Goat Rodeo or Gantt Chart: Five Better Ways to Creative Content
A common myth is that the development of creative marketing content happens
in a smooth linear fashion, thanks to the toil and ingenuity of an inspired
designer, writer, illustrator, or other such right-brain maker. That idea is
especially appealing to project managers and heads of marketing who'd like to
oversee that ostensibly straightforward process with their spreadsheets and
Gantt charts.
But the reality is less Gantt chart and more goat rodeo.
Ideas, drafts, and iterations are tossed around almost at random. Feedback
and approvals go back and forth—and sometimes sideways. Unanticipated obstacles
knock progress off course, and too often great ideas are thrown onto the dirt
and trampled into dust. Inevitably, the goat wins.
It isn't easy to find a balance between the two extremes of super-efficiency
and chaos.
Creators typically like to work on a more ad hoc basis, and understand that
the twists and turns that creative projects take are often necessary to produce
something great. Imposing an overly rigid structure might help tame the
goat-led chaos, but it stifles the creative impulse. Yet not having a process
at all leads to a mess, because creating great content is not just about that
core creative services team.
From Simple to Complex
The most critical stage of any creative project is the collaboration stage.
Creative collaboration begins when that initial brief, idea, sketch, wireframe,
photograph, video footage, or other visual elements are shared and discussed
with the wider marketing team. What was at first an insular, individual period
of creation is now a team effort, and suddenly effective progress becomes much
harder to manage.
Running the entire gamut of marketing programs and campaigns that can
include videos, websites, print ads, email marketing, social media promotions,
and so much more, requires way more input than a typical marketing department
can provide. Marketing is more like the nucleus around which erratically orbit
internal creatives, external freelancers, agencies, and production houses—not
to mention the project clients from Product, Sales, and the exec team who will
demand input and approval.
You're thinking about that goat rodeo again, right? But if a Gantt chart
isn't the solution to taming this chaos, how can you impose enough order on
creative collaboration to help the process run more smoothly that doesn't kill
ideas at the source or dampen the enthusiasm of the creative team?
The Path to Creative Content Success
Here are five ways to reach a successful outcome for any creative marketing
content undertaking.
1. Get goals, visual identity, and core
concepts aligned from the start
Spending time on the creative brief is critical to spelling out exactly what
it is that the project is endeavoring to do and which business need it will
solve.
A written brief won't paint a picture of the project's visual ambitions, but
mood boards (physical or digital) can be effectively used to ensure everyone is
aligned with the visual direction.
Finally, solicit feedback from outside the core
creative team early on. The outsider's perspective can often make a critical
difference.
2. Create an effective process that works for
everyone
In a recent survey of 400 marketing and creative professionals, 75% noted
that their team has no effective creative process. Providing stakeholders with
an easy way to check in (without the inspiration-killing burden of update
emails) is a great start and will help avoid bumps down the road. Then establish
key phases where input and approval from the client or stakeholder is required.
When you've nailed a design direction or a campaign tagline, be sure to
explicitly secure the approver's buy-in so everyone knows the project is ready
to move on to the next phase.
3. Centralize feedback for maximum efficiency
and transparency
All comments, input, and feedback should be collected in one central place
so every collaborator can see what's already been said or asked and answered.
Having a central location helps avoid overlapping as well as repetitive
comments, and allows fertile discussion of the work in progress.
For visual content, context is paramount, so all assets should be aligned
with feedback to avoid miscommunication. This is especially important for
multichannel campaigns with lots of different kinds of assets (video, image,
print, digital, etc.), because the entire campaign needs to hang together and
you don't want to invest a lot of time providing the same insights and feedback
across the teams working on different creative assets.
Finally, close the loop on all feedback so that reviewers will know that
their ideas have been heard.
4. Create an efficient and productive approval
process
It's difficult to impossible for any approver to rubber-stamp something if
their first look is at the final version. They're bound to have opinions, so
the earlier in the process they provide them the smoother the final approval
will be.
Be crystal clear about who provides final approval and what exactly they're
approving. Make it as easy as possible to view and approve the work, especially
for senior decision-makers, who may be off-site and who likely have limited
time. Make sure each approval is documented to avoid issues down the road.
5. Have a system of record for creative
collaboration
Most people consider the tools of the creative trade to be popular authoring
tools like Adobe Creative Suite or Sketch which are used to create and develop
a piece of content. But once that content is shared and the creative collaboration
stage kicks off, marketing and creative often lack the ability to capture all
the metadata around the shared file: the reviews, approvals, and discussions
mentioned above. As fundamental as Adobe or Autodesk is for creation, it's just
as important to have a system of record for your creative collaboration.
Summary
- Increasing demands for creative content have made it imperative to put a process in place that brings right- and left-brain thinkers together without dampening the enthusiasm of the team.
- Start with the creative brief to ensure everyone is aligned with the vision and what business needs/challenges it must solve.
- Maximize efficiency and transparency throughout the process, including the approval process, and create a system of record for creative collaboration.
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