Getting the best from your agency
Working with a creative agency can be a daunting task for any business. Choosing the right one for your project is hard enough let alone developing a good working relationship and producing great outcomes too.
So whether you are refreshing your brand, developing new advertising or shooting a brand video, we’ve put together a few pointers to help you get the best out of your agency relationship.
Be clear
Before you even start talking to an agency, be very clear about what you’re trying to achieve.
Start by writing yourself a project brief. Be specific about what your objectives are and order them in importance. Your objectives should be specific, clear and realistic for your timeline and budget. Remember, you’re bringing in an agency because they’re specialists not magicians!
Make sure to include detail about your audience too. Ask yourself ‘what does my audience want/need from me?’ Check out the free Bolstur ‘Defining your Market and Developing Personas’ workbook to help you distill who your audience truly is.
Don’t forget to include your timeline and be as realistic as possible. It often helps to write down your perfect timeline and your realistic timeline together.
And last, but not least, include your budget. You may not know what the industry standard is for your particular project but you will know if you are willing to spend $20,000 on it or not. Always be clear of your absolute hard limit so you can manage project expectations. It often helps to give an agency a broad budget range so they have an indication of your expectations.
Being clear about your project brief can help you save time and money in initial agency meetings. It helps you clearly direct the agency towards the best outcome and gives you something to come back to if the project isn’t going in the right direction.
Be selective
Be selective about who you want to work with. Every agency has its own strengths and weaknesses. Every agency works in a slightly different way. So spend time understanding how you want to work and find an agency that fits.
Do you have a specific vision or a specific outcome you want brought to life? Do you want to be involved in the creative process? You may want to choose a smaller agency or a freelancer that takes direction well and can work quickly with you.
Do you have idea for your project but you’re not sure how to get there? Working with an agency that embeds itself as an extension of your business and includes you in the process may be best.
Or you might just be incredibly busy and need someone to finish the project for you? An agency that works well on its own and has clear communication processes is likely the best fit.
Understanding how you want to work, selecting an agency that fits that and being very clear about how you want to work will set expectations and make communication throughout your project 100x easier.
Be involved
Most creative agencies like to work as an extension of your business. They want to work closely with you to create the best outcomes possible. This means having your input throughout the process.
If you are going to engage an agency, make sure someone on your team has the capacity to liaise with the agency project team. This person would sign off the creative briefs, feed back on ideas and generally be the voice of your business throughout the process. They also help keep the timeline on track by interacting with the agency when needed. This engagement from the start helps identify potential issues early and develop buy-in from your team.
However, sometimes you just don’t have the capacity to be overly involved in the process and that’s ok too! If you can’t give much time to the project and want the agency to take the lead, be upfront and tell them that. Ask them to be clear when you are needed to progress the project and what level of communication you expect from them.
Setting clear communications expectations up front helps ensure everyone has what they need at the right time.
Be objective
Personal preference has been the downfall of many a creative project in business. Sentences like “I just don’t like the colour red” or “The boss hates that photo” are kryptonite to projects trying to fit a brief. Comments with no objective reason as to why make it difficult to create the perfect outcome for your customer or audience.
Remember when giving feedback - be objective. Put yourself in the shoes of the audience and think about what they will like or dislike. When you give feedback, explain why the ideas fit or don’t fit the brief. Tying it back to the objectives and personas in your brief will help ground the objectivity of your feedback.
And if you’re certain your audience won’t like the red either, then the red has to go!
This insight was kindly put together by one of our favourite hoomans, who also happens to have a depth of marketing know-how from her time running social media teams, building digital communities, creating and managing killer campaigns for some iconic NZ brands, and being an overall good b***h at GBB too.
Check out her site, insta, twittering, and connect with Kelsie on LinkedIn.
@KiaoraKelsie making the most of the gram-worthy spots all over China - September 2019