Creative Production: Key Performance Indicators

Making a smooth transition to centralised production has many requirements. It is important for the below mentioned stakeholders to manage the following:

Global Teams

• Fluid collaboration with no complaints from local markets
• Transparency in terms of costs and savings
• KPIs & SLAs must be reached
• Increased efficiency of the organisation

Local Teams

• Fluid collaboration with agency kept simple and on a daily basis
• Transparency in terms of costs and savings in order to realise budgets
• Faster delivery to market
• Training and education supplied by the decoupling partner
• Good working relationships and trust between partners

When transitioning to decoupling, it is also important to recognise the following issues:

Global Teams

• Tentative complaints from local markets causing added stress
• Actual cost savings may not be in line with projected savings
• KPI & SLA agreements not met
• A decrease in efficiency within the organisation
• Decoupling partner does not reach specific, specialised requirements
• Managing and monitoring multiple relationships
• Agency and localisation teams face collaboration issues over a bigger slice of the marketing budget
• Communication is not consistent and open with every player involved

Local Teams

• The decoupling partner does not provide creative production work, only has mechanical input
• Does not understand local markets in terms of language, culture, etc. (translators vs. copywriters)
• Are not brand/advertising experts
• Are not flexible
• Costly compared to the previous agency
• Language barriers due to lack of native speakers

How to Start

In order to start off on the right foot, markets must evaluate the client’s brand’s culture, values and requirements. Once teams, objectives, KPIs and SLAs are ascertained, it is important to put the right processes in place. Here are some important elements to consider when planning processes.

Production audit

An audit of needs and costs for production work to identify which steps can be streamlined and also to determine under-utilised benefits. Production from previous years and key information including cost estimates, final creative assets and supplier and internal spending are assessed. The client’s management must have a heavy involvement in this process, as well as the agency and its suppliers, to ensure a successful kick-off and there must be a close cooperation with all key stakeholders. The scope of work is then assessed and can be planned efficiently onwards. Key objectives are then agreed upon by all and will determine the overall success of the project.

RFI

A Request for Information allows the marketers to prepare a list of production suppliers for evaluation. This can include production houses, directors, casting, audio production, 3D animation, voice overs and more. Marketers should base the RFI on specific conditions needed from suppliers.

Analysis

Marketers should analyse the suppliers according to the terms of the RFI and then proceed to deal with the selection that fits the requirements. Each supplier should provide details regarding their production capabilities in both type of work and volume, delivery timing, pricing and more. A pricing model can be included here and financial terms will be agreed upon based on this content.

Implementation

Once production suppliers are chosen, marketers should align with stakeholders on roles and management responsibilities for all parties involved. The chemistry between the agency and its suppliers must not be overlooked as it forms the key to a successful cooperation. Therefore meetings are arranged between most important preferred suppliers in order to agree on key terms of the cooperation. Training programmes are put in place from all team members to quickly get on track, this could be in the form of face-to-face workshops.

Pilot phase

Training programmes are put in place from all team members to quickly get on track with the brand, this could be in the form of face-to-face workshops. This also includes any necessary IT solutions whether it be servers, file sharing, backuping or otherwise. All this comes together in the pilot phase where any last kinks are worked out and a final efficient process is determined based on the key learnings. The programme is then ready for an official launch.

”The chemistry between the agency and its suppliers must not be overlooked as it forms the key to a successful cooperation.”

A quick guideline to starting off on the right foot:

Buying-in from the client’s Senior Management

• Contract Terms
• Standard Level Agreement
• Performance tracking & evaluation
• Customer satisfaction monitoring

Giving the cooperation concrete shapes

• Client management involvement from the beginning
• Key stakeholders/Transition Leaders’ close cooperation
• Scope of work shared
• Key objectives & milestones agreed on
• Top level transition plan prepared

Agreeing on Finance Governance

• Developing a pricing model
• Financial terms agreements
• Accounting principles (PO issuance, payment terms etc.)

Defining Operational Rules of Engagement

• Face to face workshops to be organised locally
• Deep dive to fully understand the current processes
• Key roles & responsibilities assignment for all stakeholders
• Core teams allocation
• Workflow process & Interaction model
• Status reporting
• Training/Knowledge management (presentations, manuals, tutorials etc.)

Formulating step by step on-boarding plan at early stages

• Key milestones confirmation
• Detailed transition plan follow up (retro planning)
• Pilot phase
• Key learnings from the pilot phase
• Launch
• Training for all stakeholders

Customising collaborative tools & IT solutions

• Customisation specifically to client’s needs
• Training provided to all users
• 100% usage enforcement
• IT solutions (servers, files sharing & back-up etc.)