As a small business you don’t have to accept anything less than brilliant creative work-all the time.
It’s not about the size of the ad agency (or Internet agency). It’s about two fundamental things: selecting an agency that is capable of brilliant work and then allowing the agency to produce it.
Think of the relationship between you and your agency as a dance. Success depends upon how well you dance together. Your agency should demonstrate some terrific moves (the quality of work) and their work should be worthy of applause (justifying your investment and expectations).
As the client, you have great expectations whenever your agency presents creative work. You expect to be wowed. But presentations can sometimes go terribly wrong and lead to subpar work that doesn’t meet your marketplace expectations. Here’s how to avoid disappointment and receive consistently great work.
STAY IN CONTROL-LEAD
Stay in control. Even though I’ve described the relationship as a dance, only one party can lead. That’s got to be you.
There are two ways to lead:
- Avoid the situations that can result in sub-par work.
- Create the climate that fosters the best work.
Avoid These Situations
(Note: I worked for a great ad agency once, and also had great creative work presented to me when I was on the client side-like you are. The following situations are not common, but they can occur. I point them out to you as a precaution.)
The wrong hero. Your brand, product, or service is the hero. Period. However, it can get lost when something else upstages it. This often occurs with humor, an overproduced commercial (e.g. excessive visual effects), or just minimizing the logo (in size or length of time of exposure). Be on the lookout for what really captures your attention- if it’s not your brand, product, or service go back to the drawing board.
The approval of the absurd. The quality of creative work, like most other things in life, probably follows a typical bell curve: 25% is good to outstanding, 50% is OK, and 25% is poor to lousy. Watch out for the 25% that stinks. It’s a fact of life that sometimes we are drawn to what is ridiculously bad because we assume that something so bad must be good.
The straw man creative. These are creative executions that the agency doesn’t want you to accept, but are used simply to set up the recommendation. The real fun begins when a client strongly prefers an option that the agency hates, but presented regardless. Everything presented to you should be acceptable to the agency for your approval.
The set-up that explains too much. Typical presentations begin with setting up the material you are about to see or hear. You may be told what you should be seeing, what to look for, what the intentions are, the inside joke, etc. This is a problem if it creates too much awareness of what the creative work should be accomplishing. One of your best assets in any creative meeting is to experience it like a customer would, not as a client.
The stacked house. This is when the agency brings every living person remotely associated with your account to the meeting to tilt the number of bodies in favor of the agency. A lot of head nodding agreement by agency personnel can intimidate some clients from asking tough questions or raising objections. Don’t let this happen.
The approval stare. The approval stare may occur several times. For example, the first time might be when the presentation is concluded and the agency is looking for positive reinforcement. Unless the creative work is a disaster, pass out compliments. They need to be stroked. However, the critical situation to avoid is when the final arguments for the agency’s recommendation have ended and you disagree with the recommendation. The purpose of the stare is to make you uncomfortable with disagreeing with the recommendation. Agencies hate rejection but don’t give in.
The buzz words. Some agencies use buzz words, such as “creative license” and “breakthrough creative” to compensate for work that is off strategy (more on this later). Beware of buzz words that only give the impression of substance and are not backed up by the creative product. Remember, buzz words don’t produce results.
The “I’m the expert” rebuttal. Expect to hear these words, or words to the same effect, when there is serious disagreement on any major issue. It’s OK to challenge this rebuttal to learn the rationale for a point of view and to clarify thinking. It’s imperative to challenge this if you are uncomfortable in any way.
Create A Winning Climate With These Actions
Invite only the people who count. Have the agency bring only the people directly involved in their work who can explain what their thoughts were and how that translated into the creative material.
Begin every meeting with a review of the creative strategy and the purpose of the specific pieces of creative work that are being presented. This simple step keeps everyone focused on the substance of the work and avoids distractions from dazzling ideas or visuals that, though attractive, are off the mark.
Expect to receive at least three options for each major project. Each option should be on-strategy and help flank the key idea with realistic options. In some instances the agency may add other executions that they were inspired to make. These may seem terribly off-strategy but strangely attractive. This is where your judgment is critical; it’s good to be open to new ideas, but it’s potentially destructive if the piece reflects a different strategy than you haven’t spent time and effort to develop. Ask, “Is this taking us into a new direction that we haven’t fully explored yet?”
Have the agency explain in common language any expression that is new and can be misunderstood. Don’t be intimidated. This is important with Internet marketing.
View the creative work without a lengthy prelude. Your customer has to understand it without a presentation, so put yourself in your customer’s place.
Be alert to your instincts but avoid too much reliance on your experience. Your instincts will tell you if something is amiss; this is good, follow them. Your ego will tell you that you, yourself, can create a better ad, a stronger visual, etc. This is the source of much poor work and must be avoided.
Not every piece of creative needs to be “wow” quality to be effective. Some products, industries, or services don’t lend themselves to visuals that we consider “wow” work. Consider, for example, how an ad for perfume would compare to an ad for cardboard packaging. “Wow” can be clarity, a simple demonstration, or a phrase that works.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Stay in control. Avoid situations that can lead to the acceptance of subpar creative work, and consciously set the stage to produce consistently outstanding creative work. In the final analysis, you want to give the agency every opportunity to bring its strengths to the party. Now you have several things to watch out for, and several good actions to take, that will make your client-agency experience rewarding for you and your bottom line.