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Client-Agency Creative

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A couple years ago, I went to the Cannes Lions, the main show for advertising. There's a giant gallery room in the basement of the main Palais building with all the work submitted for awards.

As I walked past the ads and case studies, all I could think about was how the sausage gets made.

The creative "idea" usually gets all the attention and hoopla, but much of the quality of the work depends upon "process" — how the idea is brought to life.

Great creative ideas plus a crappy creative process equals crappy creative work.

My cartoon this week on the asymmetrical way timelines get negotiated is only part of the story.

Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler at BetterBriefs have been on a mission to improve that creative process, releasing reports to hold up the mirror on how the clients and agencies operate in practice. They started with the brief, which is too often an uninspired word salad.

Their findings included this stunning takeaway:

"78% of marketers believe their briefs provide clear strategic direction. Only 5% of agencies agree."

They've since been focusing on better ideas in general and the core of the client-agency relationship itself -- the "trust gap."

"56% of marketers think the client approval process works well. Only 23% of agencies agree."

The top words used to describe the client approval process are "inconsistent," "slow," "subjective," and "painful." It currently takes an average of five rounds of creative development to get to a signed-off idea.

One inspiring takeaway from their work in The BetterIdeas Project: “Marketers who inspire their agency to do their best work are 3X more likely to feel proud of the work they’re involved in.”

Whether working on campaigns with Cannes Lions aspirations or not, the creative friction of the client-agency relationship shapes everything that follows.

The trust gap is partly an asymmetry gap.

Keynote Update

Excited to speak in Mexico City this week at IAB Conecta (and also leading a workshop). I look forward to seeing some of you there.

As always, please let me know if you’d like to talk about any events you’re planning (or know of) that you think could be a good fit for some cartoon levity and insight.

For an idea of my approach to keynotes, here’s a sneak peak at a 5-minute speaker’s reel I’m working on (not finished yet):

Cartoon From The Archives

Here’s a related cartoon I drew last year. And here’s where you can read and search all 24 years of these cartoons.

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Thank you for all of your support (and cartoon material)!

-Tom

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About Marketoonist

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of me, Tom Fishburne. I first started drawing cartoons as a student in the Harvard Business School newspaper (not quite as well-known for humor as the Lampoon) and later started this newsletter from a General Mills cubicle in 2002. The cartoons have followed my career ever since. I poke fun at the ever-changing world of marketing and business because I believe that laughing at ourselves can help us do our best work.