If an agency wants to do breakthrough, creative work that gets results, you can hire the most talented creative department in the world, but if the account management team doesn't come to the table creatively, the odds of becoming great are slim.
Over the years I've worked with all types of account folks. I've observed even more. And I've listened to story after story about great account management efforts from agencies far and wide. Over time, trends form.
So what makes great creative account people? For collective debate and commentary, below are 8 things an account person can do to be a greater asset to the creative process:
1. Respect the Difficulty of Creating Ideas
One of the hardest things to do is create an idea that sells. Yes, there are strategies and consumer insights that can tee things up, but trust me, sitting alone trying to create the big idea is extremely strenuous. You never know if you're going to top your last effort--and everyone is expecting you to top your last effort. Honestly, I really don't see how someone could create things like this, this or this. And I'm often left in awe after internal creative reviews. Respecting the difficulty of creating ideas, is truly step one.
2. Respect the Difficulty of Presenting Creative Ideas
Most account people have never created and then presented an ad. This is a shame. It's good to go through the process. An example: When I was GM of FourStories, the Founder/Creative Director asked me to write some ads for one of our clients. He simply wanted to see what was in my head. I went through the exercise fine knowing that my lack of art direction and writing would be forgiven. But when I presented my ideas I unexpectedly felt timid, sheepish and lacked anything resembling confidence. Fear of rejection is a human trait. And it runs rampant when things are subjective. Account people must respect the fact that presenting creative is an emotional roller coaster. Do all you can to create a presentation environment where expectations are managed and the risks of failure are minimized.
3. Keep Refining the Creative Brief Until YOU Can Write An Ad
Once you've crafted the brief, walk away, come back and try to write an ad from it yourself. Can you do it? Do any ideas come to mind? Is the brand positioning as true as it can be? Does having the word "friendly" in the tone help you at all? (Probably not.) Remove things like "friendly" and try harder. If you cannot write an ad from your brief, trust me, neither will the creative team. Stay as long as it takes re-working the brief until it's right.
4. Keep a Book
I encourage all my account teams to keep a portfolio of work they were involved in. I believe doing this creates a sense of ownership. It provides pride and encourages account people to do all they can to make the work great. It also helps them understand the value of managing for the long-term, versus appeasing for the short term. My book is a simple Prat black spiral portfolio. I put integrated case studies in it, outputs of ads and websites, strategy lines, everything that's worth discussing.
5. Re-Create The Consumer Landscape and Product Benefit(s) Before the Work Is Revealed
OK, this one is obvious... A great account person ALWAYS sets up the work, regardless of how small the campaign is. But what may not be obvious is how long the set up should take. After all, strategic set ups that drone on and on are painful to listen to and do more harm than good. Be concise. My opinion: For one-off pieces, 30 seconds. For smaller creative presentations, 3 minutes. For larger campaigns, keep it between 5-7 minutes. And for huge campaigns, go all out, but never over 15 minutes.
6. Never Write or Draw on a Concept
7. Ideas First, Details Later
I'm sure we can all recite meetings where a great idea was approved in 30 seconds. Great! BUT THEN... a 15 minute discussion begins on problems and challenges surrounding the idea which leads to a now unapproved idea. It's the agency's job to present workable ideas in the first place. But, if unforeseen challenges come up during the meeting, keep everyone excited about the core idea and table the details... Take the problems back to the agency, solve them quickly (this is the key) and circle back with the client while excitement is still high. (They want it to work too.)
8. Recognize When Something is a Creative Opportunity, and When It Isn't
To be honest, if you're fresh out of school, you may not be able to do this. But when a business problem surfaces, recognize if there's an opportunity to do something great, or if this should just be a quick one-off. Trust me, trying to make everything into a creative opportunity is a bad use of time and money. The flip side is also true: kicking out an assignment quickly when the idea deserved much more attention is arguably even a worse use of time and money.
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