Making Creativity Accountable: How Successful Advertisers Manage Their Television and Print / Edition 1

by Ronald C. Harding

Overview

A comprehensive handbook for advertising and marketing managers, this volume shows how advertisers can effectively control agency costs without sacrificing creativity. Ron Harding profiles companies that have effectively enforced accountability on their agencies and demonstrates proven internal systems for controlling the advertising process—and its associated costs—from the initial spending plan through the final examination of actual expenditures. He also offers a pragmatic discussion of the procedures, timetables, and contracts managers need to put in place to ensure that all sectors of the agency—account, creative, legal, production, and business affairs—act in the best interest of their client and at the highest levels of their capability. All major categories of spending receive thorough coverage: television, print, talent, and media.

After an introduction which highlights the problems of runaway costs and mismanagement that plague many advertisers today, Harding presents a step-by-step guide to controlling advertising expenditures. Among the topics addressed are: how to create realistic spending plans and make them strict buying guides for the agency; how to spot successful advertising; how to make creative groups accountable; how to run a successful copy meeting; how to stop cost overruns in television and print; and how to streamline and strengthen the brand management system. Harding fully reviews how to cut costs at each stage—from the project initiation form, through copy and storyboards, to editing and final production. Written in clear, conversational style, the book focuses throughout on a pragmatic approach to advertising management while recognizing the central importance of creativity. In fact, Harding argues, by understanding the creative-cost equation and how to manipulate its variables, advertisers will necessarily reap the benefits of better advertising.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780899303376
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/26/1991
Series:	Bibliographies and Indexes in Medical
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

RON HARDING is President of Harding & Company, a consulting firm specializing in advertising and communications. He was Director of Advertising Production for Gillette for thirteen years and Production Supervisor at Procter & Gamble for nine years. His articles have appeared in Advertising Age, Backstage, and Business Week.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Clarifying Advertising Purpose and Costs
Developing a Creativity-Cost Equation
Enlisting Agency Support
What Should a Commercial Cost?
Turbaning Knowledge into Action: The Spending Plan
Controlling Time: The Project Initiation Form
Copy and Cost Success
Cutting the Costs of Test Commercials
Cutting Costs at the Storyboard Stage
The Roles of the Writer, Art Director, and Producer
Moving into the Production Process
Setting the Pre-Production Agenda
Cutting Costs at the Specifications Stage
Buying Options: Firm Bid and Cost Plus Fixed Fee
Overscale Talent and Print Models
The AICP Form
Cutting Costs of the Individual Commercial
Ensuring a Successful Shooting: The Pre-Production Meeting
Managing a Cost-Effective Shooting
Editing Disciplines and Cost Control
Final Costs: Actual versus Estimated
Creative, Production and Cost Controls in Print
Some Final Thoughts
Appendix A: AICP Videotape Production Cost Summary
Appendix B: AICP Glossary
Appendix C: AICE Post-Production Cost Summary
Appendix D: Glossary
Appendix E: The Three-Legged Stool: An Advertiser Looks at Cost Control
Index