GOOGLE, COCA-COLA, AND ALLSTATE WEIGH IN ON CLIENT IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION TEAMS

We are witnessing more marketers supplementing their in-house capabilities in order to be more agile, creative, and scalable during this pandemic. COVID-19 has made a tremendous impact on production teams across the globe. Combine shrinking budgets with the demand for virtual workspace efficiency, and you’ve got the perfect environment for sweeping innovations across the industry. Poll data pulled from APR’s network of client partners from every region across the globe show that 96% of respondents have changed the way they approach production, with 21% of those respondents claiming that these changes will last well after the threat of COVID-19 has dissipated.

Key takeaways from a recent APR Virtual Town Square featuring panelists from Google, The Coca-Cola Company, Allstate, and Dragons Group include the effects of the pandemic on content creation and how to manage the ever-growing need to balance in-house operations with external creative partners.

The Critical Importance of Delegation, Vetting & Integration

With the increased demands of in-house production projects, our panelists across the board were in consensus about the importance of clear delegation when utilizing external creative partners. According to poll data pulled from APR’s recent client webinar, 37% of respondents are bringing more content creation in-house in the midst of the pandemic.

“We work best when we have clear delegations of who owns what,” says Christine Lindemann, Head of Production and Operations of Google Hardware. When external help is required, a production project can quickly spiral out of control without proper asset management – which often requires cohesive integrations between in-house teams and external teams.

In fact, this integration between teams is so vital that it should be included within the scope of work for every production project. As Sarah Traverso, Head of the Social Center & Production – IMC at Coca-Cola says, “Our agency-council model creates the healthy debate and friction necessary to produce cohesive strategies across all touchpoints. Part of our agency fee scopes includes the time necessary for our external partners to “integrate” with our internal teams as part of the agency council model. We even allocate separate time for external partners to communicate with other external partners in privacy.” This provides Coca-Cola’s external teams with a “safe place” to bounce ideas off one another without the overbearing presence of the in-house team – creating more efficient dialogues about delegation and project strategy when these teams do begin working together.

Furthermore, vetting and selecting the right external partners is a massive undertaking in itself. For Coca-Cola, “that is a constant – ensuring that we aren’t always utilizing the same talent – getting fresh eyes and ideas. Meet-the-makers sessions enable us to sit down and speak with talent, as well as in-person attendance at all of the events that producers work on. We also aim to hire producers with lots of agency experience. Another great tool is our internal forum that works sort of like a private Yellow Pages to track interesting talent.”

Virtual Improvements to the Production Process

While there certainly are challenges to suddenly requiring production teams to work remotely, there are many incredible improvements to the production process that may not appear immediately obvious.

As Meritxell Guitart, Founder & CEO of Dragon’s Group explains, “We’ve only had one production during COVID so far – shot in a studio environment following all safety protocols with remote post-production and remote approval. The casting process was, surprisingly, much easier to conduct virtually.” Without the clutter of bodies and the time required to march talent through the studio, production teams are experiencing a much more streamlined casting process that simply wasn’t standardized pre-COVID. Additionally, in-house production teams are now connecting with external partners across the globe with ease.

Challenges Ahead

Production teams are accustomed to facing stark demands and creating innovative solutions, but none of this comes without challenges – especially for teams just making the transition to in-house content production. As Steve Ross, Head of Production at Allstate, explains, “We are having to lean more on external resources and freelancers right now, even though we have plans to make those permanent hires in the future – and it is definitely a balancing act, maintaining the proper amount of freelance help as demands and budgets flex.”

While some production teams are forced to compartmentalize decisions based on budgets, production teams like those found in Coca-Cola’s new in-house agency, KO:OP, are bolstered by the ability to make decisions based on strategy and business needs. Heather Bell, General Manager at KO:OP, states, “I think the perception of in-house teams is to be utilized as a cheaper and faster alternative, but I don’t think either are actually true – creative work just takes the time that it takes, and you can’t necessarily always speed-up that process. Utilizing in-house teams helps us get to market faster, but not necessarily by speeding up the creative process. In that sense, the business objective and strategic need to accomplish that is certainly the leading factor in our decision-making process.”

With the impact of COVID-19 making a lasting impression on the production marketplace, it is now more important than ever that in-house teams align cohesively with external partners. Elaborating on this vital fact, APR’s Founder & CEO, Jillian Gibbs, says that, “As a result of COVID, changes to production approaches are accelerating and there are even more options to utilize new production models. We, as an industry, need to actively seek, encourage, and learn about these new companies and approaches. The challenge is that when you are busy, it’s easy to jump to a known external partner, but it is so vital – and rewarding – to find the right external partner for the right work.”