brown, who has known Robert from the beginnings of HVS many years
ago. Bob is a sales veteran and a filmmaker and photographer in his own right.
Cheryl Roy is Robert’s personal assistant and handles many accounting and
administrative chores for the sixty plus studios as well. She came by Home
Video Studio as a customer, liked the vibe, and came on board a short time
later. Cheryl’s flagship studio duties include a lot of face-to-face time with
customers taking orders and handling customer service. Devin Hall makes sure
the work gets done as HVS – Castleton’s lead technician and production
supervisor.
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| Robert & Denise Hanley at the 13th Annual Hanley Awards |
Robert continue to help others around the country and the
world open their own studios. It’s nice to know that the studio that began it
all is still opens its doors every morning with the same convictions that it
did over twenty-five years ago – to provide Video Services for Everyone. Email Robert Hanley at
Robert@homevideostudio.com or call him at 317-358-5932 for help in start your own video studio.
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