It’s been more than 150 years since American entrepreneur John Wanamaker said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” So why, in an era of unprecedented access to data, do agencies continue to silo their creative and strategic talent? At Carrot, strategists and creative directors sit side by side because as an agency we understand that ideas need to be innovative, but also need to move the needle in the desired direction. In defense of this arrangement I offer my top 3 reasons why strategists and creatives should be BFFs. (Sappy autobiographical note: this list could also be renamed “3 reasons I love my job.”)
#3: They’re both vegetarians
“For people that don’t like meat, they seem to eat a lot of vegetables that are mashed up and shaped to look like meat.” — Jim Gaffigan
Strategists make data valuable by analyzing it to deliver insights that aren’t immediately apparent. This isn’t easy. It takes a creative mind to compare data points to one another in order to tell a hidden story. For example, Carrot strategists were recently able to determine that despite seemingly low social amplification across a campaign, engagement with campaign content was more than 95% higher among Facebook Connect users than non-social accounts. The brand retooled their entire interface around this hidden insight. On the flip side, creatives secretly love data. Creatives care about creating messages and experiences that resonate with people, and they know that only happens when they understand their audience. Before ideation, comes research – and creatives do it well because their jobs depend on it. All that time your creative director spends on Reddit allows him to better understand different audiences – a key component of any good strategy.
#2: Savings = positive cashflow
My first week at an agency – ever – my CEO, a 30 year veteran of the advertising industry, walked into a meeting and barked, “There are 4 people sitting in this room. You’ve been in here half an hour. That’s 2 billable man hours. Wrap it up!” Unlike law firms, agencies don’t just “bill” clients – we set up “agency of record” or “retainer” agreements and we work within the hourly scope of those contracts. So if the agency spends more time than the hours allotted in the contract, we start to lose money. And you know what’s a great way to waste time? Retrofitting strategy to fit creative.
Strategy is a forward-looking discipline – it’s designed to be in place before something happens. Yet so often in agency life a creative concept is presented to a client with no mention of strategy – at which point the client promptly says, “so what’s the strategy behind this.” This sends the agency into scramble mode as they run down the hall and say to their strategist “can you put some numbers behind this?” Not only does this process miss the whole point of having a strategy, but as with any last-minute effort waste runs rampant and in this scenario eats up margins on billable hours. Letting strategists and creatives work together from the get go makes sure this never happens – which keeps clients happy and margins profitable.
#1: Advertising that works, wins
The number one goal of any client is to accomplish their stated objective – whether it be selling more widgets or growing an engaged audience on Facebook. Any agency that helps their clients do this consistently is going to win repeat business (from the client), new business (from referrals), and industry awards (with proof that their ideas deliver results).
But you can’t do this by keeping strategists and creatives apart. Because it’s their job (and their passion), creatives focus on pushing boundaries and delivering experiences that no one has yet tried. Strategists, conversely, want to play it safe and use proven methods that have a predictable return. Alone, both groups will fail – they’ll either inadvertently abandon the client’s objective in favor of an exciting idea, or leave the client thinking, “well Hell… I could’ve thought of that!” But when strategists and creatives work together from the very start, they free each other up to do what they do best: the strategist delivers insights regarding background and implementation, freeing the creative to ideate confidently within the scope of their mission. When strategists and creatives work together they understand the size of their canvas, what tools and paint they are able to use, which critics are going to see the painting, and most importantly… how these critics are going to react.
I’m thrilled to say that at Carrot we practice what we preach.
What campaigns, applications, or user experiences have you seen that you thought did a particularly good (or bad) job of blending strategy and creative to accomplish a client objective? (Hint: Old Spice).
