Managing Creatives!
Jul 14 | Tim, President
What I’ve learned over 20 years is that salary is a small contributor to the overall health and well-being of a creative department and the level of quality and creativity of the projects they produce. Salary is used to bring a person on board more than anything else, but it’s the organization’s environment, coupled with an account base a creative team feels proud to work on, that makes or breaks their tenure.
It is a real tightrope trying to manage a group of people who, stereotypically, don’t like structure or conformity and are truly free-spirited. The goal is to push a team to develop great creative on time and within budget. This can be difficult. For instance, how long does it take to come up with the taglines, “Closest To The Magic of Central Florida,” or “What Can We Do For You Today?” and how much research time should be allocated to determine a client’s real issues, and are these perceived issues relevant to the target audience or just what the client thinks?
What I have learned is that creatives actually thrive when their basic environment is structured to the last detail – not so much the brainstorming approaches or the introspective thinking that is required to develop new and unique creative concepts that position the truth in the best possible light – but the everyday ebb and flow of the assignments that go through the creative department. Oh, and by the way, that’s what I think we really do, “Position the truth in the best possible light.” The best thing that you can do for your creative department is, with great detail, structure their work environment and precisely manage the information that is given to them, so they can concentrate solely on the marketing and communication challenge at hand. The account people can sometimes become frustrated with this part of the process and feel as if they are “babying” the creative department. What they are really doing is giving the creatives more time to focus strictly on the communication hurdle and find that one simple idea that cuts through all the clutter and smacks the target audience right between the eyes.
Some other things to consider – once you have found creative individuals, they need to know that you trust them. They’ll come to the account managers with all kinds of crazy questions. Don’t argue with them; just get them the information. They need to have a really solid comfort level with the account and the industry.
They also need to know that they can trust you. They need to absolutely know that you, the owner, and/or the account manager will actually fight for good creative. Go the extra mile when presenting their ideas to the client and help with the continual process of keeping the client on message along with everything and everyone else.
As far as dividing up the assignments, I think it’s important to mix things up. Yes, it’s helpful when certain individuals become familiar with an account, but when it’s time to develop new creative, give other people an opportunity to participate. Great creative is not produced in a vacuum. I truly believe that it’s the collaborative process that develops the best, most insightful, and successful creative.
Awards and accolades from peers also help drive creative thinking, even from people in our office who don’t think of themselves as “creatives.” For example, we open up the development of our holiday gift project to the entire company – from the CFO to the intern, etc. Some really outstanding creative ideas are generated from this annual tradition, and they’re not incited by money. It’s amazing what a great environment and a little competition among peers can do!
Give some thought to your corporate culture and how you can motivate, engage, and encourage your employees in the upcoming year to think creatively and give your company an edge on the competition. Our best to you and yours in 2009!
Respectfully yours,
Tim Bach
President