1) The impact of social continues to be one of the most significant trends. Everything is about creating more content, but that should not mean simply chopping up a TV spot to post on different platforms. This year we launched the ‘Hate-Like” campaign for Hotels.com, which pokes fun at the universal social media behavior of liking your friends’ vacation posts even when you’re secretly jealous. In addition to multiple TV spots, we made more than 125 pieces of unique social content — all captured on the same shoot. The trend is to create more content, but more importantly, to create more content for a specific purpose and with a specific platform in mind.
2) The biggest adjustment has been making more tangible work. As an industry, we rely too heavily on comps and PDFs to sell through our ideas. But at the end of the day, we are never releasing comps or PDFs into the real world. Our producers are makers at heart and are often prolific social content creators in their personal lives. Their goal is to make more production-level content and prototypes earlier in the process in order to help our clients and partners better understand our creative vision.
3) We’re in the business of making creative assets and I’m most proud when our team of producers get their hands dirty in the process. For one client, we had a small content request with a small budget. With limited production options, one of our producers and an art director flew to LA and drove a rental car around California for three days capturing content. We used a private Instagram account as the presentation and review method. They were uploading images as they road tripped. It was smart, efficient and a little different, but a fun new process to test out.
4) Everything we do should be engaging, whether it’s amusing to the target or evokes some other intended response. You can’t just throw celebrity or influencer talent into content and call it entertainment. But you can always tell a good story. That is what makes our job fun and unique. And that has never changed.
5) Content will continue to rule. The ability to create more and to create it cheaper and faster while still retaining the quality that we expect for us and our clients will be a focus for 2020. We love to make. We have to make. That is our job and we are constantly optimizing our process in order to make better work. Audio content will also continue to surge and take more of a role in 2020 media plans.
6) Being an agency producer is one of the most interesting jobs in the world. Some of us have been doing this for 10+ years and our family still has no idea what we do. My new year’s resolution is to finally produce and release a CPB production podcast. We have a group of really unique and talented producers that have all different kinds of experiences that don’t often get featured. I think it’s easy to forget how fun and unique our job is – the people we meet, the teams we partner with, the places we go, the things we make. Everyone has a great story or experience and the world needs to hear it.
