APA Reports Marketers’ Lack of Production Awareness and Need for Transparency
The UK’s Advertising Producers Association (APA) has released its newest major piece of work for 2024 – the APA Members Report, aiming to better understand the continuous changes in the production landscape, and ask what clients want in 2024 and beyond. The report explored brands’ and clients’ views on the triple bid system, the growing role of in-house content creation and the way client-agency relationships have evolved.
Titled ‘What Clients Want From Advertising Production Today… And How They Can Get It’, the report was conducted with the help of APA consultant Alex Walker-Sage, who interviewed 27 senior marketing professionals from 25 brands within the UK and EMEA. Among them were chief marketing officers and other decision makers of brands from Booking and Tesco, to John Lewis, Virgin Atlantic, Nike, and McDonald’s among others.
Clients were faced with four questions to consider:
- How are your audio visual marketing, content and campaigns produced currently and by whom?
- How is this selection decision arrived at? What criteria are used to make it?
- Who are the key stakeholders involved in making this selection decision? To what extent are you involved?
- Do you agree the best value in production is achieved via the triple bid system?
The report, and clients’ answers, showed that the most important and trusted relationship for marketers remains that with their lead creative agency, often being their go-to for selecting production partners. Increasingly though, brands are producing their own marketing content, driven by a need for speed and a high volume of assets. And while internal marketing teams vary in sophistication, they are present in most brands.
In terms of the role of the independent production company, the report revealed that despite in-house production trends, independent production companies are still highly valued for their expertise and ability to challenge creative ideas.
The triple bid process, where production companies competitively bid for projects, is still widely in usage, the report showed. However, challenges such as time constraints and budget limitations showed up as points of frustration, with some marketers believing that the system is outdated and inefficient. In fact, a number of brands have now shifted to a double bid or even single bids, causing concerns about transparency and fairness in competitive bidding.
The report also touched on the quality versus cost debate when it comes to the triple bid. Marketers recognise that while the triple bid might not be the lowest cost, it tends to drive creative quality and help them find the best partners for creative innovation.
Some respondents also noted that there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process, where agencies limit access to production companies. Concerns were voiced over agencies withholding information about production partners, limiting transparency in the decision-making process, which raises clear issues about control and openness.
Hybrid approaches were also a point of conversation – many brands reported adopting hybrid production models, where internal teams handle lower-level content, and external partners manage complex or high-stake projects.
In fact, where production specialisation is concerned, brands tend to turn to external production companies due to their specialised skills. Brands were reported to be increasingly engaging directly with production companies, especially where agencies lacked the necessary expertise. A few marketers mentioned that some creative agencies have lost their said expertise, particularly as they cut down on permanent producers. This has led brands to increasingly work directly with production companies, bypassing agencies, which could disrupt the traditional client-agency relationship.
But it goes both ways – marketers expressed a desire for more direct communication and visibility from production companies, including better promotion of their work and capabilities. Many noted that production companies should be more proactive in marketing themselves to brands.
The report found some educational gaps, underlining the lack of deep understanding of the production process that some marketers struggle with, which could be improved through bettering industry communication and training.
Beyond a need for improved communication, the report found a growing need for more adaptable approaches to the triple bid (depending on time and budget), strengthening of direct relationships between brands and production companies if the production landscape is to continue developing, and industry-wide improvement of awareness and education on the processes, which will in turn foster stronger bonds and empathy.
