Becky Ooi

So what is it like to be a producer?

Being a producer in (specializing mainly, but not limited to) print advertising for the past decade and counting has been an amazing roller coaster journey from tropical Kuala Lumpur to sunny Dubai with experiences in production from both, production houses and advertising agency.

Despite being constantly stereotyped that a producer’s job may not be as significant as some other roles, we all know that's not true. I believe being a producer, like any other role in advertising, requires a concoction of various skills. The producer acts as a mediator between the creative and the suppliers and needs to nurture and build the relationship not just internally but with third parties – clients, production houses, and as well as other suppliers. There's no such thing as just sitting at your desk waiting for briefs to be thrown at you and then wham bam! a campaign gets done.

Being a producer requires you to understand and analyze the brief before glorifying the idea and source for the right creative people to work on it despite the possibility of being under immense pressure, (mostly) excruciatingly small budgets and not to mention (never-ending) ridiculous tight deadlines.

Being a producer also requires one to brush up on multitasking skills, to juggle a whole lot of tasks all at once from pre production, during production and post production and as well as being incredible at time management, be a dedicated team player, be sharp at handling budgets, be meticulous about details, be amazing at thinking of out of the box solutions and as well being great at negotiating and managing people.

What I like most about being a producer? The ability to produce what was initially just planned on paper and turning it into a reality, making sure it happens and it happens beautifully despite all impossibilities thrown at you. The dedication and effort put in a campaign and then seeing it out there - that's priceless and self-satisfying!