Thoughts on Agency Production Departments

A friendly observation. Large advertising agencies are trying to adjust to an evolving landscape. The future of the economy is uncertain. Clients are getting restless and reaching the consumer is more fractured than ever. Never mind what messaging clients should be communicating to consumers?it is also about??picking the best platforms for delivering their message that’s the real challenge. The one thing that seems certain is that video content is still the most powerful??delivery methodology.

Clients are in more need than ever of well made video content. The overall advertising dollars have not decreased; they have been fractionalized. Now specialized content has to be created to be able to reach targeted audiences found on one of a multitude of platforms.

The big, ugly irony of the moment is that just as experienced knowledgeable producers are more valuable??than ever, large agencies are shedding themselves of these highly skilled employees. There is a mistaken belief that an untrained, inexperienced, less costly producer is enough to get the job done. Are these draconian cut backs really in the best interest of clients or even the agency's bottom line? I think not. I have talked to enough production company owners and cost consultants, who will be the first to tell you they are having to do the job of these neophyte producers. The very people agencies are making responsible for the very product that their reputations are built or destroyed by.??Cost consultants have been trying to convince clients for ages that without their services there is no one from the agency who is experienced enough to protect the??brands interest during the production process. No one to stand up to the creatives who are, according to cost consultants, only concerned with winning awards, while the production companies are just looking to make as much money as they can. I used to be able to call BS on those self-serving claims. The senior producers I knew could go toe to toe with any one throughout the?production process. They were sure to watch over??a production like a hawk ensuring the client was getting what had been agreed to and always looking for opportunities to plus the work.

As the creative team's time is being spread over more work than ever, they at least knew they had a trusted experienced producer. Producers who are a vital???part of the creative team. An experienced producer is always able to fill the gaps of an overworked creative team, or train a young AE about??what their role should be during production. I don’t think anyone who is in the trenches??would argue with any of the points I have made still and yet there is an inexplicable??movement for agencies to rid themselves of experienced producers. Invaluable members of a well run agency have been reduced to numbers on a spreadsheet. “Lets lose a few of these folks, it will make our bottom line look better”.” How's the work going to get done”? “I don’t know!” “I guess we will hire freelance”.

That is just it -?there seems to be no plan, no vision on how to make the??agency more efficient. How to capture revenue that is slipping through their fingers. I know there are better answers to the challenges that agencies are currently facing.

Here is a crazy idea: maybe you start with honest conversations both internally and externally. Here are just two of a laundry list of ideas. Letting creatives know that they have to create work that?can be produced within specific budget?parameters.?How about insisting that clients should have the final decision makers involved from the beginning and not in the middle or the end of a production. Finally both clients and agency management should trust the folks in the trenches, the ones they have hired to do very specific jobs. Jobs that they have trained to do. Clients need to trust their agency partners again. Agencies need to earn that trust by doing their job well. Which gets me back to the beginning. They can’t do their job well if they don’t hire experienced people.

Yes, agencies need to lower their overhead. Hiring less experienced team members is not the answer. Building efficiencies into their model is. Ridding themselves of unnecessary overhead is. Embracing this brave new world in which we find ourselves is a start. Being able to have frank and honest conversations, without the fear of reprisals, is the next important step.?

If any of this resonates with you let me know. I am not claiming to have??all the answers but I think I have some