How Are You Trying To Change Your Reality?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Every project should start with this question.
In what ways do you want things to be different for your brand as a result of this? How do you want things to be different for your business after people see this ad? What are you hoping people will do after this experience that they aren't already doing?
What specific valuable outcomes are we trying to achieve?
Specific as in crystal clear, unambiguous, jargon-free, and measurable.
Valuable as in likely to improve the client's business. (You may not always know for sure how valuable something will be until you try it. You have to be open to risks, but, you should at least have a well reasoned hypothesis that what you're attempting will prove to be valuable.)
Outcomes as in observable products, new behaviors, or changed perceptions - as in something happened.
How often do you get your client to answer this crucial question before you start working?
Sure, sometimes you think you know what they want. You might assume that you know what they want. You might intuit what they want. But, do you actually get them to say it out loud? 'Cus that's the only way you know for sure that you understand each other.
Too often projects happen without questioning why or for what purpose until it's all over.
The reason why answering this question is so crucial is that it sets the stage for everything after it. Checking this box at the start of the project makes everyone happy.
The creative team knows what they need to do.
The client knows how to hold the agency accountable because they know what metrics indicate success or failure. (When metrics are defined at the start they can be used to guide the design and execution.)
The agency knows how to hold the client accountable because everyone knows what the client asked for.
In what ways do you want things to be different for your brand as a result of this? How do you want things to be different for your business after people see this ad? What are you hoping people will do after this experience that they aren't already doing?
What specific valuable outcomes are we trying to achieve?
Specific as in crystal clear, unambiguous, jargon-free, and measurable.
Valuable as in likely to improve the client's business. (You may not always know for sure how valuable something will be until you try it. You have to be open to risks, but, you should at least have a well reasoned hypothesis that what you're attempting will prove to be valuable.)
Outcomes as in observable products, new behaviors, or changed perceptions - as in something happened.
How often do you get your client to answer this crucial question before you start working?
Sure, sometimes you think you know what they want. You might assume that you know what they want. You might intuit what they want. But, do you actually get them to say it out loud? 'Cus that's the only way you know for sure that you understand each other.
Too often projects happen without questioning why or for what purpose until it's all over.
The reason why answering this question is so crucial is that it sets the stage for everything after it. Checking this box at the start of the project makes everyone happy.
The creative team knows what they need to do.
The client knows how to hold the agency accountable because they know what metrics indicate success or failure. (When metrics are defined at the start they can be used to guide the design and execution.)
The agency knows how to hold the client accountable because everyone knows what the client asked for.
4 Comments:
Couldn't agree more with this. We find it's always helpful to be specific around how the different changes a client wants fit together. In other words, most clients are programmed just to say they "want sales to increase" (business objective).
When thinking about change it is also necessary to think about marketing objective (what can marketing contribute), marketing strategy (how- what consumer change must it bring about). After that figuring out the role for engagement gets a lot easier. Its all mostly creative people care about anyway.
Amen to all that.
Problem is, most clients don't want to deal with these big, burning questions. As Stephen said, they are programed to look at short term gains
More importantly, these big questions are in many cases not only relevant to marketing, definitely not advertising but to the business as a whole so if you really want to change the world, you have to start with changing your own back yard...
This clarity is something that is much sought after and crops at the beginning of a client-agency engagement. However, it is seldom put to practice. It is easy to operate in an ambiguous environment as we are all used to playing the blame game, very well.
Speaking from the agency side, I think lot of times one is forced to 'think for the client' and agencies are ill-equipped to do so. They (agency) also lack the ability to express their inability.
Mike,
Thanks for your timely post. I am in the midst of planning a new campaign and this is a question that I have been struggling with. But it was great to see in such a great clear post. I appreciate your work!
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