How AI and Connectivity Bring Endless Opportunities for Edelman’s Global Production Future
Most people will know Edelman for its award-winning PR, but the global communications firm has full-service marketing capabilities that span creative ideation to post. With over 60 offices worldwide and more than 6,000 personnel, one of its recent focuses has been to expand its production capabilities.
As part of this process, Patrick Sidoti, former US head of production, was elevated to global chief production officer and five of the company’s studios spaces – in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Mumbai and Bogotá – were ‘reimagined’ to enable real-time international collaboration and enhanced production output.
Edelman also welcomed the award winning generative producer, Gabe Michael as VP, executive producer of AI, and together with Patrick and the studio leads has engineered a new business model powered by turnkey AI integrations.
Speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway, Patrick explains what this new business model means for Edelman and its production workflows globally, why AI “is everything” going forward, and how the company’s support for innovation results in ‘truly endless’ possibilities.
Above: Patrick Sidoti, Edelman's global chief production officer
LBB> Congratulations on the promotion - you were previously overseeing the US but now globally with Edelman Production you’ll be in charge of over 250 people – what opportunities and prospects does that scale open up for you? Is that an exciting or daunting task?
Patrick> It's both exciting and daunting! What it opens up for me personally is the opportunity to truly learn the nuance of the markets around the globe. The idea of going and doing what you always did precisely across the globe is probably not the right approach, so the stage that we're in right now is collaborating with the people that have been in-market, understanding strengths and areas to improve. It's going to be quite an immense opportunity to learn about the nuance of the globe.
LBB> Was there a project during your time as US head of production that really prepared you for this global role? One that you’re proud of or taught you a valuable lesson?
Patrick> In my remit on the US side, I was also connected to our Bogotá office, which was starting when I came in the door. Understanding how to help that team and what their needs and strengths are, and [understanding] what I could do to move the work into the right area… There was a lot of momentum when I got here, certainly, but I’m very proud of what [has] happened since I showed up. That started the conversation about a global remit.
We worked really well together – there's tremendous talent in Bogotá – and the respect goes both ways. Really quickly, we just started operating as one ‘Americas’ team, so that was really the groundwork that set us up for what we're doing now.
Above: An Edelman studio in Bogotá
LBB> Edelman production is split into two departments - one with integrated producers, and the other with artists, makers, directors, and animators. Can you share how these two groups function and interact, if at all? Is this changing with the new changes and investments?
Patrick> Yeah, they do interact. We have our integrated producers, which are your agency producers, brand team members – they sit there at the briefing and are the stewards of the project, working with the creative teams, understanding what the concepts are, and then going through their mental and physical Rolodex to find the right way to make this thing.
One of these ‘right ways’ of making that is with our internal studio, but it’s not right for every project. It’s not supposed to do everything that we do, it's supposed to do a certain amount of things and that certain amount of things is growing, which is really exciting to see. That's attributed to the talent that we've got in the studio.
So you have integrated producers, and then you have our connected global studio – your artists, your directors, your photographers, your editors, your colourists – the production company side of things. So as we aim to make more and more for our clients, and aim to make as much as possible internally, that aim is guided on doing the right thing and not mandating that work goes anywhere. So it's paramount that our studio is top notch in order to win the work. I say ‘win the work’ because just as much as it can go inside, it can definitely go outside – whatever is right for the project.
LBB> Edelman has just invested in five “geographically optimised” studios and production stages around the world – what does that mean for the business?
Patrick> It’s a reimagination of our spaces. We had the offices and we had the physical space, but there weren't professional production services, there weren't sound stages, nor were there the proper edit suites, audio mixing rooms, you name it. So that was part of our vision, knowing that we had the footprint and knowing that we have invested in connectivity, to connect all of these studios together. The next realm was building the capabilities and building out the stages so we can shoot content on-site. We're able to move nimbly and grow our studio footprint that way – and with 60 offices around the globe, our network is big to start with.
Above: Edelman studio space in LA
LBB> With these reinvented spaces, what kinds of content are you capable of, or focusing on, now with clients?
Patrick> Our specialisation depends on where we're talking [about]. In the US, you'll see our film capability really leading the charge. In Bogotá, it’s design and animation – some of the best designers and animators I've ever seen are in Bogotá. Mumbai has a similar offering and is very connected to Bogotá with their design and animation capabilities. And [cloud storage platform] LucidLink allows us to chase the sun, where we can have two separate teams working on a single project and get two working days out of one.
But over the last year, the thing that we've really seen is our scalability of film production, of our ability to operate like a proper production company, operate within a budget, and bring in the resources needed to pull off a particular thing – and then shrink back down to the size that we are in between projects.
However, this ‘in between projects’ portion is becoming smaller and smaller. We are always in pre-production, production or post. It's just like this cycle now that is constantly ongoing on all different scales of productions. A few years ago, that was not the case.
Again, we've built up to this through [hiring] immense talent that had expertise in building offerings like this. I'm very proud of where we're heading and we always agree that there's so much more to do, and we're in the process of doing those things.
LBB> A talent you recently brought on is Gabe Michael, vice president and executive producer of AI at Edelman - why is AI a focus for you, and why was Gabe the right person to help integrate that into your productions globally?
Patrick> The AI conversation is a fun one, it's affecting every aspect of business. In production, we have been a service and industry that has long dealt with innovations, from non-linear editing to digital photography. All of these things have advanced our abilities and agility. So AI is just the next thing that's going to allow us to move swiftly. The difference with AI versus anything else is that it's affecting business as a whole. So the conversation goes beyond production. That's never been the case before.
So why is Gabe the right person? He's won awards for character development, so he’s not coming at this from a production standpoint, but also a creative standpoint. He knows how to get the outputs based on the inputs, and that was a very, very big thing. He’s also had a film shown at Tribeca which is really impressive, of course. But his resume is definitely backed up by his work. He immersed himself in this long ago. He's spent five plus years specifically working with AI and it shows in the conversations that we have every day, and in the way that he's leading us into this new venture.
His impact will be both on the production side of things and the creative side of things. For us at Edelman, our first step in anything is to build a trustworthy situation for our clients and for us. And Gabe understands how inputs affect outputs. Much of the conversation around AI is focused on outputs – ‘Where's that magic button I can push to get that thing that I want?’. We're spending a lot of time on inputs, which connects back to our stages that we're building and have built, and connects back to making sure that we have the rights to all the imagery that it takes to train these [AI] models. It connects back to the type of content that we create to train models -– it's not the same as publishing materials. You have to create different kinds of content to get the outputs that you want, and Gabe has that expertise.
Outside of him having all the right technical skills and background, he's a wonderful human. He's so immersed into this world that every time we meet, which is daily, there's something new that he's working with and presenting to me and we’re working on together. So he was the right person, not only on paper, but he's showing it every single day with his connectivity to the world and his capabilities.
Above: An Edelman studio in Chicago
LBB> Alongside Gabe and the other studio leads, you’ve developed a new AI-enhanced business model with “turnkey AI integrations” - what does this mean for your production workflows, and the Edelman business more widely?
Patrick> For us, it starts with creative concepting. We're using the tools as sparring partners, to get inspired, to bring things into production before they show up, and making sure our creative teams have access to all these tools and are using them in the right way. There’s constant development and training that happens within Edelman to make sure that the creative teams know how to use these to enhance their ideas.
When it comes to production, there are a lot of things working their way into enterprise agreements. But for us right now, the really active thing is the post-production world. We're seeing so many different things that allow us to get from A to B much quicker than before, whether that's an animation thing or an editorial thing or a storyboard thing. The big focus is making sure that we have rights to everything. We have to be very careful with what we put into the world, and how we're using this very powerful tool. The tool being trustworthy is the number one thing.
So it’s really across the full spectrum of making right now, from the concepting and inspiration side, to certain things that we can do in production, to training the models for outputs, to making sure that our outputs are clean and ready for the world. Of course, post-production remains key to all these things. Nothing comes out of the [AI] model ready for the world. So we have to make sure that we have the right pieces around that. [Adobe] Firefly and things like that are infused with AI tools, which allows us to get down the road much quicker.
LBB> You’ve only really just started in this new role, but can you share some short-term goals you have for Edelman production globally?
Patrick> Our focus right now is EMEA, and we’ve had some very amazing rounds of interviews with somebody that will lead EMEA, as far as progression goes. There is wonderful leadership there right now, so somebody will come in and take the model that we've developed [in the Americas] and really work with leaders across the region to deploy that. Also, [we want] to further our connectivity between Bogotá and Mumbai and US, as far as the studios are concerned.
So it’s two things: setting up EMEA with a head of production to come in and work with the leaders, and then further our studio connectivity to really move down the road in the ‘chase the sun’ model. It's different now than it's ever been, with tools like LucidLink that allow you to truly collaborate [internationally] in a real time situation. The AI tools and this technology allows us to connect like never before. Those are our focuses right now, to connect our offices in that way and make sure that we're being as efficient as possible as we work around the globe.
Above: An Edelman studio in Mumbai
LBB> How are you working in this way already?
Patrick> With some of our clients, we’re making and deploying 600 units of content every single month. That goes from ideas to concepts to production to finishing to out-the-door – and that's happening on more than one brand. On this larger scale, that really focuses on social content. And everything that we do right now has a stop or two along the AI trail, whether that is at the inspiration point of it, and definitely at the post production side of it. Literally, it's everything. We are fully committed to this technology.
We know that it's the way forward, we know that the imagery will continue to improve and we know that our eyes will start to see the imagery differently – we're going to get more used to it. So we're committed to AI as a future tool that will really support the way that we're making things.
LBB> Besides AI, what else is exciting you in the global production realm?
Patrick> There's amazing growth sectors that we're seeing in the Abu Dhabi area, and South Africa has long been a huge, amazing hub for production too. So I’m excited to have the opportunity to work closely with our team in South Africa – some of my best production experiences have been there.
The real-time connectivity to these brilliant minds that we have all around the world is a ‘pinch me’ moment, to be honest with you. Throughout your career, you may think about something like this, but to have it in real time right now is truly special.
It's special to do it at a place that believes in innovation and moving [forward], and doesn’t just believe in it but really supports new ideas and new thinking. I felt that from my day one here. If there was an idea that we could move forward on, there was going to be support to do it… The opportunities truly are endless, and they're endless because there is support for innovation here.
