I spoke with many attendees and sponsors at the Creative Operations 2024 event in New York. What I found keenly interesting was the intersection of workflow and content in creative ops. The workflow can be set to three acts.
Act 1: Pre-production
This phase involves ideation, creative briefs, and planning. Focus on the purpose, objective, intent, and audience, and then move into production planning, budgeting, resourcing, and scheduling.
Act 2: Production
This involves all the activities required to generate images, photos, videos, scripts, copy, etc. for the desired marketing impact and outcomes. It encompasses project management, cost controls, and processes to review, approve, and manage content with appropriate security, access controls, and rights management
Act 3: Delivery & distribution
This involves the execution of campaigns and the flow of content to the audience, ensuring it gets to the right channel at the right time and in the proper formats.
After the “show,” the reviews come in. How successful was it? Did it engage the audience, did it meet the purpose and objective? What are the next steps?
Looking at this framework, let’s think about the data. In each act, a great amount of data is generated, and part of the workflow involves managing this data effectively. I learned about products and tools that work well in this area at Creative Ops. From a global perspective, how is the data managed, and, more importantly, do you have the data you need to make good decisions and show your value and effectiveness? What were the results of all the effort and costs? Did your marketing make a difference in educating, informing, persuading, and even inspiring the target audience? Was there a tangible return on investment or value delivered to the organization?
Like Broadway productions, there are runaway successes in the big theatres, quick show closings, Off-Broadway, and touring shows. But unlike Broadway productions, content can instantly be reused, repurposed, and renewed in multiple ways to meet evolving marketing needs.
The intersection of workflow and content signifies a broader, more holistic view of repeatable processes, relevant data, and the tools and expertise to continuously improve. After all, the show must go on.
