nology - coupled with the usual dramatic reduc-
tions in the price points for production and post-
production
hard-
ware and software.
The lower cost of
equipment has made
taking services in-
house a viable and
practical alternative
for both brands and
agencies during a
time where complex,
integrated, multi-
platform advertis-
ing has become the
norm.
When you consider
the impact of these
changes, it is not hard to understand why it is
difficult for agencies to pivot on a dime from a
broadcast/print-driven world to a production
landscape where s mix of creative content with
unique sets of requirements resides on numerous
platforms.
year’s worth of production of responsive social
videos.
Essentially, the goal is to determine the best
method of producing each asset, clearly under-
stand the level of quality that it requires, and bal-
ance those considerations with cost issues and
practical requirements. These considerations may
include deadlines, the volume of work, and many
other factors.
PRODUCTION TIERS
One of the ways we help our clients deal with this
complex landscape is by identifying “tiers of pro-
duction” as a way to classify the type of execution
required to satisfy the demands of each project
with the most cost-effective approach to deliver-
ing the appropriate level of quality.
The first step of the process begins with iden-
tifying the tier and defining overall goals and
corresponding assets to be produced. Once the
creative expectations for the content are clear,
then figuring out how to execute the production
and choosing internal or out-of-house creative
partners becomes much simpler.
In the broadest sense, tiers of content production
can be organized on a scale from highly commod-
itized solutions driven by the cost and volume of
assets required – to quality-driven, one-of-a-kind
solutions, with price as a secondary consideration.
Since finding the best value for the price is always
a goal, the means of execution can be anything
from a classic competitive bid situation with high-
level production companies, to an RFP for a full
50 • Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com
Obviously, the level of quality required for a Super
Bowl spot versus a series of corporate training
videos is not the same, so it’s essential to be clear
about where on the scale - from cost to quality
- the work needs to fall when it completed. (See
Fig 1 below which represents one way we com-
municate with our clients to help prioritize their
goals:)
COLLABORATION
The reality of today’s advertising landscape is
that a wide range of deliverable and content
types necessitates multiple creative partners with
different capabilities, styles and production meth-
odologies. From a creative standpoint, special-
ized services provided by multiple sources can be
a good thing, but it means that projects require a
sophisticated level of collaboration between all of
the creative partners.
The solution can be as simple as the lead agency
or a single digital agency taking responsibility for
coordinating several agency partners and pro-
duction entities that are collaborating on a small
scale multi-faceted project or a large integrated,