"ad agency" ??
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- arseni0
also, because production houses may not have all those connections that will allow them to get big clients directly.
- blastofv0
qruise, your points are idealistic. and yeah, it'd be nice if the creatives just got big accounts because they do cool work, but that's not the real world.
ad agencies offer a lot of shit - media services to research and book ad placements, research and execution of creative and marketing strategies, and the business savvy to attract and retain big corporate clients.
if production houses did all that, they would get the work directly, but they'd also be ad agencies themselves at that point.
it's a symbiotic relationship that works, so no one is pushing for a revolution on this front.
- robotron3k0
production houses are freelancers in a sense, they are hired because of their work or style. they are usually a tiny staff, overworked and get very little by way of credit or ownership over a project. "Ad agencies" have the client contract/retainer, the hot account girls that can take the client out and get them drunk while production houses work all night on crazy deadlines and have to do stupid things like change a car color from white to red in post because the client changed their mind at the last minute. so production houses, like it or not, are low on the totem pole. sad but true, the power goes to those to have the clients money.
- haha0
blastofv
bingo
- aktive0
On several occassions, I've heard AE's say "Let's not let our client find out about 'xstudio' so they won't go to them directly." I've heard this at a couple of ad agencies.
- madirish0
dude, it is all campaign-centric, not on-off commercial projects. get it? coke goes through Satcchi for the 'new Coke' campaign and it consists of X, Y and Z media outlets. Sacchi then goes to their resources.... one of these is a motion house. either they or the account lead CD the thing and we have a 'project'...... w/in a campaign.
very rarely is a 'campaign' consist of one project, ie a motion piece. there is management of the account and it's strategy that are under consideration here.
how long have you been at this, off hand?
- haha0
lol so true
- haha0
qruise
I see where your comin from
Are you still in school though?
Not a cutdown, just curious.I remember when I was in school, the idealistic thoughts I had.
The reality is, it is a tough world out there. I know I nly take on a few jobs a month, and I am so busy with that and all the other stuff that goes along with it, i sometimes don't have any time for myself.
I can't imagine taking on anymore workload. The truth is ppl just don't have all the time it takes to do what you are talkin about.
or I can turn my operation bigger, have a ton of resources at my disposal and soon becomean agency, that has an inhouse photographer.
Madirish hit it deadon.
Blastovf hit it deadon.
Robotron hit it dead on.great thread though.
- tkmeister0
sounds like you never worked for an ad agency.
and blastofv and roboton are right on.
without ad agencies hiring them, some of these production houses may not survive. it's ad agency selling big ideas with many different components to their clients and asking them to spend 10milion here 50million there. motion graphic stuff is only a small slice for this big pie.
if a motion graphic goes directly into the client saying, we got cool shit. the client maybe like... so... what do we do with it and how does it fit into the big picture?
- tkmeister0
sounds like you never worked for an ad agency.
and blastofv and roboton are right on.
without ad agencies hiring them, some of these production houses may not survive. it's ad agency selling big ideas with many different components to their clients and asking them to spend 10milion here 50million there. motion graphic stuff is only a small slice for this big pie.
if a motion graphic goes directly into the client saying, we got cool shit. the client maybe like... so... what do we do with it and how does it fit into the big picture?
- ********0
the words ad agency isn't out dated, here it is still used.
like mortierbrigade.com
probably the best around :)
- qruise0
madirish, im not "at" anything.. i dont do this. i just want to know.
- madirish0
sorry duder- what "don't you do" exactly?
again, not a cutdown, just curious.
- qruise0
im a musician and also do some freelance print design for people who find me and who i seek out. i enjoy it..so i just do it in my free time.
- madirish0
got it
- qruise0
alright so i guess lastly.. is there any real benefit to Shilo / M Theory / etc being freelance production houses? would there be any benefits or major disadvantaees to the production guys AND the ad agencies for them to just hire them completely as in-house employees?
- harlequino0
Holy crap this thread exploded since i went to lunch and stuff.
qruise, i read are a musician and stuff and are not really in the biz, so i am glad no one's flamin ya or anything.
Another short short short answer to your questions is that there is an unbelievable amount of legwork, hr, pr, customer service, legal, logistics, etc. etc. it will make your head collapse. Now multiply all of that times all the different local and national markets, international, etc...
See where I am going...That's really why it happens this way. Now! That is NOT to say that on smaller campaigns, smaller boutiques can hold the creative leash. That's what my company does. We are not doing major broadcast, or even prod. work on the level of Motion Theory. But we are doing med. projects involving full promo sites, and podcasting, and some web film work.
So uh, yeah. There you have it.
- mtgentry0
Its an advantage for them to be "freelance " because they can do there own thing. If an agency thinks Motion Theory will be a good fit for their project, they'll give em a call.
They do occasionally have their own clients too. I might be wrong on this, but for music videos they just pitch their idea to the artist/label directly.
- robotron3k0
"would there be any benefits or major disadvantaees to the production guys AND the ad agencies for them to just hire them completely as in-house employees?
qruise
(Feb 16 07, 12:04)"yes, ad agencies don't have that much type of specialized work coming through to make it profitable. they will have mid-low level editors but nothing on the level of shilo/mtheory. on the flip side of the coin, shilo & mt have lot's of relationships with big ad agencies, so they will have a big variety of work.
- qruise0
thanks.. you guys are being really informative and frankly i am surprised i wasnt flamed horribly like some others ;)
im just a sucker for liking knowing how thinks work.