Sparking A Cultural Movement

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog. I have been building brands for over 20 years. I love my work. I love my family more than my work. I am originally from Canada, but started my advertising career in Sweden. I think we were one of the first countries to start using the internet for marketing in the early 90s.

I started my career in diapers. My parents and my grandparents and all of my sisters all worked in marketing. (My sisters have all gone onto other things: Anna leads Agoodson.com; Joelly is at Genumark, and Tracy is running her own food company called Mamaluv.)

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I started my career in diapers. My parents and my grandparents and all of my sisters all worked in marketing. I grew up with very smart and interesting people around our family. When I worked in Sweden, the talent was multi-disciplined because TV wasn't a dominant media like it is in the USA. As a result, you had to be good at many things to make it. Being a hybrid was like the starting point. You had to be great at brand building, great at writing tv commercials, great at print ads, design, crm, understand the net. Sweden is a small country so brands had to travel, and the ideas had to be border less - both geographically and in terms of disciplines.

I remember the first time I started using the internet. We were all wired for email in the early 90s. So back them we were already communicating with our clients, like Ericsson. We started to build websites and web experiences around the mid 90s. There wasn't 60 years of history for how you should build a website like there is for doing TV commercials, so it was a little bit like the wild west. So we did trial and error. We made a lot of mistakes back then, but we started to get some important experience under our belt. We developed our own agency website which was a lot of fun. I remember all the crazy things we did. It was very early days, but because Sweden was such a design-oriented and technologically advanced place, the websites were pretty amazing even in the very early days.

I sold my 50 percent in the Swedish agency. When I started StrawberryFrog in Amsterdam, I scoured the web for the most amazing work out there. At the end of the 90s there wasn't a lot. But there was this one site I came across that was amazing. So I contacted the person and asked him to help me develop StrawberryFrog's first Website. I wanted it to be a talking item - something really amazing. He helped me develop something that I hadn't seen before. A site that used primarily flash. It was so successful that we got tons of calls from clients wanting us to do the same thing for them. I was working with this digital dude only by email and phone. His name was Luke. So I called him and asked if he wanted a full time job and move to Amsterdam. He told me he did but that I would have to speak to his mother. Turns out he was only 16 years old.

Our whole model for StrawberryFrog back then, was based on my agency in Sweden - a global agency that worked closely with a core team but was buttressed by a dynamic collective of independent talent and companies around the world. So Luke fit this perfectly and enabled us to develop state of the art web experiences. Eventually we grew so much that we had to hire interactive producers and we did.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
There is only one way. Remain curious. Stay out there and try new things as they rise to the surface. Talk about them, lead by doing.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Clients that think big and who have products that excite us. The ideal work is Cultural Movement. StrawberryFrog's competitive edge is Cultural Movement. We spark Cultural Movements for our clients. Once you have a Cultural Movement you can do anything in a fragmented media world. Cultural Movement is the maximizing and mastering of all tools and technology into a focused campaign that is inspires people to belong. Of course digital is a very important element to this approach.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The key is to have excellent relationships with your clients so that you can be open to new things. The better the relationship the better the collaboration, the better the work. Both agencies and clients can learn from each other. It's also important to know and agree on what you;re going to build. If you want to build a Ferrari and the client wants to build a Mahindra, but can only afford a Kia, well then you're not setting expectations, and you will waste time, energy and eventually will fail.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
True North Snacks which we launched last summer and which this week was one of the primary sponsors of the 2009 Academy Awards. The site is www.truenorthsnacks.com
Here are some of the Oscar work:









Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
We can handle more projects than a traditional corporate agency without I dare say losing any quality.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
The dream team would be some of the best talent, meshing well with the Frogs, very motivated around the movement we are creating, adding ideas and pushing it all forward, incredibly nice to work with, making problems melt away, inspiring us, delivering on time and budget.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
StrawberryFrog has some very smart people. We rely on their expertise to lead this work and connect with the best production companies out there whether they are across Madison Avenue or across the world.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The industry is chock a block with offerings. Some new, some old...the future will be about ideas and about pulling it all together with ideas that consumers care about. I think Europe is a good yardstick for how to gauge the future of the US advertising industry. (When I use the word 'Advertising" i mean all forms of communications, but advertising is the best word we have at the moment to express the combination of strategy + marketing + brand building + digital.) In Europe the big huge corporate agencies dominated back in the 90s, like a great pine forest with gray needles on the ground. Back during the last recession, these great holding companies were leap frogged by smaller, faster, more agile companies that could do everything huge clients need and want, and more effectively than the huge conglomerates. Today in Europe, some of the tall pines are still standing, but many are dominated by lush green sprouts that are thriving in a new environment. The same will come to pass in the US. The recession is plowing right through the traditional industry, driven by clients demanding higher, swifter, faster partners.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
I'm for Optimism vs Pessimism.

I'm also believe that you can do anything once you have a Cultural Movement. I spend some of my time writing a blog about Cultural Movements. www.scottgoodson.typepad.com please enjoy.

The Gates of Digital

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I'm Stephen Gates and I am the Interactive Creative Director for Starwood Hotels & Resorts and I work on the digital creative for our portfolio of 10 brands including Sheraton, Westin, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, LeMeridien and W Hotels. I am also the designer and author of StephenGates.com which houses my portfolio and blog that is a collection of rants, reviews and advice about digital design and all forms of advertising and branding.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I was lucky enough to have grown up with two extremely creative parents and a father who worked in advertising so both have been a part of my life from day one. This gave me a huge edge because I grew up around so many creative people and was able to start interning at my dad's agency when I was a teenager. That experience gave me a real understanding of how the real world worked, how idea were created, how to tell a story when you present them and a really solid foundation in design and typography. When I got to college I was struck with the usual teenage angst where I knew I wanted to do something in advertising but I "wasn't going to do what my dad did" so I combined my knowledge of advertising with my love of computers to study Computer Graphics concentrating on 3D animation and visual effects. After graduating I worked as a 3D animator and digital effects artist but I kept being drawn to experiment with interactive design because of the release of Future Splash (Adobe Flash before it was Macromedia or even called Flash) because it was a convergence of my traditional design and typography skills married with my motion sensibility I had from my 3D animation work. I have been off and running in interactive ever since.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I think the only way you can stay on top of or even a little ahead of the constant change is to lead a true digital lifestyle so technology isn't just something you read about. You have to get in there and get your hands dirty to be able to recognize trends and opportunities before the mass market. I don't think you can really understand the power and potential of a blog unless you write one for a while. I don't think you can really get any new insights into e-commerce unless you sell things online, and on and on.

I keep my team informed and motivated by having each member of my team responsible for being the subject matter expert in a different interactive discipline. They are responsible for staying up to date on their chosen area and reporting back to the group in our weekly meeting on any new trend or technology in that area we should know about.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I have worked on projects of all sizes with clients all over the world and I know that great work can come out of projects of any budget and clients of any size. For me the ideal project is born out of one word - trust. I say that because I could have an idea that would completely re-define a clients market position and create a huge revenue stream but if they don't trust the idea, my ability to execute it and that it will be a success then it will never see the light of day. The more trust you have then the bigger risks you can take the more break through the work can become.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
This is one of those areas where I don't think there is an easy or even a consistent answer because no two clients are the same so you constantly have to tailor your communication and education tactics. Before you can education someone you need to get a baseline for how well they understand the creative and production process. I have found success by starting with listening to what the client wants to accomplish and what they think success will be for their project or brand. That gives me that baseline to figure out how much work I have ahead of me in terms of education about the medium and the process which will lead to realistic expectations. I also think it is our job to never blindly accept an assignment or even a potential solution from a client without questioning everything to be sure it is the best solution to the problem and will get them the results that they want.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The answer probably isn't what a lot of people may think because it isn't the sexiest or the most recognized work in my portfolio. It was for Subaru North America who came to me right before the Detroit International Auto Show with the news that they were going to launch a new 7 passenger SUV at the show and they needed to create a viral buzz for the launch. The catch was that they couldn't tell me the name of the car or any details or any photos or anything other than it was a 7 passenger SUV. On top of all that, I only had a week to get it all done and $10k budget. We pitched the idea that since Subaru was making a car to hold more passengers then people better get busy making those passengers. The execution was three videos of various Subaru models rocking and back and forth with tango, R&B and 70's porn like background music implying people making more passengers. So I think it is one of my best projects because it was done so quickly, made something compelling out of absolutely nothing and it actually worked really well.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
That numbers changes for me all the time because I run my studio with a core creative leadership team that can manage internal and external creative teams and agencies. This way we can scale to meet the workload while maintaining quality and control.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I believe in the rule of three's so I always have someone working on the design, writing and user experience. I think if you keep that type of structure and breadth thinking as the core then no matter what the assignment and no how technology changes your work will succeed at communicating to the audience.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
This is one of those areas where I don't think there is an easy or even a consistent answer. I have found success by starting with listening instead of talking so I can find out what the client wants to accomplish and what they think success will be for the project. With those answers I can craft a strategy and a concept that will bring those challenges to life. The point being that I use my expertise to create the best solution possible by blending what the clients wants with what I know will work and will be best for the project. That way I can make sure their interests are met but doing without simply blindly accepting direction or a solution from the client.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I keep hoping that the industry will get to a place where campaigns are created out of a media agnostic concepts that are then expressed through all the different mediums. Maybe these rough economic times will finally get that happen as it may force agencies see the power of having a strong concept and a media plan that works together across all channels.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Technology isn’t an idea. We have fallen into a trap where we are more caught up in the tools we use than the feeling we need to create and the stories we need to tell. Consumers don’t care about the latest version of Flash or what version of CSS a site is built with. Successful work is created from ideas and strategies that express simple human truths we can all connect with.

Northwestern View

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Kris Hanson, Executive Interactive Producer at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon. W+K is a full-service agency with offices in Portland, New York City, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai and New Delhi. In addition to leading the digital production group in Portland, I work closely with our other offices, helping to build a global infrastructure for producing best-in-class digital work for our clients.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I knew from the beginning that I wanted to go into advertising in some fashion. While in college, when the first version of Netscape was released, I was hooked immediately. I began looking into ways of combining advertising and digital—and wound up at a company called Modem Media (now Publicis Modem). I was drawn by the opportunity to build a medium and figure out new ways of doing things and engaging consumers. Since then, everything I've done has been driven by the ability to innovate and push the uses of technology.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Mostly from sharing things with colleagues (both past and current). I also keep up with the top blogs, news sources and Twitter. The key is cutting through the clutter and finding the best resources to keep up with things. I've stopped following a lot of people on twitter and removed blogs from my top feeds as the quality of information from them diminishes.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client is one that is open-minded and considers us a partner in helping them to solve their challenges. They are genuinely interested in exploring new things and seeing how things fit within their marketing mix...not just looking for a website and banners. The best client relationships are collaborative in nature—we're all part of the same team—and don't get caught up in client/agency politics. The best work I've done is when a client has trusted that we'll do whatever it takes to make something happen.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Communication and honesty are key to managing expectations. As I said before, the best client relationships are when there is a genuine trust and you work on the same team for the greater good. In the rare case when a ball gets dropped...be honest with the client and explain what you're doing to fix the issue...don't try to cover things up. The more honest you are with clients, the more trusting and understanding they will be when things inevitably come up throughout the production process.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Tough question...I've had the opportunity to work on a lot of great things throughout my career. One of the best things I've had a hand in recently is the work we did for the movie Coraline. It was one of the largest and most thoroughly integrated projects we've done at W+K. From the outreach program to key bloggers, interactive installations at theaters and an engaging website, everything was outside of the "normal" movie campaigns you see. Other than that, everything I did on Volkswagen while at Crispin Porter + Bogusky provided a variety of challenges and changed the way consumers interacted with an automotive brand in the online space.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
As the head of the department, I'm not as involved in the day-to-day production of projects anymore...though I do have a hand in everything that goes out the door. Prior to this role, the number of projects that I could handle would depend on the size/scope and timing. I've had instances where I've worked only one large-scale project for a six-month period, and other cases where I would juggle seven or eight smaller projects in various phases of production.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Depending on the project, you'll have a team of designers, developers, animators, usability experts, etc. The most important thing to me in my teams is open-mindedness and desire to push things. The most exciting (yet scary) moment is seeing something you're not sure how to execute...and then figuring out how to make it happen. I always tell my teams not to ask "if" something can be done...but to focus on "how" to make it happen.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Communication and strong relationships with clients are the key. I've found that from the beginning of a project, clearly outlining with the client how success will be measured is essential. I've had the benefit of working with clients who realize that the most important thing is providing the best possible experience for the user. If you put the user first, the project will be successful. Continually communicating with the clients throughout the process ensures that we're always tying back to the success measures we've all agreed to.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think we'll see an increased emphasis on providing engaging experiences, no matter what medium they are in. Ideas and thinking are what set the innovators apart from the followers. We'll see less emphasis on sites, but deliver engaging experiences to users in their own element...digital installations, mobile experiences...the opportunities are endless. The most successful things will be those which provide an engaging, useful experience to users and don't just use technology for technology’s sake.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Never stop learning and love what you're doing...the only way to stay on top of things and continually evolve within this industry is to have a genuine love and desire to figure out new things. Even after nearly 12 years in the industry, I leave the office every day having learned something new.

The Reel Deal

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hello, my name is Niklas Lindstrom and I am the General Manager and Executive Producer at B-Reel New York. B-Reel is a Swedish based one-stop-shop, offering complete solutions to agencies with high digital standards, specializing in high-end web productions, film and animation. Today we are 40 people spread out in three offices in Stockholm, London and New York.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
Born and raised in a small town in the middle of Sweden. After high school I got the opportunity to start working at a local TV station where I learned the ins and outs of TV production. I went to University and got a Media Technology degree and got really hooked on this new phenomenon called multimedia fusing together everything I considered fun. Got a job as Project Manager at one of the first multimedia/Internet agencies in Sweden, Projector New Media. Stayed a couple of years, co-founded Leo Burnett Interactive in 1999 working as Account Director trying to contribute to shape a truly integrated advertising agency which was tough both internally and externally at that time. Was hired by B-Reel in 2004 to develop the Interactive production side and have had a great journey since then. Moved to New York in 2007 to start the US branch of B-Reel and it has been a great experience.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Staying on top of new stuff and keeping ourselves informed is really at the core of B-Reel and actually a responsibility for our whole industry since we are in constant change. We all have our sources of information and different ways of tapping in to the constant stream of cool stuff that is out there and we all share the best bits internally. And for some reason we normally end up developing our projects using techniques and processes we have never done before, which is really motivating for the whole team and this keeps everyone engaged.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Since we are a production company working primarily through advertising agencies we really like when the agency comes to us with a good and challenging brief and or idea and want to have a open collaboration on the project meaning that there is room to develop the ideas together.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
These days a lot of the agencies we work with have good knowledge of the overall mechanics of using Internet. In order to both educate and set expectations we work really hands on with prototyping and/or animatics to give everyone involved a good sense of what the final experience will be like. Because sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you talk, it all comes down to the actual visual experience. Along the way we keep a transparent and open process with our clients sharing our progress every step of the way. This is particularly important for us since we normally don’t meet and communicate with the end client.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I think the Doritos campaign Hotel626(hotel626.com) is probably the best project I have worked on considering the production process and the result. A great collaboration with the agency even if it was the first time we worked together and a great client that really supported the idea of creating something that should be really frightening. We got the opportunity to create a total experience for the site visitors. Everything from the shoot at an abandoned asylum with old patients still living in the cellar to the actual site experience where we made the visitors use all aspects of their computers, microphone and camera, real-time telephone interactivity and develop a 360 degree 3D technique for Flash never used before.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Normally we have 5-6 major projects spinning at all three offices, I can manage one or two major ones depending on size and complexity, to my help I have great Project Managers that handle most of the day to day communication with the client and the production details. I also need to look a few steps further and take care of new business requests that we handle in parallel to the actual projects.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Since we are pretty much full-service doing everything from shoots, postproduction to the actual development I think it is important that different skills work close together to take every production to the next level. So when I gather a team consisting of a Project Manager, Art Director, Creative Director, Director, Lead Motion Designer and a Technologist we can accomplish great things together.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By asking more questions. If we can get a better understanding of the creative strategy and the reasons why we can do a better delivery. We strive to always add something extra to deliver something that is beyond the clients’ expectations.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Two things; first it is a bit fuzzy when it comes to if you are an agency or a production company/studio in our industry. Right now we have a mashup of digital and traditional agencies since the lack of interest for Interactive from traditional agencies made it possible for new digital agencies to grow their business with direct clients. The next phase will be agencies that can handle their clients and brands with a holistic approach not limited to channel.
And second, today we access Internet content from a broad range of platforms, devices and situations. In order for a brand to stay relevant it needs to analyze the consumer behavior and needs to see where the digital touching points are with the brand. By doing that it will be easier to decide the optimal digital mix and get better leverage in their digital efforts.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Always stay positive and humble toward your team and your clients.
You can get so much more done with a smile.
And last, do not kick the butt you eventually might have to lick.

First Things First

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I'm Mark Ferdman. I'm founder of Freedom + Partners, which used to be known as Freedom Interactive Design. Before that I was a co-founder of Firstborn. All in all, I've been running my own shop and producing interactive work in New York City for 12 years. It's hard to believe, time flies when having fun I guess.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I've been labeled an 'artist' since I was a kid, probably because I can draw pretty well, in a quick sketchy cartoony way ... I'm fast and I can draw anything. I'd be a decent designer but I guess I'm an entrepreneur, too, and that side is more dominant. Growing up I was the go-to guy at school for posters, signs, etc., the "best" in art class, so it's a place I started building self-esteem and as far back as I can remember I've always been making stuff, comic books, drawings, t-shirts, whatever. When I was 14 or 15 my buddy got an Apple IIc, and that was my first entrée to digital production, desktop publishing, Quark Xpress. In my early twenties I was going to art school at night in Chicago and working as a print production guy for an ad agency. When I got there in 1992, they were literally doing key line paste-up to make their ads. I'll bet 80% of people reading this don't even know what that is, or what it looks like. T-Squares, exacto blades, you'd literally "send out" to a typesetter to get back galleys of type to cut up and paste onto vellum overlays. Thinking back it was both insane and remarkable how print stuff would get produced. At 22, I reinvented to 35-person agency's production process, moving all the art directors to desktop publishing where they could design AND produce camera-ready art. So in a sense, it started there, then around 1996 I discovered the Internet and since that day I've been addicted to making brand content for it.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Luckily, our team doesn't need any motivation, everyone is self-motivated by nature. It's sort of a pre-requisite for working here because in ways we're non-structured in a traditional sense. more useful keeping our clients informed and motivated. I read all the well-known blogs, articles, etc. daily but mainly I rely on everyone else here to keep me up to speed. I'm the least technical person from a hands-on standpoint in our company. Everyone else helps me understand things conceptually as new stuff comes out. I'm very good at thinking of how to apply these things to our customers' businesses and marketing strategies. I'm also good at translating in layman's terms for them so they can learn too, which is what this industry needs far more than anything, education and experience, at traditional agencies and at the brand level, the CMOs and brand managers.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client understands and respects the medium as much as we do. The ideal project is The Bob Dylan Online Museum. I would spend a year or two with Bob and have total access to his personal artifacts and boxes in the attic. Vas Sloutchevsky would design and we would create something never been done before, an interactive multimedia biography that would take weeks and weeks to experience. Vas would like it better if it was John Lennon. I wouldn't object to that.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Man, this is so hard. First, you're dealing with people, personalities, and everyone has their own agenda, too, and you never know what you're gonna get, who is a sheep and who is a wolf. Unfortunately not everyone plays nice and transparent like we do. I think it's become harder and harder. In the old days, say 1998-2005ish, clients seemed to listen and trust more. Nowadays, a little bit of knowledge is making people sometimes literally dangerous. It's especially hard when we're working as a production shop for an agency, because we have even less control over both educating and setting expectations. We're getting better at it. It has a lot to do with learning how to say "no" and developing business relationships with the right types of people.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Recently, my personal favorite was the site we did about Walter Matthau (www.matthau.com). I love biography and really got immersed in the content. Ask me another day and I'll have another answer, maybe the old Yigal-Azrouel site, or working with Madonna was obviously pretty cool but those are going back nearly a decade (damn!). Would You Like A Website? (www.wouldyoulikeawebsite.com) was a special project to me, too, it was self-promotional, we had a blast but also we fought each other tooth and nail every step of the way, everyone cared about it immensely, which is what it's all about. More recently, the work we did for USA Network on The Starter Wife (www.tswlife.com and http://demos.freedomandpartners.com/starterwifegames) was satisfying, too. We owned the concept soup to nuts and our client was psyched, enthusiastic, and had our backs navigating bureaucracy the whole way. In the end, we were disappointed with some technology meltdowns beyond our control but overall it was a great project, really ambitious. We're working on something big for Pearl Jam right now and we were commenting a few days ago that so far it might be the best ... we're all way into it, the client has been awesome ... and it's f'ing Pearl Jam.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Too many. It's a blessing and a curse that I've been able to juggle up to 8-9 projects at a time. In the early days at Firstborn and up until the day I left, I pretty much managed every single project in the door. It's been the same way at Freedom. I've sacrificed a lot of personal time and weekends but as a small shop with no funding or backing, we've chosen to invest our money in design and production and leave most of the producing to me. In the early days of getting off the ground, same at Firstborn. Now we've got this dude, though, named Craig Elimeliah (blush), and some other help, and my life's a breeze as of late. We generally have 3-8 projects in house at a given time.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I think I have a dream production team, literally. I'm lucky. My career has been pretty weird. I founded Firstborn, and hired the original team -- Vas Sloutchevsky and I met first in Chicago and moved here at the same time to start the company, CTO Robert Forras, developers Shea Gonyo and Josh Ott -- and then I decided to leave for purely personal reasons after 5+ years, even though I loved those guys. We were a band. When I left I told them all I'd one day love to get together and play again. As time passed, I didn't think it was gonna happen really. However, after a year or so Shea and Josh came over and I was psyched, same with Matt Sundstrom, a creative director, maybe a year later. Through twists of fate and the passage of a lot of time, Vas and Robert reunited with us at the end of 2007. It's been unbelievable, for me a dream come true. We're just about hitting our stride right now and we're going to drop some projects in the coming weeks that I think will perk up a few eyebrows. In any event, I love our team. We're small and tight and we all get along with and know each other really well. We agree we'd rather maintain chemistry than grow for growth's sake, so we'll continue to go with the flow and see where we wind up by hiring people we think are super-talented and like-minded.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Ensure is a strong word. The best we can do is be transparent, know our stuff, and work extra hard. Ultimately I think it's everyone's own responsibility to protect their own interests. When you've got two talented and motivated partners or entities whose interests intertwine, you've got a mutual protection society going on. That's when the best work gets done. Clients, like employers, should worry about the interests of their agents. You know, "the love you take, equal to the love you make." I believe in that so I'm naturally looking out for the interests of my business colleagues.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The next phase is bringing point-of-purchase to most, if not all, brand experiences. See a product in a TV show? Buy it. Like Debra Messing's skirt? Buy it. Isn't this a cool digital ad for Doritos on a subway train? Buy some.

I don't think electronic commerce has even scratched the surface. Brick and mortar got killed this past holiday season, but Amazon rocked. And of course Amazon still looks like a disaster, a giant flea market. Which is where we'd like to come in.

I hope brands will start worrying more about form, what I call online retail merchandising. Instead of the typical e-commerce experience, I hope brands will become as interested in the design, experience, and how things look and move aspects of their online commerce platforms as they are when it comes to designing their presence in stores.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Anticipate all possible scenarios and be prepared for any of them.

Hail to the Chief

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, I'm Rick. I'm one of the founders of the Barbarian Group, and its COO. I oversee production, along with a bunch of other things, and have been producing for maybe 8 or 9 years. The Barbarian Group is a web marketing company located in three cities, which adds to the production complexities. We produce a variety of websites, games, banners, strategy, viral marketing campaigns, ideas and applications.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and went to Boston University first for Computer Engineering but eventually settled on International Economics. Out of college went into freelance graphic design and print production (I'm old), as well as the music industry.From there ended up at Ernst & Young Management Consulting around the time the web came along. Went through a new media startup, a B2B agency (Philip Johnson & Associates), a digital agency (Digitas) and a traditional one (Arnold) before starting TBG in 2001. That variety gave me good insights into the different ways the internet impacted marketing and businesses, different approaches to project management, and a deep, deep appreciation for defining processes.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I, along with most everyone at the shop, consume hundreds of blogs, RSS feeds, conferences and internal discussion lists. It's a full time job just staying informed. Our lab helps, to some extant, as do our internal collaboration tools. We're blessed, to some extant, with constant new challenges and opportunities that make it easier to stay motivated - the variety of the projects keep us from getting too stale. That was a core principle of the company's founding - get the best people and give them constantly interesting and changing work to keep them motivated. A lot of people think it's cheating - since the work's so varied of course it's easy to stay motivated - but it's important point: we constantly try and do types of work we've never done before, as a rule.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Our ideal client is one who is passionately interested in trying new things and seeing how they work out as part of their marketing mix. They're collaborative, inquisitive, methodical yet risk taking. They're not putting all their eggs in one basket ("we need to make a viral this season and it's got to work"), and they are engaged in the creative process, but not dictatorial of it. As for what we make together? Something that's never been done, preferably, or at least something that's never been done in THAT WAY.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
In my mind, there are three pillars to what we think of as "client education." The first is the client's passion and grasp for the world of marketing, and a deep desire to tinker and learn and figure out all the new changes and opportunities that are going on. This is a actually fairly rare characteristic. Many marketing clients and agency art directors are motivated by simpler, yet understandable desires: "doing something cool," or "working with good people." Both of these are awesome, of course, but without that passion for actually discovering whether what you're doing works and has an impact, things can go awry. This, I don't think, can really be influenced too much by our agency or our producers. You stay aware of it, gravitate toward clients that exhibit these traits, and you talk about it, but there's only so much you can do.

The second is the clients' comprehension of the actual technical and strategic tools and principles that we're working by. Teaching them about new opportunities and technologies (Massive, AJAX, Ruby on Rails) and why could matter to them. Explaining to them the latest theories and trends (Web 2.0, the social web, meme theory) and how this shapes our thinking. Explaining new sites and social phenomena (Facebook, Twitter). There are several things you can do here - newsletters to your clients, sending along links to articles, showcasing effective work - by us or others - in these areas. Our blog goes a long way toward this as well - encouraging our clients to take part in the conversations.

The final area of potential client education is about us: how we work, our processes and our learnings. Why we insist on having this signed at this time and why we won't give you that source code just yet and how that's really in your interest as much as ours, and it's not because we're not being responsive. Explaining your contracts and timing and processes and really walking through the options for a client. "It's not that you CAN'T have another round of revisions, it's that you have selected a contract and project that doesn't allow it. We can change that, of course, with an such and such an impact on the project, this is your call. We're cool either way." It is in this last area, I think, that producers are the most vital. In a poor working environment, this is all stuck on client service, but in the most effective working relationships the client, the client service exec and the producer are a team - where the producer is the Macguyver of the situation, offering as many potential solutions as possible and their ramifications. We host quarterly "production-client service pow wows" to work out any new types of situations we've discovered, and constantly strategize on the best solutions and approaches to these sorts of client problems, and we're constantly working on the initial setup: what we tell our clients up front. The website contributes to this as well - we have tons of "tips for first time client" articles, though most clients don't go read them on their own.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Nothing beats the fame and excitement of the Subservient Chicken, of course, and certain projects have their perks - such as a recently-launched site for supermodels - but I think the most rewarding project I've ever worked on has been our going-on three year relationship with Kashi on Kashi.com. I love watching a community grow, I love knowing that we're improving the state of people's lives. I love everything we've learned about applying agile methodologies to the traditional advertising world, and I love the constant passion and commitment of our clients.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
The kink in answering this question at the Barbarian Group is the new biz side of things. We're insanely methodical about vetting every potential new business lead (it's an unsung secret to our success, I think). We don't have separate "new biz producers" (though we've considered it), so every producer pitches in on this on top of their projects. I think the average producer has either 1-2 large or 2-4 small-to-medium active projects, and on top of that anywhere up to 10 new biz leads that are in various states of dormancy (client's on vacation, "we'll get back to you in a week") or negotiation (producer's done their part but now it's in contract negotiations or haggling).

This is probably about 10% more work than I like to have my producers to actually have, so Jen (our director of production) and I spend a lot of time monitoring workloads, checking in, etc. It's a constant battle. A producer could have 4 new biz leads that sat there doing nothing for months and then suddenly, just as their main project is picking up, two of the new biz leads become active again. We act fast to re-balance workloads in that situation.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
In terms of a "department," I'd love about 10 "rock star" producers that could handle anything, any time, from a banner to a software application to an insanely complicated multiplayer online game to a website the size of facebook. Fearless and passionate, and comfortable with operating by a set of principles rather than rules. Then perhaps 5 or so jr or assistant producers supporting them and learning and growing up.

This, however, is, really, a "dream." I'm not sure it'll ever happen. The amount of knowledge a producer needs to produce every single type of thing we build is vast, and finding ten of them is REALLY hard. They're a rare breed.

On top of that I'd love to get the workload-per-producer down about 10%, as I said. That's a dream I've been pursuing constantly for 7 years, though, and in many ways, we're no closer. Though I do understand the vastly complex business causes of the problem now much better than I used to.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
"Client's interest" - I love that phrase. It sounds so nice and so simple. ;) I guess the simple answer to this question is that our production and client service teams operate in times of peril against our core principles, using them to help shine the light onto the right and true path. Here, I'll just cut and paste them:

General Principles We Live By
( which should guide us in all conflicts and challenges)

* The Barbarian Group believes in doing the best possible work
* The Barbarian Group believes in creating the best possible experience for the user. The user, the internet - they are our real client
* The Barbarian Group is always honest. We won’t do anything that deceives the user or ignores the user’s needs
* The Barbarian Group believes in keeping our clients happy
* The Barbarian Group believes in keeping our projects on time and on budget


It is worth noting, too, that those are ranked. By looking at almost any problem or client interest question through this prism, the best approach starts to become clear pretty quickly. Of course there are exceptions, but that's the general framework.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
This question, to my mind, comes with an implication: that the next phase will be what we want it to be. Or, rather, that everything will go along pretty well. I *think* if everything plays out quite nicely, in 5 years or so most agencies will look something like what we do now, in various sizes, and pretty much all media will be "digital." Media and creative will be re-merged together (which is really the only way to work on the web anyway), and marketing clients will have all learned the basic tools of the trade. Advertising and social media will be worked out, brand marketing on the web will be viewed as something more than banner ads and search, and companies like Doritos will be as savvy and sophisticated at online marketing as companies like Zappos as a rule. Our job, as producers, will be way more challenging and varied than it is now or was in traditional advertising, but new training, educational and advocacy groups will exist to help us - new versions of the AICP and whatnot that have truly grasped the internet and not just online video production. We'll have figured out how to make brand sites that are as alive and dynamic and successful as those such as Facebook and Twitter, and we'll have sorted out the roles of client service, production and "technologists" and how they augment the knowledge the client-side marketer has. I have a whole long theory just about how agile development can work so well for brand marketing on the web, offering rapid response to changing marketing conditions (think JetBlue or Dell Hell), and how client/account service will learn to act as "project stakeholders," technically versed in agile methodologies, shepherding the vision on behalf of their clients. Oh man, I could go on for hours.

I think the other thing worth mentioning, though, is that this is my rosy view of the future, and it's not at all guaranteed. Giant, multi-billion media and ad holding corporations have a vested interest in fighting this, as it's an intensely labor-intensive service model, rather than a highly-profitable media-buying-markup model, which is how they make the big bucks now. On top of that we have the single largest player in advertising these days - Google - who doesn't seem to care one whit for brand building or creativity. And we have a lot of people in the ad world who just wish they could keep making short films. And there are a LOT of people that want to make one gee-whiz widget or technology that makes it so you can "do marketing" on the web. There's a lot of snake oil salesmen out there.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
More and more, I think we're going to have two options for the future of production:

1) *way* more types of interactive producers at an agency: game producers, banner producers, viral/video producers, website producers, application producers, agile producers, consulting & social media

2) versatile producers with *way* less rules-based processes, and the rise of GAAP-style "principles-based" production. Where the producer is an empowered shepherd to solve a problem, given wide leeway to bring in the right people, including multiple other producers.

A Noble Savage

What I love so much about creating new and unique content on the web is that it is a whole new form of modern day artisanship that is as vast and complex as the times we live in and as detail oriented and talent driven as any other form of communication.

However, to those who curate the web with content, it is a completely natural process and seen as a more traditional kind of craft rather than the robotic process that most who don't understand think it is.

Its takes a special kind of person to be able to navigate through the endless variations of technology, design, trends, platforms, executions, advances and big ideas and to be completely focused on the task at hand and to continually deliver quality work.

Someone who is able to helm the endless paths paving the web and who consistently produces unique content on a platform that tends to surfeit us with penurious ideas and is flooded with copycats.

When I started the iPro Blog I wanted this to not only be a forum for producers and directors to share and learn from one another's experiences, successes and yes even failures and mistakes. I also wanted it to be a place where we can glean motivation and new techniques from those people who have been advancing our industry on a global scale.

Tomorrow morning is going to mark a very special moment in the short existence of The iPro Blog. Tomorrow morning we are going to feature a special guest who I personally look to as a true master artisan in the field of interactive production. This is a person who has carefully cleared a path in our industry that has helped to lead to not only success for his company but for all of us as a collective.

Tomorrow mornings interview is one that we should all carefully read and infuse ourselves with the wisdom and guidance being imbued upon us. This person is not a god or a superhero, he is not a billionaire business mogul or some head of state.

He is one of us!

In honor of Presidents Day (here in the US) we will have a very special leader in our industry sharing his own personal and professional experiences.

I am warning you now, do not miss tomorrow morning's inspirational and epic interview ONLY on The iPro Blog!

Alternate Angle

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Julian Katz and I am a Senior Producer at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York. BBH is a full service agency with other offices in London, São Paolo, Shanghai, Singapore and Mumbai. I have done some stuff which ended up living on the web, but I come entirely from the broadcast side of things, so even though we are all getting more and more integrated, my answers will skew towards that TV/broadcast realm of experience.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I studied illustration at art school, and had a summer internship at now-defunct Saatchi & Saatchi in San Francisco which led to my doing some freelance production artist/creative assistant work (pulling scrap, color copying, X-Acto cutting, spray mount inhaling). One thing led to another, and after leaving Saatchi and starting their own shop the Creative Directors I was working with hired me on and urged me to go into production. I never meant to make a career of it; I always told myself I would keep doing it as long as it continued to be fun and interesting for me. I was fortunate to start at a tiny shop doing creative work, so I was thrust into doing a lot of production work which was way beyond my pay grade right from day one. Then I left and landed at another S.F. agency which was riding the full crest of the dot-com boom, doing somewhat more high profile work. Since then I have been poached a few times; I spent four years at Chiat in S.F. and a couple at Modernista! In Boston. I have been at BBH for 3 1/2 years.

After 13 years in agency production I am still having fun and the work still interests me. I find that no two projects are alike; if you keep an open mind you will learn something new on every single production. So at this point it does not look like the illustration career is going to get back on track any time soon.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
It’s important to talk to vendors and collaborators and become aware of up all the new technology out there. But I think it’s just as important to know when to use that new technology, to bring it in for appropriate projects and not just for the sake of trying out the shiny new toys regardless of whether they are appropriate to the concept/execution. Gratuitous use of technique when it is not appropriate to or in service of the concept is a pet peeve of mine.

At BBH all of the producers from all of the different disciplines sit right on top of each other in an open floor plan, and it is a very collaborative environment, so we are constantly asking each other questions and advice. BBH is also really committed to “upskilling”, bringing in experts from various fields to educate us about technology, trends, ideas. As for motivation, I think real producers are happy when they are producing great work. Beyond that, I personally value BBH’s longstanding “no assholes” hiring policy! There are exceptions to every rule, but it is a wonderful ideal to strive towards…

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It starts with a great concept which the client and the agency see eye-to-eye on. Then a small team from the agency is dedicated to execute it, without a lot of approval layers and without a lot of fingers in the pie. I have produced some work with huge budgets and some without even enough money to cover hard costs, and I have found that in general, if the concept is great then you can find a way to execute it well, regardless of the budget or who the client is. We all want to be doing good creative work.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
It’s all about communication. Have a go-to-production meeting once the client has green-lit a project. Ask all the questions you can up front, so no ugly surprises rear up too late in the process to adequately address them. Don’t keep the client at arm’s length during the prep; clients are so much more receptive to work when they feel they had a part in making it, when they have been part of the process the whole way.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I won’t get into specifics here but I will say that at BBH, I have been fortunate to work on some remarkable projects, from working with dream directors on big TV spots for sexy clients, to producing an entire MTV series, to some wonderful documentary-oriented pieces which I was able to actively, creatively produce (cast, line produce, etc. myself) and not just oversee. I could narrow it down to a top four or five but I have enjoyed parts of just about every production.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I have worked at places where we constantly had to juggle multiple productions, and there were no outright disasters because of it. At BBH, they make a concerted effort to dedicate a producer to one project at a time. But especially while we are running lean trying to weather this economy, we are all happy to step up and handle a few things at once. Ideally I am fully dedicated to one production from the time I get into the bid phase through the edit. I might be starting research on the next project while I am in finishing the last, but it doesn’t do anyone any favors to have a producer prepping two separate shoots or full productions at once. It really opens the door to a lot of details falling through the cracks, unless you have dedicated assistants to plug the holes in the dam (which we do not).

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
This will sound cheesy, but we pretty much have it at BBH. Well we definitely did before a few recent departures. But we are fortunate to be able to attract top talent, and the way the department is managed, they really do try to keep us happy, healthy and sane. Which is nice.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I feel like my job it to deliver the best execution of a given concept. As long as everyone is on the same page going into a production and you maintain a clear and thorough line of communication throughout, then you have done your client right. I don’t feel I am qualified to judge whether the work is going to fulfill the client’s business needs; if it is on brief and everyone is happy with the way it came out, then I have done my job.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
That’s a pretty broad question. I don’t think TV spots are going to go away any time soon. Hopefully clients will realize that it is impossible to guarantee that something will become “viral”; the days are long past when you could put a video online and people would watch it just because it was there. Who knows? Agencies are all about the primacy of the idea, we are concept factories and there will always be a place for us. The way people physically watch content might change, screen sizes might change, but someone will always be charged with coming up with the ideas and executing them.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Honesty is the best policy.

Brand New World

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Ines Peschiera and I'm a Producer at Brand New World. I was born and raised in Peru and love living in Brooklyn.
Brand New World is a New York City based creative agency that integrates advertising, branding, design and technology to form stronger and authentic connections between brands and their consumers. www.brandnewworldus.com

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My resume reads like a random assortment of job posts on Craigslist. Immediately before becoming a producer, I had been an account manager within my agency. Before that, I had worked as an associate editor at a magazine. And before that I had majored in psychology with a heavy emphasis on physical and biological sciences. (In college, I spent my summers working in all kinds of biomedical labs, in preparation for med school.)
And though it all seems rather disconnected, at heart I've always just pursued directions that satiated my curiosity. Production seemed like the natural course to explore when I realized that I really wanted to figure out how to go about making great stuff in new media.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
When I have the time, I love browsing through my favorite blogs and sites like digg and delicious. More often, I learn about the coolest stuff through a handful of friends who are seemingly omniscient in the way of interactive media.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My favorite clients are those who are open to new ideas, and are eager to incorporate new technologies in creative ways. My favorite projects are the kind that find their way under your skin and get you so jazzed in the morning you wish you lived closer to work.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
In theory, it's really simple: solid, unflinching dedication to constant, straightforward communication. In practice, this entails a holding yourself to a plan for key formal reports, a penchant for frankness and an unnatural attachment to a smartphone.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I have yet to encounter a project I didn't enjoy, but if I had to pick one engagement I'd say it was the Topamax interactive campaign. Along with the complete redesign of www.Topamax.com, we completed the production of a web video series featuring real women and the restructuring of the brand's entire interactive campaign. What I enjoyed most was being there to plan the whole campaign, seeing each phase of production through and tracking the impressive results as they flooded in. It's a rare treat to be able to coordinate and perpetually optimize an entire multi-platform, far reaching campaign.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
That's a tough one. I'm currently producing about 12, but it really all depends on the relative size of each project, the phase they're in and the timing involved.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream production team is composed of individuals who have diverse, unique skill sets, and the capability to come together to tackle problems creatively. The team encourages and respects ideas coming from anyone. Most importantly, my dream production team meets in a carpeted room full of bean bags, shameless ambition and four walls lined with a series of video screens, calendars and white boards.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
The most important thing to meeting your client's best interests is making sure you, everyone on your team and your client understand them the same way. This all goes back to straightforward communication and keen understanding of the client's objectives.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I'm betting on the underdogs these days. As marketing budgets shrink, the focus will be on highly efficient campaigns and it's clear some of the smaller, more agile agencies will have a chance to really shine.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Self-knowledge is key to this job. And understanding how you learn is essential to this. Once you figure that out, act on it. Some people need to write everything down, some people need to hear themselves talk. The key is to follow through and keep track of all the details you know you should remember for the next project.

Eat Drink Digital

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Chad Hutson. I'm the executive producer for eatdrink, an integrated production company that focuses on animation, visual effects and interactive design. Based in the windy city of Chicago, but we serve folks all over the nation. Website www.eatdrink.com

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
Music was always where my heart was, though my hands were better suited to QWERTY keys instead of the ivory kind. So I ditched playing & studied about the music biz in college, then went to work in Nashville's booming industry. After working in various capacities in that field, I really grew to appreciate what strong creative talents could do, but loathed what business people thought or expected of them, and thus swore I wouldn't work that way. At my next gig with an experiential marketing company, gained a lot of knowledge on both video and interactive production pipelines. The guys I worked with were great talents but underutilized & under appreciated, so I recalled that same lesson learned from the music biz and asked if they wanted to go start a company together. That was 2002, been doing this ever since.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Certainly by reading through various publications & blogs, attending events...but the greatest resource can often be your own peers and competitors. Just talking to those folks & even your own co-workers can provide a fountain of knowledge, be that online or face-to-face: communication is key. Also, portals like the FWA and motionographer.com give us motivation...and sometimes make us jealous.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A wide open brief from the client, with solid design being a top priority, and us having creative license to integrate all our in-house abilities into the project...heaps of video elements. The client loves the project, and we all get famous for 15 minutes. Oh, and a healthy budget would also be nice. Yep, I'm dreaming.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Setting those expectations up front is a huge part of their education. Letting them know, "no, we won't rip off that cool site you like, but here are some functionality cues we could potentially use for reference," for example, can help establish guidelines but also help steer their creative ideas into the proper corral.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The "best" would probably be the experimental projects we do ourselves...we're our best & worst client, but the results are always dandy. The most rewarding client projects in my career have come in the last year. Everything from a broadcast show package for a new PBS/BBC documentary series to a basic banner campaign for Nintendo...the creative has been good, the clients were awesome and our current staff is tops. Sorry, did I actually answer your question..?

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Three to four is comfortable. Five to six is common. Nine was my personal record, and I'll not do that again.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
It starts at the top. The best designers, animators, developers...they can lead and inspire most anyone that's able & willing underneath them. Those who are really good but aspire to be better (without being cutthroat about it), and folks who are kind & loyal. A small, talented core at the top, and a scalable team underneath...got to have that core.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
A lot of that hinges on setting the realistic expectations (see above). Though managing the project efficiently from start to finish helps keep the client happy, sometimes speaking up and/or disagreeing with a decision they're trying to make holds more of their best interests than they realize. We don't want to showcase bad work, and we'd rather our clients not either, so even if such 'issues' are met with a compromise, it often helps save the day for all parties involved.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I remember ad agency folks saying, not so long ago, that interactive budgets are finally catching up to the broadcast budgets of yore. With the current economic situation, however, we'll oftentimes still be expected to do a lot with not as much. The better positioned a firm can be to provide multiple creative solutions and disciplines under one roof (particularly conceptualizing and integrating video & interactive content), the better their chances of staying diverse and surviving.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
When managing your team, be kind & empathetic when warranted, but remain honest & open in your communications. It allows them to blow off some steam but you still get your point across. And remember, your client is who you work for, he/she isn't your buddy. Your buddy would be your creative team...try to stay on their side & stick to your guns. If that doesn't work, take that gun & shoot the ones who won't listen.

Heart of Magenta

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Adhemas Batista, color lover, father of 2 wonderful kids, brazilian, working out from Los Angeles, starting slowly my small studio named "Magenta", my favorite color.

www.adhemas.com and www.magenta.la

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I started when interactive was starting everywhere, I made my first website with 15 years old, it was something like, a very prominent beveled logo in the middle with some buttons around it made on Front Page Software. As self-taught I had to experiment many things to finally find my way. Today everything that gives me a visual and creative challenge interests me.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I browse web a lot, always connected, also friends sends me links, fortunately I work for many different countries, people send me their news, its easy when you are connected with many people around the globe.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Sexy projects, projects with challenges, projects that gives me the bad night sleeping thinking about how to create something even cooler next day. Ideally, projects that I can work since the concept to the final stage of production and make sure the final piece is looking good.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I try to be realistic with myself first and then expose to the client the situation, expectations are always high, clients wants the most for the amount they spend of course. But if you explain, don't create monsters to solve questions and always be sincere, sure the client will understand.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
No question it was Havaianas' website because of all the challenge I had, I was forced to push myself to my own edge, to create things that I didn't new how to do, I spend nights, weekends, holidays just working, and all that not because of the tight deadlines or neither client requests, actually because I felt myself having a big opportunity working with a real cool brand and with people who loves the new. I am open for all type of brand and brand challenge which is looking for the fresh.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I am sure some people will read this and will go calling me "lier", anyways, I usually feel good working with 2-4 projects at once. Of course I am always using the different times between approvals and revisions to make one another.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Small, dedicated and responsible, people who understands clients requests and translates on the best way possible without creating barriers at the first look.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I am always trying to be on top of the process and I am always trying to understand what the client is looking for, I am not much like a talking people, I am definitely more "hand on". I am a quiet person, but I am always listening more than trying to push my point of view, therefore that helps me to get my work faster and achieve the clients needs. I don't have problems to restart something if the client doesn't like at all.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
My bet will be for the little talented ones, I've seen many cool projects made by small companies, and I think the difficult times will help those people because of the practical aspect, they certainly can be an affordable great quality deal and can be easily the extra-hands for agencies.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
We are the digital people, but we can't be digital hearts, we need to warm-up our life sharing each other experiences and learning as a kid does, with excitement.

Growth Oriented

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name's Sonya Parker! I work as the Project Manager over at Grow Interactive. We're an interactive advertising and design studio based out of Norfolk, VA. We may be a bit "out-of-town" but our clients range from top advertising agencies to small local businesses. www.thisisgrow.com

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I actually just fell into it, which seems to be how the best things in life happen. Prior to moving down to Virginia, I was working in the music business in NYC. A friend of mine, and now coworker, told me about a position open at Grow, and I was lucky enough to land the job. I've always been somewhat of a computer/internet nerd, so it was a great fit.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We've got a fairly small group of people working here, and we share everything with one another. We're all responsible for passing around info on the latest technologies at one time or another -- whether it's info found on a blog, in an magazine, or word of mouth. Team work is where it's at :]

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Ideally, we love landing jobs where we can handle everything from concept to creation. We've got a great team of designers and developers, so ideally we'd utilize both and knock out an awesome project from start to finish. We're somewhat of a progressive bunch, so we like client's with a sense of humor and openness to hear our ideas. We also like working on socially conscious projects -- within the last year we wrapped up a site called The Girl Effect for the Nike Foundation with W+K. The whole concept of the site is that a single girl (or girls) can impact economic growth and the health and well-being of communities. Landing that job was a breadth of fresh air -- projects like that help you look at the bigger picture and appreciate life just a little bit more.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
It's all about planning. Our new business guy, Eric Green, does a great job setting expectations initially, and it's my job to make sure those expectation are met throughout the duration of the project. Communication is key -- keep the client aware of what's happening at all times, as it's more rewarding for everyone if they are a part of the overall process from start to finish.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I've loved all of them for different reasons, but my favorite thus far was a site we did for Bon Secours St. Francis Health Care System in Greenville, SC called Happy in Greenville. We were lucky enough to handle everything from design to development, and we worked with a great agency called Brains on Fire along side Bryan Martin. They were a pleasure to work with, and the end result was amazing. The site is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It's full of some obvious, and some not so obvious animations -- and it's a lot of fun exploring the site to find them all!

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I'm not married to a specific number, and I don't like to limit myself -- it really depends on how large/small and complicated each is.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I couldn't be happier with the production team we have in-house. Everyone is super talented, and very dedicated.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Again, communication is key. Keeping the lines of communication open during development is key -- not only between myself and the client, but within our internal team as well. One misstep could mean the entire schedule is thrown off, so knowing what everyone is up to at all times is a priority. The most important thing is that the client is happy, so we'll do whatever we can, regardless of fault, to make sure that's the case.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I wish I knew! But, I think we're going to see some really innovative and creative talent emerge in light of the suffering economy.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Welcome change, stay organized, listen and never be too proud to keep learning.