6 Personas of a Successful Creative Agency: Traffic Manager

Here at Function Point (FP), we are constantly working with creative firms, advertising agencies and digital agencies to better define internal processes and workflow management using our agency software. In doing this, we have come up with 6 personas that interact with the typical creative agency.

Helping these people work more efficiently and effectively together ultimately helps the agency become more profitable.

The 6 Personas:

1. New Business
2. Creative
3. Client Services
4. Traffic Manager
5. Accountant
6. Owner

Traffic Manager

Job Description

The primary duties of an Agency Traffic Manager sometimes called a Production Manager, is to work as a go-between that connects account executives to other departments within the ad agency that produce the products the account executive sold. Setting a schedule of deadlines for the completion of a job, the Traffic Manager assigns workers to each necessary step in the process. The Traffic Manager then checks on the progress of the project, communicating with the account executive as needed.

The traffic manager role is generally considered to be the FP Prime or main point of contact for FP training and communication. Thinking of a Project Manager? Check out our blog post on the difference between a Project Manager and a Traffic Manager.

A Typical Day / Traffic Manager Responsibilities

• Assign tasks and check the statuses of outstanding tasks
• Conduct a daily morning meeting to go over items/tasks assigned and due for the day and determine if there are any roadblocks
• Communicate any issues with the team and Account Executive
• Conduct weekly job status meetings to gather and share information with Account Executives and the rest of the team
• Initiate new jobs for the client and create timelines and tasks for the work to be done (future planning)
• Review the timeline with the Account Executive to get client approval
• Submit job to accounting for invoicing when appropriate

A Typical Interaction with FP

• Uses FP to create estimates, timelines, and tasks
• Uses FP to track the status of these estimates, timelines, and tasks
• Uses FP to ensure that the work is being completed on schedule and budget
• Uses FP to gather appropriate task, expense and timesheet reports ensuring jobs are being completed and invoiced correctly

A Perfect Day

• Both staff and clients are happy, and tasks and jobs are either on or ahead of schedule and on budget
• Managing the processes and not individual people

Top of Mind Issues Traffic Manager Deals With

• Making tasking efficient and not overbearing
• Keeping staff happy and on track, with the tasks, they need to do to stay on schedule
• Workflow is efficient and the right stuff is getting done by the right people

If you have any comments or think we’ve missed something from the traffic manager job description—let us know. We love working with people by helping with both the software requirements to make working together easier, as well as developing efficient workflows. FP is here to help creatives run a profitable business! Want to see what Function Point can do for you? Get in touch today.

Next up: Accountant.

This article was written by former Function Point employee, Tate Lillies.