There were good answers ranging from, “having AEs doesn’t equal having good AEs” to, “do it yourself”—which paints a pretty bleak picture of the AEs role in an agency (and might be a good topic for another post)—but my favorite response came from Mark Hayes; founder, creative director and jack of all trades at Mark Hayes Design.

Mark’s given me permission to republish his response here, so without further ado, here are his thoughts on how to get good input without a (good) Account Executive:

Good AEs are worth their weight in gold but, as mentioned above, they’re rare and beautiful creatures…

One thing you can do is run through your own drill and try to dial down into what you need to do creatively. The creative briefs that we often see from AEs that aren’t the best of the best can be worth less than the toner and paper that they come on.

We exist to help our clients meet their challenges as elegantly and as effectively as possible, answering some basic questions can help get that done (and it doesn’t really matter what media, good communication is good communication, knowing WHAT to say helps you figure out HOW to say it):

1. WHO ARE WE TALKING TO?
Don’t try to answer in statistical categories like demographics or psychographics. Instead, try to find the common-thread mindset of your prospect group. (Bad answer: “Women 25-50 with HH incomes $50K+.” Good answer: “Anybody who’s planning to buy a medium-to high-end refrigerator in the next six weeks.”)

2. WHAT ARE THEIR PRECONCEPTIONS OF OUR PRODUCT CATEGORY?
Not a general answer, but an answer specific to your isolated target group.

3. WHAT ARE THEIR PRECONCEPTIONS OF OUR PRODUCT IN PARTICULAR?
If any.

4. WHAT ARE THEIR PRECONCEIVED WANTS FROM OUR PRODUCT CATEGORY?
Make a list, then prioritize them. And play fair. Don’t try to make it match what you think you have to sell.

5. WHICH OF THESE WANTS DOES OUR PRODUCT LEGITIMATELY MEET?
A hard-nosed, not a forgiving answer.

6. GIVEN ALL OF THE ABOVE, WHAT CAN A COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT REASONABLY HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH?
Pick a reasonable goal. Good answer: “To become recognized as the best-designed refrigerator in our price category.” Bad answer: “To increase sales 25%.” Communications can work wonders, but too many other factors influence sales—pricing, distribution, production problems, discounting by the competition, etc.

7. WHAT’S THE PRECISE OBJECTIVE FOR THIS PIECE OF COMMUNICATION?
Nothing so vague as “to increase awareness” or the like. Instead, something like “to make the target prospect phone the 800 number or click the link with the expectation that, if we prove to be as advertised, they’ll move forward in the buying process.”

8. HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE AND WHAT VEHICLE IS THE SMARTEST WAY TO ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL?
Think hard on this one, it’s not your money you’re spending and knee-jerk decisions based on your own comfort zones can sometimes hurt the client.

In other words, even without strong AEs we can still fall back on Creative Direction 101…

- – - – -

What’s your answer to the problem of getting good input? I would love to hear an AEs perspective on this topic, so if you know one, send them a link to this post.

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With a 2-year program, JCCC breaks the portfolios into 1st, 2nd and 3rd semesters (along with a peek at the Senior show at the end of the day). Three reviewers are assigned to each group (I reviewed 3rd semester work), and the students’ blood, sweat and tears are simply placed on tables around the classrooms with most of the work submitted on boards, as 3D objects (for packaging and books) and/or presented digitally (for web-based pieces). Each reviewer in a group individually evaluates a student’s work, providing scores on several predetermined categories along with space for constructive comments.

KCAI has a 4-year program and breaks the portfolios into Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior categories. They invite 6 – 10 reviewers to participate in student presentations. Each student stands in front of the group of professionals and faculty to present their work, describe their process and explain what they learned over the semester. Reviewers are encouraged to provide good, honest feedback which gives students the opportunity to either defend their ideas or accept advice for improving their work.

Regardless of the presentation style between the programs, I took notes on common mistakes and words of wisdom that floated through my head during each process, and several themes emerged. So without further ado and in no particular order, here’s my advice for design students and recent grads.

Spell check and proofread

At once the issue that’s most common and easiest to fix—poor spelling and grammar. Spell check is your friend. Your best friend. Your BFF. Use it. Spelling errors will shine like the brightest starts when a potential employer or client is reviewing your work, and there’s no excuse for having them in your portfolio.

Proofreading errors are a little harder to catch on your own, so it’s worth your time to have someone else read through your copy to catch the common mistakes. Not sure when to use “your” vs “you’re”, “their” vs “there” or the tricky “its” vs “it’s”? Make friends with a copywriter or someone in the English department and ask them to review your copy. Again, if you don’t catch it, your potential employer or client will, and your resume will be unceremoniously dumped in the trash.

Show your process

Whether it’s sketches, mood boards, color studies or something else, it’s worth showing. The secret to design is that it’s not so much about visual style as it is about an approach to solving problems. And just like math class, it’s important to show your work. I want to see how you approached a particular problem and be able to understand that you didn’t just poop out the first idea that floated through your head. You might be able to pull that off when you get a job (and you might have to), but for the sake of this—the first dance—you need to demonstrate that there are brains behind your beautiful work.

It’s OK to revise student work

Your portfolio needs to be the best expression if who you are as a designer. If  a student project didn’t turn out quite the way you planned or you hear suggestions about how to improve a piece in your book, change it. It will give you an opportunity to talk about what you learned and how open your are to feedback. Not happy with a real-world project? Probably better to leave those as-is and keep them in the middle of your book.

Start Strong, End Strong

Which brings me to the next tip, start with one of the strongest pieces in your book and end with your strongest piece. In all likelihood, the last page of your book will be visible during a good chunk of your interview. If it features your strongest work, that’s what will stick with your interviewer. It’s tempting to show a progression of your work or show real-world pieces last—don’t. Just remember, start strong, end strong.

Post Your Work Online

No matter what discipline you’re pursuing, POST YOUR WORK ONLINE. Pursuing web design? Create a kick-ass site that highlights your best work, reflects your personality, and demonstrates that you’re trying to keep up with the fast-paced world of web. Pursuing print design or copywriting? Work with a web-savvy friend to digitize your work. If you’re lacking dot-comrades or web skills, create a portfolio on sites like CarbonMade.com, Coroflot.com or AIGA.org. Short on funds? Get creative and sign up for Tumblr or post your pieces on Flickr… anything that makes it easy for those hiring to see your work and share it with others.

Leave-behinds

I saw a lot of clever tchotchkes at JCCC’s Senior Show that I would love to have on my desk, but wouldn’t you like a leave-behind that will keep working for you after the interview is over? It’s easy—show your work. I’m looking for something I can share with other folks in the office to get them excited about having you on the team. There are simple approaches and elaborate approaches… pick your poison. Whatever you pick, show your work.

Wrapping Up

There are other tips I could share, but I would love to hear what other CD’s look for. Any students reading? Let’s hear what you expect — what are your instructors telling you and how does it match up with what you’re actually experiencing in interviews?

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So – what do you do when your flame is about to extinguish?

Sadly, I don’t have the answer – but I’m looking for it – - – - really hard. 

An outside creative outlet can help you – but it doesn’t really help your creative team members very much – unless they’re included. A cheerful attitude is a good dressing on the wound, but won’t really help heal it. Donuts on Fridays, field trips, it’s all good – but just a smokescreen if you can’t address the root problems.

Many studies have been done that demonstrate that most creative people are not motivated by money. They’re motivated by a sense of being needed – for one – and by feeling that they do work that is valued…and good. If they’re not doing what they feel is good work – then no amount of cheery smiles, donuts or field trips is going to provide the counter-effect they need to get re-energized.

If possible, find a way to change the environment. Value planning, strategy and following a repeatable process. Work to make your input documents clear and concise. Guard against those who obfuscate your objective. Clarify, clarify, clarify. Don’t worry about the donuts, give them a good brief and you’ll start seeing smiles again.

In the end – you may just have to face the reality that you’re in the wrong place. You simply can’t change a company’s DNA, and if you’re at a place where you’re constantly fighting to simplify your message – and losing – you’re probably fighting a fight that you simply can’t win. Tug and John say that you have to know when a concept needs a bullet to the brain – well, the same goes for a job.

TK

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It’s essentially a chicken & egg issue — we’re not ready to commit money to media buys, but we need approved creative. The creative is dependent on a budget, and I don’t want the team to produce work that will get axed if we find out we find out we don’t have the budget to actually run the work.

With all this rattling around in my head, I’ve been looking at ads—specifically mobile ads (although it’s not what we’re developing)—through the lens of what happens when media buyers and creative teams work well together and what happens when they don’t.

Examples: Zyrtec vs Cartier

Click on a screen below for the play-by-play…

What did we learn here today?

To be fair, trying to find the Cartier ad a second time proved to be a challenge. They didn’t seem to devote much of their budget to actually running the ad (although the fault could lie with the app). Once I did find it again though, I found ways to view their site outside of the app.

The Zyrtec ad isn’t as engaging, but it’s there every time I fire up The Weather Channel app. But no matter how many times I see the their ad, they’ve effectively thrown their money out the window because I can’t do anything with their offer… it’s a dead end. A good media buy and a good creative execution fall apart because the teams (seemingly) didn’t communicate. Had the media team understood the medium, they could have tasked the creative team with developing a web page specifically for this campaign, allowing the audience to receive the PDF via email or find a nearby store where they can buy the product.

I’m not sure how to wrap this all up other than to say that media buyers and creatives should be working together as early in the process as possible and the more communication that takes place, the better. I’d love to hear thoughts from both creatives and media buyers on the challenges they face working with each other.

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I went to school for fine arts, and wanted to be a painter. One small decision after another led me to the place I am now. Don’t get me wrong – I think I’m really pretty lucky to be where I am, but it’s definitely not where I thought I’d be.

The good news is – it’s never too late to make a change, if you really want to. If you are an “artist at work” and you want to be a “working artist” then now’s the time. If you’re like me, you’ve been making excuses for years. …I need to take a class…I don’t know what my style is…once I get done redoing the kids’ bedroom, I’ll….

Get involved. Find out what artistic opportunities are available in your area – and sign up. Commit yourself to something that will make you work at being an artist or author. Change your excuses around – maybe next month it will be …once I get three more paintings done, I can fix the downspout…  (or for you writer types) …one more chapter before I go clean the garage…

Good luck, tkartistatwork

latest sketchbook spread

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I was in Border’s a couple days ago and came across a book for the third time – that means three times I’ve almost bought it, but kept putting it back. It’s called “The Illustrated Life” and it’s simply a compilation of sketchbook pages from a number of different creative people. Artists, illustrators, designers and others. It’s an amazing piece of inspirational fodder. Just looking at it makes you feel artistic. (maybe I’ll buy it just to lay it around my house so people will think I’m more creative than I am).

At any rate – after looking at the book for the third time, I bought some Moleskin sketchbooks (the little soft-sided ones) and started sketching. I’ve uploaded the first few pages here.

The first page of my new sketchbook.

So it’s not great – but it’s a start. No real “style” at this point, but that comes later.

Next pages:

Now we’re getting somewhere. I even used it to concept visuals for some ads. (note the self-portrait)

The point of this is: No one is going to take care of your creative well-being for you. It takes a little effort, but it makes a big difference. We all deal with daily frustrations that can wear on your creative spirit. Let it go long enough, and you can develop some real issues. As creative people we need a release – and a small sketchbook or journal can be just the thing. I prefer a sketchbook because there are no lines – no rules – just open space to put down ideas, frustrations, anger, sadness – whatever I need to get out of my head.

TK

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In an in-house environment, it’s often a much more convoluted arrangement. The CD will likely have a superior they report to, and ultimately, the head of the in-house communications department will often report to a marketing individual, or possibly a senior-level sales executive.

Beyond that, operations and other departments can become involved, as well. The result is a system in which the decision-maker may actually be a committee.

The CD makes observations and recommendations on the team’s work, but then may be over-ruled at any number of points along the presentation process. The result is muddled, and unclear feedback – and a confused, frustrated creative team.

As much as possible, it’s important to identify who owns a project. Who you are required to show it to, and who’s input is the most important. Setting meetings  where the senior-most person involved can ensure getting your full collection of work in front of the right people. Hopefully avoiding the dreaded tendency to self-edit.

Another good tactic is to make certain that roles are clearly identified. We struggle constantly because our roles are not clearly defined. When that’s the situation, it can be impossible to determine who has the final decision, and everyone is free to offer comments whether or not they are qualified. Again, the result is often muddled, unclear – and often conflicting – input.

If you manage an in-house creative team, it’s important to be as specific as possible. Assign specific people to a project with specific limitations and deliverables. Provide specific messaging for each deliverable and avoid the tendency to do one brief to cover multiple elements. It’s more work, but it’s worth it.

Identify specific due dates with the deliverables, as well. When providing feedback, be as specific as possible. Distinguish between copy issues and visual/design issues. If it’s a concept at issue, refer back to the brief to give foundation that the team can understand. (this can also help you determine if it’s truly off-strategy, or just something YOU don’t like).

Now, if I could only follow my own advice.

TK

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Here are some real-life examples:

1. I personally did not hire one particularly talented designer soley based on the content of his blog.  It was consistently foul-mouthed, childish, and largely pointless. He did not know I knew about the blog since it never referenced his name, but it only took about three minutes of poking around to find it.
2. On the flip side, one positive hiring decision was influenced by the candidate’s blog content — it was professional, work-related, thoughtful, and actually had a readership.  It went a long way in affirming my instinct that this was a strong hire.
3. A lot of employees at my company maintain Facebook profiles, and of course they all friend each other, so when one starts acting up, I inevitably hear about it. And when it gets out of hand, I have to sit down and have a conversation with them to fix the issue. Being careful with social media is still applicable after you’ve been hired.
4. One of my peer managers was interviewing a promising prospective employee, and did some prudent snooping around the web. After digging deep into his multiple LinkedIn profiles, and his MySpace page, and then calling some past “employers”, it became quickly evident this guy’s resume was completely bogus — like litigiously bogus. And when confronted with this, he flew into a rage, threatened to sue us, blamed us for getting fired from his current job, which of course caused stress in his marriage, and then prompty disappeared. He was, of course, completely crazy, and his LinkedIn trickery was the tremor that shattered the illusion. This whole event just reinforced to our management team the need to really look into people’s online output as part of the hiring process.

All but one of these examples is negative. It’s important to highlight #2, because this is where developing an online persona can be a huge positive. When I get a resume, I love reading the candidate’s blog (and seriously, these days, three out of four designers either blog or are on Twitter). It provides such great contextual information, and makes for some good interview questions.

The flip side of this is that I occassionally get candidates who researched me.  I had one guy ask me about specific articles I had written on different websites, including A List Apart and my blog. The interview was surreal — because I had read his blog and he had read mine, it’s like we were friends sitting down for a beer instead of two total strangers deciding each other’s futures.

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1. Hoopla

This book is jam-packed with pictures and stories that detail the rise of one of the hottest agencies around today (love ‘em or hate ‘em). I included this book in the list for two reasons: 1) it’s inspirational to hear how good old-fashioned creative thinking has fueled the agency’s success and 2) it tells the stories behind their campaigns (good and bad), including one of my faves: the MINI Cooper launch. MINI came to CP+B with dreams of making a big splash on a national stage a budget too small for a traditional broadcast campaign (something that I’m sure everyone is hearing more and more these days)… but CP+B kept their collective goatee’d chins up, drenched the campaign in their creative juices and pulled off a hugely successful product launch. Sales far outpaced expectations (in an era where SUVs reigned) and demand remains high to this day.

Unfortunately, this book is nigh impossible to track down, so kudos to you if you find a copy. If you’re the non-linear patient type, you can actually read a lot of the book on its website—LaVidaHoopla—but there’s nothing like holding the real thing in your hands. If you know me and you ask nice, you can probably borrow it sometime.

2. Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. A Guide to Creating Great Advertising

This book should be required reading for anyone who’s even remotely involved in any kind of advertising. As someone who managed to become a CD via non-traditional channels with no exposure to ad agency life, this book was invaluable to my creative development. It reinforced things I already knew (aka learned the hard way) and opened my eyes to the finer points of advertising that you can usually only learn through years of experience.

3. Managing Humans: Biting and Humorus Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

At first blush, you wouldn’t guess this book would have much relevance to Creative Management, but you’d be wrong. The truths of management are universal—create a great environment for your team, hire great people and let them do what they do best (don’t micro-manage), give good direction, keep the bullshit at bay, and be ready to listen, mediate, and play therapist at a moment’s notice. This book is packed with stories of lessons learned through years of management, and it’s worth reading for anyone tasked with herding cats blessed with the opportunity to lead.

4. In-House Design In Practice

As the title suggests, this book is the dryest of the bunch, but it’s worth reading if you’re facing the unique challenge of building or running an in-house creative group. It’s sprinkled with case studies well-known in-house groups like Fossil, Virgin Atlantic and covers pretty much all the issues you’d expect to encounter in an in-house environment, like educating internal clients, promoting your services, proving your worth, budgeting, internal billing, and more.

Those are my picks… if you had to pick four books that could help someone be a better Creative Director, what would your list look like?

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Felix’s list includes some of the points I mentioned in Finding a Balance—hiring great creatives, being selfless and being the last line of defense, but he really goes into detail about why these qualities are important… it’s must-read stuff for anyone following this path.

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