turning clients into creative partners

Presented in partnership with

Rob MunzFounder and Chief Product Officer

of inMotionNow

Presented by

Turning Clients

into Creative Partners

What are we learning today?

Clients can become creative partners

• Reasonable vs.

UNreasonable expectation

• Alignment

• Educating

Turn behaviors that invite challenge…

..into behaviors that create fans!

What do clients want?

Clients want:

• Improvement in revenue

• Growth of their customer base

• Advantage over the competition

• High quality work

• Fast turnaround

• Low friction

• Make them look good

Clients want from YOU.

• High quality work

• Fast turnaround

• Low friction

• Make ‘em look good

Reasonable Requests

Other expectations

• Always Make Me Top priority

• Promise Me Instant Turnaround

• Post Unlimited Versions

• Match my personal taste

• Read my mind

Manage down UNreasonable

Meet & exceed the reasonable

Project Kickoff – Project Intake

Creative Execution

Review and Approval

Relationship Building

Project Kickoff – Project Intake

Practices that put the project at risk:

• Not capturing or providing enough information.

• Not accounting for or anticipating all of the elements.

At project intake

Get the information you need to

meet requesters expectations

At project intake

• Provide formats customized for asset type.

• Get what you ask for.

• Ask for and leverage attachments.

• Think “what else?”

Get the information you need to

meet requesters expectations

Weak Request Example

At project intake

Who is the audience?

What size is the output?

At project intake

What are the primary characteristics of the AUDIENCE the piece is being designed for?

ChildTeenAdultAdult 25 - 50Adult 50 – OlderAll

MaleFemaleBoth

High SchoolCollegePost GradAny

LowAverageHighAny

LeaderFollowerModerateAll

Age Gender Education Income Power Level

Add Additional Details:

Much Stronger Example

At project intake

• Provide formats customized for asset type.

• Get what you ask for.

• Ask for and leverage attachments.

• Think “what else?”

Get the information you need to

meet requesters expectations

At project intake

Get the information you need to

meet requesters expectations

• Provide formats customized for asset type.

• Get what you ask for.

• Ask for and leverage attachments.

• Think “what else?”

More. . .create templates, define timelines, showexamples of good briefs, share next steps, etc.

Project Kickoff – Project Intake

Creative Execution

Review and Approval

Relationship Building

Creative Execution

• Transparency and visibility.

• Expect things change.

• Dissuade last minute add-ons.

(the power of yes. . . albeit in good time.)

Transparency & visibility

Expect things change

Dissuade Add-Ons

Project Kickoff – Project Intake

Creative Execution

Review and Approval

Relationship Building

Review and Approval

• Delivery of content for review

• Creative rational

• Rules and roles

Communication

Review and Approval

• Delivery of content for review.

• Creative rational

• Rules and roles

Communication

Communication

• Presentation of the assets

• Creative rational

• Rules and Roles

Attention Mr. Client PromoGold Project is available for your review:

You requested:• Appealing to adults age 25 to 35• Suggesting the emotion of jubilation• Driving traffic to the web landing page• The color scheme of red and white• Using a front shot of the product

At review and approval

Communication

• Delivery of content for review

• Creative rational

• Rules and roles

Project Kickoff – Project Intake

Creative Execution

Review and Approval

Relationship Building

Getting in Alignment

Being on the same side.

Being on the same side.

• Ask clients about their goals.

• Follow-up and ask for metrics.

• Provide competitive design materials.

Your team’s strategic contribution

Alignment

• Educate

• Share capabilities

• Enhance their budget

Be an Action Hero

Project Intake

Creative Execution

Review and Approval

Relationship Building

Take These Actions

Improve Project Intake by making

better creative briefs

• Replace open-ended question

• Provide a variety of briefs

• Share leads times on briefs

Improve Creative Execution

• Share project timeline at kick-off

• Be OK with change in Tier 1 projects

Take These Actions

Improve the Review and Approval

• Remind what the project’s goals are

• State reason that you’re asking for feedback

• Clarify reviewer roles

Take These Actions

Action

Build client relationships

• Educate, advocate, and align

• Lunch and Learns: design critique,

marketing knowledge, design trends

From challengers . . .

. . . to partners.

Presented in partnership with

Rob MunzFounder and Chief Product Officer

of inMotionNow

rmunz@inmotionnow.com

Questions?

@robmunz /robmunz