In an industry evolving at extraordinary pace, sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is share perspectives, challenge assumptions and learn from one another.
Last Friday, I was invited to TYX Studios in London for Elephant in the Boardroom, brilliantly organised by the team at SUPO.
The event brought together an inspiring group of agency founders, CEOs, creative leaders and operations specialists from across the creative, digital, social, design and production sectors.
Different businesses, different perspectives, but many shared challenges: evolving client expectations, the impact of AI, budget pressures, profitability, evolving talent pools, and perhaps most importantly, how agencies need to evolve to remain relevant and competitive.
Three overarching themes shaped the day:
- What clients really want now
- Building the agency of the future
- Where growth comes from
Where the Work Gets Made: Rethinking Creative Production
One of the highlights was recording an Elephant in the Boardroom podcast. As a Founding Partner and Director of We Are Amnet I had a opportunity to discuss the evolving creative production landscape alongside Jamie Leibowitz, VP of Global Operations at Prose on Pixels (Havas), hosted by the excellent Steph Brocken FRSA.
Coming from two different production operating models, we explored some of the fundamental questions facing our industry: Where is creative production heading? How do we balance quality, speed and cost? And what does the future of global production look like?
For me, several themes stood out.
1. Smartshoring: It’s About Value, Not Simply Cost
At We Are Amnet, we’ve long believed that the conversation needs to move beyond traditional offshore production, and move to a more progressive model.
Smartshoring is about bringing together the right talent, technology, processes and geographic locations to deliver a more intelligent, flexible and scalable production model.
With studios in India and Costa Rica, supported by client service teams closer to our clients, we’ve built a model designed to combine global production capabilities with local market understanding and accountability.
Critically, the objective is delivering greater value, passing efficiencies back to clients and enabling their in-house teams to focus on higher-value creative and strategic activities.
2. Certainty Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Brands are facing an increasingly complex production landscape. Content requirements continue to grow, channels are multiplying, budgets remain under pressure and technology is evolving at an extraordinary pace.
Against this backdrop, clients need more than production capacity. They need certainty.
Certainty around quality, delivery, responsiveness, scalability and commercial outcomes.
For We Are Amnet, this has become central to our proposition. It’s about moving beyond transactional supplier relationships towards long-term partnerships, supported by operational consistency, embedded brand knowledge and mutual trust.
3. The Future Is a More Progressive Operating Model
The traditional boundaries between creative, production, technology and operations are becoming increasingly blurred.
AI and automation are creating opportunities to rethink workflows, improve efficiency and free up talent to focus on work that requires greater creativity, judgement and expertise.
But technology alone isn’t the answer.
The real opportunity lies in combining human expertise, AI-enabled processes and more agile production structures to create operating models that continuously evolve with client needs.
Different Perspectives, Shared Challenges
What made the day particularly valuable was the opportunity to exchange ideas with leaders operating across very different agency models, from independent specialists to global networks.
While our approaches may differ, many of the challenges are remarkably similar.
How do we deliver greater value to clients? How do we protect profitability while continuing to invest in people and technology? And how do we build businesses that are fit for the future, rather than simply optimised for today?
There are no simple answers, but conversations like these are an important part of finding them.
A huge thank you to SUPO for bringing everyone together and expertly guiding the discussion.
Looking forward to the podcast being released and continuing the conversation.
Anil Noorani
Managing Partner, TKM Consultants & Director, We Are Amnet