Powering Productions with Strong Strategy
‘Production Strategy’. What is it?
It's really not new, but rather demanding more attention in today’s creative process.
This is how we define it. At the Deli, we have a simple idea: ask ‘how’ at the same time as asking ‘what’ and ‘where’ to bring production forward in your creative process. We build your production strategy early - instead of bolting it on to the back-end of the process - to help your imagination make friends with your budget.
We are not talking about production strategy at the operational level or the organisational level - that looks like overall thinking on processes, negotiated procurement plans that save money on supplier contracts or volume deals and across organisation savings, which is something typically a head of production will focus on. Instead, when we talk about applying production strategy, we are talking about doing so at the project level. This can come in various shapes and sizes. It’s something good producers have been doing for a long time, but traditionally it has not been recognised or imagined as something that’s important at the beginning of a project.
Good production strategy is also about engineering the content to fit the placement, but doing this thinking before, or at least in tandem, with the placement and the creative questions.
Finally, it’s about getting the most out of your production spend, while at the same time, finding the best creative solutions to drive results for the project. Creative producers are geniuses at helping to achieve this, and it's time to recognise how important this is.
To what extent is production strategic?
In a world where assets need to be planned across multiple channels and in varying forms - from snackable to brand, to experiential to digital - it is critical to have discussions about the scope and feasibility far earlier than ever before. Effectively, we are turning the process on its head and thinking about deliverables far earlier than ever before.
So, let's break this down. How does it work, and what does it look like?
Just like media strategy which asks where messages should go and creative strategy which asks what the message should be, production strategy asks fundamental questions around the ‘how’ we make the messages. Traditionally it’s the part that comes at the ‘end’ of the agency creative process, but we believe that production is a valuable voice to have right up front.
- Media Strategy asks ‘Where’
- Creative Strategy asks ‘What’
- Production Strategy asks ‘How’
What does the production strategist deliver?
Some of it is what we have been doing for years:
- Inform the creative
- Prepare an overarching schedule/plan
- Define the budget and scope
- Determine the content calendar/deliverables/media plan
But, the ‘how’ is a question that has many components and needs to be asked earlier:
- Establish which creative experts are required to bring the idea to life
- Figure out how we can make the idea better, bigger, and add extensions
- Ask how much will it cost
- Determine how many assets must be bought
- Plan ahead for the year, and find out how to leverage the most use out of the spend
- Determine what needs to be produced first, second, third, etc.
- Figure out how to negotiate every detail to mitigate the risk and manage the licences?
If done properly, these are the benefits:
- Having production be a part of the briefing helps creative development and can inspire teams
- The right questions are asked sooner, which ensures feasibility is possible and highlights ways to amplify the idea
- A better working relationship is created between the marketer and the creators, with more direct conversations
- The stakeholders understand the decisions being made for production and their implications for the outputs, before there can be a problem (if there even is one)
Great creative work doesn’t just come from great scripts or concepts. There is a great deal of strategy required to curate the right team, approach the production successfully, and to help to drive it through execution.
