how do you deal with a bunch of non-creatives constantly trying to override your creative reco's or trying to art direct?

You mean clients?

As with all feedback… find the kernels you can benefit from regardless of the messenger.

Come with rationales and reasons. Make it a facts not feelings fight

Hand them the computer and tell them to do it.

Everything goes back to the brief. Always.

At a certain point, I just started taking everybody’s feedback (except my CD’s) as suggestions. Unless a strategist’s suggestion is 100% strategic, I feel free to discard it or use it if it’s good. Other depts aren’t entitled to dictate subjective creative changes. They can take a big pay cut and start their careers over again at the bottom of the creative department if they want to make creative choices.

Stay positive. Make sure everyone knows you have heard their ideas and considered them. But feel free to hold your ground over “subjective creative decisions”.

If all the work is on strategy, any decent agency will let the creative lead choose the creative reco. But you need to back up your reco with strong rationale… speak about “breakthrough”, “distinctiveness”, “brand attribution” and “brand assets”… don’t talk about how you think it’s the coolest idea.

“ non creatives” is probably not the right read of the way it is 2024. Millennials and Gen Z were formed thinking they know everything and have the right to share/deliver their input on anything/everything.

Filter it through your manager. Nobody should art direct who doesn’t have that background.

Depending on your level, their level, and a whole buncha nuance, here are some options.
* Name the pattern: "Hey Bob, thanks for getting coffee with me. I wanted to point out a pattern I've noticed, where your feedback is often..." Etc. Non-confrontational, measured, you're calmly bringing it up because of course he'd do better if he just was made aware. (Whether that's true or not, it's good to start here if you can, so at least you can tell your boss you did.)
* Talk to your boss about it. Not in a tattle way, but in a, "here's a problem I'm dealing with and I want your advice" way. He/she may just want to handle it themselves.
* Talk to other folks in your same position who work with Bob to see if this kind of feedback is his M.O. or if it's specific to you. If it's the former, that should be brought to Bob's boss (whether that convo is something you handle or your boss does depends on the seniority of all involved)

Me every time account gives feedback: 🙄🙄

A few above mention this - but it’s been a reality for quite some time that has been harder for traditional shops to embrace. There are disciplines and skills, but to deem folks “creatives” and “non-creatives” is not the way forward. Respect and openness on both sides is. Silos of departments are not the future. It’s way production companies, publishers. Studios, alt agencies are driving campaign and executions. If you come in defensive bc they aren’t “creatives” it’s already toxic.

Ask them their role function.

Take it to the streets man

Never occurred to me to ask account folks their rationale for their opinions. A few thoughts on that:

- will they feel put on the spot in an exposed/vulnerable way because they don’t know the “language”? And we know they don’t. Could that cause defensiveness and antagonism?

- will they just resort to their “I just know the client and what they’ll like” stance in a way that can’t be countered and shuts down discussion?

We as creatives are used to the internal process, the critique, and devil’s advocate exercise. I like the idea of a “tell me more approach”, but it may be asking too much of them and may feel like we are beating dead horses when we probe for more.

It comes down to the roles in the work. If we as creatives recommend something and back it up with why they should defer to our expertise for the most part as long as it aligns to tone, audience perspective and client goals in the work. They can always have their opinion and voice it, but stop there and move ahead with the creative team’s recommendations. That’s on them to understand our roles. If they take over and make the decisions on what gets cut and what moves ahead, they should have a creative role (which they clearly don’t). In fact when sharing the work, they should always ask and be interested in what we recommend and why.

We’d never tell them how to build their client relationship or how to best manage client expectations—that’s their job.

This lack of role acknowledgement and respect hurts the work and morale. I don’t think they even realize what they’re doing or how it comes across as it robs creative teams of their ownership and willingness to speak up because they get shut down on their own turf. What an abysmal way of managing an account—oh wait, that’s right—it’s no longer managing the account, it’s art directing!

Creative 1 - when it comes to traditional stuff: branding, headlines, campaign work, scripts etc I 100% agree with you. I generally agree with you even on less traditional stuff like banners, email, website copy etc.

When it comes to activations, PR, influencers and social content I think it’s a different story. I still tend to defer to creatives in these situations but I will also say that of the three award winning campaigns I’ve worked on, none of the ideas came from creative teams…and I know this because I was in the room when the ideas first popped up. Creative teams executed parts of them, and we couldn’t have made them work without those teams, but the idea came twice from account people and once from a strategist.

I think it’s important to remember that a lot of us who aren’t professionals creatives are artists, writers, musicians, wood workers etc. There’s a lot of creativity in this industry beyond the creative team.

I’d also argue that a lot of creatives are getting promotions too quickly and are getting to ACD / CD level without the mastery of craft you’re referring to.