5 Lessons for Rookies Who Want to Rock Digital Production

Digital producers are a relatively new kid on the advertising block: emerged to fill an industry-need that other roles weren’t meeting, we gather talent and assets to assure the end product’s quality, whether that’s an innovative digital campaign, a nifty mobile app or the newest dot-com.

Our breed is unique: one part client-facing account manager (but less hands-on), one part project manager (but less process-driven), and all around quality watchdog. Because, in the end, the product you deliver has your name on it.

Coming from an operational background, I’ve met my fair share of challenges. Two years down the road in a senior position, I’ve gathered elements that I hope would be useful for anyone starting their career as a Digital Producer and looking for the keys to success, or anyone else curious and interested in jumping on the bandwagon.

1. Learn to read between the lines

Read them, recognize them and see through them. You’ll hear a lot of lines all the way from inquiry to delivery, so learn to pick up the clues. Pay particular attention to what your clients say, but even more so to what they don’t say.

1 You can measure how good your product is against the objectives listed in your project brief. My favorite part: contrary to traditional advertising, there are all sorts of tools out there that allow you to track your product’s performance.

2 In China, consumers will either be incredibly price-sensitive and will go with the cheapest option, or they will be willing to buy something premium if it enhances their social status – there’s no middle tier. To provide this social currency, Western brands often need a Key Opinion Leader (a Chinese influencer) to localize and lend authenticity to the brand.

3 This is not a bad idea on paper, but in practice almost impossible for a vendor at the end of the line to rewrite the work streams of 3 different companies.

Somewhere last year, we walked into a pitch for a Japanese client feeling confident that we’d ticked all the brief’s boxes. Yet, we didn’t even make it through the first round. After some digging, we discovered that the brief we’d been given matched the wishes of the manager in charge but wasn’t what other decision makers were looking at to award the project.

One way to stop from missing clues is prioritizing face-to-face meetings over email. Collect various perspectives from across the fence and clearly ask them what the project’s objective should be, rooting out any misalignment.

Should you find out that objectives from different departments clash, the answer often lies in identifying who calls the shots and aligning your approach.

2. You own the product, not the process

This next one took me some time to wrap my head around but should be at the top of your mind every time you take on a new brief: digital producers’ success is measured by the quality of the work they produce.

The key metric that outweighs whether the product was delivered on time and within budget, is quality1 — and that’s an important distinction. So don’t hesitate to take part in the creative process and provide feedback, because the results will reflect it.

Case in point: our Amsterdam-based creative team proposed a great campaign idea for a premium fashion brand for the APAC market. It was a scalable digital campaign, but interacting with consumers in a way that was not all common in China and lacked the social currency the local audience craves2 — which is why I dropped my two cents to tweak and localize the approach.

Had this brief landed on my desk a few years ago, I would’ve focused on providing the necessary timings and insights to the team, but ultimately would have left the creative approach to the creative director. Our overall idea would have been received with enthusiasm, but skepticism from the local markets – ultimately resulting in a rejected proposal.

3. The people involved remember the ride, not the results

A high-quality product is likely to make headlines, but if you want the buzz to turn into new business you have to keep in mind that a project’s legacy outlives the headlines. Everyone responsible for making those headlines will remember the process leading up to them more than the results.

Your team may forget an all-nighter, your client may forget a missed milestone, but they won’t forget how you handled any setbacks or how the overall experience made them feel. After collaborating on a digital campaign with one of our closest clients — and powering through serious delays — we received an end-of-year note that praised our “energy, dedication, and laughs in between.”

Praise or not, it’s always worthwhile to involve clients in identifying possible pain points and improve them collectively. Staying positive and avoiding the blame game will cement your partnership, and ensure return business.

4. Embrace the maître d’ metaphor

Imagine your production house as a restaurant. Your client’s the customer and your in-house team the kitchen crew — designing experiences, cooking websites — and you act as the maître d’, responsible for the overall experience. The customer wants to receive stellar service, taste dishes from the most talented chefs using the best ingredients, and (to push the analogy) to do all this without breaking the bank.

Service should flow harmoniously, and none of your patrons want to hear how difficult it was to get the dish in its current form on the table. You’re untethered to any one table, able to oversee the landscape and identify the areas most in need of help — and either reassign, adjust, or jump in yourself to lend a hand.

Our Cannes Lions are our Michelin stars, and if the quality of the service provided is consistent, they’ll recommend you to their friends. Some even say if the service is right, the food tastes better.

5. Change is going to happen, and that’s not a bad thing

Digital is always evolving, over the course of a campaign that’s months in the making change is bound to occur. Whether it’s an innovative technique or a change in trajectory. Traditionally, a project manager sees change as a risk to be monitored and mitigated. However, a successful digital producer knows how to bend the rules, re-route the direction, and find trade-offs.

It’s your job to be the guardian of scope and budget. Unforeseen changes may impact both parameters, making it extra important to be transparent and realistic in your everyday dialogue with the client. At the same time, change can lead to the creation of better product.

We recently delivered a mobile app which initially relied heavily on fresh, animated content each week. Because of the interminable chains of approval, it eventually became obvious that we would never manage to produce updated content in time, every week.

If I were a project manager, I would’ve tried to go beyond our position in the chain, and streamline the approval process upstream to save time1. Instead, I proposed to reroute the direction of the app and use the leftover budget on an in-app AR experience that users could access in different locations. This way, we weren’t reliant on content we’d have to create ourselves — bonus points for freeing up animation resources — but utilized users’ geographical location to deliver unique experiences.

Being a part of delivering a kick-ass product that creates a mind-blowing digital experience for users is why most of us are in the trade. But if you are looking for ways to develop as a digital producer and elevate an experience, these are the things to remember:

Understand what your client really wants, be part of the work rather than managing work effort, embrace change along the way, and make your team (and your clients) enjoy the ride. Beyond skills, being a good digital producer is a mindset. With these lessons in mind, I have no doubt you’ll knock this whole producer thing out of the park.

This article was originally posted by the author on LinkedIn.