Just the facts

It’s time to sharpen the focus on Canada’s commercial production industry, and work out a new tacit agreement on how we can tell your stories without telling old news.

An industry which contributes resoundingly to the Canadian economy, the commercial sector has never been easy to report on, or analyze in any depth, because of the myriad sensitivities its practitioners face in promoting their accomplishments. They have to consider the political realities not only of their immediate clients (powerful advertising agencies) but also of their clients’ clients (marketers, often a difficult lot to keep happy). On the other hand, they need to be sure they keep the flow of storyboards coming in over the transom, and one way to help is, naturally, to generate ink and to be sure the correct production people receive credit where due. (Unfortunately, some people define ‘correct credits’ fairly loosely, but that’s another topic entirely.)

Trouble is, the most interesting and controversial projects, those in highly competitive, high-end budget categories, are also the most sensitive. Clients don’t like it if word goes out too soon about their heavily sweated marketing strategies and they ask that ad agencies and their production partners enforce oaths of silence, sometimes until well after post is completed on a spot. All of which makes the ‘news’ on spots, crews, directors and such much less attractive.

Combine those realities with two others: one, the dearth of independently verified ‘facts’ on a virtually unregulated sector full of privately held companies; and two, the public image facades which production companies feel obliged to construct in the name of pleasing existing clients. The former is frustrating enough. As for the latter, we do understand image marketing. But it all adds up to an increasingly muddy and muddled environment; there appear, some days, to be no truths, only rumors, innuendo, allegations and ‘news’ so old it’s sporting unfashionably yellow edges. The cycle is exasperating and discouraging.

Sure, we want to cover news and issues in the hot commercial prod-zone. Sure we want to chart the course of trends by discussing moves by market leaders and up-and-comers alike. Sure we want to suss out the b.s. and raise the bar on credibility within the sector. It’s not as if we don’t recognize the sector’s economic impact, the talent needed to thrive or even survive in the overheated environment called advertising, or even the vulnerability of the Canadian industry in an age when media buying budgets are under increasing pressure.

But if we’re to cut to the chase on our coverage, we need a new deal with the production companies who want us to deliver that ramped-up prose, that ‘in-depth’ commentary. We need for everyone to agree to keep the faith, to supply certain facts in an even-handed manner. And we need you to take the time to give us the candid commentary we need in order to produce more meaningful stories. We can’t have one without the other.

Time to set the records straight. We will be calling to invite you to help us do so, and we hope our invitation ends in a date, a whole new data.