Creative Strategy
Out of context: Reply #13
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- vaxorcist0
OK.. here's a shortened version of what I remember the process was from one very smart ad agency I worked at some time ago....
Initial Questions:
1. Major or Minor change in direction?
(we learned not to say "evolutionary or revolutionary" when we learned one client was very religious... )2. Business Objective in 10 words or less
(increase brand awareness among younger demographic by 20%,etc.. how do you measure success or failure?)3a. Stakeholders : Who exactly approves what?
(who can say final "yes", and who can say "only no"... do NOT show creative to "only no" people till that creative has already been approved by somebody else...)3b: Stakeholders: Who has to cooperate? Do we need to hookup with IT dept, do we need to get materials from somebody?
4. Target Market defined, and NO IT IS NOT EVERYONE....
5. START RESEARCH:
- Focus groups BEFORE any creative, NEVER AFTER....
(That way, you get your CENTRAL INSIGHTS from your focus groups, but you don't get the FUCKING PEANUT GALLERY critiquing your work..remember that likeability of an ad has NOTHING to do with its likleyhood to make you buy something)-Competetive Review (Sometimes... depends on product/market)
-Sometimes competing products feedback from focus group, sometimes a market position research...-Account Planning People determine what they think is the CENTRAL INSIGHT into consumer's mindset.
-------------THEN...
CREATIVE AGREEMENT written based on all of the above,
client asked to approve or argue AT THIS TIME, not during the creative, it is VERY IMPORTANT to have the client buy-in to the creative agreement, that way arguments are about the principles involved, not about the colors or fonts or whatever....
-------------THEN...
Creative roughcuts/storeboards/sketches/e... done based on all of the above, and each decision is framed in response to the creative brief, even if it's just a DESIGNER WHIM, it's pitched to client as if it's DIRECTLY FOLLOWING the creative agreement he already approved.
Inside the agency, a CREATIVE BRIEF is written that's a slight variation of the creative agreement, more design-focussed, more tied to agency's vocabulary, possibly closer to what design shops use, but still highly based on the central insight...
------------THEN...
You pitch creative, but ONLY to somebody who can absolutely and finally approve it, never to some random people first, unless you need to build momentum inside your client's company, then you show little bits of cool stuff to those other people, but never the whole thing... keep the momentum and mystery going.. you're developing something really cool... don't show your cards too soon to the wrong people(!)...THEN..
You hope and pray everything is approved, without any random last minute shit, any make the logo bigger, or any shit from the IT department saying that everything has to wait for their SAP consultant to show up in 6 months... if any shit happens, you have your client's buy-in to your initial document, where you list STAKEHOLDERS and who is RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT...
and of course, after a while, you compare the results to whatever your initial business objective was.. if you succeed, great! take credit, even if the economy just improved, or whatever... if you're below the hoped-for-result, submit to as many ad award shows as possible, you might win an award(!)....
good luck, this is ad/marketing agency-focussed, not design-agency focussed, but some parts may be useful....
- <I like how the poster is getting us to do his work. being dumb can have it's advantages...robotron3k
- No, having input from your piers though a design forum is useful, why do you think I'm dumb?
grafisk - Very insightful vaxorcist, I'm trying to have a doc that designers actually sue, but drives the business to realise its valuegrafisk