Thoughts on sending clients a pre-read deck vs presenting work live? Getting pressure from account folks in order to get better feedback in the meeting. 🤔 want to be a team player but new territory for me

I wouldn’t. They will form their own opinions based on whenever they glance it over, probably with not a lot of attention and then the meeting will just be an awkward presentation until you finish and they tell you what they were going to say before you presented anyway. It’s not about ta-da! or putting on a show, it’s about focus, attention, reasoning and context.

I understand it in theory. But, in doing so, it starts to feel like we’re turning ourselves into even more of a vendor than a strategic partner. It makes it feel more transactional than collaborative.

I’ve gotten pressure to send pre-reads for new scripts, new ideas, even R1 rough cuts. Then, what ends up happening is the clients cancel the meeting and just send their consolidated feedback over via email, which usually makes little sense. Because they either didn’t read our caveats, or didn’t understand them.

To me, it’s a slippery slope. Plus, it can cause client relationships to disintegrate because there is no relationship between the client and the people actually doing the work. But, it can’t just creatives who see this as a problem. We also need account folks to stand up for the work and the process. Not just what’s easier or seemingly more efficient.

The days of magical "Ta-DAAAA!" reveals are over...clients don't care/have the time (or attention span) anymore.

So circumstantial. Depends on what you’re presenting and looking for feedback on, and to whom. I would never send new creative work new or strategic learnings over as a pre-read but find it helpful to just send an outline of the preso and expected outcomes.

I think new ideas need some presentation theater. But things like a pre-bid where they have seen most of it in sections and now it’s all a bit more refined and detailed are great to send ahead of time.

Never send New creative work to be judged w/o jury.

Careful with that, in my experience clients will do one of two things: 1. Not even glance at it just as they don't read descriptive emails or 2. Scrutinize it without your ability to provide live justification or explanation. They'll either waste your preparation with a lack of acknowledgement or misinterpret your intentions. In any case it's hard to feel like you're giving your best iteration if you send it early and any errors you didn't give yourself enough time to catch and correct will be painful.

Send a few set up slides and ideas in pre-read, but save some magic for the mtg.

Clients won’t pay attention in the mtg and you won’t get everyone there. At the end of the day… and this stinks, it’s the clients budget, do what they ask, and then over deliver in the mtg.

Depends on clients. Some clients require basically everything pre-read. Often times as well they have to serve it up to their leaders as a fast follow, and without the agency around for context, need to get out of it what they need to present up the ladder.

Time to execution also plays in. Do they have 2 days to organize their feedback across all team members so you can have a constructive follow up call? Or are they expected to leave the meeting with all their feedback. If the latter, pre-read is key.

On a lesser internal example, I hate reviewing copy live for the first time expecting to provide immediate feedback on a group call. I have to sit with it and read it and think of it in the context it would be given cold as a customer would, without a presentation. So I always ask to have it sent to me to look over after.

Back to clients- one things I’ve found particularly useful is segmenting what is part of a pre-read; for example the strategy, set-up, insights, territory description context etc. All the elements they really need to dig into. Then come in with the creative reveal in live meeting.

See if you can negotiate some hidden slides that work better being presented.

Never. It’s absent your narrative.

it depends. In some cases, like for a pre bid or several rounds into advancing pitch work, it can be helpful in getting alignment. If you’re in-house sometimes it’s more of a gesture of inclusion that can help get stakeholders feel prepared.

But I don’t love pre-reads for new ideas generally. The advantage of strong presentation skills goes far in selling work. There’s also value in gauging client response in real-time.

Nope, it devalues the effort. Work, especially the big and/or conceptual work, should be presented. The time for feedback should be baked into the timeline for after it is presented and the deck is shared. The deck should get sent with the captured feedback from the account team so the clients don't have to repeat themselves. Building the relationship with clients is as important for creative as it is for account.

For creative pre read is rarely best. For things like tactical presentations sometimes you can send pre reads of all or part of it (like the more block and tackle ideas) but I would still hold back in the more exciting stuff abd excuse it as “late entrants”

Sending the outline route is smart. I’m using that

Don't send a pre read deck

I've never liked it and always try to avoid it, but it can be beneficial in the hands of the right client, and that almost never happens.

Depends on the culture in Japan it’s called nemawashi ie ensuring no one is surprised in the meeting. So I think each situation is different and you should know the situation before developing the story in the deck. Ie someone reading vs someone watching a presentation needs different things.

99.5% of the time, pre-reads fail. Now you can provide thought starters or teasers to prime them, get them interested, and make them feel like part of the process.

Create a deck, include a “gold silver and bronze “ offering and go from there. Depends on the work , include the “vision”. If you’ve already done all the work than there’s no room for client input.

Also set boundaries. It’s accounts job to translate the clients vision to you. They’re the ones making the sale, and have established the relationships.