304. Scott Edwards. The Art of Creative Management.
Scott Edwards
February 29, 2024
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In the realm of entertainment marketing, creativity serves as the backbone of success, yet managing creative teams to produce inventive work within business objectives, budgets, and deadlines demands a delicate balance of freedom and structure. Scott Edwards, EVP at Fox Entertainment and head of creative advertising, provides valuable insights into effectively managing creative processes, fostering innovation, and maintaining team cohesion to deliver impactful campaigns aligned with business goals. Effective creative management entails navigating the complexities of entertainment marketing by fostering a culture of trust, empowerment, and innovation, allowing teams to deliver campaigns that captivate audiences and drive business success.
Key Items Discussed:
Balancing Creativity and Purpose: Aligning creative endeavors with the overarching marketing objectives is important. While encouraging freedom and exploration among creative teams, the primary focus remains on effectiveness in conveying the marketing message. Creativity should serve the purpose of driving audience engagement and interest in the content being promoted.
Fostering Innovation: To foster innovation, it is useful to draw inspiration from external sources and have dialogue around effective marketing strategies employed across various entertainment mediums. By creating a culture of sharing and learning from external work, teams are motivated to explore unconventional approaches and leverage their unique perspectives.
Empowering Creativity: It is important to create a safe space for creative experimentation. Team members should be encouraged to take risks and explore unconventional ideas without fear of failure. Empowering individuals to leverage their unique perspectives and providing constructive feedback fosters a culture of creativity and collaboration.
Collaboration with External Vendors: When working with outside vendors it is important to foster a culture of trust and clear communication. If seamless collaboration is achieved, then the result will be the delivery of high-quality work that aligns with the organization's vision and objectives.
Managing Expectations: It is important to manage expectations and effectively communicating creative concepts to stakeholders, this ensures alignment with the overall vision and objectives of the project. Effective communication and collaboration facilitate the successful execution of creative concepts while maintaining stakeholder satisfaction.
Scott Edwards, Executive Vice President, Head of Creative Advertising
Entertainment marketing is an incredibly exciting and challenging field. It doesn’t matter if it’s bringing to market a TV drama, comedy, reality show, social/digital series, live event, awards show, streaming series, theatrical movie, video game, or otherwise. Making compelling campaigns for entertainment content, while working alongside the most talented people in the industry, is a true privilege. Without question, the best part of any day is the level of talent by which we are all surrounded. When teams work together in collaborative harmony, and fire on all creative cylinders – that’s the magic.
In my current post, as EVP of Fox Creative Advertising, I see the unpredictable process and inspiring convergence of art and commerce. Whether we’re cranking out first- look trailers, launch promos, current-show episodics, key art one sheets or billboards, custom social content, or otherwise, the formula-free process of solving creative challenges is always stimulating. Add to the great people and energetic environment hits such as 9-1-1 LONESTAR, ACCUSED, ALERT, BEAT SHAZAM, BOB’S BURGERS, THE CLEANING LADY, CRIME SCENE KITCHEN, FAMILY GUY, GRIMSBURG, KRAPOPOLIS, LEGO MASTERS, THE GREAT NORTH, THE SIMPSONS, THE MASKED SINGER, SPECIAL FORCES, and an array of Gordon Ramsay shows (FOOD STARS, HELL’S KITCHEN, KITCHEN NIGHTMARES, MASTER CHEF, NEXT LEVEL CHEF), and you’ve got all the ingredients for an awesome “day at the office.” (And I thought theatrical marketing was unique in its own special brand of high-octane engagement.)
Prior to a five-year stretch as SVP of Fox On Air Promo & Operations – where I was lucky to help launch 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY, EMPIRE, GOTHAM, GRACEPOINT, GREASE LIVE, WAYWARD PINES, and the return of THE X-FILES – I served two decades worth in theatrical tours of duty at four top-tier agencies (BD Fox & Friends, BLT AV, Crew Creative, and AV Squad), with a memorable run at New Line Cinema thrown in for good measure.
If you’ve read this far then I now consider us friends, which means we don’t have any secrets. So, I cop to the likelihood that I owe you fifteen bucks for convincing you to see a movie that didn’t really deliver. It happens. That’s the gig.
Besides entertainment marketing, music is a great passion. Don’t tell anyone but I DJ’d through college at various social events and nightclubs, which means I am familiar with the significance of the number “1200.
I was voted Best Dressed in my graduating High School class, which my friends won’t let me live down, and to which my wife gives a fabulous eyeroll.
In closing, I’m advised to share where I got my smarts, but I’d say more important than my education (BA double major, Theatre/Telecom, Indiana University; MFA w/high honors, Film/Advertising, Art Center College of Design) is the annual opportunity to teach short-form storytelling at Santa Monica College as part of the Promax Promo Pathway program, and a year-round global marketing course for UCLA Extension. That’s where I really see how much more advanced the storytellers and marketers of tomorrow already are. Let’s all agree to pay it forward and inspire them to reach new heights. Here’s to an amazing future in this amazing industry! (See me later for the $15.)
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