Creative Production

Review: 3 key themes from Creative Operations New York 2022

The Perfect Conditions

“Good process gives a person the time, headspace and room to shine”

Managing Director Stef Sokolowski and Business Development Director Jeff Lowther of We Are Amnet, The Americas, review this year’s Henry Stewart Creative Operations conference. 

Creative Operations New York, hosted by Henry Stewart Events was held on Wednesday May 4th at the Hilton Midtown.  Attendees include agencies, suppliers and brands and was the “largest assembly of creative operations folks under one roof “– as stated by Kevin Brucato, Managing Director of Lowe, who kicked off the event. 

The themes throughout the day focused on three areas:  

1. Modernized ways of working:  hybrid onsite/remote models are here to stay.  During COVID-19, we had to rapidly learn how to support, collaborate and be agile in our daily operations.  Collectively, around the globe, this model proved successful with great performances seen in all areas of business.
2. Modernized technology – most companies who have a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, quickly learned during COVID-19 that they had to up their game.  Automation drives efficiencies, VR and AI technologies are helping to bridge the loss-of-connection in remote working models.  Technology is key to streamlining workflows and communications, and outdated technology demoralizes team members – making it harder to retain top talent – which leads to the last theme.
3. Talent – as the Great Resignation resonates around the globe, employers need to find new ways to retain and engage employees.  What worked a few years ago, no longer works today.  We need to ensure representation from all walks of life, have active seats at the leadership table and empower team members at all levels to bring their true, authentic self each and every day.

Brian Best, Senior Vice President at Saatchi & Saatchi kicked the day off with an impassioned keynote presentation that was both lively and animated, a good jolt to start the day. Best started with his key ethos in how he has gotten to where he is today – always fighting for good work and being passionate about the work he does, whether it be in fashion or at an ad agency. Best spent time walking through his journey, using colorful and emotive language detailing his formative years in Barbados (he referred to as his dreamscape) to how he came to New York to become a writer or to work with music, which ultimately didn’t happen. 

In New York, Best went through a period of self-actualization and was inspired to want to live and breathe all things creative which was realized when Best was accepted to New York University (NYU). After NYU Best started working at Coach on the ecommerce side but ultimately missed being creative. From Coach, he went to work at fashion startups on their dot.com business. Best has ended up back in creative, working at Saatchi and Saatchi and is truly relishing his time getting to be creative again where he’s working on brands that put representation in the forefront of every creative brief, ensuring they have multicultural talent which Best says is a great source of pride. Best also highlighted how refreshing it is to be working for a company that values multicultural staff, something which was a key theme throughout the event.

Best closed his session by saying that being able to show up to work as his true self, with the support from senior leadership and being seen and heard allows him to be the creative he always wanted to be.

There were many digital asset management suppliers on hand to discuss their bespoke technology solutions, and we heard from Dylan Flesch – the Digital Asset Manager of NYPR (WNYC, WNYC Studios, WQXR, NJPR, Gothamist) who presented the methodology of implementing a DAM across multiple business units and how this ups your creative game by making assets available for everyone involved in the creative process.  He reminded us that “Your DAM is not the ‘final resting place’ for assets.  It’s an investment in the future”.

Jennifer Drucker, Head of Creative Operations at Sartorius, walked through a visually powerful presentation on Adapting Your Brand Through Creativity. Some key takeaways from Drucker’s session were the differences and occasional overlap between Creative Production and Project Management, explaining the way her team has to come up with bold beautiful creative assets and also outlining how “adherence to brand platform equals happiness”.

Drucker talked about how the secret sauce for success in her experience is the right combination of creative operations with creative branding and design. The steps to achieve this success start with knowing your brand – brand workshops and monthly brand reviews are key. This is followed by using existing asset templates. Drucker stressed how important this is for creative operations – following template guidelines, downloading, and using templates and not just winging it and creating your own is key. There should also be initiative to work with the team to create new templates for assets in a collaborative environment as well as always striving to review, improve and update templates.

This all helps Drucker and her team come up with bold and beautiful assets as was on display in her visually pleasing presentation. 

Daniel Sergile, Director, Creative Operations of The RealReal presented Diverse Perspectives – The Importance of Diverse Thinking in the Field of Creative Operations, sharing that “77% of employees want an employer that values cultural differences” – The Ryan Jenkins blog.  Sergile didn’t feel empowered early on in his career to be his true self, speak his authentic mind – now at The RealReal, representation is at the center of his hiring and creative operation models.

Wayne Barringer, CEO over at WBC Advisors presented on the subject of: Talent Flight: How to Optimize Superpowers and Crush Kryptonite so People Love Your Workplace. This was a hot topic mentioned throughout the event and asked about during Q&A at multiple sessions. Retaining talent and preventing burnout off the back of the Pandemic is something most organizations are well aware of and the need to keep talent happy. A key question Barringer put to the audience was whether “your team feels respected?” The need to trust on performance and respect your team will remove doubt created by churn which can lead to increased flight risks.

Catherine McIntyre-Velky, Executive Level Consultant at McVelky LLC Executive Level Consulting, hosted a panel on The Dynamic Between Creative Project Management and Senior Creative Leaders: Why it is a Fundamental Determinant of a Creative Organization’s Success with May Aboubakr, Vice President, Creative Marketing Operations and Gabrielle Lamontagne, Creative Director from Chobani, Megan Reilly, Senior Manager Project Management from Disney’s Yellow Shoes, Dan Sutton, Founding Partner of Roundpeg Consulting and Peter Kain, Executive Creative Director from BBDO.  All discussed the importance of having rockstar Creative Project Managers as partners on projects, Peter stating that “when they’re at their best, you don’t see what they’re doing”.

A key theme was the balance between the creatives and the project managers, knowing the boundaries and what PMs can bring to the creative process. The panel expanded on the age-old conundrum of how far upstream a project manager should be in the creative process and what to do if they voice an opinion, especially if it’s in conflict with a core creative brand campaign. 

Some of the panel members said that they would always listen to the project management team member as they are providing an opinion which should be welcome whereas other panel members were of the more traditional approach that the project manager should stay in their lane and focus solely on execution. There was, however, a consensus that having a creative project manager, with a deeper background in creative is a benefit and can often be a brand or agency’s secret weapon In getting highly creative concepts executed in a process oriented way.

Janice Brunell, Senior Director, Creative Operations of SiriusXM spoke about Creative Operations Through a Creative Lens.  As someone who went to art school and started her career on creative teams, she was able to take her good balance between right and left brain and move into creative operations. By understanding that “everything can be creative – creativity is how you approach things” – she was able to fall in love with spreadsheets!

“The nation’s quit rate hit a 20-year high last November” is how Erin Figliolino, Associate Director, Brand Operations at HelloFresh kicked off The Crucial Role of Effective Creative Operations in Employee Morale and Retention session.  Speaking of the importance of good process, she stated “Good process gives a person the time, headspace and room to shine”.

Roman Kuebler, Production Design and Creative Assets Management of Under Armour discussed the importance of collaboration when setting up any new technology – specifically a Digital Asset Management system.  He worked closely with all stakeholders to ensure the setup and information was relevant to the way they already work and improved their daily activities – “we may not be creatives, but we are creative in building processes and bringing people along”.

The in person event, returning to New York for the first time since 2019, was well attended with the main talking themes of the day being around staff retention with a focus on diversity and inclusion, technology investments and automation as well as a solid process driven operational models. The conference content reflected the high quality of speakers making for a very insightful event.