How to Work Better With Creative Agencies

For a marketer, figuring out new ways of engaging our consumers and clients is the heart of the job. I have to stay up-to-date with their needs and consider how our brand can best serve their needs in a changing context.

This is where the role of creative agencies is so crucial. A creative agency will help create marketing campaigns or solutions for your brand and its suite of products and services. They are wired to create work that captivates the audience while effectively sharing the brand’s story. In a nutshell, they share the responsibility of creating compelling marketing stories for your brand.

A partnership with a creative agency could range from a short-term project of two to three months, or if all goes well, it could turn into a long-term relationship of several years. Similar to a marriage or really any relationship, a partnership with a creative agency has both good and bad days. And it takes time, effort, and investment to leverage the skills of the creative agency and create a partnership that works for both parties.

Sometimes, marketers who are just starting out in their career may wrongly assume that the process goes something like this: select an agency, write a brief, send it to the agency, sit back and wait for the agency to deliver. But this is not how it works. Like any successful relationship, active engagement will help you create better results.

Inspiring Creativity

Your relationship with the creative agency must be inspiring for all parties involved. It must stay fresh and new so that the creatives can continue to create, innovate, and overflow with novel ideas. The most important aspect of this relationship is trust. And building trust always takes time and effort. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of trust in a client-agency relationship because the brand and vision are essentially co-owned.

If I simply make all of the decisions and expect the creative agency to blindly deliver something that meets all of my expectations, then the creative inspiration and outcome that I receive will never be up to par. A creative person can only be inspired when you allow her into your space, invite her to share your brand’s vision, and give her space to translate your brand’s vision into something you may never even have dreamt about.

One of the most memorable experiences that I’ve had when working with a creative agency happened through an unconventional way of working. We met over coffee and started talking, and before you know it, we were jamming, brainstorming, challenging each other, and co-creating work in a safe and transparent space. We were so comfortable with each other that either of us could freely put out their worst ideas on the table without fear of judgment.

While you may have more understanding of the brand, the agency has a lot of creative inspiration to offer. But co-creation and sharing can only happen if you develop a relationship of trust and transparency that gives the creatives permission and space to share freely without being shut down immediately. It takes time for ideas to evolve and for creatives to innovate, so you must give them space and freedom to do so.

On the contrary, one of my worst experiences happened when the conversation and trust completely broke down. We were so focused on the brief and the script, trying to edit the same piece of work such that it conformed to the construct I had in mind, to begin with. This approach stifled the creative freedom of the creative and to our detriment prevented us from leveraging each other’s strengths.

Because these two approaches are drastically different, the quality of work that results from them would naturally be worlds apart. So as a marketer, it is your responsibility to use an approach that would inspire the creatives and give them space to dream, innovate, and create something that they would be proud of while simultaneously fulfilling the vision for your brand.

Establishing an open relationship with creatives from the beginning ensures that conversations surrounding your brand are engaging, fruitful, and rich. If you are too focused on making sure that the creative blindly follows your command, you won’t be getting their best work. Without room for free-flowing thoughts, the job becomes mundane and uninspiring.

Get to Know the People

The whole creative process hinges on the people who are involved, so it is essential to make sure that you have chemistry with the creative agency you choose. In order to gauge this, I usually insist on talking to the agency first to understand the people involved in my brand, their credentials, and their appetite for work. Through our conversation, I can have a better sense of whether or not a long-term relationship with them could potentially be fruitful.

When the creative presents their work, it’s important to take the time to understand the process through which they got there. Allow them to talk about what excited them about the project, what they enjoyed, and what struggles they encountered in the process. The ultimate goal of this conversation is to understand the culture of the agency: how they work, what inspires them, what they like or don’t like, how they manage and resolve conflicts.

Just as you have expectations of the creatives, they also have expectations of who they’d want to work with. Ask questions that will reveal their expectations so that you can get an idea of whether or not they’d enjoy working with you. After getting a clearer picture of the culture of the creative agency, you can then decide if their work ethic and passion are in sync with your brand.

While you need to assess the creative agency as a whole, it is equally important to take a deeper look into the person who will work on your brand. Ask to look at their previous work and observe the evolution of their work over time. Even if this creative person has done similar work but does not produce the kind of work that you are looking for, regardless of how good the person is, the fit is not right. You’re ultimately assessing the person for fit, not just quality.

It’s always a good idea to meet key people one-on-one. I almost always meet with the Account Head and the Planning Head because these two people will rally the creative team and be my voice in the agency. So, it’s important to understand their way of thinking, the work they’ve done, and what inspires them.

Before you even begin the process of choosing a creative agency, you have to understand why you are engaging the services of a creative agency. Is it to deliver an online marketing campaign for the sale period? Or is it to build the brand image over a three-month or two-year period? This will influence what you reveal to the creative agency and how you will guide them in the process of turning your vision into reality.

If you’re only working with the creative agency for a short period, the brief will be very transactional and to-the-point. You should give them very specific input and provide details of your expected outcome. On the other hand, if you want to build the brand with the creative agency over a longer period, you must give the creatives time to immerse in your brand. This does not happen in one sitting.

The challenge that most marketers face is that we’re always racing against time. We always want the results of long-term thinking in a short period of time. But the reality is, in order for the creatives to be able to incorporate the voice, vision, and story of your brand into the marketing campaigns, they need time and space to sit with your brand and fully understand where you’re coming from and what you’re looking for.

I usually go to a brief meeting with a broad vision about what I want, and my hope is that the creative will give me an idea of how to make this vision a reality. My vision must be translated into someone else’s ideas so that they can create something that is in line with my vision. But in order to do that, you must give the person a chance to pick your brain and ask questions so that they can better understand what you are looking for.

Marketers need to create room and space for open discussion and engagement so that we can break down the vision, challenge each other, and ask questions. This should go both ways. It’s not just about you giving them an assignment and stepping back. It’s a delicate dance where both parties have to put something on the table.

Sometimes, the creatives appreciate meeting in a cafe for coffee, rather than sitting around an intimidating table in a boardroom. This can lead to more free-flowing ideas and give them a comfortable space to dream and share their ideas for your brand. Occasionally, even if there is no brief on the table, it’s always a good idea to take them out for a drink once in a while to motivate them. Mix things up so that your relationship stays fresh and vibrant.

What’s In It For Them?

Since you are hiring the creative agency, it is your role as the marketer to inspire them. Regardless of who you’re working with, it can be quite challenging to find new ways to inspire the creative because different people are wired differently. Their experience or lack thereof predisposes them to think, work, and function a certain way which can either benefit or hinder your project.

If you’re working with senior people in the creative industry, then you know that they’ve seen it all. So the question you have to answer is, what would this brand campaign add to them and their credentials that they can actually be proud of? Through answering this question, you creative will be able to find motivation, drive, and inspiration to go above and beyond what they have done in the past to eloquently share your brand’s vision and story.

On the other hand, perhaps you may be working with someone who is just starting out in their career as a creative, and you’re thinking about giving them a chance. Excited as they may be about launching their career and building their repertoire of experience and projects, they also need to develop industry validation and awards to raise their stature. How can your project help them towards this goal?

Ultimately, it’s a balancing act between meeting your brand’s needs and fulfilling the creative’s goals. How can you ensure that what you need is delivered while inspiring the creative to do their best work?

Feedback That Gets the Job Done

As is in any relationship, criticism can be difficult to swallow, even if it’s constructive. Whenever a creative puts something on the table for you to consider, they have a certain level of attachment to their work. So, my rule of thumb is to never respond to the creative in the spur of the moment. Give it time for their work to sink in. Sleep on it if you need to. The goal is to do justice to someone’s work before you really accept or reject it.

Remember, the brief is the Bible. Once the agency has produced an outcome, compare the results to the detailed expectations that were laid out in the beginning to determine if they delivered above and beyond. The brief is ultimately an objective document that was co-created by the creative team and the brand team.

But before doing so, understand how the agency believes that their outcome fulfils what was agreed in the brief. Once you get a sense of their thought process, you can better grasp anything that they may have misunderstood from the beginning.

Occasionally, people may start challenging or even readjusting the brief at the outcome table. This is a huge issue because it means that you didn’t begin at the same starting point. Make sure that everyone has a clear understanding of what is expected to avoid any misunderstandings and save time.

When you are prepared to give feedback, make sure that your feedback is clear. If you want to praise an aspect of the work, focus on that without ending the sentence with a “but” statement. This only ends up leaving a bitter taste in their mouth. Always give the creative an opportunity to share their thoughts rather than rambling on about what you think they did wrong.

More often than not, agencies feel deserted if you just leave feedback on the table and say, “Fix it.” Any partnership requires two hands to clap. Show respect for your relationship by having an open discussion about the output. Commit to working together to ensure that the final draft meets the expectations everyone agreed on.

The specificity of your feedback largely depends on your level of comfort with the output. If the output delivers to the large objective of the brief but needs a few adjustments, then I usually address those specifically so that the creatives know exactly what to do. But if the outcome reveals a very different perspective that strays from the brief, then I focus on clarifying the overarching approach that I expected the creatives to take.

If you’ve been working with a creative agency for some time now, you may start to wonder if you should look for consistency or freshness in their work. The truth is, it all depends on the context and evolution of consumers. Great brands are built by being consistent with their core and finding fresher stories for the same. Equally, brands need to evolve with changing times and contexts.

Respect is Key

Just because you are hiring the creative agency doesn’t necessarily mean that you should call the shots about everything. Your agency may know more about the brand than you do, especially if they have been with the brand for several years and witnessed its evolution.

If you are new to the brand, as most marketers commit to each brand in two or three-year stints, it would be ideal to spend more time listening to the creative agency and what they have to offer based on their understanding of the brand. Marketers often desire to do something new, but agencies can sometimes act as the gatekeeper to push back on ideas that may not actually suit the vision and story of the brand.

When this happens, you shouldn’t be taken aback or offended. Instead, you should be ecstatic because this means that you are working with an agency that is as involved and passionate about your brand as you are, if not more. They are willing to stand up and speak up when they believe that something is inconsistent with what the brand stands for. A longstanding agency can be a strong guiding voice for young and fresh marketers who have just joined the brand.

Marketers are often tempted to see creatives as people from a completely different universe. But they actually face a lot of the same problems and motivations that any brand marketer would. Although they are inclined differently, they are fundamentally the same people. Treat them the same way, respect who they are and what they do, and make the most of your relationship with them. You may even end up building new friendships along the way!

Another common misconception is that agencies are obliged to give you their best work because they are commercially committed to a partnership with your brand. But just as employees need to be inspired and motivated by their employers, creatives also need you to build the relationship, engage with them, and help them work through challenges.

Finally, although we always feel like we’re working against time, sometimes it is necessary to take a step back, take a breath, and give the creatives room to dream. Creativity and innovation are not simply switches that can be turned on and off. You cannot expect the creative to produce two-year work within a few days. Give them the opportunity to immerse into your brand so that they can share your vision and tell your story.

1. Find What Motivates Them

The agency needs to be as inspired to work on your brand as much as you are. Take the time to learn about what motivates and interests them. That way, you can leverage their strengths to produce outcomes that meet your expectations while also building confidence and expertise in their work.

2. Immerse Them in Your World

In order for creatives to fully grasp your brand, you have to give them the opportunity to pick your brain to see the whole picture of how your brand functions. Whether it’s sending them samples from your brand or letting them visit your store, do what needs to be done so that they can experience your brand. This will improve the quality of their work multifold.

3. Set Expectations

Make sure that both parties have the opportunity to share what they expect of the other throughout the duration of the project so that everyone starts off on the same foot. This will enhance the longevity of your working relationship and prevent unnecessary conflict and misunderstanding in the future.