Centralisation vs Fragmentation in Creative Production

So many brands are wanting to produce more content for the same budget, or even less budget, and as they work through their new, modern approaches to creative production and content creation, the idea of centralisation vs fragmentation is real. APR's Jillian Gibbs explores how to think about this in the current environment.

When seeking to build efficiencies into a creative production and content creation eco-system, centralisation is a logical move in many aspects of marketing operations, particularly in areas like business affairs, production insurance, talent payroll, distribution, and tech stacks. When it comes to creative production, however, (especially involving video, film, photography, and music) the fragmented nature of talent is ultimately beneficial and so centralisations of creative production is risky. 

Here's why.... while it's important to bring media and content closer together to support the agility needed in today’s modern marketing eco-system across many platforms, centralising the production of all creative assets can dilute the creative quality - not ideal in the highly creative marketing and advertising industry. From where I sit, creative production thrives on competition and the nurturing of individual talents - often best achieved through a decentralised approach because production houses and specialist companies play a crucial role in developing and growing talent in these fields. 

I’m referring to storytelling talent, such as directors, photographers, editors and composers, not content creation produced at scale or AI-generated content. If the creative production is consolidated into a hub or a singular production model, the risk of sameness and vanilla creative is real. The competition in competitive bidding results in, not just a cost comparison, but evaluating production approaches that will differ from bidder to bidder. An observation worth noting is that holding companies and agency-led management consulting firms who offer their combined and centralised services, including the production of all assets, to marketing organisations, may not be serving the best interest of the brand or marketer. Certain types of creative production, like digital content for e-commerce and social media assets, benefit from centralisation due to economies of scale. But for productions, where storytelling and creativity are paramount, maintaining a diverse fragmented talent pool is essential for fostering the best ideas and improving production quality. 

What to do about it: 

To introduce diversity into your creative production and content creation supply chain, consider carefully the nature of creative needs when deciding whether to centralise production or what to centralise. Producing through specialised production houses and companies who care for and nurture creative talent can help strike the right balance between centralisation and fragmentation, ensuring that creativity thrives while operational efficiencies are maximised.

Using a holdco or agency-led management consultancy is a good solution if part of a more well-rounded and diverse eco-system of partners. In many instances, it is important to produce the origination of content through director-led productions outside of those models to bring in diversity and to allow for a variety of creative approaches to be considered. Having variety and flexibility within a creative framework will keep the production quality high and allow talent to continue to flourish.