Steve Davies on the Benefits of Independent Production and the Sector’s New Ways of Working
Last week, the APA members report revealed marketers’ most recent views on their relationship with agencies, in-house production studios and independent production companies. They opened up about the state of the triple-bid system and expressed concerns over agencies withholding information about production partners, among other revelations. This week, APA CEO Steve Davies speaks to LBB’s Zoe Antonov to give his take on the results from the report.
“It doesn’t really come as a surprise,” says Steve in regards to the report’s findings. “But it does highlight how much work we have to do to ensure clients have a clear view of their production options.”
He explains that in his view, production companies enjoy working with agencies and “the very best work still comes from that route”.
“The best expertise in terms of planning, creative and production at the agency, married to the best producing and directing talent and the best editing, post, sound design and music from the independent experts in each of these fields. But as agencies have decided to compete with us for production and post, we have to compete with them. So ‘collaborators and competitors’ is where it is now.”
Brands are also increasingly producing their own content, the report showed, but Steve is adamant that a clear distinction must be held between in-house production units at agencies and in-house agencies in clients, where the former “is a threat to independent production companies, the latter an opportunity”.
“Talking about in-house production in agencies, there aren’t benefits to the client in using them – there are benefits to the agency, in the short term at least (before the quality of their output declines and they start losing clients and pitches), but a client will always get better value – encompassing quality of work and price – on the open market.”
According to Steve, there are two reasons for this – in his view, the best talent is still in the independent sector and competition on expertise and price delivers the best value for a buyer. “That is how a market works,” he says.
Continuing with an analogy, he adds: “If you have an extension designed for your house by an architect and they then say they can do the building work, most people won’t answer ‘Thanks’, but ‘Thanks, but I’d like some quotes from other builders to consider’.”
Beyond this, the report indicated that many marketers find the triple-bid system outdated, some of them shifting to double, or single bids. On this, Steve explains that with advertisers needing more cheap and quick everyday content, some of it will need to be managed differently. “Production companies are happy to do that content and need relationships with advertisers to provide that efficiently – so for example, a production company could have a relationship with a client to produce all of a particular type of content over a set period and they have proved they can do that efficiently. We need to help them build more relationships of this type.”
Going back to the previously mentioned concerns on transparency in the bidding process, Steve doubles down: “We are concerned that some in-house agency units are trying to pull the wool over clients’ eyes, e.g. by bidding three freelance directors themselves to make it look like a competitive bid, when in fact, it’s all them.
“In-house production units having names like production companies, instead of calling themselves the agency’s in-house production department.”
But what about the clear lack of understanding marketers have expressed when it comes to the production process, and the visibility they have requested from production companies? Steve says the conversation shouldn’t stop.
“We need to keep talking with clients to ensure they know all the options open to them, rather than potentially be misled by an agency intent on manoeuvring them into their in-house production offering.”
The trends in the report also showed another side of the picture – brands increasingly working with production companies directly. On how this would affect traditional agency roles, Steve says, “Agencies contain amazing talent and are capable of evolving and staying relevant, but are beset by short term financial goals, leading them to make decisions like trying to grab production outside of their core skills.
This provides worse quality and value for their client, which won’t help them.”
Looking ahead, Steve casts a prediction on what will shape the future of advertising production in the UK and EMEA markets:
“The continued move to ‘always-on’ content – quick and simple content for phones, as advertising has to follow its audience. But we know that creative commercials are the most effective means of brand building, of getting consumers’ attention in a crowded media space. So there will be an important place for them going forward.”
