Balancing Industry Advocacy and Creative Commercial Craft
AICP President Matt Miller explains how collective bargaining, fair labor practices, and creative excellence help advertisers balance brand impact and strategic storytelling
Matt Miller is President and CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), a membership organization for independent companies specializing in the production and post-production of commercials for advertisers and agencies. AICP members work on film, video, and digital ads. Their work accounts for over 80 percent of all nationally aired motion image ads, regardless of media platform.
Matt serves as spokesman for the Association’s approximately 600 members and represents them in negotiating labor agreements, developing industry standards, and providing professional development. Matt is also in charge of the annual AICP Week, which includes the AICP Show, the AICP Next Awards, and the AICP Post Awards
Matt regularly appears on broadcast media outlets to discuss the creative aspects of the advertising and media industry and is a sought-after speaker for industry conferences and seminars.
In addition to his role at AICP, Matt is a trustee of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Producer Pension and Health Funds and serves as chairman of the DGA Commercials Qualifications Administration.
The Continuum recently sat down with Matt to discuss collective bargaining, Super Bowl commercials, award shows, and why advertising really was the great art form of the 20th century.
You’ve been at the AICP for over 30 years. How did you get the job? Did you always want to be in the advertising industry?
Originally, I was going to be a rock star (I still may be, right—never say never!). I grew up playing the drums. In the late 80s, I was in a band called Bicycles for Afghanistan. We had a little bit of success in the Northeast and played all the clubs—CBGBs and such —“the scene.” We warmed up for Oingo Boingo and played with Living Colour. But there came a point when we had to choose a path, and I decided that I needed to put the band thing aside as stardom wasn’t coming quickly enough.
I had been the only band member who continued with school, but still had a couple more years to go, so I juggled school by day, band at night. When I felt music had run its course, I needed to find a different career path. I had always been fascinated with advertising. My godfather owned a radio station in Connecticut, and my dad’s best friend was the head of production at Ted Bates. As a kid, I was infatuated with his stories about shooting commercials. Also, I loved Bewitched.
Which Darren did you like better?
Ooo, Sargent or York, that’s a hard one—which one had greasier hair?
Fair enough. Why don’t you continue telling us how you got your first job in the industry?
Honestly, I just did a lot of poking around and talking to people. I ended up getting an interview at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). At the time, I didn't even know what an association was or did, and it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. But I talked to some people in the industry who said it would be a great crash course in advertising and pointed out that I’d get to meet all the marketers and understand their thinking. That's where all trends start—with the people who have the money, right? The whole business is built around making them happy. So, I took the job.
Everyone who advised me was right; I learned a lot and met really smart people. The association had a structure of volunteer committees that set policy in different concentrations. There was the radio advertising committee, the television advertising committee, the outdoor advertising committee, and the research committee, etc. I got to dig in with the marketing people who were experts in each of these areas and listen to what the association could be doing for them. I really got a bird’s eye view of the whole industry.
One of the first projects I worked on was a partnership between the ANA, the AICP, and the Four A’s. We wanted to create a document explaining all of the steps to making advertising, how decisions are made, and who does what during the process. We created a great flow chart that included the roles of the client, the agency, the production company, and the post company. Funny thing, someone recently found a copy of this chart and put it on my desk. A lot of things have changed in advertising, but I have to say, the flow chart is still pretty accurate (with a few tech-based changes).
“A lot of things have changed in advertising, but I have to say, the flow chart is still pretty accurate (with a few tech-based changes).”
Pretty early on in that role at the ANA, you ended up in contract negotiations with SAG. How did that happen?
The ANA negotiated the labor agreements with the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Radio, and the musicians’ union jointly with the 4A’s (That joint group has now been spun off as the Joint Policy Committee—“JPC” as it’s known). All other contracts in the industry—whether for makeup artists, set designers, or camera people—were negotiated by AICP, but talent was different. Those involved in production were paid for the time on set, but the talent was mostly paid by usage, so the ANA negotiated it separately and really focused on the usage fees.
I sat in on the first round of negotiations with SAG (1990), and as we were moving into the next round of negotiations, my boss quit. They sent me in, and I was like, “Wait, I’ve only been doing this for like twenty minutes.” But we had an excellent labor lawyer who was serving as the chief negotiator. My job was really to keep the committee communicating with the members and make sure we stayed true to what was important for the industry as we charted a new deal.
In collective bargaining, you’re basically tasked with asking everyone what proposals make sense, where the problems are that we might be able to solve in negotiations, and going back and forth until we find common ground with the union. At one point, we were evaluating some union proposals regarding how talent works on set, and the union was making some demands. I thought back to my flow chart about how decisions are made and asked if anyone had ever brought production companies into the discussion. The answer was no. So, I asked them to meet with our group, and they said, “No one ever asked us our opinion before. This is amazing that we're being brought in on it.”
I kept many more issues within the production area alive on the ANA agenda—after all, it was the closest thing to my performance background to relate to the creative people in the industry. Sometime after that, the AICP asked me if I’d be interested in leading that Association. I started on April Fool’s Day, 1994, which somehow felt appropriate.
How big was the Association then compared to now?
It was very small. They brought me in because the industry was getting more complicated, and they weren’t really structured to give the level of service that many professional trade associations provide, and this segment of the industry needed. At the time, they worked out of a donated production office at Silver Cup Studios in Long Island City. On my first day, I dressed in a suit like I did every day at the ANA – I walked in, and there were two people (one freelance), four card tables, a few phones, and a calculator. They looked at me and said, “What are you going to be doing here?” At the time, the organization didn’t even have a relevant mission statement. My job was to turn it into a more professional trade group that could really bring value and service to our members, so I rolled up my sleeves.
Today, we have about 17 staff and about 600 members. We're a company-based membership, not an individual-based membership. Most of our members are production and post-production companies, but about 200 of our members are called associate members. These are businesses that serve our members, such as camera rental companies, insurance companies, and travel-related services, among others.
We still collectively bargain with unions and help set industry standards on the business affairs side to ensure our members are treated fairly. Additionally, we now host three annual award shows.
Most importantly, our collective voice is part of the conversation.
“Technology is seen as a democratizer. AI is even more so because people think they can click a button and a great video pops out. That’s not how it works.”
Speaking of contracts, there’s been much talk over the last few years about production using non-union talent and crew. Has this become a problem in your negotiations or for your members?
If you think about collective bargaining, you’re showing up with a list of companies and saying to the union that these companies will exclusively be using your members when they make ads. The union is showing up with a list of skilled individuals and saying, these people agree to work exclusively with your companies. The idea is that the union members are more skilled and experienced and will give the company a leg up on any competitor who works with those outside the union. Half of our members operate as union companies and half (especially smaller ones) don’t. If the unions abide by their half of the deal, their members would only work with union signatory companies—that doesn’t always happen.
At one time, there was a clear and understandable delineation when you needed highly complicated cameras to make commercials. It’s harder for lay people to understand when we all carry pretty good video cameras in our pockets.
Clients will say things like, “Why does this production cost me a million dollars. My kid shot something like it last weekend with a friend for three slices of pizza and a lemonade, and it looks pretty good.” It’s a challenge to explain that no matter what the technology can theoretically do, you still need expertise behind it. Technology is seen as a democratizer. AI is even more so because people think they can click a button and a great video pops out. That’s not how it works.
We definitely have to continuously educate people on the client side about why talent and skill are still important and how to value them.
“We definitely have to continuously educate people on the client side about why talent and skill are still important and how to value them.”
Your members make commercials, and for many years, you were the go-to expert whenever the media wanted to talk about ads, especially around the Super Bowl. Can you tell us about that?
It was born out of the PR we got for our award shows. People started calling us the Academy Awards of commercials. I was asked to go on morning shows the day after our show and comment on the year’s best ads. It started with the Today Show, but there were a few years where I was doing five or six segments the next morning on NBC, CNN, and Fox—and many local affiliates as we toured our shows around the country.
Then I started being invited back to talk about Super Bowl ads. Donnie Deutsch had been doing that for the Today Show, but then he got his own show on CNBC. I became their go-to industry expert in this commentator role. The segments became really popular, and then they asked if we could premiere some of the commercials on the show before they aired on the Super Bowl. We (AICP) became a bit of a conduit between our members, agencies, clients, and the general media outlets.
The segments kept getting bigger and bigger. One year, I did a segment every day of the week, leading up to the game, previewing a new ad each day. We did segments on location at the Super Bowl a few times when NBC was broadcasting it. And one year, I pitched them on the idea to get behind-the-scenes of the Clydesdale commercial shoot with Jake Scott of RSA directing--- really showing all that goes on in a large-scale production.
“Advertising is an extension of those forms of expression and is done to reach people at scale.”
Wow, are those horses as big as they look on television?
They’re massive, but there’s this guy who has been training them for years. He’s like the Clydesdale whisperer. I swear these horses turn into kitty cats when he’s around.
What are some of the other Super Bowl spots you remember?
I’m probably supposed to say Apple 1984, because everyone talks about that commercial. But one of the ones I really remember causing a huge stir from these years is the Volkswagen spot “The Force,” with a Little Darth Vader trying to start the car with the Force. It was one of the first ads we helped premiere on the Today Show. We showed it on Thursday, and it amassed millions of views online by the time it premiered on the Super Bowl broadcast. That strategy was groundbreaking at the time—now it’s commonplace.
AICP is known for its Award Shows and the annual exhibition at MoMA. Can you tell us how those started?
The very first one was before my time, but I love how the idea came about. At that time, the best-known advertising award show was the Clios. It was modeled after the Oscars and gave awards for the best campaigns. It got a lot of attention and was even broadcast on TV in the early days.
But, we wanted to do something more to honor our members and their crews who were behind the scenes actually making those winning commercials – including the director, the composer, the editor, the visual effects artists, the set designer, the wardrobe and makeup teams, and all the other personnel at the agency. We wanted to celebrate the collaborative craft of commercial filmmaking.
Instead of just hosting an industry award show, though, some brilliant people on the AICP board approached the curator of film at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), a man named Larry Kardish. They explained that we wanted to be like the Academy Awards for all of the right reasons, namely to recognize the crafts, but we didn’t want to just hand out trophies. We wanted to create an exhibition where people could come and admire the work, and learn from the state of the art. Kardish was a huge fan of advertising, and MoMA had already been collecting ads.
That’s how the AICP Award Show was born. We agreed to create an exhibit of peer-to-peer curated ads, screen the work at a big event at the MoMA, and then donate it to the museum’s permanent archive. You don’t really need trophies if you say to people, “Your work is going to be in the film archives at MoMA.”
We’ve been doing it for 33 years now. There’s a black-tie premiere that’s sold out every year – people refer to it as the Ad Prom. But the real celebration is adding to the thousands of pieces now in the archive.
AICP is also known for the NEXT awards. How did that show come about?
The ad industry started changing with the internet removing the parameters of what an ad was :60, :30. I think the idea started around the 18th year of the show. That was the year the BMW films came out. These were eight-minute films that BMW created with prominent film directors. They were winning in our award show, which made sense, but didn’t quite fit. They were still our craft, but it was a case of our members flexing and repurposing their skillsets to a whole new structure. So, we created a new category for that type of work the following year, which we simply called NEXT.
Within a few years, we started receiving entries of really interesting work that didn’t fit in any of our award categories. There were websites, experiential campaigns, interactive things made for the web, and microsites. So, we added a number of categories. We spun off this category into its own award show and exhibition called AICP Next, with categories that change each year as the industry looks forward. The winners of the Next Awards are also archived at MoMA.
Why do you think these award shows still have such an impact?
Marshall McLuhan wrote a book about media in the 1970s in which he said that when we look back at the 20th century, we will think of advertising as the great art form. When I first read it, I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but it really felt connected to what we were doing with our shows. If you want to understand a culture, look at the art of the time period, because it's crafted to connect with people. That means it speaks like people, how they dress, the hairstyles people have, architecture, and features the music that is of the time. Advertising is an extension of those forms of expression and is done to reach people at scale.
All of our award shows are available online at www.aicpawards.com. If you look back at the 1994 award show and start watching the ads, I guarantee you it will bring you right back to that year. Every aspect, from the vernacular people use to the cars to the wardrobe, will be authentic to that year.
Each year of our show is just a chapter in our archive. Yes, people get credit. Yes, it's a currency in the industry to win in an award show. But more importantly, it's an ongoing project to archive our culture through the eyes and the lens of the people who create advertising. And that is hopefully something that goes long beyond my years.
May 14, 2025
© 2025 The Continuum
