Account people leading the creative direction/giving feedback on creative – is this a common occurrence or new trend?

I prefer to not and let it shop directly to my clients. I once have been snapped at by a client for “letting this get” to her. There was nothing wrong with it. I think if you remain on the the brief and deliver the ask, there’s nothing more an account person needs to check. We aren’t strategy and we aren’t marketing. Sometimes we will tell you what we know the client hates (I have one who hates knockout logos).

No. BUT as a creative lead, some of my best allies have been account people. I’ll often invite them to late-stage creative internals and ask them to play the role of a tough client so the creative team can fine-tune their pitch and think through their answers to potential objections. It’s all done in camaraderie and everyone goes into a presentation much more prepared and united.

Giving feedback on creative? No. Unfortunately account people have the sad task of making sure the client doesn't see the creative and immediately turn it down because the brief was ignored. Leading the creative is different - and as an account person I can say that that creative will be terrible.

All depends on how it’s delivered. That said, respectable creative viewpoints can come from any department or client.

Depends on the state of the account you’re working on.

Had to look back to check if this was a post I’d written. But, yes. It’s a fairly new trend, that I believe has been amplified bc ECDs and GCDs just want to “play nice” now (terrible time to get laid off), and also they are often not around, so the account/strat team believes they are helping by placing their comments in Figma, to direct the work accordingly.

Common in pharma

I don’t think it’s new. I have 11 years experience

Only give feedback as it pertains to anything being factually incorrect. If creatives used the wrong RTB, didn’t follow the brief, used the wrong legal disclaimer, etc.

Anything else needs to be posed as a question for greater understanding. There shouldn’t be any, “let’s swap this for this,” but, “why did you decide,” or, “did you consider,” or simply, “I’m not quite getting it—can you walk me through it?”

As old as advertising itself.

All too common in PR, unfortunately

Depends on agency size and often discipline tbh.

Your CD should listen to it all, it’s true a good thought can come from anywhere. But they should only be telling you to action the good stuff. It’s not and should never be a free for all.

It’s definitely a trend that needs to stop right now. The only way forward is pushing back hard on this!

If an account mgr cannot understand the creative, then he or she cannot sell it to the client. Yes, account mgrs must be able to give creative input bc we write the creative briefs. You can;t have an AM who is obtuse in creative devvelopment. The AM is not the AD, however, must be able to understand creative talk and answer creative questions. If you are experiencing an AM leading the creative direction, then you either work for a TINY ad agency, or your account management creative management are sorely ineffective.

As an account person my job is to make sure the creative is on brief and flag anything I think clients might ask/say so the creative team can have their POV ready - all for the sake of selling the work. Sometimes I give my thoughts or opinions as just a colleague who has 14 years of experience in advertising/working with tough clients, but it’s always a suggestion or a different perspective shared as “food for thought”. Creatives always have final say on what makes it to client and all I can do is try to stay a few steps ahead and help the creative team have answers to any push back clients might have. I’m not the creative lead and don’t make creative decisions, but I’m part of the team trying to sell in the work, and that’s what I see as my responsibility and where any comments come from. So I think it’s about a partnership between creative, strat and eventually production where any comments, questions, pushes are in the spirit of selling in the best work. I’ve forged great relationships with my teams this way :)

Ok, two separate things being asked. Is it normal for account people to lead creative direction? No. It's normal for them to include some direction and comms hierarchy from the client, but leading direction? No.

But giving feedback? Yes, and it's my opinion that it's well within their rights to give feedback. We just get final say. Some of the sharpest minds in my agency are my account partners. (Some of the dimmest are as well, but I think that just shows good account service is hard to find.)

How big was the project? How strapped is your team?

Common at RPA when I worked there.

Future success is going to be broken down silos. Everyone is so focused on gate keeping and titles. You know half the creatives taking your clients and jobs at studios, platforms and celeb agencies aren’t traditional creatives and many have background in strategy and account. Learn to work with them and build trust. You’ll get more work sold in and keep clients