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Embrace /take inspiration from their ideas and give them due consideration? Build on the thought and make it better? Great ideas can come from anyone and sometimes from the most unexpected places. They’re not the exclusive domain of a person who works in creative. Having an open mind and being open to a variety of perspectives can’t be a bad thing?
@CD1 you sound nice to work for. ❤️
Listen. Honestly consider. Make the decision to either use their feedback or not (and prepare to explain why you did or didn’t).
Said like a true former account man.
I have been on the Account side my entire career. My rule has always been to offer my creative opinion only when asked for it. Yes, I have opinions but my focus needs to be on balancing the client’s business concerns, the creative team’s vision, and the production team’s ability to execute it all within budget. A balancing act for sure but that is what my role is and I’m happy to stay in my lane professionally.
Wish I could work with people as mature as you.
The most important thing is learning how to verbalize why your ideas make sense/are strong beyond “it’s cool” or “it’s fun”. Come back at them with solid, business-based and brief-based reasons. Things like how your idea will increase engagement, or cut through the noise,etc. Ask questions to determine the why behind the feedback, and turn it around on them if you can - ie, if the feedback is that it’s off brief, show them how it’s on brief using their own language against them.
If they listen, great, but document as much of the process as you can via email or teams chat, and if you keep getting pushback, talk to your CD about it. But you have to make the issue be that you’re attempting to address their feedback and they’re not working with you, not that they are overstepping their role, because in agencies where that tends to happen, that’s usually working as intended.
If an account person wants to be creative, how about considering a switch in careers. And feel free to start as a junior, or better yet, intern.
I say “good idea” then just not do it
What is the type of feedback you’re receiving? Is it during concept, art direction, design, copy, channel suggestion?
What was your CDs POV before account reviews?
But just ask them. Especially in a way that removes subjectivity, typically by revisiting the brief to ensure the work answers this.
Why isn’t the current creative working? Which part?
How would the changes affect the end goal?
Is it aligned to the target audience?
Is it the right channel being considered for the audience?
Has the client seen the work? Or shared additional feedback and input that should’ve been factored in?
Some people are not familiar with the relevant feedback at the right stages of creative development or providing crucial information too late in the process - not sure if that’s the challenge you’re experiencing.
Imagine, just as strategy is presenting their deck, if we said ‘Strategy can come from anywhere’. How do you think that would go down?
I often do have thoughts as to strategy. And I like to collaborate with smart people who know the clients’ business in ways I might not be considering. So if it’s done in a respectful way and by someone who has earned my respect by being smart and constructive, I will 100% weigh what they say.
At the same time, if that input is subjective or just dumb, I will disregard it.
At the end of the day, creatives own the creative decisions and I have put in the many, many years of toiling away to see what works and what doesn’t. Nobody from another function can replicate that. So they have to understand their role in this.
What they (and most creatives too, frankly) fail to realize is that each discipline has its own agenda by design. So what motivates an account person’s comments, such as the client will hate that or be scared by it, is useful but not the only factor.
I admit that the power dynamics at less senior levels can be harder. But it’s on creatives to find constructive ways to explain our work and selling to the internal teams can often be harder than to clients. So, it’s prob worthwhile to practice on them.
And if they just don’t get it, that’s on senior creatives to fix for you.
Tell them to stay in their lane
Rising Star
What’s your creative director saying? Just do that.
Partnership between creative, strategy and account leads is the only way