A defense of the unsexiest number on your dashboard, and why I report on it weekly.
Every campaign I produce is a film. Sometimes a sixty-second one. Sometimes a six-month one, told across television, billboards, and the timeline of a phone. The medium changes. The discipline doesn't.
The brief is line one of a screenplay
A good screenplay opens with a single image and a single problem. A good campaign brief should too. When I read a deck and I can't find the problem in the first paragraph — or worse, the problem is "we need engagement" — I rewrite the brief before I do anything else.
Cast the audience before the talent
Films cast actors. Campaigns cast audiences. The audience is the lead, and like any lead, the rest of the production has to serve them.
Editing starts in the deck
The single biggest cost overrun on most productions isn't the shoot. It's the third recut. I avoid it by editing in the deck — frame-accurate animatics signed off before the camera turns on.
Distribution is the third act
A film without a release is a hobby. A campaign without distribution is the same. The third act of a campaign is its rollout — planned before the second act is written.
