The creative agency shared campaign concepts. What’s next?

The creative agency shared campaign concepts. What’s next?

Welcome back to the What’s Next? series.

In this series, we’ll look at different outreach events and explore ideas for moving the project forward to the next step – even if the event didn’t go as well as you hoped it would. You can read the previous post on petition signatures here and the one on stakeholder meetings here.

What's next? Moving projects forward one step at a time.

THE OUTREACH EVENT

You hired a creative agency to develop a campaign for your behavior change strategy. Several weeks ago, the creative team was briefed on the behavior change goals, audience research, and outreach plans. Today, they sent over an initial set of campaign concepts and…

SCENARIO A: They’re awesome.
The concepts are on strategy, and the ideas push the project to a creative level you hadn’t imagined. You feel excited and inspired by the concepts and can’t wait to move them forward.

SCENARIO B:  They’re basic.
There is nothing wrong with the proposed campaigns, but they’re missing a “wow” factor overall. You don’t feel energized by the ideas.

SCENARIO C:  They’re not right.
The concepts don’t align with the strategy and don’t follow best practices. They rely on sadness or fear, focus on the wrong behavior, or only raise awareness without driving action. Or, you’re not even sure WHAT you’re looking at!

Let’s explore how we can move the project forward for each scenario.

SCENARIO A: The campaign concepts are awesome! What’s next? ⇄

The concepts are on strategy, and the ideas push the project to a creative level you hadn’t imagined. You feel excited and inspired by the concepts and can’t wait to move them forward.

DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR FEELS.

I know this advice feels like a downer, but confirming that the ideas you’re excited about align with the campaign’s strategy and objectives is critical.

I have been presented with creative ideas that I thought were awesome, only to come down from my excitement “high” to realize they may fall short of motivating action.

Compare the campaign concepts with the initial strategy brief you shared with the agency and confirm it meets the project’s needs. Tweaks are often needed, which is fine if the general concept is aligned with the goals.

ASSESS SHELF-LIFE. 

Additionally, assessing if the concepts are strong enough to carry across different communication formats and for the entire duration of the campaign period is helpful.

Strong creative ideas have “legs,” meaning they can expand and evolve to meet the needs of the entire outreach plan without losing their appeal to the audience.

Have you ever seen a TV commercial that was endearing the first three times you saw it but quickly became annoying after the fifth time it aired? The shelf-life assessment can help us avoid being that campaign.

CELEBRATE THE CREATIVE TEAM.

Be sure to let the creative team know how excited you are about their concepts.

They worked hard on the ideas, and receiving confirmation that they succeeded in translating a strategy into an exciting concept is hugely rewarding.

This is also a time to outline the tweaks needed to strengthen the concepts further. Tweaks may involve adjusting the choice of imagery, switching the font selection or color schemes, or revising the draft messages.

Developing second drafts of the top 1-2 creative concepts is a common next step when working with creative agencies. You want to avoid having too many rounds of revisions, so be specific with the changes that need to be made.

PLAN FOR PRE-TESTING.

Once the creative team has “near-final” concepts with a few implementation examples (e.g., billboard, social media posts, etc.), it’s time to get feedback from the target audience.

Taking time to complete this step will prevent your organization from wasting money on a concept that the intended audience will not receive well. It can also help you choose between campaign concepts based on which resonates most with the audience.

→ If you are new to conducting pre-testing research, this document from the Change Wildlife Consumers’ behavior change course has helpful resources and tips. 


SCENARIO B: The concepts are basic. What’s next? ⇄

There is nothing wrong with the proposed campaigns, but they’re missing a “wow” factor overall. You don’t feel energized by the ideas.

WILL BASIC WORK?

When it comes to creative ideas that drive action, basic isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes being too clever can overshadow or confuse the primary objective of the communication material – to drive action.

Even if you don’t feel wowed by the creative concepts, determine if they effectively convey the message.

  • Will it guide the audience toward the desired action?
  • Will it cut through the clutter of messages the audience sees every day?
  • Will it catch the audience’s attention?
  • Does it have a long shelf-life that can evolve with the campaign?

If the answer to these questions is “no,” then that feedback should be given to the creative agency. If you’re unsure of the answers, then it could be a good time to do a round of pre-testing to see what the audience has to say.

MOVE INTO ROUND 2.

Sometimes the first round of creative concepts just doesn’t hit the nail on the head. It happens. Providing clear, constructive feedback to the creative agency can help revise existing ideas or inspire fresh ideas.

Share your appreciation for the concepts with the creative team and outline how they align with the project strategy. Next, share your concerns about the need to catch attention, have a long shelf-life, or motivate action that the next set of concepts should address.

If you have thoughts about how the campaign could be “amped up” to include more of the wow factor you desire, feel free to share them with the creative team. But keep the suggestions loose, so the team has plenty of freedom to achieve the goals in the way they see best.

After this, the next round should look like scenario A.

→ If you need a template for developing a creative brief, download this one as a starting point. It’s a bit on the long side, so omit any sections that are not necessary.


SCENARIO C: The concepts are not right. What’s next? ⇄

The concepts don’t align with the strategy and don’t follow best practices. They rely on sadness or fear, focus on the wrong behavior, or only raise awareness without driving action. Or, you’re not even sure WHAT you’re looking at!

BACK TO THE BRIEF.

When creative concepts feel way “off” compared to what you were hoping to receive, it’s time to return to the foundation: the creative brief. 

Check to see if the objectives and expectations of the creative materials are clearly outlined in the brief. If they’re not in the brief, consider revising it to include the elements you feel are missing in the first round of concepts.

If all the elements are clearly outlined in the brief, then it’s the perfect document to revisit with the creative team in your follow-up discussion.

THE TOUGH TALK.

Giving and receiving negative feedback, even when presented constructively, is unpleasant for anyone!

But when this process is treated as a partnership, the emphasis can be on working together to get it right.

In this scenario, outlining everything you don’t like is less constructive than suggesting a reset. Bring the conversation back to the strategy and creative brief and which objectives you feel need more attention in the next round of concepts.

It may be helpful to provide greater context for your feedback. Not all creative agencies are well-versed in behavior change principles and may need to hear more about why some approaches are more effective than others.

But don’t try to solve it for the creative team. Your role is to provide direction to get them on the right track, not to take over as the creative director.

After this, the next round will look more like scenarios A or B.

 


 

Making the transition from having a strategy written on paper to seeing creative ideas come to life is an exhilarating and scary process.

If you ever want another set of eyes on your creative brief or the concepts you received from an agency, book a working session with me. I’d love to help.