Creative and Production: Your Trusted Partners from Intake to Export
Bringing in Production and Creative leads at the onset of discussing a new client project brief or assignment is crucial for the end product's success. The Executive Producer and Creative Director are integral partners from the start to craft a memorable campaign, and to do so within budget.
Here’s my golden 3 part rule that I encourage everyone to follow during the intake process of any new assignment or brief.
Brief without a budget? No problem!
Budget without a brief? Even better!
When both brief and budget are fixed, concessions will likely be necessary
I once had an account lead approach me with a brief to do a full event activation inclusive of video production, photography, design, venue rental, printing and fabrication, cocktails, hor d'oeuvres, and several other “must haves”. The all-in budget was $50,000 for an event in New York City. Realizing the impracticality, I advised against it, but the project was already committed. This highlights the importance of involving the creative and production teams early on.
To avoid such situations, it's essential to engage these teams from the outset. Alternative options can often achieve the client's goals within budget constraints. For instance, could the event above be a virtual presentation inclusive of a simplified video asset? Is there an opportunity to utilize a space that the client already owns that has in house food and drink options? Collaboration with production and creative leads is key to maximizing creative outputs within budget limits.
To that end, I live by a “right from the start” ethos. Essentially, by having all necessary team leads (or at the very least, senior members) engaged from the very beginning of the project, this will alleviate the opportunity for miscommunication with the client on what is achievable. While not all team leads are able to attend every single meeting, having your Production lead and team Creative Lead attend the “right from the start” meeting, allows them to quickly delegate actionable next steps from their extended teams.
Whether that is accurate budgeting, forecasting, creative development, partner outreach, etc, it is critical to have a senior lead fully digest and interpret the need, and then immediately move to resource the best team to properly scope and ultimately win the work.
