How do you evaluate a creative piece that comes to your table?

It has been a learning experience for me to get on to the other side of the table and here are a few tips in gauging the creative your advertising partner brings to the table.

Right Brain elements

1. Fundamental rule: View it like your customer. What is your first reaction when you see it? Remember the customer is lazy. He may not read your ad fully. He may not even notice it for all you care. So is the layout in front of you making the job easy for your reader / viewer / listener?
   Easier said than done, but it is important for you to step into the shoes of your customer and understand the communication from his / her perspective. And do not give yourself more than 5 seconds to react / respond. It is because your customer may not give more than that kind of time! If the layout / creative is giving you a desired response from within you within that time-frame, then continue looking at the creative. Else, I believe that you have the liberty to reject it.
2. Follow your gut: Sometimes, your gut would be your best ally. Purely logical approach to a creative may not just work always. If your gut says that the creative would do the trick (despite you taking more time to get convinced), it is still better to go with it. Because many times, the best of answers to the most complex problem is just not logical.

Left Brain elements

If the layout passes muster on the above two parameters, you are at liberty to read on and screw it up completely by looking at the logical elements. Most often, a great creative goes through the logical side of life and gets completely changed and in the process loses its charm. You would do great if you do not change the creative in entirety in the name of logic, but ensure that you are within the law of the land .

Here are some tips to check (and cross check) before going ahead!

1. Brief to creative
   Check your brief to the creative and confirm if the creative solves the purpose. Ensure that the creative is doing its intended job. Many times, it is required of the agency to go beyond the brief (if they understand your category) and deliver more than what the brief states. That is what we call ‘value addition’. But it is important to ensure that the creative does the job it is required to. I recently bumped into a media firm’s advertisement in a magazine. It shows a cake cut into six pieces with qualities like ‘ROI driver, Passionate Team, Media Neutral etc., written on each piece. The creative has done the job (technically) of communicating the various qualities of the agency, but does it arrest you and leave you with a lasting impression? Questionable!
2. Is the creative the brief itself?
   Many times, in the name of sticking to the brief, the agency may come back with the brief as the creative. I have in the past seen creatives where even the words used in the brief were included. This may just not solve the purpose. Almost all LIC ads which needs to show two benefits from a plan will feature a pair of cute looking twin sisters or a man showing a ‘V’. OBVIOUS! The brief was ‘twin benefits’ and the agency was lazy enough to show a pair of twins or two fingers.
3. What is the take away?
   Check what the take away of the creative is. What does it leave you with? What is the message that you get out of the creative. If the take away is desirable, then we have a winner. If it isn’t, you need to reconsider the brief, the approach or the creative itself.
4. Is it stating the obvious?
   No point in doing this either. If the message that the creative leaves, is as obvious as ‘A for Apple’, then the creative execution must be really great. Else, it is better to reconsider. For instance, almost all Fevicol creatives leave you with the message ‘Fevicol sticks’. Something as basic as that gets noticed always purely because the creative execution is awesome.
5. Is it logically and / or factually correct?
   Ensure that the creative is logically and / or factually correct. It is very possible that you may let the agency take creative liberty to showcase your product, but so long as it is not over the top. This is a very nebulous area and the parameters are not the same for all product / service categories. To show a white patch on your outfit where the Tide pack zooms past is creative liberty. Although it is not logically or factually correct.
6. Regulars
   I am sure there would be a set of regular elements that must be a part of any creative. The logo, pack shot, brand name, brand guidelines, color scheme etc. Check them four times over. It is worth it!

Well, these were some points that came to my mind while this post was being conceived. I am sure there are many more tips that can be used in evaluating a creative. Would be great if they are shared on this platform!

Happy evaluating!

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“The account planner is that member of the agency’s team who is the expert, through background, training, experience, and attitudes, at working with information and getting it used – not just marketing research but all the information available to help solve a client’s advertising problems.” – Stanley Pollitt

To put it simply, planners need to study the market, the product category and the consumer and translate it as insights / briefs to the creative and the media teams to arrive at solutions that will achieve the marketing and advertising objectives.

Typically, it is the account planners’ job to write the creative and the media brief documents (which will be discussed in a latter section). The brief must contain the marketing and advertising objective, the proposed media used, the key consumer insight, key pointers from any research undertaken and finally the take-away that the communication should leave the consumer with.

Account planners must have the necessary skills and attitude to organize information about the consumer and the brand. The data can be derived from primary or secondary research, discussions with the client etc. This helps in the brand arriving at a proper positioning statement. The planner must also be involved in the creative development. This helps in meeting two objectives. First, to be convinced about the message, the take-away from the creative piece arrived at. This includes analyzing the creative from a consumer’s point of view. And second, to be in a position to convince the client about the creative produced by the agency.

Most account planning departments are also responsible for tracking the advertising campaigns taken up for a brand. The tracking of a campaign’s performance is by employing follow-up research with consumers and coordinate tweaking of the creative message (if necessary).

What is the planning process? Well, have tried to make this as a small diagram to ensure that this is understood easily.

In the Indian Advertising industry, you tend to always find the planner having ‘servicing’ executives reporting into them. The concepts of marketing, branding, research and case studies learnt during the B-school days get to be used here. However, a good part of the theory and life in real may be very different. Hence, on-the-feet thinking, quick response time etc, are key requirements of a professional playing this role. Though this job may sound ‘research intensive’, one would tend to encounter a lot of thinking and finding solutions the creative way.

This same process is also applicable for decision making on the media selection. Today, with the innovations in media including Outdoor and digital media and the convergence of different media vehicles, it is important that the above process is followed for media planning as well. All media agencies have ‘planning’ divisions which help in identifying the correct vehicles and the frequency to achieve the advertising and marketing objectives.

In subsequent posts, I will try to add examples from my experiences on each of these functions.

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