Kevin Brucato, VP of Creative Operations at Prudential, guides us through his experience un using technology to improve the operations of Prudentials creative services.
Hi folks, I am Kevin Brucato- A little bit about myself before we dive in. I don’t want to date myself, so let’s say I have 20+ years of agency experience spanning from startups to large conglomerations –My expertise is really helping agencies achieve operational excellence.
1) Started my career in studio operations, grew out of a graphics studio which really provided me the building blocks for my career. If there is one thing that I can say about my personality is that I’ve always approached my job with an entrepreneurial spirit and relentless curiosity. I believe its helped my achieve my growth and to keep current industry trends. Relentless Curiosity.
2) 5 Years Ago I joined Prudential Advertising – Newly created position in the company called Creative Operations. Traditional Creative services role.
Next came explosion of digital and social and our decision to build and integrate them it into our structure. It was a major undertaking.
3) role has evolved to keep up with the demand that these disciplines put on our ecosystem. My job description today reads way different that when I joined 5 years ago.
Due to all this growth of the Agency, my team that I oversee grew from 7 people to 14- the agency had 60% growth. New departments and technology were added to support the infrastructure.
5 Years ago when I joined Pru, this was my canvas.
1) When I joined there was a real lack of standardized process, limited visibility into what we do, people running around with these green folders without much technology in place to drive any efficiencies.
2) What happened next, Digital came along and shook things up. You now have have to think about Analytics gain insights and metrics. ( pixels, tagging, cookies- which will tell you who’s clicking on what, where, when and for how long.
3) Decision to dive into Social - Highly regulated industry, engagement. who is saying what about your brand, on what community, whether positive or negative. Social Monitoring, Compliance issues,
Now the canvas became more complex.
This is now what the Technology Landscape looks like.
1) The world has changed. No longer about the creation of a single asset such as a newspaper ad or billboard.
2) multi-channel marketing with an abundance of tools to chose from.
3) The world is way more complex and moving at a warp speed.
Just to make matters worse…
And if your shop is anything like mine, you still have to factor in the Creative Process. Like a Disney theme park
Here’s What I did at Pru: Process & Technology Creative Workflow. Different Entry Points
Workflow Leveraged an enterprise tool, Aprimo. Initiating work requests, job logging, workflow, approvals, reporting and metrics.
2) File storage. From file share to WIP xinet Server. Integration with Adobe CC, DAM, distribution, etc. Metadata. Enterprise DAM AssetServe
3) Video Content- Editshare Open hybrid system support a variety of editing platform.
4) DIGITAL: Created an AdOpeations department- DoubleClick Dart, Google Analytics Premium, Adometry Insights and Measurements to allow for intelligent decision making.
5) Social, BuddyMedia – social monitoring, FaceBook Page, Twiiter, feed, YouTube Channel – Build up our social channel.
Everything on paper looked great…
Something was wrong. Things were broken, bottlenecks, not integrated – handoffs
2) ) Needed to Retool: Advantage of SaaS based solution. Search for a new Workflow tool
Better technology comes along, you can transition.
3) Tools not integrated
Recap: Define process, apply technology to leverage best practices and gain efficiencies, and if need be, remember change happens and retool if needed.