Urbian Legend

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Gary Willmott, Producer/Partner of Urbian in Cape Town South Africa. Urbian is an independent Online Creative Production Company with a sole purpose of doing great work! Although we are based in Cape Town 80% of our projects are from the UK delivered from some well known agencies such as TribalDDB , Analog Folk.

We are a team of specialists (think Ocean's 11) which we formed in 2005. We do motion and interactive in all its hues and shades, but combining the two is what makes us tick! We research and develop things all the time. We eat food almost every time we meet and some of us have grown mustaches. The Jingle sums it all up.

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?
Started off in my early school days with a friend who managed to get a copy of 3D studio ( DOS version). I got so hooked, that I left school to focus on 3D animation and ended up finishing school from home. I was doing some great work but got frustrated with the machines back then, my good old 486 just took forever to render decent animation. So I ended up taking on online projects to finance myself to get better machines. It just snowballed from there, from HTML to flash, working as a Interactive Developer at numerous agencies around Cape Town. Eventually got tired of working for companies that limited my growth. I formed Urbian with a partner who had similar views with me, to do SICK ASS Projects! Nothing ELSE!

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
There are the normal blogs that I subscribe to via Google Reader, Twitter Feeds, theFWA.com etc. But I must say after a good surf or kitesurf I get ideas flooding in, there is something about being in nature and getting away from the machine that helps produce fresh ideas.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
An progressive educated client with a good knowledge on what makes this online social world tick makes the world of difference. That's why we have opted to mostly work for UK clients as South African clients are still very far behind in their thinking. Had a client who runs the marketing on wine farm the other day request an Augmented Reality, I was gobsmacked! It gets so ridiculous sometimes, I have even been thinking about putting clients on a course before we can do work for them :P

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We go through a very detailed and story-boarded process as much as possible at the beginning of every project. Making the client aware of what they can expect but more importantly what they can't expect.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
We just wrapped up a project for the Glade Festival 2009 (http://www.gladefestival.com/2009/ ) . We built an interactive map where users are able to navigate through the festival line-up via scrubbing back and forth on the timeline to see which artists are playing where and at what time. It was a pleasure working with Ans and the team there, they completely respected us, and when they gave input it was always appreciated and made sense. We fell so in love with the project that we built a competition mechanic that generated so many hits, that the server fell over twice.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
2 active projects, 2 in a start-up/wrapping stage. Anything more than that and you end up just managing the project instead of adding value.

Q: What tools do you use to help you better organize your projects?
Microsoft Project, Goplan, Springloops, DropBox, Google docs. Keen to try out "omniplan", any recommendations?

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Urbian, seriously. Even if I had to work for a company again, not too sure where else I would want to go.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Education, Communication. I think the biggest key is not to use certain technology for the sake of using it. But finding the right mix of ingredients that suits a project.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Its in a weird place, even though I feel like user generated content is going to fall-over, I still think its got a long way to go.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Work to live as apposed to living to work, try it yourself and you will notice your work just gets better. Here is a freebee: Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Integrity. Communication. Honesty.

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I’m Paul Marobella, the Managing Director of Wirestone/Chicago. Wirestone is an independent, national marketing solutions agency with offices in 6 US cities and over 175-people across our creative, technical & strategy groups.

We were born digital in the year 2000, when 5-disparate agencies were brought together to make Wirestone. We develop targeted customer experiences that manifest online and offline but all have the common thread of activating a brand’s most influential group(s) of customers and an infusion of powerful marketing technology that supports the programs.

We work with mostly global, leading brands across various vertical segments including: Nike, Motorola, Microsoft, Oakley, hp, Intel, SKYY Spirits and Apple.

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 have been in the digital game since the early 90’s when I was a wee-lad at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. I had the chance to be on a steering committee for the company to infuse digital and multimedia technology into how the company conducted business. Anywhere from how the brand leveraged something called the internet, to their partnership with Healtheon and then overseeing the implementation of a digital selling tool for the sales force.

I fell in love with the new media channel and left the friendly confines of my hometown, Boston for the arch enemy city, New York to be a part of the movement. I worked for a company called i3 for a while, selling big brands on adding a digital line item to their budget and met a guy named Tucker Greco in NYC that owned an agency called Greco Ethridge Group – we teamed up and integrated digital production and strategy into his then-current traditional agency model.

GEG went on to win Agency of The Year for that approach in 1998. I come from the strategy, account side of the house and while I have threatened my teams that I am going to learn Flash and Silverlight to show them up, I haven’t gotten around to that, yet. We have awesome digital production teams here at Wirestone that inspire me everyday.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
These days you have be a knowledge-management ninja to keep pace with what is happening out there. Google Reader is a personal tool I use to parse through the thousands of blogs available and that keep me posted on how people are using technologies to further a marketing initiative.

Twitter has become an invaluable tool to track smart people and group them through Tweetdeck into categories of skill-sets. We keep De.licio.us groups where we share case histories, articles and blog posts with each other through the agency. With travel budgets scaled back this year, attending conferences are at a minimum, unless of course it is a Microsoft-conference since we are Gold Partner.

We encourage our people to dive in and learn new technologies and propose how they can add value for our clients, whether Microsoft Surface or 3D technologies like Rhino.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
It would entail long stays in Monaco with poolside planning meetings, realistic timelines and the ability to be both a business-driver for our client and raise the profile of Wirestone.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I have people that are smarter than me working directly with our clients to balance their expectations with their key business-drivers and what is humanly possible. It doesn’t always work.

Often, people are held hostage by unrealistic expectations due to never having completed a project like the one we might be doing for them. On the flipside, I often feel like agencies are also victims of the knee-jerk reaction of over-scheduling a project that stops and makes you go hmmmmm, when you see a schedule.

It seems the bigger the agency, the longer the schedule. I’ve always wondered what that relationship was about. The timelines should be discussed before the agency decides to take on the work – it makes everyone’s life easier.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I had the chance to work on The Central Intelligence Agency & their Association of Former Intelligence Officers. If I told you what we did, I’d have to…. well, you know how that ends.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I never say no to a project that is reasonable. But, at the same time I have an awesome team that I work with to spread the wealth. These days, being grateful for work is the magic elixir to having a positive attitude in our business.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream team would consist of people that could do my job at any given time – meaning they are smarter, more informed and probably better looking than me. I have worked with some very talented people over the course of my career and I’ve found that having a solid, well-informed technical lead is the cornerstone of success.

People that compliment my skill-sets is what I look for when I am building a team. I love to have people that run the spectrum from insights into the consumer through to how the technology will create value for the brand.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Integrity. Communication. Honesty.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The irony here is that when I was asked this question 10-years ago, the answer would be the same because I believe that our business STILL has not adapted. We still have big agency people and networks that talk a big game but when you meet them, you can still tell that they are brainwashed in the ways of the old agency model.

I still think that the biggest inflection point in our business is yet to come and nobody has cracked the code. To me, I see the day of the consumer truly self-selecting marketing communications and getting closer with a total personalization across all media. I still like to be marketed to, I just want to see things that make sense for every dimension of my personality and I am a complicated dude, that’s for sure.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
There is one word that I live by, especially these days – Believe. Believe in yourself, your ideas and the people around you. We need positive energy in the world and we each play a role in filling this universe with energy. Boy, hope that wasn’t too new age!?

Brand New

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is David Lucas and I am an Executive Producer at Brand New World. Brand New World or BNW is a creative agency that integrates design, branding, advertising and technology to form stronger connections between brands and their consumers. BNW is also fun place to work.  We play instruments, joke around, and produce great work.  

When I interview people I usually dress up in a costume.  It's a great stress test and it tells a lot about somebody's personality.

I once showed up to a interview with a top hat, whip, and chair.  The interviewee got on the ground and started growling like a lion - I hired him!

Ok…maybe that didn’t happen, but it really is a great environment and we do have a lot of fun here, I've been with the company for nearly 2 years.

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.
Prior to BNW I was a freelance producer and talent manager.  My credits include projects for online, mobile, broadcast, off-broadway, and film/tv.  I started producing live action, eventually bridged over into music, and then 3D, graphics and VFX.  At the same time, I also managed the careers of several bands, comedians, and directors.  I gained interest in digital in 2005 and crossed over in 2007.

My first foray in digital was writing a Social Media Plan and producing and seeding web video for a record label.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I stay on top of emerging technologies by reading blogs, trade magazines, listening to Podcasts, and attending meetups and shows.
I'm also a member of the NY Tech community.  Garysguide.org compiles a wealth of useful information.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client/project right now would be a multi-platform campaign for an organization championing the cause of literacy.  I'm also interested in experimenting more with interactive video.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I get our account managers drunk.  Works every time.

Q: What was the best project you ever worked on?
I can't really say one in particular stands out.  I've been blessed to work with really great clients.  For me, a good client makes all the difference.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
As EP I oversee all jobs company wide. I mainly focus on developing jobs and setting the tone for my cohorts.  When we're overloaded, I'll step in and produce a project from conception to delivery.  How many projects can I handle?  Well it really depends on the scope and type of project/platform.  I've easily juggled 6 or more projects (which I don't recommend.)

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Equal parts - Dan Akyord for the comedy, Bruce Lee for the ask kicking, Tesla for the innovation, and Casanova for the charm.

Q: How do you ensure your clients best interests are met?
I find extraordinary, multi-disciplined, producers and get production involved as early as possible.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
My magic 8 ball is broken -  sorry.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers?
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere. - Michel de Montaigne

No Fool

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Kathrin Spaak. Producer at Perfect fools. “Perfect Fools is an award-winning international digital creative agency. We deliver interactive and integrated online campaigns that captivate target audiences, challenge expectations and get results.”

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?
Background; Studied and worked in film and TV production where my interests for telling a story grew.

Studied and worked as an html programmer. Learned about the deep, sometimes dark and interesting minds of programmers and designers.

Studied sociology. I think everybody who works with people should read a few points in this subject. I’m very interested in how peoples minds work, their habits, their actions, their dreams and how they interact within their context.

All these ingredients put together plus the need for being a part of the main decision making finally made me a producer, it fits my personality perfectly.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I listen to the people in the office who sleep in Star Wars pajamas, talk Klingon, and colour things in when they are sitting on the toilet.
It is these people who help me understand where we are going and I act as interpreter when clients talk powerpoints and my people talk grids, kerning and USS Enterprise.

High heels and a stick works well for the team motivation, whose life consists of pixels.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Mature woman in her prime, looking for a dedicated man with brown eyes and lots of money.

He allows lots of freedom and loves to experiment and has a lot of faith. If you are the one, I will make your dreams come true.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Most of the education comes when we have to explain to the client why something is not possible at the time or when we give them different alternatives and the arguments for these. Then if you feel that you have to bring the ABC of the Internet book, we do just that. Most important is to have constant communication and listen to what the client needs. And also have the ability to sense when the client needs education even though they might think they don’t.

A pre-study is a good start to set the right expectations both for the client and for ourselves.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
kspace.kswiss.com

Why?

Found a dedicated man with Brown eyes and French accent and big wallet.

He had a lot of faith, dedication and will for experimenting.

Thanks Diego.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It all depends on the size of the projects.

One big and a few small at the same time is good.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Look at the staff list on www.perfectfools.com

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By listening to the best professionals in this industry.

Both from our side and from the client side.

The clients knows their product best, we listen to them and they listen to us about interactivity and communication.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I am not interested in a vision i'm only interested in here and now. This is the industry of change anyway.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Anything that can be digital will be digital.

Northern Tribe

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Pat Elia. I'm a producer at Tribal DDB in Toronto. I'm in my third year at Tribal and 6th year working in the interactive world.

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 went to university for history with the plan of becoming a teacher. But after I got my degree I was already weary of the subject and couldn't see myself teaching it for the rest of my life. So I then went on to pursue a post-grad in technology and interactive production because I thought it was the exact opposite of history, as it represented the future. Pretty deep. I know.

I literally started working the day after I finished my post-grad. I landed at a small online marketing company where I was responsible for managing dozens of monthly contests for Conde Nast publications. It was a great place to cut my teeth and I met a lot of good people. I then moved on to another small place where I did a bit of everything - microsites, email, and some heavier backend jobs. Then one day Tribal called, and here we are.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I've always been a bit of a nerd - in the sixth grade I dressed up as DATA from Star Trek for Halloween. There. That's now on the internet.

So naturally, technology is one of my main interests. I prefer to get my information from a few trusted sources rather than scan hundreds of potentially garbage RSS feeds. DIGG, Slashdot, and Techcrunch are some of my favourite sites. And even though the last few issues have been pretty weak, Wired magazine is still my go-to.

In regards to keeping the team informed, I like twitter as a means for sharing links. We Tribal-ites are also big fans of the old fashioned sending-links-through-email. It's tried and true and won't fade away like the next social networking fad.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Clear brief. Enough time and money to do what’s required. Quick approvals. Clean launch.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I think the most important part is to first get a grasp of their knowledge and comfort level with interactive. Making assumptions at this stage can really bite you in the ass later. Unfortunately, I've learned this from experience. One of the things I try to do now is to physically get a signature before each phase of a project is completed to make sure everything is clear. I find when people are asked to sign their name on something they take more time to understand the situation and ask any questions.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
That depends how you define best. For me that means enjoyable, and my most enjoyable job was crushmoviecrew.ca. We had 3 custom miniature sets built and populated them with miniature scale models. We then locked ourselves up in a studio for three days shooting every little piece from every possible angle. To save on catering costs, one of my duties as a producer on this gig was to make sandwiches for the crew. We also produced the sound effects ourselves, which was a good time. The burping zombie sounds are courtesy of yours truly.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
1 large, 2 medium, and unlimited small.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I like the following:

- a creative team that values function as much as aesthetic

- a dev team that can give good input toward the design and also produce clean code

- bonus points if everyone plays nice

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I try to work closely with the account team to keep me in check, as my first instinct is to protect the agency's best interests (usually budget related). But when it comes to creative or tech concerns, I try to look at things objectively to assess their value. I also imagine the budget as if it were my own money to make sure it gets spent properly.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
You remember that movie Tron? It'll look like that, but with more widgets.

But seriously, I think the next big thing will be touch screen applications. We've seen how big of a hit it is with simple iPhone apps. With full size screens and beefy processors, the possibilities will be endless.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Making websites should be fun. If you're not having fun then something is probably wrong.

Channel Agnostic

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Andrew Walter, VP of Content Delivery at EVB.

EVB is a channel agnostic agency based in San Francisco – we come up with good ideas that can manifest in any media. For example, in the past 6 months we’ve launched rich flash sites (Toyota 2010 Prius with Saatchi and Saatchi LA), a video content management delivery and distribution system (adidas.tv), Print campaigns (Smuin) and TV (golf channel). And of course we’re best known for our viral work such as Make Me Super for Kodak, Freak Your Mind for A&E Networks and Criss Angel and Elf Yourself with Toy and Office Max.

The best way to get to know what we do is to check out our work: http://www.evb.com/work



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?

Well, I’m not really interested in digital production…I’m interested in mass media. I started as a sound designer, sound engineer and media theorist and spent a chunk of my 20’s working in radio. Digital was a new medium that was just forming, so I attended the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU to learn about and experiment with it. With the focus we had on group work I quickly learned that there were better designers, writers and programmers, but I was pretty good at forging through strong egos and individual’s needs to drive a project to a unified vision.

That led me to run engagements for a management-consulting firm and then into advertising with Ogilvy in New York.

Basically, I like working with really smart people to solve broad problems that encompass aspects of business, design, technology and user needs. With this work I get to do that every day. And I get to make cool stuff.


Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?

They help me stay informed and motivated – that’s one of the awesome things about smart, passionate people. Over the past 12 or so years that I’ve been involved with digital media I’ve built up a great network of people who are always sharing work – be it industrial design, advertising, technology or art.


Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?

Honestly, As long as everyone is collaborative and we can be clear on all fronts (individuals, client company and agency) about our goals then the project should be great. The key is making sure we all know what our definition of success is.

Rather, what kills a project or project experience is when there are hidden agendas. For example, I had one project where the team was making no progress to get the client to really see the opportunity they had. We would come up with great stuff, and we could not get it approved nor could we get clear feedback as to where it wasn’t working. I finally spoke to the client directly and found out they got a bonus if they launched a certain number of programs within a given time frame – so our project needed to launch without exception by a certain date. Once we understood that the rest was easy.


Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?

Constant and very clear communication all the way through is key. I find most people are very understanding as long as they have the opportunity to help make decisions and choices – but they aren’t when backed into a corner. You also have to know who you are talking to, the experience they have and the level of information they need - and then tailor your communication to them.

Templates help as well.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?

Probably working with a financial services company to use web technologies to re-define their client management processes. It allowed them to reduce their staff costs/client by about a third. That was a meaty one.


Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?

Totally depends on scale, but I have personally had about 15 going at once. But that wasn’t really comfortable.


Q: What does your dream production team look like?

The people, skills and size change on need, but it’s made up of smart people who want to do great work. And they have no problem telling me why I’m wrong…though they also know they have to listen to me ;)


Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We’re in client service – our client’s best interest has to permeate everything we do. We need to be constantly talking, evaluating and reviewing to make sure that what we’re doing is servicing their goals – and that those goals were captured correctly at the outset.


Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?

One word: Ecosystems.


Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The most important thing you can do is learn how to learn…and then keep that as a practice. After that - retain humility so you can recognize when you might actually be wrong.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Wunderman

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.

My name is Daniel Farinella and I’m the director of Flash animation and multimedia development at Wunderman New York. Wunderman is a global relationship marketing agency focused on creating and maintaining impactful conversations between our clients and their customers. Surrounding myself with a truly passionate group of professional developers and animators, my team and I are constantly pushing the limits of digital development through new and different types of digital media and programming. I appreciate the skill and dedication of my team, and marvel at what they accomplish daily.

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?
Majoring in 3D modeling and animation at the New York Institute of Technology, I learned the theories of good design, motion, and typography early on. After graduation, I was faced with the harsh reality that jobs in the 3D space were indeed scarce in New York City. I wasn’t willing to move to the west coast at that time in my life, so I began to accept positions in other areas of the computer graphics field. Throughout the next few years, I worked in a variety of disciplines such as package design, magazine layout, photo retouching, video editing, motion graphics, and interactive art direction. All along, I became quite proficient in the required applications for each of these disciplines.

I was introduced to a new application called Flash and was instantly impressed with its capabilities and how it could create animation at such a small file size. I devoted the next few weeks learning the ins and outs of this new application. Once I became proficient in the tools available, I began to apply my knowledge and training in 3D modeling / animation to my projects in Flash. I was hooked. This short learning period was enough for me to decide that a career in Flash was right for me. From that point on, I was a Flash animator / developer and nothing else. I spent the next few years freelancing for an array of different advertising agencies. I paid close attention to how each agency organized their projects and talent. Being exposed to so many different organizations, I was able to form an educated opinion of how I feel a Flash development team should be run.

After jumping around the New York agency circuit, I finally found my way to Wunderman and I really enjoyed it. Today, I still like working at Wunderman for the same reasons that I liked it when I joined: the projects are good, the work is consistent, and I really like the people. In 2006, Nick Moore took the creative reigns here and expanded the New York office’s digital offering. Nick offered me the opportunity to build and direct a team of Flash animators. This was a great opportunity, but just having a group of Flash animators churning out banners wasn’t what I felt the agency needed. In order for Wunderman to stay competitive and in line with the evolution of interactive / digital media production, I needed to do better. I searched out and hired a small group of passionate multitalented animators and developers who are truly passionate about their art. I provided them with quality equipment, a healthy dose of motivation and as a team, we achieved my vision of a fully functioning multimedia studio. Now we provide Wunderman with a vast array of services that include Flash animation / programming, custom application development, motion graphics, video editing, sound / music production, and enhanced presentation services.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
My team and I are all multi-talented animators, developers, and overall digital artists. We all have a passion for technology and can’t keep our fingers off every new piece of software to hit the market. In my own case, just having the right team is the key to keeping them informed. On many occasions, they are teaching me new things they have learned.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
It’s hard for me to pick out which project was my favorite, but I’m sure every director interviewed on this site can tell you which project was their worst.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
My ideal client is one that is willing to push the boundaries of digital media. A project from this client would include every different discipline my team is capable of, but used in a well thoughout and cohesive manner. Just because we can do it doesn’t mean it’s necessary.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Clients are sometimes uncertain about the technologies they require to achieve their goals. I always make myself, and my team, available for internal and external client consultation.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?

I pride myself on organization and having a great team. I believe this increases my ability to take on more projects than one might expect.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
My dream production team looks exactly like it does now. Everyone on my team is an expert in Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and other base computer graphics applications. Some of the team members are proficient in AS 2 and 3 while others are video editors, motion graphics artists, and digital musicians. We’ve got a well-rounded team that breaks the conventional silos you’ll often find in the typical development department. The strength of having this type of multitalented team is that a project can be worked on by multiple developers at one time. This style of teamwork helps us cut down the overall production time and enables us to make the tight deadlines that plague the advertising industry.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I do this by working closely with directors from other key areas of the company. Formulating a tight plan and paying close attention to the clients’ goals before a project kicks off, makes it easy for my team to focus on the technical aspects of their projects.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It’s always hard to tell what the future holds. I see the popularity of both video and social media being the main influences that will drive the types of projects we will be creating in the near future. As for the next phase of our industry, I hope to see Adobe and Google sort out the issues surrounding making both static and dynamic Flash content searchable.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Flash development is not simply a part of the production process, but a major part of the creative process. How a site functions and moves can easily dictate the mood and overall effectiveness of a project.

A Technical Point of View

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.

My name is Juan Charvet, and I am a Lead Developer for VML (http://www.vml.com) where I manage a team of rich media developers to produce 360-degree campaigns centered around rich interactive components for adidas, Jagermeister, ESPN and more.

VML is a digital marketing agency that focuses on creative, and it has handfuls of interactive teams that excel in a variety of disciplines to successfully back that creative.

Unlike small boutiques, VML completes the whole interactive spectrum, from business analysis, UXP, SEO services, systems design/development, rich internet application development, mobile, QA and more.

The best part of it is that while the VML network is 700+ people wide with a home base in Kansas City, our NYC office houses 50-60 at any given time, so it makes us feel like a smaller shop with Midwestern charm and a heck of a lot of capabilities.


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?

In late 1997, I came across discounttiredirect.com while shopping for new tires online for my beat-up car. They had a nifty Shockwave application that would allow you to choose your car make and model, and it would filter their inventory to the wheels and tires that the user could install onto their car.

I remember being awed at the responsive feedback that it offered me through personalization; it was instant gratification at best. So I thought, “This is a great way to sell wheels and tires. Someone’s got to do the same thing to sell cars.” At the time, I was taking classes in 3D motion graphics and advertising, an had a multimedia class coming up on my schedule.

When it started, I produced a digital brochure developed in Director to promote an Audi Quattro. On top of adding the standard elements found in a car brochure, I added motion graphics, visualized car specs, and the ability to customize the car in and out. My satisfaction in combining all of this media led me to transfer to a new school to focus solely on interactive, and since then I haven’t looked back.


Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Word of mouth is king.

I get multitudes of links sent to me over email and instant messaging, and I am just as quick to forward them out if what was sent truly impressed me. Also, Google Reader has become my best friend lately. I’ve subscribed to a great range of blogs and tweets that offer their entries as RSS and have them syndicate right through my phone.

This keeps me inspired and in the know about my peers, the industry, and other things I am passionate about at any given second, whether I am walking down the street, on a subway, or waiting in line for lunch. And the topics of these blogs are priceless.

One piece of advice is to never limit yourself to keeping in touch with only what’s going on in the interactive industry. Other industries, such as music, live performance, photography, architecture, fashion design, and industrial design - well, they’ve all gone interactive, too.



Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?

I’d say that in my experience with VML, all of the work we’ve done with ESPN has risen above the rest, whether it be College Gameday or our upcoming work with this year’s ESPYS. College Gameday especially was an incredible challenge and experience for us.

The primary objective was to capture the experience of being one of the fans during the show’s live broadcast and recreating that experience online. If you’ve ever been to see College Gameday live when it comes to your city, you’ll know that it’s a morning of utter craziness.

The show is centered on location where the two best rival teams are playing that week, and there are equal amounts of fans rooting for each team. The hosts of the show each bring their own magic as they spotlight the teams and analyze the outcome. With all of this in mind, we went on location to absorb the full experience, capture key moments of the show, and produce some behind-the-scenes video content of the cast and crew for the site.

At this time, we realized that producing the online experience required us to build an extremely modular environment where we could replace the team flags, helmets, crowds, and general site colors each week depending on which teams were playing.

On top of this, we were launching new video content, stats, and fan signs almost every day, and we at times didn’t know the destination of the next show until three days before! This encouraged us to design an intelligent content management system and define a set of roles within our team to make sure all the latest content launched and performed smoothly throughout the whole season.

At the end of it all, we realized just how far we could push regularly updated content to make it as engaging as possible. As a matter of fact, all of our ESPN clients truly appreciate engaging creative and rich media, and they have always been open to our ideas.

Best of all, they’ve got a superb technical team behind the scenes managing and funneling the endless content that is housed on ESPN.com. We get to take advantage of having custom feeds made for us, place high-bandwidth media on content delivery networks without having to worry about costs – it’s the works.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is one that can collaborate with us on our ideas and artistic directions but regard us as the experts for the recommendations and directions we provide. He/she is open-minded to new ideas, but adheres control to their own objectives and demonstrates it through their decision-making process at all times.

The ideal client is eager to learn all facets of the end result and trusts us to be honest when we communicate something cannot be done or must be done differently. Best of all, the ideal client is one in which I never have to double-check my personal composition on. They accept us for both our accomplishments as well as our shortcomings and have a great sense of humor that they’re not afraid to use when they need to call us out.


Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?

Most of our clients are pretty savvy, but we want them to make an investment in learning about how we work. We help by creating a personal relationship with them so that they will in turn be encouraged to learn about us. Once we build this trust, it’s all about being honest and CONFIDENT when keeping them in the loop about the direction taken to meet any objectives, the tasks at hand in order to produce it, and the deadline. I cannot stress that last statement enough.

Clients have a great way of sensing whether you’re sure about yourself when you speak or not. So even if you are being honest but not so sure of yourself, chances are you’ll get shot down.

When new design or functionality comes into play, we do our best to work with our clients before setting the priority list in stone. Mainly, it boils down to whether or not the request has an explicit impact on the ability to measure the experience and objectives. If not, they usually agree to add it in at a later date.

On the other hand, if it is integral, then we educate them on the contingencies that this new addition surfaces and work with them to compromise between the other tasks at hand.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?

Personally, I can produce 5-6 projects comfortably at any given time, and have probably had up to between 9 and 12. I prefer to lead my team and divvy up the tasks to the team members that I believe would benefit most from working on them, and then I usually am fully committed to developing on one or two large-scale projects. Beyond that, my mind starts getting fried and I get all confused on what I need to develop for whom.


Q: What does your dream production team look like?

My dream production team involves a variable number of people pending on the scope of a project. Each of these said people care about what they’re producing as if it’s their own baby. It’s easy to see who on a team is passionate about producing impeccable work and who is eager to fall short.

I don’t get the truly passionate types confused with the people who are excited about the content of what is being produced. They need to demonstrate excitement for the context in which the content is distributed, because that is what they are producing.

Open communication is just as important. I’m often as easy to critique work and state my expectations of people just as I am to give praise and encouragement. But team leaders shouldn’t be the only ones with the passion to speak their mind. All team members need to have their own voice, and they need to take advantage of that.

To produce successful interactive solutions, each team member must be a natural problem solver in all aspects of life, whether it’s designing a business system, mathematical equation, or dealing with issues in their personal situation. If a person seems drastically problematic or incompetent dealing with a specific situation, I can’t deem them to be an excellent interactive producer because they cannot control their own real life interactions with themselves or others.

Lastly, each member in my dream production team needs to have some involvement in networking with the industry. This will empower that notion that it’s not about what they know, it’s who they know, and that will afford my team to acquire additional resources at any given time.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?

All projects go through a discovery phase in which we discuss the measurable challenges and objectives. We document this into both a creative brief and a fairly detailed functional specifications document that maps out every single business rule and requirement to a part of our design.

Through the creative and production process, constant, direct communication is key. While its usually required that channels of people are involved in every step of the way, questions are answered easier when they are most approachable through one-on-one time set aside over a phone call or email.

I encourage clients to meet with us as often as it takes to make them feel comfortable. Providing that level of support has really made some of our clients believe in us. Then at the end of each large project, we invite our clients to a debrief so that we can have an light-hearted discussion on how the process went, what was learned, and how what we learned could be applied to future projects.


Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?

The last few years have been focused on a four major things:

1. creating, harvesting, or syndicating interesting content
2. optimizing the content for search visibility
3. distributing the content through an rich and engaging interactive experience
4. tracking user interactions and measuring the results of users’ interactions within these applications.

Over the next few years, I believe we’ll see each of these verticals continue to get pushed. I can see database technologies that are designed to store, access, and cross-reference content in non-conventional ways. They will perhaps even allow for non-owners to access certain branches of the database for a charge.

Content will also start becoming available for purchase on a micro-payment basis. I believe there to be a struggle on finding standardization on SEO but believe that a universal ground can be reached, and parallel to that, tagging and tracking systems will become more robust.

Above all, the largest change in the coming year or two will be the way we distribute content to users for display and feedback. We are starting to see single sets of content being distributed through different user interfaces designed for different display types, whether it be for an LCD monitor, internet-enabled television, smart phone, architectural projection, or piece of clothing.

The big challenge here is whether to continue building separate visual interfaces for specific devices or whether there is a more efficient process to hit all of these birds with one stone. Our industry, at this time, will become responsible for the gateway in which all media is accessed. Alas, the rise of the creative technologist. The world is at our fingertips.


Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
The interactive industry moves and changes faster than you can blink, and this intimidated me. I feared myself to be one day obsolete as the tools available to me were and are still becoming more and more accessible to the younger generations. I finally (and only recently) ended this fear by accepting that I would never be able to excel in every single facet of interaction design.

Instead, I analyzed what I believed to be the PROCESS for success through an interactive project, embraced it, and demonstrated it. At this point, I now know how to preach the process, where and how I want to contribute to its success, and what tools I need to know it.

Digital Kinship

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Andreas Tagger – co-founder / CEO / creative director of Brothers By Choice. Brothers By Choice is an independent, SF based boutique. We do all kinds of work from integrated campaigns to visual identity to something as small as an e-mail blast or a print ad. We started in January 2007 with my business partner and fellow founder and creative director Nei Caetano da Silva. We’ve been lucky enough to work on some really great brands since we started like World Wide Wrestling Entertainment, ESPN, Autodesk, Seagate, 2K Sports and Sagatiba.

We started the agency at a time when we were really, really tired and exhausted of agency life and all the inefficiencies and egos and general bullshit. We had been dreaming of doing this for a year or two before we actually made the final decision to try our hand at crafting our own agency. Nei and I were both working at an agency where he was the creative director and I was the senior art director. I got laid off, so Nei quit the same day I got laid off, we got really drunk, and on the next day started working out of his living room launching our site. We actually had the agency logo done about a year before, so we didn’t need to spend that much time figuring out our identity or how we wanted to position ourselves.

We really started the whole thing to enrich our lifestyle and continue being creative, but on our own terms. People often ask about our name, or if Nei and I are brothers. The name “Brothers By Choice” is summation of the idea that if you aren’t doing something in your life by choice, then you shouldn’t be doing it at all. It sounds silly to ask yourself if you are doing something on your own accord, but it’s easy to overlook if you analyze all your actions during the course of one day. We try work with our society of Brothers and Sisters in a collaborative environment, from friends, to partner companies, to 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?
Since we don’t do production in-house, we don’t really have interactive producers. The interactive producers are brought in by the companies we choose to partner with. Some of them can improve, some of them are awesome. We try to pick companies we think we can grow with, so most of the time we’ve had great experiences and the interactive producers really help us set expectations for the client and manage workflow.

Producers have a hard life in my opinion. A colleague and I were just discussing how producers are essentially shit on 24/7 by the creatives and agencies as a whole. Out of the producers I worked with at agencies, and spent a lot of time with, one had a heart monitor and anxiety attacks, and the other two were hardcore alcoholic workaholics. All of them were really strong people and had to deal with major bullshit, so I give them a lot of respect. Beyond making sure a project got done on time they needed to manage or baby sit a pack of narcissistic children and make sure the agency was making money. You’re basically getting fucked by the agency executives and creatives, and I don’t think anyone every thanked them or even noticed their hard work. It’s kind of sad really.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We read Wired magazine and stuff like that, and we are all techie guys by nature. Our friends will pass along cool links to us, and we are always talking about technology or fiddling with IPhones or playing Xbox 360 or being gadget geeks. I think the technology just finds us naturally. It’s like doing magic or something discovering something supernatural, so we like it.

We might actively seek a certain technology if an idea warrants that kind of attention. We recently did a project for WWE where we need to find a way for consumers to edit video online, so that was interesting to see why or who we would partner with to get the consumer experience we were looking for.

As far as motivation we like design books and pretty aesthetics wherever they are. Our clients motivate us, since we are a small agency and have direct contact with the client during all phases of any project. We are always trying to do a good job for our clients and grow the business, because at the end of the day we love the feeling of being a “good boy.” It sounds silly to say, “I’m a good boy” or “good girl”, but I think everyone craves this basic need of feeling loved and accepted and nurtured. It makes us giggle when we can wear this badge, because it takes a lot of effort to be a good boy or girl.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Any client where you can become friends or laugh with, and any project that makes you feel proud and engaged creatively. Having repeat clients is really rewarding as a small business owner. A lot of our clients have turned out to be really cool people, so it’s more like working with friends than working for some depersonalized corporate monster. It needs to feel light and fun. We like projects that are integrated and keep us challenged. A project with a film component, web component and some kind of ad component like print are always fun to work on, but I think any project can have its merits in one way or another. It’s also good when you get projects that don’t have a timeline that is unrealistic.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I think it’s pretty simple. Honesty. You need to be honest at all times. A lot of people like to bullshit their clients and put on this used car salesman schtick and say “yes sire, anything you desire.” We treat our clients like people. If something is not possible, you just say, “I’m very sorry, but we can’t do that for you.”

Clients often come to us and say “can you do x,y,z by tomorrow?” We say no we can’t, because it’s not a realistic timeline, and you’re going to end up with something you’re not happy with. Then we ask them why there is such a rush. Over promising and under delivering is the worst situation you can get your self into, so most of the times they listen to us. We don’t lie to our clientele.

It’s important to try and educate your client about what you can and can’t do, because everything is always going to come last minute and there’s never enough time. Any client that cares about an agency will take the time to understand you, and respect your process. If the client isn’t growing with you and is treating you like a whore than it’s a sign it’s not a good relationship. It’s not a good creative breeding ground either. Business is important to us, so we try our hardest to make sure the client is happy. We try very hard to get the client to avoid certain pitfalls which hurt the creative process and their insurance policies. Clients come to agencies not only to do good work, but to advance and protect their own marketing careers. You need to be good to your client, and they need to be good to you, otherwise no one is gaining anything and everyone is wasting their time.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Probably the work we did for Sagatiba. We did a lot of brand positioning for them, got to shoot for two weeks all over Brazil in this sort of hellish vacation, got to shoot mixology films all over the United States and meet a lot of cool people. We partnered with some really cool companies and there were so many players that it was a rewarding experience. Currently we are launching their web presence internationally, which is challenging and also really exciting to work globally.

We love working with WWE also because they send us cool tee-shirts and laugh when we show them pictures of us playing with dangerous weapons in our office. I like clients that will randomly email things other than just work email, like funny pictures of kittens and weird kids that are giving them the bird and stuff like that. Having a sense of camaraderie with your client is really fun.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I’d say four to five projects at our current level. But that number could increase or decrease depending on staff and partners. We’ve handled about four projects simultaneously and it was doable, but stressful also. You need to be clever with how you handle your day.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
We more or less have the flexibility to work with any production team or company we’d like to, so it’s any partner that would be perfect for the project at hand. Hopefully it’s someone that we can grow with and work with in the future, and have a really great experience with. We’re always looking for that because most of the day is at work with your associates. Sometimes budgets and numbers can interfere with reality or who you would think is ideal or perfect, but most companies are pretty cool and level, if you are just honest and tell them up front you can’t do it for that price.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
By setting expectations, giving good client service and creative that solves the problem at hand. I think clients like being around creative people that are quirky and can solve problem and offer unusual perspectives.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Hard to say. The ad rags really like to sensationalize this question. Most of everything they say is all bullshit. I think the industry is folding in on itself. Technology has played a large role in making people and the industry, as a whole, uncomfortable. The economy has really made people uncomfortable, considering we are facing the second economic downturn in eight years. It’s awful.

Personally, I think the big agency model owned by holding companies is a bit like the modern banking crisis, except there’s probably not a bail out plan in place for when they crash. The holding companies thought they could just acquire a bunch of interactive shops over the past four years and then get the traditional ad shops to tell the interactive shops to make ads for the internet. I don’t know how well that’s working because the ad guys don’t get the internet and the internet guys want to conquer the ad guys. I’m guessing there’s a lot of backlash with this acquisition model and a lot of unhappy investors. I can just imagine at some board room, someone said, “We really need to diversify our holding portfolio.”

I’m really, really hoping there’s an era of independent shops that large to middle sized clients will migrate to, realizing that they are going to get a much better level of service and better creative. I hesitate to even call them “ad agencies” because this new breed of business could come in so many forms and be like weird changelings. Maybe it’s a shop where the guys are brilliant at Flash and also After Effects and make amazing videos and sites. Maybe it’s a shop that focuses on connecting with consumers in cost-effective ways to connect consumers with modern technology.

Big ad agencies have so much inefficiency and fat, and that’s why people get laid off the second a client decides to put an account in review. The big ad agencies will do anything that they can to hold on and pretend they know what’s going on and use people. It’s sort of like the current state of the record industry. I can see a lot of lower tier agencies on the holding companies roster being dissolved for non-performance felonies.

I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on, or where things are going next. At this point, I’d guess it’s about retension of control and adaptation. The shops that can work multi-disciplinary are the ones to watch as the next big players. I don’t think you can really survive as an agency anymore and say “we don’t do interactive” or think saxophone is good. Sadly, a lot of shops that say they “can” to the press, simply hire another company to come up with the ideas for them, so it’s really a little inefficient and pathetic. TV is also dying. I think the clients are slowly coming to the realization you don’t need a couple million dollar production of thirty seconds of image to connect with consumers anymore, but they are still a tad bit tepid to accept reality. There’s a lot of money being wasted, and lot of hungry agency alumnus in the field.

Another thing I can see changing is the idea of geography. When people think of Europe or South America, the assumption is they can’t have that reach, but it’s possible. I can see a lot of smart European or South American agencies stealing business from the United States and vice-versa. There’s very little need to sit down in a physical conference room with a client anymore. There are very distinct advantages for agencies to not have staff working on location as well. People are used to the notion that if you are located in the United States, you work in the United States, but email brings everyone closer.

Eventually, I’d love to see the development of an advertising union. I think it’s bullshit that agencies take for granted that workers can work all night and not get paid for their time. It’s a little stupid, and I’m shocked it’s not illegal. The companies don’t care about the people who are spending less time with their girlfriends or boyfriends or kids. It’s not fair, and there are ways to accomplish the same amount of work in less time by working efficiently. Think about how cool it would be for workers to go on strike because the agencies are exploiting their workers? The world needs the Jimmy Hoffa of advertising in the next ten years. Just turn off the ad machine for a while.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Advertising is not art, it’s a creative process. Engage in the process, do your best, and then try to get over yourself.