{"id":174019,"date":"2023-02-16T07:46:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inbusinessphx.com\/?p=174019"},"modified":"2023-02-16T07:46:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:46:06","slug":"six-best-practices-for-evaluating-creative-project-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/?p=174019","title":{"rendered":"Six Best Practices for Evaluating Creative Project Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/inbusinessphx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Creative-Graphic.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-174020\" src=\"http:\/\/inbusinessphx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Creative-Graphic-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The meeting is about to begin. The creative team has spent days, weeks, maybe even months massaging their concepts, tactics and messaging into the perfect presentation. You can see the beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, signaling something big is at stake here. The speakers speak, and the ideas \u2026 miss the mark. There\u2019s no way around it: this presentation fell short of perfection, or even reasonable expectations. How do you tell the creative team their best ideas weren\u2019t good enough?<\/p>\n<p>The way we react to a teammate\u2019s ideas, pitches and proposals will have a huge effect on whether we decide the work is \u201cright\u201d or \u201cwrong.\u201d It will also help determine what actions to take if a redirect is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Here are six best practices for evaluating a creative proposal that might be less than perfect:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level-set<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before the presentation, ask your creative team to topline the creative, or strategic brief, from which the ideas were generated. If they weren\u2019t given a brief to work from, here are a few discussion points that will help ensure everyone evaluates the ideas using the same criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Objective \u2013 What is the primary purpose of the work? This will help remind everyone of the goal and help set expectations for those who weren\u2019t at the project kick-off.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Main message \u2013 What do we want the audience\u2019s takeaway to be upon viewing the creative?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Audience \u2013\u00a0Who is the messaging created for? The more specific, the better.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Call to action (CTA) \u2013 What specific action are we asking the audience to take (buy, click, learn etc.)?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Measurement \u2013\u00a0How does the team plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the creative proposal?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Time for quiet<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Listen closely as your creative team sets up a presentation. Find out what you are being asked to respond to and when. Some prefer questions be held until after the presentation is complete, while other creatives encourage banter throughout. It\u2019s best to land on common ground to avoid upsetting their momentum with your expression of love for a particular headline or visual.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Think big(ger)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Early on, don\u2019t get too hung up on line breaks, colors, FPO (for placement only) images, etc. Try to keep your focus on the ideas, the thinking. There will be plenty of time to fiddle with minutiae as you progress into the execution phase.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wield a velvet hammer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ad great Bill Bernbach once said, \u201cAn idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.\u201d Hold this thought close as you begin formulating comments about a particular idea or concept, because the way in which you share feedback will have a dramatic effect on how the creative team responds. Many great ideas have been dispatched into the ether, or left with a limp, by the urge to provide immediate commentary. Yes, you may have a \u201cgut reaction\u201d to the work. But give the ideas time to marinate before reaching for the red pen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get beyond \u201cI like it\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When the time comes for your sage commentary, be specific and honest. Speak to the work based on the criteria established at the beginning of the presentation. Trust your brief. If there are facets of the work that don\u2019t align with the brief, point them out. But stop short of trying to \u201cfix\u201d the idea. Nothing chaps the britches of a creative like someone trying to repair their ideas on the fly. Rather, simply state your points and allow the creative team the time and the opportunity to go back and make the adjustment. Remember, if your observations are supported by the brief, they\u2019re warranted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Encourage the unexpected, and you\u2019ll get the extraordinary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ideally, your relationship with your creative team should be one based upon mutual respect and trust \u2013 a camaraderie, if you will. You want them to feel comfortable bringing ideas to the table that both satisfy the objective and challenge your way of thinking. And they want to feel safe doing so.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Ferin leads the content strategy and development team at <a href=\"https:\/\/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com\/ls\/click?upn=8jpilf50Rz4aEizp-2FkpOoQ081PLDNkVxjRVj1mr-2BN0I-3DnoHd_O3XWFiAdWrzzrOIt72qAuLIbAhZ9JdyAr7EJyXa9JQpaBwNCdUECiScfavJYXA-2FwYzy-2BKA6CJKm48SuYU0IMMq9pJie-2FCfVvSGOvvXzSPQ1TPSun7uDYTcIqcl-2BSKY8Bb87674rgn2wTkKOlPXF3eOmqC-2F1tMgsdSQS-2F3IhqFQIoVLA2AdW1JhgWjZtRKUtfrwXEQYXMhTJKfW8ZtVeO9bMM1O4-2B-2Fb1pY7cZDfF-2BnzHh37xSGtATcDp5Og1R94smhArK4ExmDDg1SxGJGWXMOkJLA-2F3NSVmb6LPHPaF6cqzIhH9wjZT9u2Qv1i2q3zTfkrvEvzcwkVtbxu3Ho1LtMrwy-2FRAbm-2FxIE80XpQAtylDQOOOvVYRHq6Ep3-2Fmt6yGqZaAFJeurr8B6VR2GkQN74g-3D-3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ddm<\/a>, providing direction and creative oversight on the planning, projecting, and monitoring of all content creation efforts. John has more than two decades of experience as Creative Director and Copywriter in both agency and corporate settings.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The meeting is about to begin. The creative team has spent days, weeks, maybe even months massaging their concepts, tactics and messaging into the perfect presentation. You can see the beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, signaling something big is at stake here. The speakers speak, and the ideas \u2026 miss the mark. There\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-174019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-management","tag-featured-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}