turning clients into creative partners
DESCRIPTION
Relationships between creative team members and clients can be good, bad or downright ugly. Whatever it is, your goal should always be ongoing improvement of your client relationships. The interaction between clients and creatives during projects often invites opportunities for conflict. When clients make requests of creative teams, they sometimes provide incomplete information, set unrealistic deadlines or communicate in an untimely manner. On the flip side, creative teams are busy and sometimes unavailable which can leave clients feeling neglected or even ignored. How can in-house agencies and their clients reduce the friction that can result from the creative-production process so they can work together more effectively? Let’s explore three common scenarios.TRANSCRIPT
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
Questions?
@robmunz /robmunz