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Scott McKay is a Toronto strategist, writer, creative director, patient manager, half-baked photographer and forcibly retired playwright.

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    "They had their cynical code worked out. The public are swine; advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket."

          – George Orwell

     

     

     

     

     

    "Advertising – a judicious mix of flattery and threats."

          – Northrop Frye

     

     

     

     

     

    "Chess is as an elaborate a waste of time as has ever been devised outside an advertising agency."

          – Raymond Chandler

     

    « "let's just have some fun" | Main | if you're one of my clients, you might not want to read this »
    Sunday
    Jan242010

    if you're a creative, you might not want to read this

    You're a client who has employed an ad agency to build your business. (There's really no other reason to employ one, after all.) You want more sales.

    Now, there are many ways that you and your agency can go about that. You can generate more awareness of your products, which is the traditional "mass" method. You can generate more engagement with your brand, which is what digital can do so well. You can try to acquire more prospects, or retain the loyalty of your existing customers, both of which are direct marketing strengths.

    But what you're not looking for is someone to tell you that your microsite needs to be in flash simply because it's cool, or your TV spot needs to be funny simply because the creative team wants to win awards, or your DM piece needs to have an awesome and complicated format simply, well, because. And unfortunately, too many creatives walk into client presentations believing exactly those kinds of things as their basic reason for being in this business.

    They're wrapped up in their own craft – the words and the pictures. Each is a craft that isn't easy to do well and each requires real focus. Somehow, in all that focus and intensity and passion, it's easy for creatives to get isolated from the client's real purpose. (And come to think of it, from the consumer's reality.)

    Too many creatives don't fundamentally believe it's their job to help you sell your product. Too few think that they will have failed if your sales don't increase.

    Creatives need to understand that they're in business. Your business.

    What can you do as a client to ensure that you're working with folks like that? Before you hire an agency, talk to the creative director and team you'll be working with about your business. They're not going to be experts at what you do, not yet. But are they at least interested in it? Do they ask questions about it? Do they listen to what you're saying and get excited by it?

    And find out about how they work. Will you be seeing the creatives at every concept presentation? (Some agencies tend not to let the creatives out in public, which fosters that isolation.) Do the creatives have input on the strategy? (Some places hand creative teams a brief and expect compliance. Other places give the creatives equal responsibility in the development of strategy, and expect questioning.)

    The more that the creatives are at the table with you, talking about your needs, showing your their work, hearing what you have to say about it in person, and accepting responsibility for the results, the more they'll know your business, and the more you'll be sure you're working with creatives who truly want to build your business.

    I can't imagine a better partnership than that.

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    • Response

    Reader Comments (2)

    This is great stuff, Mr. Scott, keep it coming. You're well on your way to writing the next indispensable marketing handbook. I agree with your recommendations wholeheartedly, and would augment them with the following advice to the creatively inclined on how to temper their unbridled creativity.

    It's important for the creative team not only to understand (and mercilessly scrutinize) the brief and brand guidelines but also to understand the client's relationship with the agency. What your creative director sold you when he hired you and what the pitch team sold the client in order to win their business are probably not the same thing (I'd be happy to be proven wrong there – transparency isn't just an operation your folks get in Sweden). If the client is a recent acquisition, track down the pitch materials, or better yet someone from the team to tell you what really sealed the deal. If it's a long-standing relationship, examine your agency's body of work for that brand and make it your bible. The client-agency relationship is a business transaction, and the latter is entitled to a product that resembles what they agreed to pay for.

    This is not to say you should let your own picture of the client's preconceptions stifle your creativity prematurely. There is a tacit understanding that as a creative person you are capable of providing something that is beyond the capacity of the client's imagination. It's tacit because if it was spoken aloud you couldn't all fit in the same room with the hubris. But there's a big difference between exceeding expectations and confounding them. When you're on the wrong side of that line you'll be lucky if all you hear are crickets.

    January 29, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterSteve Castellano

    You're right – the relationship is critical. It's tough enough to do good work when all the stars are aligned. When the expectations of the client and the agency are wildly different, you're setting the stage for a morale-sapping horror show for everyone involved.

    But I'm sure that no creative director would ever say one thing to a client and another to a prospective hire... (cough, cough)...

    January 31, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterScott

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