What Advertising Asks of Producers Now

​The role of the producer is broad, varied, and differs depending on who you were to ask. Which is exactly what happened when we asked producers what the advertising industry asks of them in these ever-evolving times. 

Answered by producers and creatives from production companies, advertising agencies, digital agencies, music and sound companies, and more, it’s apparent that despite differing areas of focus, the role of the producer has shifted in more ways than one across the entire spectrum. 

The pressures of faster timelines, an increased number of deliverables, and tighter budgets are felt and observed by many, as is the notion that production is no longer a linear pathway, but a complicated system that involves managing and understanding multiple platforms, technologies, and stakeholders. 

The impact of AI on production is drawn upon repeatedly, with contributors sharing how the technology poses both opportunities and risks to the creative process, therefore increasing the importance of their judgement and understanding. 

Positive throughlines repeatedly emerge: protectors of craft and creative integrity; adaptable and resourceful; collaborative and responsive. You can read more of what they have to say below, as they ponder the following question:

‘What does advertising ask of producers now?’

Joe Care, partner and founder, JOJX

There's a real tension in production right now between volume and craft. More deliverables, tighter timelines, agencies pulling work in-house and through all of that, the work still has to be worth watching. For independent production companies, the question isn't just how to keep up... It's how to make the creative better.

That starts with partnership. The best work we've been involved in has come from genuine creative dialogue between our directors, the agency team, and a client who is onboard to collaborate. What we do is not a relay race where ideas get passed down the line and everyone hopes for the best. At JOJX, our directors have direct access to the partners, and we encourage that same openness with everyone we work with. When everyone's in the room early, the creative gets sharper and problems get solved before they cost quality or time.

We've built a roster across all categories where a hero spot, a suite of cutdowns, and a social toolkit all need the same creative standard. I've had creatives tell me after a win that, during the pitch, we nearly lost the job because social deliverables didn't get the same attention as the TV spots. A cohesive approach is where craft survives or doesn't.

All in, at our company, the co-founders who built this company are still the ones on the call, on set, and in the room when it matters. That relationship is something we'll always protect.

Desirée Abeyta, head of production, Versus

With production being more demanding, with navigating tighter timelines, shifting scopes, new technologies and rising expectations, what does the job actually ask of producers today?

Producing is still about shepherding an idea from concept to delivery... protecting the creative, building the right team, and delivering on time and on budget. That hasn’t changed. But there’s an extra level of range and resilience that I haven’t seen since I started in this industry. It’s no longer enough to be a post-producer who knows traditional editorial pipelines. More studios, like ours, are expanding to encompass a lot of different types of execution. 2D? 3D? Experiential? We need you to do it all. That’s not to say that having knowledge/skill in one area isn’t still needed. But the producer who has touched a multitude of projects can keep up with the velocity and complexity of evolving platform specifications, tighter budgets, and higher creative expectations are the ones who stay hired and stay busy. 

How has the producer's role evolved far beyond traditional definitions?

I think producers were traditionally seen as logistical managers. But today’s producer sits at the intersection of creativity and systems thinking. We’re involved earlier in concepting conversations. We’re advising on scope feasibility before ideas are even sold in. We’re shaping production models around new technologies from virtual production workflows to AI-assisted creative pipelines. We’re thinking about sustainability, inclusivity, union and non-union considerations, global crews, remote post, etc. The role has expanded because the industry has expanded.

Chinkara Singh, chief production officer, Havas Health Network

Every day we bring together new tools, storytelling craft and speed and ask the same question: this looks great on paper, but how are we actually going to pull this off? 

The scope of the role has expanded dramatically, but fear not, most producers thrive in this landscape. Execution is just one part of the skillset. Producers seek the new, evaluate technology, build the right workflows and pressure-test ideas, knowing our creative teams can push them into existence with the right partners. The future of production depends on talent grounded in fundamentals and fluent in possibility. 

New technologies are opening doors for everyone. That doesn’t mean everyone can make something good. We’ve all seen it: uncanny faces, broken physics, aesthetic beige sludge. Brands can lose trust instantly with AI slop. 

That’s exactly why producers matter more, not less. Anyone can generate an image or video now. Producers know the line between experimentation and recklessness. We know where craft must remain sacred and when a tool strengthens the idea rather than cheapening it. 

Production has a seat at the table now. Let’s make the most of it.

Jordan Brady, founder and director, True Gent 

The bid phase has become a bigger ‘what if’ job - bidding multiple cities is one thing, but with undefined creative and shape-shifting talent specs, it wastes time.

We try to help clients/agencies really understand what each choice really means in time, budget, and execution.

That’s why I value repeat clients. When there’s trust, you can minimise the excess logistics and spend more time actually doing the job – rolling the camera, working with actors, cranking out the AI generations, making something great.

AI has added another wrinkle. Agencies now expect polished imagery in prep – frames that look like finished spots – but I've always seen that as a temporary medium. It helps sell the idea, but it’s not the work. The danger is mistaking the preview for the process.

Andrew Loevenguth, head of integrated production, Cartwright

Our friends at LBB want to know what Advertising asks of Producers now. Well, there are a few things. Are we testing this concept before we make it or after we make it? Is this live action, animation, AI or other? Do we have celebs? Is it SAG or non-union? Do the creatives want to shoot on film? Has our legal [team] seen this work? Has the client’s legal [team] seen this work? Do we need to shoot the product? Can we shoot in the States or do we need to go abroad? Are we bringing talent from the States with us? Do we know the client budget yet? Is there a cost controller involved? Do we need to adapt the work to other languages? Do we know the ship date yet? Do we need to triple bid? Are we shooting for 16x9 but protecting for 9x16? Is Spike Jonze available? Could we shoot the celebs separately and then use AI to put them in the spot? Are we making 15 and six second cutdowns? 1x1, 4x5, cinema? Can we just make the whole spot in AI? How many influencers can we afford? Can the influencer just shoot the spot on TikTok? Is the client coming to our shoot? Can we get sushi? Can the editor come to the shoot and edit while we shoot? Can we just edit it ourselves? Can we do this whole production in less than two weeks? Do we need to go to the shoot? Can we make a 60’ in case we can sell it? Can we reshoot a couple of scenes? Can we move the shoot date? Can we move the ship date? 

The evolution of production is constant. Every step of the way there is a new technology, platform, partner, etc that needs to be considered and adopted. To be current is a never-ending quest and it all moves at the speed of light. 

We producers want to make the thing we are working on as good as it can be and deliver on the core creative ask. For me, that is the biggest task - how do we keep the core idea protected and make the best work we can.

Matthew Forrest, EP and founder, Cloud Forest 

Production has never been more complex, and the producer's role has evolved well beyond traditional definitions. On any given day, you're expected to be a brand steward, creative partner, content strategist, technology lead, and operations executive. Sometimes before lunch. The job is less about ‘running production’ and more about bringing strategy and structure to increasingly complex creative environments. That's a fundamentally different skill set than the role required even a decade ago.

These responsibilities are interconnected because the projects themselves are multi-layered. A cross-platform media plan affects the production approach. A technology decision affects the budget. A brand guardrail shapes the story. Producers have to hold all of those variables simultaneously while protecting the creative vision and navigating compressed timelines with rising expectations.

The scope of a single project tells the story. What once meant producing a TV commercial and delivering to one outlet now means delivering hero assets, cut-downs, stills, GIFs, social clips, and multiple aspect ratios, while syncing with the media team on distribution, the marketing team on KPIs, the web team on integration and codecs, and the brand team on creative.

The producers who thrive today aren't just protecting the creative vision. They're orchestrating the entire ecosystem of people and platforms it has to live across.

Cristiana Ladki, executive producer, TBWA\Media Arts Lab

Social and AI have completely changed the game. Social content introduced an entirely new set of rules for producers, from increased deliverables to reduced budgets to compressed timelines. Add to this artificial intelligence: how to use it, when to use it, when not to use it and most importantly how to make it faster and cheaper. The result is an expectation that we can double our assets while halving our timelines - all for less money.   

This new world of producing is never dull and always challenging. Just when you think you have mastered something, the technology jumps forward, shifting the ground from under our feet. But most producers are thrill seekers and the good ones love a challenge. 

The most important qualities a modern producer can have are confidence, willingness to adapt to change, and a ‘let’s jump in’ mentality. It’s a challenge to master all the disciplines that fall under an integrated producer, but it’s not about mastering each one; it’s about knowing enough to execute and being flexible enough to pivot when needed.

Ally Duckworth, senior producer, Kettle

Production used to support the process once the idea was defined. In social, it’s embedded from the start. Today, producers are part strategist, creative partner, and operational backbone, all while moving faster than ever.

Timelines, budgets, and logistics are still part of it. But social production pushes the role into something else entirely. I sit in brainstorms asking, “How does this actually come to life?” before a team gets buried in revisions. I’m thinking through motion, copy, and on-set capture while making sure the work holds up frame by frame, protecting both the client’s brand voice and the team’s creative vision.

Social changed what it means to be a producer. Volume is relentless, turnarounds are tight, but the team behind the work isn't a machine.

The role is now judgment: not just, Can we do this?” but “Should we?” What are we willing to protect when everything feels urgent, and where’s the line between what the brand wants to say and what people want to hear?

Production today is project orchestration, creative gut check, and knowing when to pump the brakes, being embedded enough to make the work better and human enough to keep the team intact.

Kristana Fruci, executive director, production, Left Field Labs  

Production has always been demanding and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the environment we’re operating in. Rather than managing tasks, we’re now managing systems. Every project now lives inside a web of evolving technology, compressed timelines, budget pressure, and higher client expectations.

There’s a constant push to deliver more for less, often fueled by both the real capabilities and the overpromised narratives around AI. Some tasks can absolutely be automated but the core of production hasn’t shifted. We still oversee countless variables, identify risks early, and build contingency plans such as Plan A, B, and C to protect the outcome. Judgment, foresight, and orchestration remain genuinely authentic.

There’s now a new responsibility of being translators and educators. Producers are expected not only to integrate emerging tools intelligently but also to help clients understand how those tools are being leveraged. This includes equipping them with the right talking points to communicate upward about innovation, efficiencies gained, and value delivered.

Tools will change, timelines will tighten, and expectations will keep rising, but production will always come back to clear thinking, careful planning, and people making it happen.

John Swartz, global head of production, M+C Saatchi Group

Production has never been more demanding, with producers navigating tighter timelines, shifting scopes, new technologies, and rising expectations from every direction. We ask producers what the job actually asks of them today – and how their role has evolved far beyond traditional definitions.

Many industry versions ago, producers were sorted by their media of expertise: broadcast, print, radio, digital, music, events. Some of those producers still exist as masters of their respective domains, though there are fewer of them. Many more of them have evolved and become versatile, Swiss Army knives – still with strong suits, but capable of flexing in other arenas. Modern producers are keen to cross-pollinate as they’re instinctively aware that their future livelihoods depend on their ability to adapt to new environments and learn new tools. The more they have to offer, the better their chances of building a sustainable career. The role of an ‘integrated producer’ has evolved from one who could produce both the TVC and the companion website and banner ads, to one who can navigate production across any and all media. It really is a matter of being fluent in the process of production, as well as the specific needs of delivering content and media for all kinds of platforms. But even this picture I’ve just painted feels dated…

Especially now, with the adoption of gen AI, mature SaaS programmatic automation and Dynamic Creative Optimisation (not just for online, but now for DOOH and more to come), the production role is no longer just in the agency ecosystem at the end of the creative workflow. It increasingly needs to sit across the marketing campaign lifecycle, including the client and media ecosystem, to advise which is the most efficient and cost-effective way to deploy a campaign. New questions now need to be asked: should we start with gen AI or traditional or a combination of both? Or bring gen AI in post and/or just use programmatic for distribution? Can regional, localisation and personalisation be included at very little extra cost? Will DCO and the costs associated be paid by or managed by the client or agency, or media? Who actually has the skills to manage these new workflows? I believe you’ll find a lot of these questions are being answered by our best producers today.

Luca De Laurentiis, head of production, Stereo Creative

Production is one of the few roles where you’re expected to have a plan and pivot at any moment. Having worked across feature films, branded content, and experiential projects, I’ve learned no two projects are the same. Each brings its own challenges, pace, and definition of success.

Long before AI, the most valuable asset has always been the human element. Every milestone is driven by collaboration, critical thinking, and the ability to adapt to unique challenges. We were producing plays, films, and experiences long before today’s technology existed, and that problem-solving mindset still sits at the core of the work.

I might be a bit old school, but I still believe the best tool we have is working together and figuring things out in real time. For all the advances in technology, I haven’t found anything more effective than real human connection and a team aligned around a shared goal.

Doug Stivers, head of production, Cutwater 

Advertising now asks producers to be strategists, creative partners, technologists, and operators all at once. The evolution from executional lead to creative co-author is what defines the role today.

Today’s producers are expected to help shape ideas early, pressure-test them against reality, and design production models that can flex as scopes shift and channels multiply.

The best producers aren’t just delivering work anymore; they’re helping define how modern advertising gets made at all.

Debi Rubbiani, global executive producer (freelance)

Production today asks far more of producers than it did even a decade ago. Timelines are increasingly compressed, while the demand from brands and audiences to communicate can sometimes feel almost instantaneous. At the same time, budgets have become significantly tighter, forcing producers to rethink how to achieve ambitious creative ideas with fewer resources. 

Ten years ago, much of our work focused on large television campaigns with longer timelines and clearly defined deliverables. But today, the landscape is far more fragmented. Campaigns extend across digital platforms, out-of-home, social media, mobile screens and user-generated content, often all at once. The scale of production hasn’t necessarily diminished, but the complexity has grown enormously.

Another major shift is how global production has evolved. A decade ago, collaborating remotely with teams across different countries on a daily basis was far less common. Today, producers regularly work with agencies, clients and suppliers across multiple markets, building international teams and coordinating projects across time zones. At the same time, new technologies such as AI are beginning to reshape parts of the production workflow, requiring producers to stay adaptable while still protecting the creative integrity of the work. Overall, we know that the demands of consumers will always change, and producers are well-equipped to adapt and evolve with that change, as is the nature of production.

Simon Dolsten, founder and AI Director, Dolsten & Co.

The biggest misconception about AI production is that the technology does the heavy lifting. It doesn't. It just moved where the work lives.

In traditional production, pre-production was logistics, decks, schedules, casting, location scouts. The creative happened on set or in the edit. Today, pre-production is the creative. Every prompt is a directorial decision. Every reference image is an art direction choice. The visual logic of the entire spot gets built before a single frame is generated.

What that means for producers is that the role is less about managing vendors and more about managing creative systems. You need to understand how a model interprets language, how to art direct outputs, how to build a coherent visual world across dozens of generations. That's not a technical skill. It's a creative one.

And none of that made the job easier. Timelines got shorter. Client expectations stayed high. The margin for error didn't change just because the tools did. Producers today are doing more creative work earlier, with less time, while still delivering everything that was always expected on the back end.

Jill Rothman, head of production, VIRTUE Worldwide

No two days are the same, and no two projects are the same. Creative has changed, and production has needed to evolve ahead of it.

We’re consistently producing ideas that have never been done before. We’re making and distributing iconic merch. We’re making games, shoppable music videos, a genderless voice, and repurposing technology to preserve landmarks in Ukraine. We’re also producing Super Bowl spots.

Amid all this change and innovation, clients still want traditional deliverables - multiplied by all the platform formats – along with precise timelines, multiple reviews and transparency. The budgets for more innovative work can be tight, so producers often take on these workstreams directly, bypassing traditional vendors to maximise the available dollars.

I find it’s more important than ever to manage expectations and be communicative. Work is no longer linear. The more fluid the execution, the more fluid we all need to be. When we do work that’s never been done before, there is no precedent for best practice; we are setting the benchmark. It’s exciting. We just have to learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.

David Castellanos, creative lead, Erich & Kallman Austin

These days, a great producer lives in contradiction. They are flexible, yet firm. Supportive, yet unafraid to push back. They are expected to have answers, even when they don’t have them yet. They carry pressure, uncertainty, and constant change, often without ever showing the weight of it, often with a smile on their face.

That is the real ask today. Not just to do more with less, but to hold opposing forces at once and still move the work forward.

Because the demands have evolved. Tighter timelines, smaller budgets, leaner teams. Producers are asked to stretch every resource, to find possibility where there seems to be none, and to deliver work that still feels ambitious, crafted, and culturally relevant today.

At the same time, they must stay ahead, navigating new technologies, workflows, and processes that can unlock better ways to bring ideas to life. They are no longer just facilitators of production, but active contributors to the creative process. In many ways, producers are creators themselves now, shaping the work through how it’s made.

Producers are the ones who ask “how?”, when everyone else is still dreaming. They translate vision into reality. And in doing so today, they don’t just make the work happen, they make it better.

Tom Dunlap, founding partner and chief content officer, SuperBloom House

Production is where the message and the medium intersect. And increasingly, that intersection happens before the creative process even begins.

For decades, production existed only to execute ideas. Today it helps determine whether those ideas can exist at all.  

The first question isn’t “What’s the idea?” It’s where the work will live and who should make it.

Those used to be production questions that came later. Now they’re the decisions that shape the idea itself.

The challenge is that the current production systems agencies and brands rely on were designed for a much slower, more predictable media landscape. A handful of formats. A small circle of directors. A clear beginning, middle, and end.

That model simply can’t keep pace with the complexity of modern culture.

The most interesting work today comes from new kinds of creative talent: creators who move fluidly across mediums, filmmakers who build their own audiences, and designers and technologists who know how to wield AI as a creative tool. Many of them didn’t come up through advertising, and that’s precisely the point.

Which means the role of the producer has fundamentally changed.

Producers are no longer just responsible for making the work, they’re responsible for activating the people and systems capable of making entirely new kinds of work possible. 

Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash