In the wake of the digital marketing revolution (which wasn’t that many moons ago) roles once firmly entrenched in the analog world found themselves standing at the crossroads of relevance.
It always puzzled me why these production roles didn’t make it across the corridor to the door marked ‘digital’, considering their skills and tasks were applicable on both sides.
Meanwhile, on the digital side, the responsibilities became blurred or fell through the cracks entirely which led to stresses, inefficiencies and lesser quality of output. Let me elaborate…
1. The Studio Manager: From maestro to digital margins
In the heyday of traditional marketing, the Studio Manager reigned supreme, ensuring the production process resembled a well-oiled machine. Collaborating seamlessly with traffic managers, they ensured that deadlines were met, quality standards were upheld, and assets were meticulously managed and archived.
The advent of digital marketing, however, ushered in a shift in dynamics. Project managers, armed with digital know-how, took centre stage, leading digital designers and developers with a focus on planning and brief execution. The Studio Manager, it seemed, had no place in this new narrative and was relegated to the margins, specifically to print production.
The assumption that the digital realm operated on an entirely different set of rules led to the dispersion of Studio Manager responsibilities. In some digital teams, these essential tasks, once tightly controlled, found themselves scattered like confetti among team members and sometimes completely lost in the binary breeze, leading to a host of challenges:
- Finding work files on servers became a major chore
- software licensing and subscription services became erratic
- mistakes multiplied due to unchecked work
- and source files turned into mind frazzling jigsaw puzzles.
The role of the Studio Manager did not vanish with the advent of digital marketing. Instead, the responsibilities associated with it were inadvertently left unassigned, or pegged onto another role as an afterthought, resulting in chaotic digital production.
2. The Proof Reader: Beyond grammar… just beyond
In the era of print dominance, every piece of production underwent the discerning gaze of the Proof Reader. With print runs reaching massive audiences, errors were not just costly; they were often irrevocable. Digital marketing, with its promise of instant fixes, seemed to relegate the Proof Reader to the background.
However, the reality of today’s multifaceted campaigns across diverse platforms exposes a different story. Internet marketing, with its immediacy, also comes with uncontrollable external factors and lead times. Attempting to rectify a live banner campaign can be far from simple and certainly not instant. Recognising errors too late causes embarrassment and undermines the professional (and expensive) service promised by marketing agencies. Not to mention the risk of being sued for negligence.
Proof reading, a once-specialised role, has slipped through the digital cracks. Now, it’s a task taken up by everyone and no one. Spelling and grammatical mistakes become a game of chance, leading to inconsistencies and diminished quality. Disagreements on correctness echo within teams, not just grammatically but in the tone and style of copywriting for each client. And nobody has the last word.
The absence of Proof Readers in digital teams raises critical questions. Who is guarding the client’s style sheet, the guardian of the brand’s linguistic identity? Who is scrutinising terms and conditions? For major brands, precision and consistency are paramount, meaning the Proof Reader’s role is far from redundant; it’s a missing link in the quality assurance chain.
3. The Art Buyer: Unseen and unheard in the digital wilderness
Before digital marketing took centre stage, the acquisition of visual assets fell under the jurisdiction of the Art Buyer. Armed with research skills, negotiation prowess, and a deep understanding of licensing intricacies, they played a crucial role in campaign production.
Yet, in today’s digital teams, Art Buyers are a rarity, and the responsibilities they once shouldered have slipped into the digital abyss.
The digital age has normalised the perception that buying stock images or illustrations is a straightforward task. However, the reality is far from it. First of all, image research can be time-consuming which is often not considered when planning projects.
Buying stock images, videos, or illustrations seems deceptively easy with online libraries, but the factors of negotiation, licensing, and rights management are often overlooked.
Designers and art directors may want to handpick assets, but the nuances of negotiating deals, understanding licensing agreements, and managing budgets often end up neglected.
Crucially, who is overseeing the usage and expiry of purchased assets?
Without a designated Art Buyer, marketing teams risk sailing into turbulent waters. Who monitors the usage and expiry of purchased assets? The intricacies of licensing and rights management can easily be overlooked, creating risk, especially to agencies managing licensed assets on behalf of clients.
This is not about nostalgia, it’s about excellence
So, the Studio Manager, Proof Reader, and Art Buyer roles are not just for the analog world. It’s true that the skills and know-how they bring are often overlooked in digital marketing teams but I’m not suggesting that every digital marketing team go out and hire them.
This is about acknowledging the skills, tasks and responsibilities necessary for delivery excellence, and making sure they are properly integrated.
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