🔍 Ultimate Guide To Managing A Creative Team

Once a month, I’m going to send a “Sunday Study.”

A deep dive case study on one topic, sharing all the ins and outs.

This month, it’s about co-founding a creative agency called Rare Air.

You’ll learn:

• Our tech stack
• How we do pre-production
• Where most creative teams fail
• How we maximize our content distribution
• How we increase margins

If you have an internal creative team or work at an agency, this one is for you.

In this Sunday Study Edition, I’m pulling back the curtain. And you’re walking into our creative dungeon and getting a first-hand look at how we manage our creative team and how we integrate a growth mindset into every piece of content we create.

Now, for a little bit of context.

Six months ago, we started a creative agency called Rare Air. A creative agency that hones in on high-production quality content at scale with strategic distribution.

So, think of a production company working on a beautiful campaign or series with a social arm that can create 25 pieces of content from that video.

And that’s not luck. It all comes down to pre-production, but we’ll get to that later.

The goal is to build a creative agency powerhouse, BUT a powerhouse of any company is only as good as its systems and processes.

So, when starting, we went on the hunt to find the right tools to build out the systems and processes that could help us scale into an 8-figure agency.

With that, we needed a tool that had both a robust project management system and integrated accounting.

And so we found our secret sauce…Workamajig.

Many times creative teams and growth teams, and/or marketing teams operate in silos.

The marketing team needs a piece of creative - the creative team executes and delivers the piece of content.

And if you’re an agency, the same happens with a client. A client requests a piece of creative, and the agency then delivers it.

So, here’s what’s missing:

Content at scale.

Content is the modern-day currency.

And the more content you create, the more attention you earn.

This is why I believe creative teams fail because they don’t work intertwined with the marketing team.

Because then, the creative team not only creates one piece of content but they understand how to remix content to integrate it into the marketing team's distribution strategy.

One of the best ways to do this is with Workamajig’s Project Intake Form.

Example:

So, here’s what we do at Rare Air:

• We work with a marketing/growth team to fill out the project intake form
• We determine the deliverables based on the distribution strategy
• Every deliverable is assigned a timeline and an owner
• We execute based on the timeline

So, now through Workamajig every action is tracked.

Example:

This allows our project management team to know what’s needed when it’s needed, and when it’s ready or missing.

Again, what makes or breaks this is the amount of time that goes into your pre-production.

So, the first part is making templates in Workamajig based on the deliverable and its distribution strategy.

The majority of pre-production development focuses on things like storyboarding, inspiration, floorplans, shot lists, crew, and gear, etc.

Modern-day pre-production development NEEDS to include distribution development.

This aims to increase the mileage of how far a piece of content travels.

So, here’s how we do it:

Four months ago, we had a Youtube Video we were putting together for the Kollective with Ja Morant.

Based on the deliverables and strategy, we created a template in Workamajig that integrated the distribution strategy into the pre-production.

So, instead of working with the Youtube video in mind, we worked with the distribution at the center and reverse-engineered how to make this piece of content as successful as possible.

It looked like this:

• Youtube Video (8-12 Min)
• Teaser Clip (2 Weeks before)
• Trailer (1 Week Before)
• Promo Clip (Day before) → IG Story + CTA
• Promo Clip → (Day of)+ IG Story & CTA
• Social Clip For Talent → Day Of
• Video Clip (20-35 sec) → 3 Days Later
• Story Content (3 Pieces x 15 sec each) That Ja Morant Will Share
• Second Youtube Video Remixed From OG Video

Now to templatize this in Workamajig, you can label the deliverables like this:

• One Youtube Video
• 5 Social (In Feed Posts)
  • Teaser
  • Trailer
  • Promo Clip
  • Social Clips
  • From Video Clips
• Story Series
  • Trailer
  • Social Stories (x3)
  • Photos
• Remixed Youtube Video

From the jump, you assign each deliverable to a different team member.

And these deliverables will be visible in the timeline we created before and also in the in-feed task manager.

Where pre-production lays the roadmap, production day is where success is executed.

Because we laid the foundation in our pre-production development, our team knows who’s focused on what, why, and how to make this as successful as possible.

Back to the Ja Morant example.

During our production day, we had one of our team members take notes during the interview portion because his sole job was to execute the social distribution strategy.

So, he used the interviews to form the micro-stories we’d later use to promote the video.

Again, the key here is assigning deliverables to team members before production.

Post-production is where we turn a strategy into results.

Which needs very specific systems, processes, operations, and timelines to determine a successful detailed action plan.

So, in Workamajig, that looks like:

• Updating our project status
• Adding assignments to every project
• Tracking every task/assignment based on the owner

Then set automated reminders internally for each task owner based on the timeline.

And finally, delivering every piece of content on time.

• Creative teams fail without detailed plans of action
• Use Workamajig’s intake form to set the foundation
• Develop your pre-production with distribution in mind
• Reverse engineer your distribution to execute a successful production day
• Assign owners to each task/deliverable
• Set automation (reminders) for each task
• Track within your Workamajig dashboard

I reached out to Workamajig and worked out a partnership where they’ll onboard the first 50 Marketing Examined readers and help you set up all the internal processes and systems that’ll help your creative team execute at the highest level.

SO, yes, if you’re a Marketing Examined reader, then you’ll get personalized onboarding and support.

You can join them here.

Plus, Workamajig is built for both agencies and internal creative teams by offering:

1. Accurate accounting
2. Client and project reporting
3. Revenue forecasting
4. Sales CRM
5. Dashboards for every team member
6. Campaign budgeting, resourcing, reporting, and management
7. Project templates
8. Time tracking
9. Automations
10. And a ton more

Honestly, it’s why it’s my tool within our tech stack.

You can sign up for a personalized demo here.

Have any questions about building a creative team? 

Shoot me a message. Have a great Sunday!

- Alex