Creative is the tall, curvy,
sensual woman in the corner office. With her wardrobe and great hair she could
have any man she wanted. Strangely she has been quietly hooking up with
Process. He of the pocket protector and RACI charts. He is skinny and socially awkward but not without
his own quiet intensity. What on earth
does she see in him? What do they have in common? Apparently this has been
going on for a long time.
Developing Marketing
Communications is not the least bit difficult; the challenge is doing it well.
To get the kind of ROI most of us crave obviously involves applied
creativity. That’s where it all goes sideways.
To achieve creative creative even the most experienced marketers can be
challenged by the tango of Creative Development. For over 10 years I have worked with
Marketing groups and their agencies to install and train best practices in this
regard. Starting a recent project with a
top 10 multinational reaffirmed for me the value of getting the process right
in Creative Development.
The right approach is never one
size fits all, but there are 5 simple practices that almost always help you get
to better stuff and happier people.
Explicit Process:
Make it someone’s job on the client side to create, communicate and
monitor the process. Among other things
it should include: who is the project team that should be in all the meetings,
who is the ultimate “Decision Maker” and a realistic budget. “TBD” is not a
budget.
Have a Great Brief (ing):
Make sure that the Brief form you are starting with is reasonable.
Sometimes they can get quite bent out of shape to serve a “distinct creative
approach”. Whether the Brand Manager or
the Account Manager/Planner starts writing the Brief, make it a shared responsibility. In the end It has to be owned by both parties. When the
Account Manager briefs the creative team, a client should be there. It’s funny
how some agencies resist this; usually this is a vestige from bad briefs that
had to be ignored and reinterpreted or badly behaved clients.
One Creative Presentation:
Or, as close to one as you can possibly get. Manage your client culture to have the
important people in the first and only creative presentation, including the
ultimate Decision Maker. To do this, clients need to learn to have a productive
discussion about the concepts presented without too much regard for rank. They
need to get over the obsession with making decisions on the spot and spend more
effort on understanding the submissions and getting comfortable with risk. You
can actually make the decision “tomorrow”.
One Creative Presentation Part II:
I am not a fan of “tissue sessions” (rough/early idea presentations).
Most clients have a hard enough time envisioning the end product at a tight
creative presentation. It is hubris to think they need you in the creative
process. You will enjoy the Creative so much more if you the skip the trailer. Many agencies like to present “Creative
Platforms” or Areas. What you really need is a good idea (subject for a later
post). Ask the agency to present ideas
and executions concurrently. Most of us
are not skilled enough to judge a “platform”
divorced from its “output”. Its
only purpose, after all, is to create good executions, so let’s see it do that.
Provide Written Feedback:
Do it always. Your response might be a one
line email for a dangler or a three pager for a major campaign. Writing has several advantages: it creates a record, forces alignment among clients
(amen) and benefits from the precision of the written word. If the project is substantial,
deliver this written feedback in person or at least on the phone to allow for
conversation.
It is easy to find people who disagree with these practices. There are
many ways to do it, and they are welcome to their methods. The most popular ice cream flavour in Canada
is still vanilla. I guess it just works. I have firsthand experience with both
large and small Marketing teams witnessing improvement in their Marketing
Communications when they apply these simple process improvements. But simple is not the same as easy and they
require both clients and agency partners to raise their games.
