The broadcast production department of an advertising agency seems to be one place where The Peter Principle doesn’t apply. The Peter Principle, which was advanced by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in his 1969 book of the same name, states that employees within a hierarchical organization advance to their highest level of competence, but are then promoted to a level where they are incompetent and stay in that position.
Heads of production at a broad swath of agencies are disproving that notion by the simple means of continuing to produce spots—often the most difficult and challenging ones—in addition to handling their supervisory and administrative duties. Not a lot of spots, but enough to keep current in a business where the faces and techniques are constantly changing, and to keep their passion for producing satisfied.
"Production is constantly changing," says Kathy DiToro, executive VP/director of broadcast production at Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis. "We are asked more and more by our clients to do great work at a lower price. If you’re out there and you know what producers are faced with, it’s much easier to manage, to understand the problems they’re facing and come up with solutions and get great work out. I just love producing. That’s why I’m in the business."
DiToro has produced Super Bowl spots for both the ’03 and ’04 telecasts—both ads were for H&R Block, and featured country music legend Willie Nelson. But oftentimes she takes on what she calls "the really tough jobs that no one wants to do—where there is no money. Or maybe it’s a packaged goods client that tests [spots in focus groups before airing], making it really hard to push out the good work [because] it’s so controlled. It’s a challenge," she says.
Production chiefs at some other agencies echo that thought, and say that they’re actually more likely to do jobs with tight budgets than the high-profile spots with seven-figure price tags. Mark Sitley, partner/executive creative director of production at Euro RSCG MVBMS, New York, says he prefers to give the big-budget spots with pricey, big-name directors to emerging producers on staff. "They can have a wonderful trial by fire, a learning experience," he explains. "At the same time, I would take the most under-funded spot, the most ridiculous challenge. I kind of pride myself on pulling off productions [where] only I and the client know what they cost."
That generally means calling in the kinds of favors that are based on relationships that have been cultivated over years of producing, according to Sitley. Once those favors are delivered, it is incumbent on the department head to be part of the production.
Before leaving his previous post as director of broadcast production for North America at Fallon, Minneapolis and New York, last fall, Sitley produced two PBS spots, "Skunk" and "Puppets," directed by Scott Hicks of Independent Media, Santa Monica. "Those [projects] were radically under-funded," he says. "All five [PBS spots that we did] every year probably cost less than one conventional spot. If you creatively want to enjoin a director or production company to help you out with something like that, even if it’s in their interest to do it for that director’s career or current reel, you have to put your money where your mouth is. You can’t just give it to someone else."
That same scenario played out recently for Matt Bijarchi, senior VP/director of broadcast production at Young & Rubicam, Chicago. Bijarchi took on a spec spot for Miller Lite that has yet to air. "I line-produced because it entailed the calling in of an enormous amount of favors," he relates. "When you call the favors in, you have to show up for the shoot."
Staying In Touch
John Noble, senior VP/director of broadcast production at Element 79 Partners, Chicago, draws on his own experience from his previous post as head of production at The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., to validate the need to stay active as a producer. "Once I stayed out of shooting for a year because there was so much work going through the agency," he recalls. "It was not only one of the toughest years of my life, but I wasn’t becoming a better supervisor. You’ve got to get out there [and actually produce] to be a better supervisor. You have to sharpen your knives."
Noble only does a couple of jobs a year, but he makes it a point to do the more difficult work. "I don’t cherry-pick," he says. "I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. I don’t need to build a reel or prove myself anymore. It’s important I show my staff that I’m willing to do hard stuff. I use it as an inspirational tool."
Brian DiLorenzo, director of broadcast, North America, at Fallon, Minneapolis, hasn’t produced any spots since he moved up to his current position from executive producer six months ago, but he plans to do a couple of spots a year in the future. "It’s really important that you do get on the line as much as possible when the opportunities present themselves," says DiLorenzo, who served as executive producer on the second round of the lauded BMW Internet film series "The Hire," produced via bicoastal RSA USA. "It’s kind of like a driver’s license renewal. You sort of need to find out if you should still be on the road, and check what the rules are. You do have to test-drive a production once in a while."
The kinds of spots he’d like to produce in his new position are smaller ones that are "out of the box" in some way: "Something down and dirty—get in, get out—that would utilize the ability to think on your feet and react quickly in terms of knowing the best resources that are out there. That’s what will keep you on your toes," DiLorenzo says.
Client Services
In addition to keeping current and sharpening skills, department heads often step in as producers when they want to cultivate new client relationships. This often happens when the agency wins new business, but in Sitley’s case, it happened because he took on his current position. "[Producing spots allows you] to get to know the clients better, understand their business, bond with them, and earn their trust so they will trust your care and knowledge of their brand," he explains. "I think throughout this year, I owe it to the new clients we would have, and the existing clients who don’t know me to jump in on some of the more ambitious shoots, or perhaps the problematic or under-funded shoots."
Sitley went to Europe last month to produce the new North American Volvo campaign out of Euro’s New York office, and international spots out of the Amsterdam office—ads that won’t break for another month or two and are very much under wraps for now. This year, Sitley plans to produce about a half dozen spots, including work for new client Polaroid.
Steve Humble, senior VP/director of broadcast production at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., plans to produce two to four spots this year. He recently completed work that’s not yet airing for Quizno’s, a new client. "Those are the kinds of jobs I’ll try to do to make sure it goes well," Humble says. "We want to get new clients off on the right track and establish personal relationships so they feel like they can call me if they need to talk about anything."
Sometimes Humble takes on spots for the simple reason that no one else is available, but he prefers work that has a quick turn-around time. "I try to find jobs that aren’t going to have a huge amount of postproduction, where I’m going to have to be out of the office for months at a time, or shooting out of the country—jobs that are a little more contained," he notes.
Noble just finished producing "Rules," for Gatorade, a client that he had not worked with in his six months at Element 79. Chris Robinson directed the spot through bicoastal/international Partizan (he has since joined bicoastal HSI Productions). "That’s really how you get to know people—on the road," Noble says. "The trust really builds up when they see you at your best on a shoot, in action. You’re almost on a stage and they’ll see the value there."
Other circumstances come into play, too. Campbell Mithun’s DiToro produced last year’s Super Bowl spot "Willie" for H&R Block, and its sequel this year, "Willie Doll." Both use singer Willie Nelson’s infamous tax problems to tout the tax preparer’s services. Bryan Buckley of bicoastal Hungry Man directed the former, while Jesse Peretz of X-Ray Productions, bicoastal and Chicago, helmed this year’s effort.
"I tend to do a lot of the celebrity spots because I negotiate a lot of the deals," DiToro says. "There is a certain amount of trust on Willie Nelson’s management with me working on it. They know we’re going to turn out a really good piece of film that they’re going to be happy with."
Bijarchi only produces a couple of spots a year, but he involves himself directly in other ways. "A lot of times you gear up on projects and then hand them off to other producers," he says. For the current Miller Lite series, which includes "Dominoes," "Epidemic" and "Air Beer," Bijarchi took the executive producer credit, but was more closely involved than the credit indicates. "The client was re-launching the brand, and it was of critical importance to all parties involved that it go well," he says. "We were going from one huge production in Toronto to another in Vancouver, B.C., that started shooting four days after we wrapped. I had two line producers on that, and I needed someone to be the nucleus of the production department with the client and our account team."
While "Dominoes" was shooting in Toronto with senior producer Lee Goldberg and director Fredrik Bond of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), producer Brian Smego was prepping "Epidemic" and "Air Beer" in Vancouver, with the directing collective Traktor of Partizan. "I was able to help on the overlap," Bijarchi says.
Mentoring
Sometimes it’s about enjoying a project. That was the appeal of a three-spot package Bijarchi produced for NASCAR. "I just fell in love with that one," he comments. "It was very different. It was a visceral, high-speed, driver’s mind experience. And the budget was an enormous challenge." The director on the campaign was Peter Thwaites of bicoastal Anonymous Content and Gorgeous Enterprises, London.
As other department heads do on spots they produce, Bijarchi brought an assistant producer along on the NASCAR job. "It’s the only way you can teach them and they can grow," he says. "Plus, you need the help."
Department heads on the line rely more on assistant producers than they would a staff producer, Humble says, because of the other demands that take up so much of their time. "I’ve got a young assistant producer who helped me on Quizno’s," he relates. "Because I’m pulled in different directions as head of production, she was able to do a lot of the stuff on her own. The hardest part about being out on the road is that there is zero free time. I have to get up early to check e-mail, and get on the phone, and be involved in a lot more stuff."
DiToro brought two assistants along on "Willie Doll," and she says that that kind of big spot is a great mentoring tool. "It’s kind of the Olympics of advertising," she says. "It’s a good training ground creatively—selling things through, working with a top director, determining where the comedy lies; what is funny and is going to work. It’s an opportunity to learn how the best in the business work."
