Erik is an industrious young man who works diligently and is dedicated to his creative craft. And I'm not just saying that so he keeps paying off his college loans that I co-signed for.....
I'm just the proud mom!
Last week I posted my go-to planning methodology. If you are exploring a new project, you should start at the beginning of the process. However, here is a handy (though not extremely visually appealing) diagram to help you unstick projects that have been bogged down.
As a project manager, planning is an important part of my job. Unfortunately, not everyone plans as well as they are capable of. Being a methodical person, I like methodology. Here is the simple planning method that works for projects of various sizes that I have employed for a few years, complements of David Allen.
Patrick, our designer, touched on the changing landscape of distribution last week. I think this topic is on a lot of people’s minds today. End users are becoming less ‘users’ and more creators, and much savvier. Since many marketing and advertising efforts piggy-back onto media streams to reach their audience, this changing landscape has them scrambling.
Vendors and agencies are fighting to position themselves in a new world of marketing. Companies, from global mega-conglomerates to mom-and-pop shops, fear being left behind AND diving into outlets that are still not solidified. The entire channel is shifting, which is a lot for everyone to deal with, even if you don’t factor in the economic instability we are all adjusting to.
Patrick, being young and artistic, can’t help but see all the possibilities in this new world order. He has entire suite of applications at his disposal, giving him access to any medium in existence today, at no cost to him. Even for our company, our entire Final Cut system, software and licenses for Creative Suite is dwarfed by the costs that we paid a couple of decades ago for freelance editors and avid suites. Patrick’s canvass is your computer screen, TV, billboard, iPod, or something really cool that I don’t even know about. He isn’t limited by money, tools or broadcast limitations. He is only limited by his creativity.
My goal as a producer is to have Patrick’s outlook, but marry it with traditional ideals. Clients have a rare opportunity to connect with potential consumers at an intimate level never before possible. We can craft an endless supply of campaigns across the entire spectrum of media. Most importantly, we can do it for a fraction of the cost of a traditional national campaign. Each piece of the campaign is minuscule in cost compared to a Super Bowl ad. We can flood any number of markets with dozens of posts, tweets and comments.
But clients and I face the same same limit that Patrick does: Creativity. Poorly crafted messages will still fail, regardless of the outlet. Does this mean we just port Super Bowl commercials to YouTube, or take out full page ads on ESPN.com? Things become tried and true for a reason. Sometimes it is because they work. However, sometimes things become the norm because they are supported by enough money or clout, or simply there is no alternative (see: the recording industry.) Flooding Digg, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with a message crafted for a press release or blatant product schilling can actually do much more harm than good. This is magnified when if you key demographic also happens to be the most technologically savvy (and cynical) to ever have walked the earth. Further, as Facebook reminded us recently, when you rely on third-party platforms, you are at their mercy.
I think producers and clients should be as excited as Patrick; we are witnessing a period of great innovation. Economics are on our side. Even though money is tight, costs for social market are tiny compared to traditional outlets. Embrace innovation, but do it with creativity and sincerity.
How do you organize 15 years of documentation ranging from mundane how-to procedures for printing color documents to sensitive project information and vital work flow documentation, that need to be accessible to everyone in your exceedingly mobile and collaborative work environment?
You create a WiKi, and that’s exactly what we at Manning Productions have been working on in our spare time over the course of the past few months.
As defined by Wikipedia the unequivocal leader in wiki-mentation, a wiki is…
“…a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content… Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites… The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge Management systems.”
I don’t know if I can explain it any better myself, but in other words, a Wiki is an online collection of information that is easily updated and referenced by everyone in your work-group. It is not platform dependent, meaning Windows, and Apple computer users have equal access, and it can be password protected to secure vital information, allowing access to only those with a valid password a login.
We have always had shared storage at Manning, but for some office organization and procedural documents we wanted the ability to have one single set of files, stored within one location that any Manning employee could update and have access to at any given time, in or out of the office. That way we aren’t looking through several folders and 20 versions of a document for information. It’s a one-stop shop for info that we all need access to. Plus, its less cumbersome to track down and update procedural information, meaning people are more likely to make those corrections on a regular basis. So, for example, if we get a new phone system we can change the directions for using that phone system on the Wiki easily.
So as our Thanksgiving holiday approaches this year we give thanks to our Wiki!
