Hey Agency Owner — how do you keep your creatives on target?

An ad agency creative brief is one way to get your creatives to stay on target when they may be struggling. In today's digital, data driven agency environment -- many agencies struggle to keep their creatives on target. We're evolving from the Mad Men era where creative was king to a time when results, ROI and metrics are the sexy way that we bring in clients and billings. So, given the environment and the fact that your creative team is probably feeling a little displaced -- how do you keep your creatives on target? An ad agency creative brief is one way to get the ball rolling. First let me say this -- many creative professionals in the agency business get it.  They understand that their job is to help the client's cash register ring and that creative for awards, for pride or for cool just doesn't cut it.  But even the best of them can get off target.  To be fair -- sometimes the creatives aren't on target because the account team set them up to fail. Bad (or no) creative briefs Unreasonable timelines Unclear deliverables, details or wishy washy facts Regardless of the specifics -- it's incredibly costly (time, money and morale) to have the creative team work hard on something only to have the account team say it's so off target that we can't show the client. Ideally the entire agency should be constantly screening work as it evolves to make sure it's on strategy and going to be well received by the client.  It doesn't mean they have to buy it -- but they do have to feel like their money was well spent when they pay you for the development. No matter [...]