For as long as I can remember the foundation upon which all creative agencies have been built is the belief that, above all, they must produce great work. But what exactly constitutes a great piece of work?
My personnel belief is that great work produces a great result for the client which is measurable and demonstrable. Anything less simply is not cutting the mustard.
Its not about winning prestigious awards or acclaim from our peers or even having something sexy for our portfolio. The bottom line is that the creative output is, always has and always will be only a means to an end and that end is a positive commercial outcome for our clients.
Now I am not saying great work and great results are mutually exclusive clearly that is not the case. However during my tenure in the agency world having met, presented and pitched more clients than I care to remember I have never, ever had a client ask that we produce a great piece of work.
With that in mind is it time for agencies to change the focus of our narrative from what we do to what we deliver.
Andy - I agree with you. An agency called Manifest state the following and which I agree with - At Manifest, we pride ourselves on the calibre of our creative output. How do we measure this quality? Not purely by winning industry awards as by and large these are judged by our peers and we don’t work for our peers, we work for our clients. Instead, we gauge the standards of our creativity more by the number of new business wins we enjoy and by the multitude of long-term client relationships we have forged. Hardly surprising then that those accolades which are of most interest to us, are the ones presented for delivering exceptional service - or commendable results.
ReplyDeleteI believe a great piece of work and results generally go hand in hand but results can also be achieved by being first to the punch or being original and clever.