It was a draw at the second annual International Heads of Production Association meeting, held June 22 during the Cannes International Advertising Festival. The group of about 90 ad agency TV production heads from around the world gathered for an informal discussion. They focused primarily on their professional role as the new millennium unfolds, offering a mix of observations. While some were excited about future prospects, seemingly just as many others found a changing landscape brought on by new media and technology as potentially daunting.
"I’ve never worked so hard at accomplishing so little," said Walther Jensen of DDB Copenhagen. "I’m taking on more and more roles along with the classic jobs I do. There needs to be a new way to structure the work."
At the other end of the perspective spectrum, Ken Yagoda of Young & Rubicam, New York, said: "This is the best of times."
Some contended that what should be happening isn’t. According to John Van Osdol of FCB Detroit, there’s "very little interaction" between the interactive and broadcast divisions within large agencies. And this lack of communication doesn’t bode well. "Full integration is not happening yet," he said. Moreover, he contended: "I don’t think anyone understands the technology."
"The bottom line," said John Caffera of Bates, New York, "is that you don’t get a seamless campaign." However, he continued, "We’re at the cusp."
Other issues discussed during the meeting included ever-shrinking budgets; how to stem the tide of good agency producers defecting to the dot-com marketplace; and the unpredictable nature of new technologies such as HDTV, and specifically, when and how any given application will catch on.
"Convergence is a myth," said a non-agency session at-tendee, Ed Ulbrich who’s senior VP of production at Venice, Calif.-based visual effects/digital studio Digital Domain. "It’s about divergence-there’s so many platforms, and the field is only getting wider."
And Sarah Peterson of D’Arcy, London, acknowledged that technology has fundamentally changed the ad business. "Every job is challenging and very time consuming," she said. "We’re looking at directors from all over the world. Clients are encouraging multiple quotes from different locations and in different formats. Producers are traveling a lot, and also post is being done in other countries because costs vary. For many reasons it’s important to embrace technology."
The International Heads of Production Association held its inaugural meeting at the Cannes Festival last year (SHOOT, 7/16/99). The annual event was initiated by the New York Heads of Production, a three-year-old association that meets quarterly to discuss issues relevant to agency producers of broadcast advertising. As was the case last year, Peter Friedman of McCann-Erickson, New York, served as moderator, while the meeting was organized by Pamela Maythenyi of The Source/ Maythenyi, Boca Raton, Fla.
