22nd February, 2010
Degrees of Separation and Empowerment
Posted by Navin Harish - 2 Comments
In Ogilvy on Advertising David Ogilvy talks about the time when he had gone to present an ad to a client. The client liked it and called his junior to take a look at it as well. While looking at the ad, he took out his pen, obviously to make a change but even before he could open he pen, his boss stopped him “Put that pen back in your pocket.”
“Teams from different functions should stick to what they do best and leave the creative delivery to the creative team. It is in the interest of the client, the creative team and your organization at large.”
With that said, I’d like to ask you how many people stand between your creative team and the client and have you empowered your creative team to ask the guys standing between them and the client to take a walk if the occasion arise?
I won’t say there should be no layer between the client and the Creative team. I am not even saying no one should review the work done by the creative team. What I am saying is the creative work should be reviewed objectively and not be judged by personal opinion.
I keep deviating but this reminds me of another thing I want and share with you before I move on. In a one day cricked match, Shane Warne walked to bat at number 3 or 4. The commentator said “You send in a pinch hitter up the order to score a few runs quickly so your team can consolidate on it and the player goes in, takes time to settle and start thinking of himself as a batsman. This defeats the whole purpose.
More often than not this is what happened when different functions are involved in reviewing the creative work. There are six degrees of separation between you and a complete stranger sitting on the other side of the planet but sometimes there are more degrees of separation between you creative team and a person they are working for – the client.
The more people that are involved, the bigger the problem. While on one hand it eats up your men hours, it also dilutes the message that is to be delivered. Design by committee has often been criticized by a lot of people so I don’t want to go there. Another negative effect it has on your creative team is apathy. When a creative team feels their work is anyway going to be dissected by so many people they are quite likely to lost interest and do something mediocre and then just wait for the inputs and make the suggested changes. “Why should we screw our brains when the final work is not going to be what we will suggest” is the most dangerous attitude your team can have.
Teams from different functions should stick to what they do best and leave the creative delivery to the creative team. It is in the interest of the client, the creative team and your organization at large.
There is a creative team that should be doing the creative work, the marketing team or the HR team or the Finance team should not start thinking of themselves as creative people and start offering a critique on the work of creative team. They should only evaluate a creative work by how effectively is it communicating the intended message. “I think Green will look better than the blue”. Really? May be you should consider painting your bedroom green.
So the next time you see someone taking out a pen, you know what to tell them.
2 Comments
Dnyanesh
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 am
“Did you hear about that woman who got paid $3 million for spilling hot coffee on her crotch at McDonalds? Three million dollars!! I wish someone had given me that opportunity before I wasted all that time on working those projects which wore an absolute new skin through client servicing people who think they are really creative !!!
It is like a Train Motorman playing the role of LOLLYPOP MAN on the runway to direct the pilot.
FUNNY … yet DISASTROUS !!!!!!
“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.”
Abhijit Bhaskar
March 6th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Because of the people between you and the client, you have to face so much resistance that it feels like driving a car with your hand brakes on. It can be very frustrating and as you said – demoralizing.
Leave a reply