Six Best Practices for Getting the Most From Your Creative Agency
Want great work from your agency? The way you share feedback can have a dramatic effect on how your creative team responds.
// By John Ferin //
The meeting is about to begin. Your creative agency has spent days, weeks, maybe even months massaging their concepts, tactics, and messaging into the perfect presentation. You can see the beads of sweat forming on the presenters’ foreheads, signaling something big is at stake. The speakers speak, the slides begin to roll, and the ideas … miss the mark. There’s no way around it: The presentation fell short of expectations.
So, how do you tell a creative agency their best ideas weren’t good enough?
The way health care marketing teams react to ideas, pitches, and proposals will have a huge effect on whether the work presented is “right” or “wrong.” It will also help determine what actions to take if a redirect is needed.
Following a structured checklist, rather than your emotions, is the best way to ensure the creative process leads to an exceptional result, even if the first effort was a miss.
Perhaps surprisingly, this checklist will look similar regardless of the subject at hand ― health care, fast food, luxury designer goods. When the goal is to get the most out of your creative agency, the key to responding to other people is the same.
Both freedom and structure are needed to fully explore and support innovative ideas and solutions.
Here are six best practices for responding to a creative proposal that’s less than perfect.