Why We Need to Improve Higher Ed Creative Operations

Great higher ed creative operations work rarely starts with a camera, a design file, or an empty document.

It starts with an environment where creative people have enough clarity, time, and support to actually do their best work.

That sounds simple. But anyone who has worked in higher education marketing knows how quickly things get complicated.

Your photographer is covering an event. Your videographer is editing an enrollment piece. Social needs content before the end of the day. 

Someone from across campus needs a “quick graphic.” Another department has an urgent video request. A project that seemed straightforward suddenly has six people in the approval chain.

And somewhere underneath all of those requests, your team is still expected to produce strategic, compelling creative that advances enrollment, strengthens the brand, and communicates the institution’s mission.

That tension is exactly why higher ed creative operations matters.

On this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer, I spoke with Paul Bross, Director of Creative Operations at Oklahoma Baptist University. Paul has worked across video production, social media, digital content, photography, broadcast promotion, and higher education marketing. 

Today, he leads OBU’s centralized creative studio, coordinating the people and processes behind digital, print, social, video, and photography.

Our conversation was especially timely because Paul is also preparing to host a brand-new show in The Higher Ed Marketer Network: The Higher Ed Creative. The podcast will focus specifically on the people behind the creative work shaping higher education.

And if there was one theme that kept surfacing throughout our conversation, it was this:

If we want better creative work, we need to build better systems around creative people.

Higher Ed Creative Operations Starts With Clear Expectations

One of the fastest ways for a good creative idea to die is misalignment.

A department asks for a video.

The creative team hears “video” and begins imagining a polished production with interviews, cinematic B-roll, motion graphics, and a significant post-production process.

Meanwhile, the person making the request really wanted a student to record something on a phone that could be posted tomorrow.

Neither side necessarily did anything wrong.

They simply started with different expectations.

Paul told me that a large part of his day-to-day work at Oklahoma Baptist University is helping campus partners move beyond tactics and get clear about what they are actually trying to accomplish.

Someone might arrive saying, “We need this particular thing.”

The creative team’s job is often to ask, “What are you trying to achieve?”

That distinction matters.

A request is not the same thing as a strategy.

Once you understand the goal, you may discover that the original requested deliverable is not the best solution at all.

Paul explained:

“A lot of it comes down to aligning expectations. We start the process when a campus partner comes to us with a tactic or request. We might imagine a full-scale video production, while all they really wanted was a quick student led phone video.”

That is a creative operations problem, not simply a creative problem.

Strong higher ed creative operations gives everyone a clearer understanding of:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• Who is the audience?
• What does success look like?
• What is the actual deliverable?
• Who needs to approve it?
• When does it need to be finished?
• How much production is appropriate for the goal?

Get those answers established early, and you eliminate a tremendous amount of unnecessary revision later.

Protect Creative Time Instead of Filling Every Minute

Creative professionals need something that higher ed is often reluctant to give them:

Space.

Creativity does not always happen conveniently between meetings.

A photographer needs time to think through a shoot. A designer needs uninterrupted time to explore a concept. A videographer needs enough breathing room to turn raw footage into something that actually makes people feel something.

Yet we can very easily treat creative professionals as if their calendars should look like everyone else’s calendars.

Meeting.

Meeting.

Email.

Meeting.

Quick request.

Another meeting.

And then we wonder why the work feels rushed.

Paul shared one practical habit that has helped him protect his own thinking time: calendar blocking.

He reserves time early in the day and uses a recurring end-of-day period to review, reflect, catch up, and prepare for what comes next.

But what really stood out to me was how Paul described his responsibility as a creative leader.

He does not want the people on his team constantly fighting to protect their own creative time.

He sees that as part of his job.

“I don’t want them to have to defend that time for themselves. I know what it takes to get through the process, so I try to protect things on the back end, from above, or behind the scenes. I handle that so they don’t even have to think about it—giving them the space and breathing room they need for the creative process to happen.”

I love that mindset.

One of the most valuable things a marketing leader can give a creative team is not another tool.

It is protection.

Protect them from unnecessary meetings.

Protect them from unclear requests.

Protect them from endless approval chains.

Protect them from administrative tasks that do not require their expertise.

And protect enough white space in their schedules for them to think.

We hired creative professionals to create. Our operational systems should reflect that.

Build Content Systems That Multiply the Work

Another part of higher ed creative operations is getting more value out of the work your team is already doing.

Paul shared a great example from OBU.

His team needed photography, video, interviews, B-roll, and other assets from the university’s different schools and divisions. But repeatedly interrupting faculty and departments every time marketing needed another photo or video was not an efficient approach.

So the team created dedicated media days.

They coordinated with individual academic areas ahead of time, scheduled faculty and students, and used blocks of time to collect a large variety of assets.

During part of the day, they would capture photography and B-roll.

During another portion, they would collect interviews and sound bites that could later be repurposed for social media, web content, print quotes, and other communications.

Instead of constantly chasing content, they created a repeatable system for gathering it.

That is exactly the kind of operational thinking more higher ed marketing teams need.

And as I mentioned to Paul during the interview, I really like the idea of thinking video first.

When you capture a strong video interview, you potentially have:

• A long-form video
• Short social clips
• Audio
• A transcript
• Pull quotes
• Website copy
• Story ideas
• Print material
• B-roll for future projects

One content-gathering session can become an entire library of usable material.

That is especially valuable for small higher ed teams.

You may not be able to add five more people to your department next year.

But you may be able to design a better workflow that helps the people you already have accomplish more without constantly starting from zero.

Use AI to Remove Administrative Work, Not Creativity

I was also glad our conversation turned toward AI.

There is an important distinction developing in the way good creative teams use artificial intelligence.

The question is not simply, “How can AI make the creative?”

A much better question might be:

How can AI remove the non-creative work that keeps my creatives from creating?

Paul said his team has been intentionally looking for ways to reduce the administrative burden carried by creative professionals.

At one point, he realized some creatives were spending an enormous portion of their time on administrative work.

That is expensive.

Not simply because of salary or hours, but because every hour spent on an unnecessary administrative process is an hour that is not being spent telling stories, building campaigns, photographing students, producing video, or strengthening the institution’s brand.

Paul put it this way:

“A big focus for us this year is lightening administrative tasks for our creatives. At one point, about fifty percent of our time was taken up by admin work. As a creative, I want you out doing creative work—not worrying about administrative burdens.”

That is where I think AI and automation can become incredibly valuable to remove non-creative burdens.

Instead of asking AI to replace human creativity, look for repetitive tasks surrounding the creative process.

Could AI help organize notes?

Summarize information?

Turn a meeting into action items?

Help prepare an initial project brief?

Assist with transcription?

Reduce repetitive communication?

Create a first-pass organizational structure that a human can refine?

The best use of an AI tool may be completely invisible in the final creative product.

But if it gives your photographer another hour behind the camera instead of inside a spreadsheet, that is a win.

Better Creative Work Requires Better Creative Leadership

One of the most interesting parts of Paul’s story is his move from doing the work himself to becoming responsible for how the work gets done.

That is a major transition.

When you are the creator, you can focus primarily on your assignment.

When you lead creative operations, suddenly you are thinking about priorities, resources, scheduling, stakeholder expectations, institutional strategy, outcomes, and the health of your team.

Paul’s career at Oklahoma Baptist University illustrates that progression. He moved from Social Media and Digital Content Creator to Director of Media Production and Social Media and, in August 2026, into his current position as Director of Creative Operations.

The work becomes less about whether you can make something great and more about whether you are creating an environment where your team can consistently make something great.

That means asking operational questions:

• Where are projects getting stuck?
• Which approvals are actually necessary?
• Are our people spending time on the work they were hired to do?
• Have we clearly communicated priorities?
• Are we producing assets strategically or simply reacting to requests?
• Do our campus partners understand how to work effectively with the creative team?

Those may not sound like glamorous creative questions.

But they determine whether creative teams flourish or burn out.

That concern is also a big reason Paul is launching The Higher Ed Creative.

He told us he has seen how demanding creative work in higher education can become. Creative professionals serve many different groups, face competing expectations, and sometimes work with people who do not fully understand the creative process.

He wants the new podcast to become a resource and community for those people—a place where higher ed creatives can exchange practical ideas, learn from one another, and recognize that they are not working through these challenges alone.

The creative people making the work matter.

And if we want those people to stay, grow, and do their best work, we need to do more than ask them to “be creative.”

We need to build systems that help creativity thrive.

Be sure to listen to my full conversation with Paul Bross to hear more about:

• Moving from hands-on creator to creative operations leader
• Setting clearer expectations with campus partners
• Protecting creative time
• Building scalable media-day workflows
• Using AI to reduce administrative work
• The upcoming launch of The Higher Ed Creative

Want to strengthen the systems behind your higher ed marketing?

At Caylor Solutions, we help colleges and universities connect strategy, messaging, enrollment goals, and creative execution so marketing teams can spend less time reacting and more time doing work that moves their institutions forward.

If your creative workflows feel overloaded, fragmented, or disconnected from your enrollment strategy, we’d love to help you identify a better path.

Contact us today.

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Featured image via okbu.edu
Other images via chatgpt