CreativeOps Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Creative Ops Podcast, host Nish welcomes back Amy Tesch Strickland to discuss the new advanced creative operations silver certificate program offered through Rutgers University. The program, developed in collaboration with Clair Carter-Ginn and Corey Dill, promises a comprehensive 12-week curriculum divided into three modules focusing on foundational concepts, organizational maturity, and change management. With a structured learning approach, including video lectures, readings, assignments, and optional office hours, the program aims to professionalize and elevate the field of creative operations. Amy emphasizes the program's value in networking and advancing the strategic capabilities of creative ops professionals.

Timeline:
[00:40] Overview of the Advanced Creative Operations Program

[01:18] Program Structure and Modules

[03:48] Cost and Certification Details

[04:29] Importance of Certification in Creative Operations

[13:42] Target Audience and Application Process

[21:59] Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Episode Summary:
In this episode, Nish returns from his summer break to reflect on his travels and introduce the upcoming second season of the Creative Ops podcast. He discusses the concept of creative operations as a living system, shares updates on the podcast community, and explores ideas about the future of creative work in relation to AI, data, and content orchestration.

Timeline:
[00:01] - Back from Summer Break & Already Missing Europe
[02:22] - System differences between Europe and North America and Creative Operations as a Living System
[07:04] - Introduction of the Creative Ops FM community and text-based updates.
[11:46] -  Season 2 Preview (topics, themes and guests)
[16:29] - Creative Operations & the AI Meteor  ...... Evolve or Extinct
[23:15] - Creative is a Conversation w the Audience .... Data Enables the Conversation
[27:34] - Is Creative Operations 2.0 Content Orchestration and is Neo Creative 2.0

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• Join the CreativeOpsFM Community: TEXT 1.917.810.3425 
• Creative Brief Teardown: Schedule a Time to Review & Revamp Your Creative Brief 

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Episode Highlights

Jeremy's Definition of Creative Ops (2:00)

• Mix of people, process and technology to bring brand stories to life
• "Breathing oxygen" into historically fractured creative processes

The evolving relationship between scale and storytelling (12:00)

• Overcoming the tension between creativity and operational efficiency
• Using AI to break free from templatized approaches to scaling creative
• Creating capacity for more blank slate "storytelling" briefs

Fostering empathy across marketing and creative teams (22:30)

• The importance of human communication and ceremonies around briefs
• Infusing creative ops with data and insights to align on objectives
• Jeremy's vision for cross-functional "pod" team models

How AI can augment creative roles and workflows (41:00)

• Outsourcing rote "thunking" tasks to AI to focus on higher value work
• Using AI as a "data scientist in a box" thinking partner
• Training AI to understand brand governance as creative scales

Blending roles, blurring organizational boundaries (53:00)

• Bringing creatives closer to the "point of distribution" and performance data
• Will functions like marketing ops and creative ops converge?
• Getting comfortable with iterating as the future is still highly uncertain

Paying attention now to stay ahead of the curve (1:08:00)

• Why every team should operate like an "AI R&D lab"
• Overcoming the paralysis of perfection and the "blank screen" intimidation
• Practical first AI experiments for creative ops leaders and their teams

Who should creative ops hear from next? (1:12:30)

• Jeremy wants to hear from marketing and creative leaders on what makes a great creative ops partner
• Understanding our strengths/weaknesses from those partnering perspectives

Questions or a different point of view than what you heard today? Drop me a line nish@creativeops.fm

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Explore the dynamic world of creative operations in this insightful episode. We delve into strategies for scaling creativity, connecting the dots in storytelling, and analyzing that famous Altman quote. With engaging discussions about navigating the altitudes of creative processes, this podcast equips listeners with actionable insights and inspiration and proposes a framework for bringing more clarity to creative ops career progression. Perfect for innovators, creators, and storytellers aiming to elevate their craft.

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In this episode, Nish explores the topic of where creative operations should be located on the org chart. He discusses the response to a previous episode on the subject and shares the results of a survey he conducted. Nish also highlights the feedback he received from the community and the conversations he had with marketing operations professionals. Nish concludes by explaining why he wants to continue exploring this topic and proposes the idea of creating a 'Creative Ops Org Chart Locator Decision Tree' BUT only if he hears from the community that they want it. 

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Joining us is Amy Tesch Strickland of Cella, a prominent figure in the creative operations community with extensive experience on both the brand and consulting sides, known for her expertise in guiding creative and marketing operations teams.

You’ll hear about the strategic positioning of creative operations within an organization, the natural (and untapped?) potential of closer alignment between creative and marketing operations, and how this may be a key factor in  creative ops maturing from a tactical to a strategic function.

Takeaways

• Location of Creative Ops: It highlights the importance of location to how well Creative Operations can be aligned with the go to market engine and better support creative
• Natural Chemistry with Marketing Operations: The discussion points out how both of these roles have much in common (systems thinking, leveraging data, etc.) and their respective roles and work are critical puzzle pieces in the organization's go to market engine
• Career Growth and Positioning: The conversation touches on the importance of positioning for career advancement within the creative operations field. It underscores how professionals can leverage their strategic and operational expertise to ascend to leadership roles, thereby shaping the future direction of creative operations in their organizations.

Questions or a different point of view than what you heard today? Drop me a line nish@creativeops.fm

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In this episode, I list various ways creative operations leaders can leverage AI to enhance their work. Using the T3 (Thunking, Thinking & Transforming with) AI framework I walk through some easy and accessible ways to leverage AI. To free up time by outsourcing your boring, rote work to it. And re-investing that time to use AI as a thinking partner and become. the 10x leader you can be. And continue your transition to being a strategic creative operations leader. 

AI Idea Categories

00:00  Introduction

05:54  AI Meeting Notes & Institutional Memory 

12:19   AI Pictures Say a Thousand Words

17:44  AI as a Thinking Partner

23:35 AI as a Data Analyst

30:11  AI for Fun

34:26 Conclusion

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This is request to you - the Creative Ops Professional - to take a moment to participate in two important surveys focused on creative operations. Links below!

As we navigate the evolving landscape of our profession, understanding where we stand today is crucial. These surveys are more than just questionnaires; they are tools that will help us benchmark our current state and envision the future of creative operations.

Your participation is vital. By contributing, you're helping to build a rich dataset that will generate valuable knowledge for all of us. As a community, profession and individual leaders. 

This is your chance to influence how creative operations is understood and valued. The results from these surveys can help guide your conversations with peers and management teams, enabling you to advocate more effectively for your role, your team, your profession. 

Your voice matters. I look forward to seeing  the results of each survey and discussing them in future  episodes. And together, continuing to advance what Creative Ops is today and what it can be tomorrow! 

• Cella Survey: closes February 16th (this Thursday) 
• Aquent Survey: closes March 1

Mark Brady, Head of Creative Solutions at HubSpot, discusses the value of self-service automation to increase content and go to market velocity and at the same time free up creatives. Said differently: Deliver More, Deliver Faster, Deliver Cost Effectively. He explains how HubSpot has implemented self-service automation through tools like Canva, web modules, and email templates, allowing marketers to create on-brand experiences. Allowing the creative team to focus on "big think" work. He also discusses the use of data to inform decision-making and measure success in self-service automation. Lastly, Mark explores how Hubspot's self-service automation journey is informing a smarter approach to how they are rolling out and getting value from the emerging crop of AI tools. 

Takeaways

• Self-service Automation is "Accessible": any creative ops leader and team can begin without needing knowledge of how to code. V1 of your self-service footprint can be entirely driven by configuration. Achieve and show value and gain right to invest into more sophisticated self-service capabilities. 
• Creative Ops Self-Service as Go To Market Enablement: self service allows marketers to move from idea to implementation at a much faster rate. At Hubspot that has translated into more experiments, campaigns and ideas seeing the light of day and at a much faster rate. Which is reflected in their meteoric growth. 
• Creative Ops Self-Service as Org Chart Content Engine: not just for marketing, but for all parts of the organization (sales, customer. support, etc.) that have a growing need and appetite for content, at speed. 
• Creative Ops Self-Service as Freeing Creatives: self-service reduces the persistent "rote work" capacity bottlenecks. Allowing creatives to focus on more "big think" work. 
• Creative Data Intelligence: leverage data to understand what to automate (i.e. what are common requests & needs, what have we had to say No to, etc.). Data also provides insights on other opportunities to enhance the self-service automation experience to allow marketers to accelerate go to market velocity with engaging and effective content. 

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In this kickoff episode of our AI Creative/Operations Wave Series, we are joined by Juliana Vail from Dreem.Ai

This conversation starts us on our journey of surfing the gentle and not-so-gentle waves of the AI Tsunami. Juliana applies her expertise from 18 years of leveraging each successive wave of new technology to unlock new possibilities and value in creative workflows. With the active participation of the audience for this live recording we tackle a number of topics. This is the first in a series of ongoing discussions where Juliana and Nish along with the audience will share and explore what is happening, working and not working as we all deal with the enormous challenges and opportunities of "AI is Going to Change Everything."

Takeaways

• How AI is reshaping creative workflows and processes in organizations: AI is enhancing efficiency and innovation in creative workflows, enabling teams to leverage automated tools for tasks like ideation and content generation, thus shifting the focus to more strategic and creative aspects.
• Keys to successful AI adoption: Successful AI adoption hinges on a blend of experimentation and hands-on learning, where organizations progressively integrate AI into their processes and learn from real-world applications and outcomes.
• Aligning AI implementation with organizational goals: It's crucial for organizations to clearly define their objectives and ensure that AI implementations are strategically aligned with these goals to maximize effectiveness and ROI.
• How roles in the creative industry are evolving, with a focus on how they may start to blend or merge: In the AI-empowered creative industry, traditional roles are evolving to become more interdisciplinary, with a growing need for professionals to possess a mix of creative and technical skills, leading to the blending or merging of roles.

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