Sourcing Ad Creative Production

By Jillian Gibbs, ANA Faculty

Historically, advertising production has followed a very traditional path: A marketer hires an agency of record; then that agency hires a production company to oversee the production of a master asset, as well as the post production, versioning, and adaptations, all with a single point of contact from the brand.

With the evolution of global content production needs, many marketers have found alternative solutions to this process. Often these solutions involve a transcreation house that is able to address emerging markets and provide consistency, transparency of spend, speed to market, and lower costs.

However, the type and volume of content produced, and speed to market, have all shifted dramatically again, and some marketers are wondering if the traditional production model still has a place among their content needs. If not, what does the new production environment look like?

With the increase in the media platforms, distribution outlets, and specifically social media (i.e. always-on content), the options for sourcing creative ideas have multiplied. Here are some of the options today:

•     Agency of record
•     Crowd-sourcing
•     User-generated content
•     In-house studios
•     Direct to production partners
•     Joint ventures
•     Freelance creatives
•     Reuse/refresh existing creative
•     Production company director

These new opportunities each carry unique production implications. That means advertisers need a solid infrastructure to support multiple creative sources, as well as guidelines and best practices for working across all media. Since agencies typically handle many administrative functions, brands now need to address areas such as vendor contracts, payments, talent usage rights, and music rights on their own, and that’s a daunting task for any marketing or procurement department.

So how do marketers manage all these new areas of creative and production opportunity without taxing their internal resources? I’ll tackle that in part two of this blog series.

Jillian Gibbs is the founder and CEO of APR, a global ad production consultancy. Using an in-depth, collaborative approach to ad production spend, Jillian has helped define new standards within the ad production industry. She’ll share her wisdom at her upcoming workshop.