Agency Visit- Steelhead

Last week we had the privilege of touring around Steelhead Production Agency by none other than Eric Kaufman, one of the Directors at the agency. This visit was particularly interesting for me, because I’d never had the opportunity to visit a production facility before. It was my first time really getting to see how the sausage is made, and the kind of dedication and man hours it takes to go into million dollar commercial productions.

We kicked off the visit with a tour of the space, which includes a speakeasy bar behind a photo of Josh Duhamel. In addition to those spaces, we got to see their production facilities and the rest of their office building.

After our tour of the building, we got to talk with Eric about the various projects he's worked on throughout his time at Steelhead. Through Eric's career experiences we were able to learn a lot about how to make amazing ads.

The first insight we learned was that we should always think outside of the box (or bun if you’re their client, Taco Bell). In one of the spots that Eric directed for Taco Bell, they took the classic Christmas proposal ad and turned it on its head. It's always worth the extra step to take a current convention and make it more interesting

After we got to talk to Eric for a bit, a few of the members of Deutch's Volkswagen team came over to talk to us about their 2018 Super Bowl Campaign. They mentioned that VW had only asked for a TV spot as a campaign, but Deutch was able to offer them an amazing full house of social content as well. The lesson learned from their team is that, no matter your assignment, you can always do more. It's better to shoot for more and make it so good that your client couldn’t possibly say no, than to just give them the bare minimum.

Lastly, after getting to talk to all of the employees at Steelhead and Deutsch, Insight #3 became apparent: there is no one path to a career in marketing. Everyone from film, to not having any prior education can still work at a career in marketing as long as you learn the tools you need to succeed.