The Game Changer

Four ways The Producer Model makes business impact

We have long known from our own experience working at and leading agencies that something special happens when Producers are at the helm of projects and business intelligence while being the heart of teams and client partnerships. We also know it’s not the industry standard, a fact that has been reinforced as we look and consult across creative and innovation service agencies. 

The thing is: most studios and agencies are either following “old” models or don’t properly implement the alternative model. (Sorry, it’s not enough to call your team “Producers” and think that’ll do the trick.) So, we are out here building the foundation for the industry to fully understand “Why Producers?” and then “Okay, but how—for reals?” 

Let’s start with why creative and innovation services are better when Producers are positioned correctly in a role at the center of excellence, by which we mean: An integrated role that connects client partnership methods to the delivery of the work, leadership of teams, and source of business intelligence. 

Most importantly, we now know key aspects of business are better with Producers at the helm. Here are four ways implementing The Producer Model makes significant positive impact:

1 Clients get their best strategic thought-partner

As we’ve said before, we believe strongly in partnership as the foundation of long-term thriving client services businesses. But that doesn’t just happen by magic or happenstance. It takes the right approaches implemented in the right org structure by the right people. 

We know clients not only expect, but also need agencies to show up as a strategic thought partner, deeply invested in them and knowledgeable about their industry and the work that will solve their problems. And the way an agency situates their team matters a lot. To be blunt about it: having an account person who doesn’t deeply understand the work and having a project manager who doesn’t deeply understand the client (nor have the deep relationship) is a lose-lose on all fronts.

When an integrated Producer is situated within the team to helm the client relationship, author scopes, shepherd the team and contribute to the work, they have all necessary context and information to understand what is happening and why—and to steer the smartest recommendations and solutions. In short, the Producer is positioned to be a thoughtful strategic partner to the client and the team. This positioning is needed more than ever for agencies to be competitive in today’s difficult market, as AORs and retainers are less and less relevant as engagement models.

2 Competing incentives are eliminated

The goal of creative and innovation services is (or should be) to make The Best Work™. One clear path to The Best Work™ is when the team has a direct throughline from client goal to solution. So, anything that gets in the way of that should be actively solved for, mitigated, or addressed. One of the most corrosive things we have seen get in the way of a team making their best work for a client is competing incentives between parties within the agency who are jostling for their own personal success metric over the success of the team to deliver The Best Work™. 

Account Manager versus Project Manager. Biz Dev vs. Group Director. Executive vs. Producer. When an agency has a different person responsible for delivering the work than scoping the work and/or leading the client relationship, there are competing individual incentives that will affect the work. An Account Manager cares about making the client happy; a Project Manager is responsible for delivering the work on time. The Biz Dev person is driven by completing a sale—the team leader is concerned with sustainable business. And so on. None of that is generative creative friction; it’s unnecessary bureaucratic friction. (Note: That is not to say having specialists as partners to Producers isn’t called for in some cases. This is why it’s important to understand how to implement the model as much as why.)

When agencies and studios staff with the integrated Producer at the core, the friction between those competing incentives is immediately reduced. Goodbye, game of telephone. See ya, unrealistic contracts. One person integrating the client and team with the work through the entire lifecycle of engagement is a clear path to The Best Work™. 

3 Team staffing is more effective

In an ideal world, everything is in service of The Best Work™, but let's be real: this is business and money talks loudest. The good news is the integrated Producer model is better for business in multiple ways, including the bottom line. 

Properly setting up, staffing, and supporting the integrated Producer role is incredibly efficient. Maintaining two roles to do what could be a single, holistic role makes budgets more difficult with clients and/or eats into profit margins. Charging for two roles (for example, Account Manager + Project Manager) that could be one is harder and harder to justify in this competitive landscape.

It’s critical to emphasize this isn’t about taking two jobs and making one single person do it. Staffing the Producer Model right takes understanding what the role is and isn’t—and making the most of what an integrated and empowered Producer can do (particularly as AI is able to provide innovative tools to take on some project management tasks, freeing Producers to provide their strategic leadership even better), which is both impactful and efficient when set up right. Agency leaders need to understand how to hire for the unique skillset of what’s often seen as a “unicorn” role—and how to scale and manage the discipline.

4 Business intelligence can finally be potent 

We get really excited to teach agency execs about the benefits of the integrated Producer role for business intelligence (which is essentially the information you use to understand the status and health of the business). Agencies can best leverage business intelligence by creating connective tissue between business leaders and an integrated Producer role—the discipline with opportunity for the greatest visibility into accounts, projects, team, and core business functions—as opposed to disconnected and error-ridden sources like timesheets. 

Side note: we are thoroughly against the use of timesheets in the creative and innovation services industry. Agencies don’t need them and shouldn’t use them. We’ll explain more on the what and why of that in a dedicated post soon.

When Producers are positioned to manage the scoping and project team(s), they have the most accurate data about what is happening (and why) with the numbers behind the work, from forecasting to strategy. There are simple systems that agencies can use to get this information and to understand the story behind what’s happening. Instead of fictitious projections and error-ridden timesheets, the data indicating business status and health is actually accurate and helpful.

Look: we’re in the consulting game to actually help people. If we can give folks information and methods that keep them from going down the long, hard path (this business is hard enough as it is!), we will. We really are explaining The Producer Model—what it is, how and why it works—to help orgs driving creative and innovative work do it better. 

But don’t just take our word for it: Dive into our findings from the NoCo Producer Landscape Study, which establishes a comprehensive understanding and baseline of the Producer role. 

We’ve got a lot more coming, so follow along via our periodic newsletter for more explainers, insights, and materials.