Creative Ops to optimise agency performance

Former ad exec, Duncan Palmer, has launched Creative Ops, a company which assists agencies to put in place operational processes, workflows and technology to keep agencies running at full strength, no matter what challenges life (and Cape Town) throws at them.

Ad agencies, like any business, faces operational risk, be it lack of water, fire damage or even the changing nature of work that increasingly falls outside of the traditional 9-to-5. Creative Ops combines Palmer’s passion in using technology and systems to improve the creative process and its outputs, thereby giving ad execs a clear view of what’s actually going on in their studios to allow them to make data-led decisions.

“The threat of Day Zero has those in charge of agency operations urgently putting into place plans to keep the office open once the taps run dry and figuring out how to ensure employees run at full strength while working remotely,” notes Palmer. “Can you imagine the chaos? Communication gaps that plague projects while people work in the same office will be exacerbated tenfold when half the team are working from home and working different shifts while they queue to collect water during the day.

“Creative Operations has a key role to play in helping creative teams perform at optimum levels — whether they are sitting across from one another or working remotely, suburbs, or even time zones, apart. Creative teams that don’t have clearly defined processes and workflows will never be able to produce amazing work in a sustainable and scalable manner. The same is true if employees haven’t fully bought into and practice said processes, even if these have been painstakingly documented and uploaded to the agency intranet.

“Far from being a frustrating admin drain on creatives, good creative operations seek to streamline the entire creative process, from client brief to concept presentation [and] campaign execution, and give creative teams the space and structure required to produce behaviour changing work within the budgeted hours,” he concludes.

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