Managing Problems with a Creative Concept - Report Example

Name) (Instructors Name) (Course) (Date) CHAPTER 3-THE DAY-TO-DAY RELATIONSHIP What Clients Want Though companies may be operating in the same sector or industry, they often have different requirements. Moreover, even when the requirements are similar, the client will often prioritize them differently according to their routes to market, their experiences, scale as well as the number of agencies used. For instance, clients would want an agency that demonstrates a good return on the investment they may have put in marketing. Another client would want an agency that is proactive, and that can make it look good. Thus, this indicates clients will always have two categories of answers whenever they are asked about the agency that they would settle on. These two sets of answers are known as the primary and delivery criteria. Primary Criteria Client companies choose agencies because of their: i) Marketplace Knowledge ii) Selector/media Experience iii) Capabilities iv) partnership and Networks v) Vision vi) World-Class People vii) Creativity Delivery Criteria As far as delivery criteria are concerned, client companies resort with working with a particular agency because of their: i) Speed to market ii) Quality delivery iii) Professionalism iv) Personal Relationship v) Cost Efficiency Clients will always use results in the determining the value for their money. Notably, client companies often feel that agency staff does not often appreciate the significance of financial associated with the marketing campaigns they often carry out. They rarely respect the budget limits as it is not their money. To buttress the bond between the agency and the client company, the agency needs to show integrity accountability and respect to budgets when it comes to utilizing the funds allocated for the campaign. Managing the Client Relationship during Campaigns Good servicing can be associated with creating, managing as well as exceeding expectations and as such, an effective campaign must work within such frameworks. The agency must always stick seven important aspects: i) The objectives of the campaign, that is, the results that the client seeks to achieve. ii) The target audience. iii) The metrics. iv) The Budget. v) The product, its message as well as the media to be used. vi) Timing or the time schedules. vii) The manner in which the client wants to work with the agency itself. The next process would be to come up with a better-quality brief in order to capture as well as interpret the client’s intentions on paper. The creative brief should incorporate an inspiring proposition and the creative should be shared with the client company, who signs it off. Producing an Effective Creative Briefing It is important for the agency to work on the creative brief given by the client company and follow it to the latter such that it gives direction, excite, involve as well as inspire. The agency should encourage the agency to creative a watertight creative brief. The creative should be able to demonstrate the understanding of the brand, surprise, focus and clarity. Key Elements of a Written Brief i) The written should indicate the target audience ii) The customer proposition, which should single-minded as well as any relevant supporting evidence iii) The role of the communications and its competitive context. Managing problems with a creative concept On rare occasions, problems associated with the creative can emerge due to the manner in which the agency is selling the concept, the concept itself or the reception of the concept by the client. However, these problems can often be managed or solved by influencing the selling as well as the receipt of the concept along the way by involving the client in the process. For a creative campaign to run effectively an agency requires: i) An efficient project management team ii) An efficient communication process iii) A clear process iv) Clarity of roles v) Resources such as time and money vi) A good project organization Effective Campaign Communication with Agency’s staff and Clients Good relations both internally and externally are important in running projects as one gets to achieve his or her personal commitment, piece of mind as well as getting the desired project outcome. Confidence in each other’s abilities and mutual trust can be achieved through having excellent communication relationships How the day-to-day relationship relates to the principle of creative agency services In order to service a client company effectively, the agency must pay attention to how it plans and executes the campaign in order to attain the client’s intended objectives. The agency must come up with clear project plan, with proper assigning of roles and responsibility as well as ensure accountability. As Fera (par.1) indicates agencies, which have proper project management process often create a mutual relationship with its client company and often benefit from the word-of mouth marketing. Thus, project management team that will be involved in the development of the campaign strategy as well as the execution of the creative brief must make sure that each of its team members understands their roles. Moreover, they need to know how they can interact with other team members such as the client, in and outside suppliers in order to maintain an excellent relationship with the clients. For instance, the project team must have a financial/resource manager who will be responsible for all the materials and funds needed to run the campaign. Secondly, project management team must have a communications director who briefs members of potential meeting and other important information which all members need to have. In addition, all the expenses, how little it might be, must always be indicated on the report in order to win the client’s trust. Every detail of the project must be shared with the client in order to maintain the relationship so that the agency can qualify on both the primary and delivery criteria whenever the client needs such services in the future. Works Cited Fera, Rae Ann. 'Revealing The Naked Truth Behind The Agency-Client Relationship'. Co.Create. N.p., 2014. Web. 12 May 2015. CHAPTER 4–BRIEFING AN AGENCY The brief is considered as the most important leverage point whereby the agency team can consolidate their expertise thinking in order to influence the client company. The brief aims to convince the client that the agency is on course and is confident and good at whatever it does. Teamwork, the desire to influence the client in an impactful and inspiring way, the relentless inquisitiveness of the agency staff is what contributes to the brief itself and the briefing process as well. The value of the Briefing Process A good briefing often results in better work as well as a greater impact on the agency’s target audience. In addition, also saves time and money as far as the use of people and resources are concerned. A good briefing also establishes benchmarks for the agency’s impact on the market and its performances. Through the briefing process, the agency can shape the perceptions and decision of its target group at any given time. The Role of the Different Briefing Stages More often than not, large companies have various internal campaign management teams and as such, they must follow a particular channel when going about the briefing process. To start with, the product marketing team will begin by briefing the internal campaign team, who later briefs the briefs the agency who eventually comes up with the creative brief to be used by the creative team. The Key elements to the Brief The most important elements that should be incorporated in a brief include: i) Project management-gives details such as the name of the project, the date, the client team and the contact details, the brand company name, the purchase order and the agency team plus their contacts. ii) The current status of the status of the brand. This includes the background, market size and key communication issues. iii) The measurable objective-that is where the brand wants to be after the campaign. iv) The campaign and marketing strategy v) Should be involved vi) The evaluation and performance measure criteria vii) The practicalities- the budget and structures. viii) Approvals. For a brief to be considered excellent it must demonstrate four important principles. They must depict evidence of achieving the brand, understanding clarity, maintaining focus as well as creating surprise. Objectives of the communications Typically all marketing communications must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART). Here, Specific is related to what, by when, where and by how much with regard to achieving the objectives. Second, Measurable means that the marketing team must be in a position to measure the objectives in order to know if they have achieved it later. Achievable relates to the objectives being realistic. Relevant is associated with relating the objectives to the overall vision. Ultimately, Time-related means that the objectives must indicate the starting and ending point of the objectives in order for the creative team to within a timeframe. The customers The campaigning team must have the customers’ information. The creative team should know who they are talking to in terms of demographic, behavioral, psychographic segmentation. Briefing an Agency and how it relates to the principle of creative agencies Briefing an agency is often considered the most significant avenue in which the agency gets to establish a long working relationship with its client company. During the briefing the agency role is to grasp as much information as possible in order to get it right from the start. The agency uses this opportunity to suggest new concepts in the creative brief thus expanding the concept to be initiated in the campaign. For instance, if an agency finds it suitable to increase the number of media channels in order to the reach the maximum target audience, it will engage the client company at the briefing agency stage. According to Chakrabarty (p.7) , it is important for an agency to understand the sole purpose of the campaign in order to strategize an effective marketing communications. The agency should ensure that it consults with the client company with regard to the creative brief such that it is involving, exciting, inspiring, gives direction and does not restrict unnecessarily. The briefing process sets an avenue for the agency to show its expertise by giving a number of options together with relevant supporting evidence. Through being actively involved in the briefing process, the agency demonstrates its appreciation for the client-service relationship as well accountability as it takes care of the budget involved in whole campaign. Works Cited Chakrabarty, Subrata, Dwayne Whitten, and Kenneth W. Green. "Understanding service quality and relationship quality in IS outsourcing: Client orientation & promotion, project management effectiveness, and the task-technology-structure fit." Project Management Effectiveness, and the Task-Technology-Structure Fit (2008): 1-15. CHAPTER 5-CHAMPIONING THE CREATIVE PRODUCT The marketing team’s role in the organization is that of a diplomat, PR agent, presenter, politician, educationist as well a host of many other task that are often not in the job description. Thus championing the creative product, involves making sure that the creative output that the agency developed and implemented is excellent and it is upon the marketing department to ensure that the creative survives the company’s approvals and processes. How to evaluate a creative Evaluation of the creative should always start long before the actual work is seen. Thus, the marketing department must prepare the groundwork, determine the evaluation criteria and establish the right mindset. Providing Usable feedback It is important for the marketing team to think about the concepts that will be given to the agency rather giving out instructions that are unprepared and not well thought. The feedback should be based on six principles: i) It should highlight the positive. ii) It should identify how the marketing team feels about the main idea. iii) It should postpone minor points concerning the execution to later in the conversation iv) The feedback should be honest. v) The feedback should not direct the agency to make changes. If a problem is identified, the agency be told in clarity about the problem as well as suggesting how should be solved. Creating a Creatively Receptive Environment Once the organization is happy with concept developed by the agency, it is now upon its role the marketing department to progress the concept through the organization’s management for approval. During the rigors of the approval process, the creative team advocating for concept must be viewed from an open-mind perspective. They need to be understood in terms of how the creative concept will add value to the business. Presenting the Creative Effectively The presentation of a creative concept is important as it might enthrall or even howler the audience. Therefore, as the head of marketing, one should prepare well and be confident enough during the presentation. Accordingly, one needs to use the following basic principles to guide him or her in giving out a good creative presentation: i) Should be well prepared ii) The presentation should be show evidence of clarity; a clear message or purpose. iii) During the presentation, there must be a connection with the audience. iv) The presenter must be in control of the environment. In essence, the presenter should always be happy and certain that the concepts are in line with the brief. Moreover, the presenter should be confident that the concept will enrapture their colleagues. Prior to the presentation, the presenter can ask one of his or her colleague to be play the devil’s advocate by asking challenging questions that may be asked during the actual presentation in order to be well prepared. How Championing the Creative Product relates to the Principle of Creativity Services As Sharma and Patterson (p. 168) posits the work of the agency does not only involve developing the creative brief given to them by their clients and implementing it. Instead, the agency is expected to work with the marketing department of the client company more so during the championing of the creative product. In order to qualify for the delivery criteria, the agency will need to show support during the championing period, whereby the client’s marketing team is expected to evaluate the creative and present to its management in order to get support and eventually approval. Thus, during the evaluation an agency’s staff should be given the responsibility of advising as well as answering any question that may came from the client in their evaluation process. Moreover, during feedback, the agency should give out all relevant details and explain them accordingly in order for the client to be well versed with the creative concept. This will help the client during presentation as the presenter will have an idea of how the creative was developed and how it would achieve the marketing objectives, which are in line with the overall business objectives. In addition, the client should be willing to coach the client’s marketing team on how they can present the creative product to the management and thus capture their attention and approval of the same. For instance, when Ogilvy and Mather Ad Agency was hired by Dove to develop a creative related with the “real beauty campaign,” the ad agency also prepared a comprehensive presentation creative brief that managed to convince the Unilever ’s management thus approving the project (Millard p.18). Thus, the client-service relationship plays a very important role in managing the marketing communications. Works Cited Sharma, Neeru, and Paul G. Patterson. "The impact of communication effectiveness and service quality on relationship commitment in consumer, professional services." Journal of services marketing 13.2 (1999): 151-170. Millard, Jennifer. "Performing Beauty: Dove's “Real Beauty” Campaign." Symbolic Interaction 32.2 (2009): 146-168. Read More