Creative Operations

The Evolution of Comedy Central’s Creative Content Hub

February 22, 2016 by Author

This is a tale of two departments that tore Comedy Central’s digital creative content hub in half.

I jest! We’re comedy natives — no drama for us!

A core goal of CC Share (the name of Comedy Central’s Content Hub), was that it should serve the needs of two separate business units that each needed a way to manage multimedia content. We started out thinking we could solve everything with a unified code base. But when that strategy hit a wall, we pivoted to a multi-tenant platform that gave us more flexibility to create a focused and unique interface for each group.

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Dragon Wranglers of Creative Ops

January 21, 2016 by Author

The New York City MTA recently rolled out an innovative awareness campaign involving thousands of subway posters to enlighten straphangers on how to comport themselves when riding public transportation. Oh, it’s also posted in five languages, just to make sure the message gets through.

Courtesy counts. Don’t hog the pole. Don’t eat here. Don’t primp or clip your nails. Do give your seat to the elderly. No manspreading. Cover your mouth when you sneeze. That sort of thing.

The campaign is bright and succinct, but what I like most about it is the shining headline: “Be Someone Who Makes it a Better Ride For Everyone.”

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The Problem With Task Management for Creatives

December 8, 2015 by Author

Within the last year Comedy Central augmented its digital workspace with two new third-party systems, one for task management system and a sister system for project management. This filled a real need; our workflow tool already let users leave notes and comments about the media, and it retained the chain of conversation around a project or asset. But it just wasn’t enough.

So here we go again — creating two more silos of information and communication. Clearly, this went against my conviction that an integration solution should be our first resort. But, a void was filled… however poorly.

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Creative Ops: The Sweet Spot for a Digital Hub

December 2, 2015 by Author

When it comes to workflow solutions, my presentations at Henry Stewart have espoused a decidedly contrarian point of view, based on my experience and a sound business case at Comedy Central.

Our creative review and approval system is built in house using Ruby on Rails, hosted by Amazon Web Services. We chose not to outsource the creativity that is so vital to our process.

Comedy Central’s content marketing arm currently produces 3,000 to 4,000 graphics a month, across all media types. A 30-second spot could easily go through 20 revisions before it’s fit to release. The same holds true for everything else. And there’s a lot of conversation that surrounds this work. We needed a way to manage all this stuff that enhanced and supported our existing team structures and processes.

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Creative Ops: Digital Workspaces Can Get the Last 20%

December 2, 2015 by Author

It’s a big confusing world out there, with solutions offered for every possible workflow challenge. That’s why conferences like Henry Stewart that I recently attended are so important.

Operations professionals go to find answers and to learn from case studies like mine from Comedy Central to see how other enterprises are dealing with workflow issues. (Read my other blog post about how I helped Comedy Central find its Sweet Spot.)

Attendees are trying to understand the problem space, trying to find the right answers, and hoping to meet very smart and dedicated solution providers and vendors.

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