The Digital Producer
AK: If you’re like me, you awake in the middle night asking, ‘how did they get there?’ Good question and we have a fabulous digital executive producer to enlighten! Josh Eisenman has been “in the biz” (digital marketing, advertising, interactive production, 360 marketing, yaddayadda) for nearly two decades, and has been my right hand on several campaigns while at Amazon.
JE: Let’s start with defining what I believe a “producer” does versus a project manager, since far too often the two titles are used interchangeably. In my honest opinion, Project Managers are not meant to be creators; if you want them to weigh in on design or copy, they’ll probably point you towards the Creative Director’s schedule. A Producer, on the other hand will be more flexible, adaptive and experimental when it comes to processes and methods along the way. We often find ourselves bending the rules (or even tossing the rulebook out the window) in the name of delivering great work. Personally, I delight in the idea of flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, and rather than merely ensuring tasks get done, I relish in guiding the production process and the individuals on the team especially. In short, to me, it’s not all about the work, the work, the work, but rather about the people, their success, and putting out the best experiences users can escape into or learn from.
But I digress. There was a time when advertising creatives couldn’t understand why you would want to have a url at the end of their “precious” spot. That’s where I came in, in 1999 after five years of working with Edwin Schlossberg designing “interactive museums and public spaces.” The dot com bubble hadn’t burst and I jumped at the chance to make four times my salary. So after launching Johnnie Walker’s first website, KeepWalking.com, I found myself in possession of an amazing group of digitally focused creatives and developers.
In 2001 I launched Throw the Pig Productions (tagline: “we’re not waiting for them to fly” 😉 and was a freelance digital producer within BBDO acting as the bridge between the traditional ad folks and the digital agency their client (Mars/M&M) had been hired (Barbarian Group) to build a huge national digital-first campaign. Needless to say, the traditional creatives and account people were weary of me, but ultimately they discovered that I was able to translate the tech-team’s wants into a language the ad wonks could understand and in turn, ultimately control the narrative. One project became three, which became ten and quickly I found myself overseeing more than two hands full of projects for clients ranging from AIG and Campbell’s Soup to The Red Cross and Hyatt hotels.
Making the”‘web people” an integral part of the team was key to the success for these traditional agencies. And while my elevator pitch and title was long, it was vital to their success. “Senior Project Manager/Producer – Digital – I manage anything from project conception, the budget through to project development, execution and analysis of local, national and transcontinental digital marketing campaigns and projects.”
In this role I have been responsible for pitches, client relations, managing internal and external deliverables to time and on budget, overseeing a creative, editorial team and third party suppliers such as motion designers and backend creative agencies, who delivered anything from banner creation, websites, dynamic competition tools, video and photo content, to working with social media agencies who span across the PR, Marketing and advertising of the brand this also includes supporting social media strategies across sites like SnapChat, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. While this may sound like a humble brag, it’s really only meant to highlight the variety of elements that any producer will oversee at any point in their career.
Us producers – be it digital, video, traditional, experiential or any other flavor – love what we do because we love helping others. We’re the ultimate altruist, and that’s not a humble brag. I truly believe a non-burned out producer who answers that “urgent” text at 6:32AM does so because, like me, we love when people say, “omg, I couldn’t have done this without you”. Which ultimately means, “they” succeeded because we removed impediments in their path to success. Our actions allowed them to shine. Being the puppeteer in the theater of chaos is incredibly rewarding, and for that I’m so thankful for choosing this career and being part of so many successes.
Ultimately my job as a producer is to make everyone else look amazing. When things go right, it’s always everyone else that is the hero. When they go wrong, it all falls on me. Thus, my job is to make sure it never goes wrong.
Ok, maybe just a bit of a humble brag is allowed. 😉
