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LITTLE BOOK of
Project Management
T he Creative Services Team has looked at the value of
Project Management across the industry from large corporate
agencies to smaller hot shops.
The aim is to hopefully give you some food for thought and
encourage further investment and support for this increasingly
important and challenging role. Before we start, here’s what
other people think.
Marc Nohr – Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Petyan – Executive Partner, JWT London.
Kitcatt Nohr Digitas.
Project Management is central to our creative product.
Previously, our Account Management team performed much From resource and time management to budgeting, production
of the role of a Project Manager and were often inward facing. and integrated creative in a multichannel environment, never
Now our Client Service teams have the support of Project has the role been more important in the delivery of outstanding
Management teams, they spend more time representing the creative solutions.
agency and developing client relationships, which is far better for
business.
Ian Pearman – Chief Executive Officer,
Our Project Managers manage a project from brief to final Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.
delivery. They scope, traffic and produce. They are production
specialists with all the other skills required to eliminate scope Project Management is the air traffic control of any agency, ensuring
creep, interdepartmental issues, poor quality work, late delivery the prompt departure and safe landing of all projects. They are
and, in doing all these things, loss of profit. our process guardians and are our link from account teams to all
internal departments.
In my experience, business without Project Managers is less
focused and less efficient.
Giles Hedger – Managing Director and Paul Brazier – Executive Creative Director,
Chief Strategy Officer, Leo Burnett. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.
Agencies are only as good as their product and the factory As ECD I work very closely with Project Management.
of advertising is today more complex than ever before, The head of Project Management and I work tightly as
with more deliverables, more stages per deliverable, and a team. Over the years we’ve developed a trust, respect and
more people per stage per deliverable. instinct for what we both need.
Tracking and guiding creative work through development and I rely on Project Management to help me manage workflow
bringing diverse and interrelated strands of production together timings and process. Making everything tick. It’s also
on time, on budget and on brief, is part of the invisible art of important to get casting just right. Get the right brief into
a successful and profitable creative agency. For some time now, the right hands and I am halfway to the solution.
Project Management has been identified as a distinct role
inside an agency, and it is high time that the broader community I also ask Project Management to work closely with Planning
embraced this as one of the skills pillars of the industry. and Account Management to help plan ahead and ensure
the fluidity of information, creative development and output.
Basically the left hand needs to know exactly what the right
hand is doing.
It’s a big ask. But somehow they do it.

P roject Management can mean many things to different people
and can vary depending upon your agency, your structure,
processes and your clients’ needs. But that’s no bad thing, providing
S hould you be billing Project Management time in a different
way? That is of course your call. Some clients haven’t been
educated about the value of Project Management and it can be
it has a positive perception and the agency itself understands and hard to restructure it into how you charge and negotiate
respects the importance of the role. It would be a mistake to try the money side of things.
and force Project Management into one succinct industry-wide job
spec, as the skills and requirements are so broad and naturally vary. Traditionally, the Project Management role is thought of as having
nothing to do with an agency’s clients and therefore not
Where there is a consistency across the industry is in its something that could be charged for. But as the industry evolves,
proactivity – it is a department that plans and facilitates each part Project Management is fast becoming a role that is and should
of an agency’s process, looping in the relevant departments and be recognised by clients. At the very least, clients should
skills required along the way to achieve pre-determined goals. understand the need of effective resource management ensuring
In short, Project Managers become the guardians of how an agency correct casting over availability.
works, linking process and delivery to the agency’s profitability.
A creatively driven Project Manager will have an insight into the
What is also clear is that Project Management should be an strengths of the Creative Teams and be in a position to work with
independent department working with, not for, other agency their Creative Services Director (or whoever is responsible in
departments… the aim being that you have an agency best Creative Services for allocation of briefs) to suggest the right team
practice instead of a hard dictatorial process that no one has for the right job. Getting the team right the first time avoids
ownership of. delays and the need to brief the job out again, saving time,
resources and positively influencing profitability.
A nd lastly, we’d love you to take something positive away
from this book and think about how you should invest in
the best possible Project Management department that suits you
As the Project Management discipline evolves, it should definitely
be considered an interesting and alternative career option to
Account Management and Planning and some agencies have had
and your clients. great success with new Project Managers coming through as part
of the same traditional graduate intake.
As our industry evolves, so too must the structure of our agencies
and the skill sets of those who work in them. At the moment, Thank you for your time.
Project Management training might be less formalised than for
other disciplines, but this is an issue that the IPA is going to
address and which will naturally improve as Project Management
becomes a more established, recognised function in agency life.
We are grateful to the IPA Creative Services Group and in
particular the following people for helping with the compilation
At the moment, a great place to start is with your existing
of this book:
Creative Services teams – they already have many of the skills
needed, and investing in developing their skills is a more cost-
Tim Bath, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
efficient way of building up your Project Management department
Ruth Bradley, RKCR/Y&R
than recruiting from scratch.
Chalice Croke, Fantastic Thinking, part of The Engine Group
Philippa Dunning, 23red
Think laterally when hiring and investing in training for Project
Steve Freedman, Leo Burnett
Management teams. A Project Manager who truly adds value
Stuart Heyburn, JWT
to projects will do so through their appreciation of creativity
Angel Lewis, Albion
as much as through delivering the project smoothly.
Natalie Winford, DLKW Lowe
Visit www.ipa.co.uk/Cpd to read about the
newly created IPA Project Management course.
Contact details
IPA
44 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8QS
Telephone July 2012

0207 235 7020 Printed by Clicks Digital Solutions,
www.ipa.co.uk tel: 020 7278 2300 or email: [email protected]

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LITTLE BOOK of

It’s a big ask. But somehow they do it.

Telephone July 2012

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