I need to convince my small agency to hire a full time producer/head of production. I want to make a strong case for this, and could use some additional talking points. Any suggestions, production folks? Off the top of your head, what are the benefits of a full time producer vs. project-based freelancers? Thank you!

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Producers are super helpful in the idea stage of the process. Creative teams often come up with ideas that nobody really knows how much it might cost. Producers not only help figure it out, but also are often great at pivoting toward alt solutions that can bring costs down without sacrificing creative. It’s embarrassing pitching ideas to the client when they can’t afford to make them.

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Depends on the volume of work being produced and the number of different clients your agency has. It always helps to have a knowledgeable producer, EP or HOP on staff to understand your client’s needs, to build a trusting relationship with them, and someone who understands all aspects of production regardless of the medium. That person can also help to hire freelancers when the workload becomes too much for one person to handle. And the right producer can help elevate the creative, manage budgets and find the right vendors. No one else at your agency can do this, nor should they bc it’s not in their job description. I see this as a positive addition to your agency which can make life easier for all.

likesmart

Yes on all of the above for sure. The angle of becoming a strategic partner is key to any business who wants to evolve. Regarding volume of work, calculate the cost of hiring a freelance producer over a year and see if that helps the business case from the financial side (though that’s not the only part of the story as any business will want to grow from just getting through the projects.). The volume of projects is also only part of the story as you’ll need to understand the tier or complexity of the projects to move closer to a solid business case.

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FTEs make the bean-counters nervous. An incremental step that might build your case:

Pitch them on hiring a freelance producer on a 6 mos contract as a pilot (the longer the better, but I figure this is long enough to see results but not so long to give people sticker shock).

Articulate your hypothesis on why FT access will be better for the bottom-line vs proj-to-proj and identify some KPIs to track during the pilot: hours saved by not hunting for producers in a mad dash for one-off projects, hours saved by onboarding 1 person vs multiple, greater consistency in proj mgmt and outcomes, examples of helpful input earlier in the idea process (esp cost saving ideas), client satisfaction, team satisfaction, etc.

If your hypothesis proves true, then make your case that the lower cost and added efficiency of an FTE will drive even greater performance.

Additionally, do some recon on similar agencies to find out how many of your peers have this position. Is your firm lagging and they need to catch up? Or is this an opportunity to differentiate?

Pick your sales team's brain on whether 'we have a FT producer' is something they could use to win more work/get current clients to pull the trigger on more projects.

Make the case that anytime between projects could be used to improve your own marketing materials (eg sizzle reels, recaps).

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Reasons for a full-time Producer:

Gain someone with client/institutional knowledge. Good for recurring and future projects. Saves time/money.

A freelancer has no incentive/influence to make the process smoother or the work better. They are hired as late as possible and released before a proper project postmortem can occur.

Full-time builds a relationship with everyone at agency and direct clients. Can help make the work better / more efficient.

Full-time more empowered to speak truth to power. Results may vary. As a freelancer I’m not going to rock the boat.

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Agree heavily with the above mentioned fulltime head of production who can then source additional creative talent when needed. Even a small group still needs hierarchy for delegating creative tasks. From a customer/client/audience perspective their content will have continuity across stylistic, messaging and production quality. Having worked both sides of this question, full time in house and contractor - it can be a challenge for multiple production contractors to keep branding and quality consistent: even when deliverables are within the acceptable checklist of desires. “Too many cooks in the kitchen” applies here, especially when dealing with contractors who have objectively good and strong vision. Having a lead in house is beneficial - and your budgetary coworkers may find this of interest: in my experience they end up being less expensive in salary than the a la carte services option. Quantifying the expected costs of in house vs contractors would be a great next research step.

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I would start with the thinking process of: what are the current issues that you are seeing, that could be fixed with a producer? In all honesty, a lot of places don't have producers, and they work fine without them. Usually the only thing that happens is that the agency get fu*cked over a bit more for money, but at the end of the day, if your budgets are small, it could be that you would lose more with a producer on board (agency side). Account ppl can handle a lot of it.

Right now, with recession top of mind, very tough sell. As someone who’s started and owned or been a principal of several of these beasts (one not so small), I can tell you there are three things you’ll need to make the case: it’s affordable in the short term based on real work, it will be scalable if things go south, and, it will make the agency more marketable via better work. I get that right now, with talent in demand, it’s not easy to follow the go-to freelance model (which worked for us for years) suggested in this thread. But, with a finger to the wind, I’d say that’s the surest route to getting what you want.

Momentum

Freelancers will never care about the success or the reputation of the company. As soon as a freelance producer is hired, the clock ticks until that paycheck is over. They need to know what the next contract is and are most likely already starting to figure out. There is mo reason for them to make thinks better, less expensive, or move quicker. There is no motivation to do so. Show up. Do the job, get paid and compensated for every cent snd every second. Make all of this last for as long as possible. Mercenaries don't care what happens to the ones that are paying them, as long as they keep paying them. No need for loyalty

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