Why Your CMO Shouldn't Be on Set

There is a strange phenomenon that occurs when a healthcare or MedTech company decides to invest in high-end video production. Suddenly, everyone in the C-suite wants to be involved.

The Chief Marketing Officer, who normally spends their days analyzing lead acquisition costs and managing the CRM, suddenly wants to be on set. They want to look at the monitors, suggest alternate camera angles, and give notes on the actor's delivery.

They treat the production set like a fun, creative field trip. But this "fun trap" is actively sabotaging the quality of the final product.

The Illusion of Creative Control

When executives step onto a set, they often feel compelled to contribute, simply to justify their presence. They offer opinions based on their personal preferences—their "bias"—rather than strategic creative principles.

If the CMO personally prefers straightforward, corporate-style messaging, they might kill a brilliant, emotionally resonant narrative concept simply because it doesn't align with their individual palate. As I often say, if you like reality TV, you might reject a great theatrical drama just because you aren't used to it.

This is how creative by committee happens. The original, sharp idea gets sanded down and diluted by the opinions of people who do not actually work in the creative industry. The result is the "sea of sameness"—a video that looks and sounds exactly like every other safe, boring healthcare commercial on the market.

Professionalism and the Alicia Keys Standard

High-end video production is an incredibly technical and precise discipline. It requires dialing in lighting, managing audio frequencies, and directing talent to achieve a specific emotional tone.

Consider the story of the Alicia Keys Soulcare launch. The production team spent three days meticulously dialing in the lighting setup. Just thirty minutes before the shoot, the talent requested to be shot from the opposite side. The team had to flip the entire, complex lighting setup instantly, and they executed it flawlessly without complaint.

That is the level of professionalism required on a real set. It is not a place for amateurs to play director. When you hire a top-tier production company, you are paying for their ability to execute under pressure and solve complex visual problems. You are not paying them to be an audience for your executive team's creative experiments.

Define the Goals, Not the Execution

If you are a CMO or a healthcare executive, your role in the video production process is crucial, but it happens long before the cameras roll. Your job is to define the strategic goals. Who is the target audience? What is the core message? What action do we want them to take?

Once those parameters are set, you must hand the reins over to the creative experts. Let them determine the best visual metaphor, the right lighting style, and the optimal pacing to achieve your goals.

You wouldn't walk into the IT department and start unplugging servers because you thought it looked fun. Don't walk onto a set and start giving notes to the director. Trust the experts you hired, stay out of the way, and let them deliver the results you paid for.