Erik Iversen, senior VP/senior producer at Ammirati Puris Lintas, New York, remembers it well. He was in the middle of bidding a job and he had just finished talking to a director on the phone about a commercial. They had gotten along well, but Iversen and his client had still not made up their minds. But there was time and Iversen had other things on his mind. He was in Miami, supervising a shoot for a completely different spot.
Suddenly, the directorawho only the day before had been in New Yorkawas in Miami, on the set with
Iversen. I was in the middle of this commercial, and there was this guy. The production company said they wanted me to meet the director so they went to the added expense of flying him cross-country. After the shoot, we met. All the decision-makers were there: the creative director, the rep, me, the director, and we talked late at night after shooting. I thought the director made a well-thought out presentation.
After all that, however, the job was awarded to someone else. We liked the director. We liked his rep, admits Iversen. But we just didnt feel the approach was exactly right.
Was the effort excessive? Or just part of doing business on the brink of a new century?
It depends on whos talking. Agency producers say it is always the workaand who can deliver it bestathat ultimately matters. But to some production companies, it seems as though its not always what you do, but how much youre willing to put out in the initial bidding process that counts.
Indeed, in an increasingly competitive market, more and more companies are saying that ad agencies are expecting elaborate bid packages and increased effort in the courtship phase. Although no one seems to be explicitly requiring the extra workaitems like storyboards, video clips, personal appearances, and even location treatmentsamany agency producers admit that anything additional can often help a director gain attention and even sometimes clinch the job.
According to agency producers SHOOT spoke with, doing more helps a director stand out from the pack. And these days there are simply a lot more directors in that pack. There are so many talented directors out there, and there are more Europeans coming over here, that the talent pool has gotten much larger, says Larry Shanet, a New York-based freelance producer. So I think production companies have to work harder for fewer jobs.
As a result, observes Iversen, a trend has developed. About eight years ago, many production companies included in their presentations color Xeroxes and tear sheets that would back up a conference call. I always felt that those kinds of things were very helpful. But, over time, that has built up into these elaborate presentations. Its part of being on the playing field these days.
Some agencies specifically request extras to help them decide. Say youre really interested in a director, says Lynn Appel, a senior broadcast producer at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. Youve had a conversation and like the idea, but you havent sold the director to the client. You may ask all three people bidding to assemble a specialty reel of any material that applies specifically to the job. They may have to cut a new reel, but its an extra that helps.
Visual effects usually require more extras. Ginny Washburn, VP/executive producer at DDB Needham Chicago, recalls working on a job at the end of last year that involved title treatments and compositing of archival footage. In order to compete for the job, production companies created sample titles that would play with the stock shots. Everybody [submitted titles] so we could compare, she explains. We needed to see [them] to judge.
P&G Style
Those requirements may be acceptable, but production companies often complain that many of the jobs for which they do such extra work end up being killed. For that, agency producers blame the so-called P & G approach, which aims at budgets without surprises.
Procter & Gamble had a formula for advertising, observes Iversen. They would do extensive testing on concepts to try and get the right ones. A lot of their brand managers have gone on to other companies, and the approach is spreading.
That may be one reason that work disappears after extensive bid preparations. A storyboard gets approved, Iversen explains, then it goes into testing. Generally, in an ideal world, testing would be completed before the project is sent to bid. But thats not always possible. Ive seen cases where two or three ideas go into testing at the same time. With an airdate coming up, you could be bidding two or three different concepts and one does not get produced. In such cases, its advisable for the agency producer to tell bidders that the job may not happen. But they might not do that because then they may not get as many people bidding. So they hedge their bets.
Some make no apologies for such behavior, however. Look, we are jumping through hoops as it is, argues Appel. The client is always right. They have to be serviced, and if that means sacrificing your relationship with your suppliers, that has to be done. If someone gets irritated or annoyed, they shouldnt be in this business. Because the next guy will not be irritated and will get the job. Thats part of the game.
Other agency producers report that testing is an aspect of a larger, more rigidly constructed picture: one in which clients increasingly want to nail down as much as possible in preproduction so that there are no (fiscal) surprises on the shoot. Clients want to be more informed than they used to be, says Diane Barrett, broadcast business affairs manager at Asher & Partners, Los Angeles. They want to be able to know what is needed beforehand.
The clients are trying to quantify everything into a formula, adds Iversen. A lot simply dont realize that if youre hiring a director for thousands of dollars a day, hes not going to just go in and shoot the board. He expects to add something. But when he walks into the room, the client wants to see exactly what the focus group approved, and that doesnt include the thunderstorm that occurred on the shoot in New Zealand which the director added to the commercial. The clients are seriously trying to hold onto every part of the process. So the production company has to do more early on in the process to spell things out.
Some are arguing, however, that clients often make requests that are based on unrealistic expectationsato which agencies too readily accede. You get cost consultants coming in, working for the clients, and the bidding process becomes more involved, says Joe Guyt, a freelance senior producer who works for Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/Euro RSCG, New York. These consultants often use price rates that are five years old. So theyll tell us that the camera rental and equipment prices in the bid are overpriced. But camera rental, film stock, and crew rates go up. Cost consultants, in order to justify their existence, force us to go back a second or third time to production companies, so that any type of padding is whittled away.
Great Expectations
In addition, clients often have great expectations of how quickly things can be accomplished. With the nature of technology these days, everything is becoming so immediate, observes Guyt. Ive had cases where Ive done a shoot on a Tuesday in L.A. and then by Friday Ive had a rough cut for my client. That would be unheard of three or four years ago. That only compounds the pressure. It makes it more difficult to pull it off. Some clients dont understand that the creative process sometimes takes time. You cant sit back and figure the right way to cut something if youre thinking about the clock.
Usually, theres not a lot of time, says Sara Gennett-Lopez, VP/director of broadcast production at Crispin Porter & Bogusky Advertising, Miami. Usually its AHow about a bid in seven hours? Adds Barrett: The result of fiscal concerns is that schedules are condensed. You try to explain to the client that your product will not be as good if you do a six-week job in two weeks, but they dont always listen. You never say no.
They expect us to be on top of it, agrees Appel. Even if you have three different projects youre working on, they want you to turn theirs around quickly. Yesterday, I had a six-week production schedule on a job. Then we had a one-bid meeting, then it was put on a two-week schedule. Turns out their competitor is coming out with something and so they need to come out quicker. My account people say, AOK instead of saying, AYoure going to sacrifice production values on that. As a result, I thought we had six weeks and now were hauling ass.
For all that, some producers insist that not much has changed in the bidding process. The only thing that changes is that I have more directors to look at and more options, argues Randy Cohen, director of broadcast production at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York, so I have to spend even more time and more energy on pre-bid research. Money is tighter. Its always, AHow do you make it work for four when its a 650 job? Money and time frame are tight. Clients are waiting till the last minute to make decisions. Thats nothing new.
What it comes down to, concludes Jeremy Besser, an executive producer at Temerlin McClain, Irving, Texas, is that we need to know that the director understands the creative and then has the capability to deliver the job within budget. Whatever the production company can show us only helps. We cant take it on faith.q
