One result of the overload of messages and marketing that defines communications today is the increased emphasis on good creative. Remarkable work goes a long way in punching through the noise out there. It's no coincidence that two strong brands we've mentioned in this blog, Apple and Starbucks, also boast and leverage award-winning design teams recognized the world over for their talent and vision. (It's my opinion that Starbucks' success rests solidly on great design, but that is another post.)
With this in mind the question becomes - How to I get great creative from my creative team? and How do I attract and retain great creative talent? The following applies to any in-house creative team for an agency, association, non-profit, manufacturer. Additionally if you're using a perennial creative vendor these work as well.
Having managed two creative teams for Fortune 500 companies (Trader Joe's is privately held, so it isn't actually on the Fortune 500 list, but the company is worth about 8 billion and would appear at about 300 on F500, so stay with me), here's a quick punchlist for getting the most from your guys.
1. Be open to risk - Creation by definition means bringing something into existence that wasn't there before. By making something new your team is also making something unknown. Something unknown is not comfortable or familiar, it needs to be explored. Explored is a key word here - think Lewis and Clark. Did those two guys take some risks? You bet, and a few arrows in the gut.
So when your team when your team brings you work that you're not sure is on the mark, or might tweak the client (internal or external) or is challenging or that you simply "don't get" - they're doing their job. You need to go with it. If the work delivers what is expected, it will not engage the audience and ultimately will not produce results.
2. Trust their expertise - Ever invite a plumber over to rough in your new bathroom and tell him what kind of pipe to use? Or better yet, sit up on the operating table and telling the surgeon how to take out your appendix? Pretty ridiculous right? I have a general idea of what a plumber and surgeon do, but I'm not thinking straight if I try to tell them how to do it - I simply don't have those skills. Which makes sense because their skills are hard to get, and were won from years of training and experience. The same applies to your creative team. Your designers, copywriters, art directors and creative directors have put years if not decades of passionate dedication into doing what they do. Respect this. Let them do what they do best and they will get you to the promised land. I know writing copy or tweaking layouts is fun, but so is seeing your online video go viral overnight, or your campaign ads triple your website metrics in a week.
3. Feedback and then some - Reading the above some of you might think (partly in french) "So I need to take my creative team's comps carte blanche?" No. Quite the contrary. Any creative professional worth his/her salt wants feedback - robust, detailed, inspired feedback. Since creative people are passionate about what they do, they respond to passionate people. Ask to see the comps that didn't make it to the presentation, bring examples of what you had in mind (or were expecting) from other campaigns, skatalogically critique the work with a list of descriptive adjectives - these responses help the team improve the work. Try NOT to say things like "I'll know it when I see it" or "It just didn't blow my skirt up (this gem was a quote from a co-worker a while back)" - because these words don't provide any actionable information.
4. Creative people are different and who cares - Once I worked at a company that had a lovely office interior. Big open spaces with lots of white walls. Impressive, neat, professional. My design team wanted to hang stuff all over those walls - mostly related to the work they were doing, but also related to the work they wanted to do. I know that a creative space would help them BE creative, so I asked if they could decorate. The response was "Why is the creative team special?" That if they could be allowed to hang stuff on the walls should the Finance team be allowed to do so? Or Operations? Or Public Affairs?
Not the right question. The right questions is "What does your team need to produce better work?" and the answer is "A creative environment." That's it. There's a reason innovation happens at places like Google and Crispin Porter - their office environment fosters creativity. And let me tell you, that question should be asked for ANY team - maybe Finance wants equations all over their wall or something, who knows - the goal is to give your people what they need to do better work, not stack them up cookie-cutter with everyone else.
5. Operations is the backbone of great creative - This one is simple. Your creative team should create - as much as possible. By doing so they will make you the most money, build your brand and deliver clients. It is the most efficient use of their skill set. If they're doing project management, account management, or fixing the printer, they're not doing what they do best. An operations team working hand and hand with the creative team will actually improve the quality of the creative immediately, because that extra tagline will be written, that extra idea will be articulated, that extra comp will be rendered. I know we all can't afford such specialization because of budgets and revenue constraints - sometimes employees have to wear many hats, which is a good thing - just keep it in mind as you grow then.
6. Insist on strategic creative - I asked a young designer why she picked the color purple for a package a few years back. She replied it was her favorite color. Wrong answer. I wanted her to tell me that the color had something to do with selling the product. That she leveraged research that purple resonated with the key audience buying the product - something. Certainly intuition plays a big role in producing creative work, but IT MUST be based on strategic thinking as well. Look for people who can meld both in their minds and in the work and you'll have an award-winning team.
7. Let them fail - I was at a focus group in Miami. We showed a group of cuban-americans some sample posters for a Miami-based AIDS awareness and education campaign that specifically addressed this group. One set of posters the participants hated. In fact, some them went as far as to say they would throw something through the window of a business that dared to hang the comp poster on their wall. The client and I were watching this in silence through the one-way glass.
The account team was disturbed - "Your comp bombed in front of the client!" I was confused, isn't that why we test the work first? To see what works?
So while that day was rough, here's the bigger picture. The work improved from the feedback, we learned a LOT about the audience and what resonated with them, and the client ultimately loved the final posters.
Failure is a big part of making remarkable creative (think of omlets and broken eggs), and most creative professionals welcome it, because they know you're only as good as your last ad, or campaign, or logo. Hold them to it. Tell them "Look if you believe in this we'll take it to the client" or "We'll run the spot" or "We'll keep this copy" but "If it falls on it's face it will count against you in your evaluation." - love it. I'm sure many will take this deal, because the triumph or trial all hinges on the work, and that is how they see it anyway already for their own personal code of excellence. Back them up in betting on their own work and you'll see great results.
To sum up: Getting to remarkable creative means trusting your creative team, pushing your comfort zone and grounding everything in real business objectives. Try it, you'll like it.
Jeff Caporizzo is Vice President/Creative Director at ZilYen. Follow us on twitter @zilyentweets.
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