In-House Creatives Survival Guide

Your chance to @#$%!

I would like you to introduce yourself. Tell us what you hope to get out of this? And then you get to bitch.List the most common complaints (have each person tell a horror story that dramatizes their issue)

Set expectations

There are certain demon’s and devil’s we will be dealing with all day that get in the way of doing great creative not only with in-house but with all creative businesses.

Client. Budget. Creative Director, etc.

The demon you have the most control over is…

YOUYOU.

You alone can make the biggest difference in your work and happiness. And it’s not easy and will take effort, your effort. A lot on your own time and dime.

It’s worth it. Be more happier where your are now, or to help you move to a “better place.”

Now more then ever, achieving great creative in-house is possible, even probable.

If you know how.

If you know how.

Agenda

9:30 State of Inhouse today

9:45 Improving your groups profile

10:15 Building better clients

10:45 Break

11:00 Staying Inspired

12:00 Lunch

12:45 Brainstorming

2:00 Brainstorming Exercise

3:30 Q & A

In-house is hot.

Adjust your thinking: In-house is hot

We’re the ones in the best position, not the agency people: being in the brand, living and breathing it.

Some of the most lauded creative now coming from in-house.

It’s a strength to go inhouse now; for stability; for a sense of ownership; and for consistency of one’s own career development.

Job security, benefits, and lifestyle generally better Handout.GD Article Handout“Corporate Inhouse Design on the rise”

The Guardian In-House

D&AD GLOBAL AWARDSBLACK PENCIL WINNER

(only 1 of 2 awarded)

The Green Apron BookMerit Brochures, Catalogs

How Design Annual Starbucks Creative Group

Pepsi ONE Redsign Packaging

GDUSA Inhouse Design Awards Pepsi-Cola Design Group

Saucony Logo Redesign Trademark and Symbols

GDUSA Inhouse Design Awards Saucony Creative Services Group

2005 Global Media Kit Brochures and Collateral

GDUSA Inhouse Design Awards TIME Creative Services

Airtool Lines of Packaging Packaging

GDUSA Inhouse Design Awards Stanley Automotive Tools

Occupation Health Campaign ADWEEK Creative Coverage

Group Health

IMPROVING YOUR GROUP’S PROFILE

Notes

How to set the tone.

An identity.

Create an identity

“Graphics Department” sounds nothing more then hired hands. Worse yet is “Marcom” so give your in-house a name. Something creative, of course, but not to weird or silly.

Choose a name that’s sophisticated and most importantly brand conscious - you want the mystique of an outside agency, yet demonstrate the importance of corporate branding.

Group Health: Brand Doc’s

“It’s important for an in-house creative department to develop a mission and vision for what you want to be, and it’s not a bad idea to come up with a cool name.”

-Joe Schneider, Creative Director, Disney Yellow Shoes

Mission Statement.

Create your own mission statement. Write it so that it supports and reinforces the corporate mission statement.

Memorize it.

Repeat it often to others.

Hang a sign.

Notes

“To produce effective, strategic, high-quality, creative, branded communication materials that meet our clients’ business objectives and deadlines.”

-Mission Statement, Brand Doc’s

Fly on a wall.

Insert yourself into the process - ask around, get involved.

You know how pervasive brand design must be - but that doesn’t mean everyone else. So keep an ear out for those meetings and key iniatives that you won’t always automatically be included.

Ask around about new developments or products.

Then ask to be included in the meeting.

Once coworkers get used to your contribution then start asking for your participation.

All in the presentation.

Present yourself and your work just as a professional agency or firm would.

You’ll be respected as a professional creative firm if you act like one.

So be buttoned up and mount your work.

“Creativity lives here.”

Transform your area to say“Creativity lives here”

Cover your cube walls, chairs, etc. It’s the grey fabric that makes a partition a cubicle so cover it with something else - fabric, butcher paper, gift wrapping paper, posters all inexpensive and temporary.

Hang thingsAcoustic tile ceilings are easy to attach things to - mobiles, model airplanes, a chandelier - lightweight.

Bring in lampsWe all know how bad fluorescent lighting is.

Turn on the music.

“We’ve had some really creative cubicle designs; the kind of thing that I don’t think anyone else in the company can get away with.”

-Phil Ovuka, Director, Media Creative Services, GEICO

“We’ve added music to the space—everything from classical to techno. We had fluorescent lighting, and now we’ve added floorlamps.”

-Justin Knecht, Senior Manager of Design Services, Binney & Smith/Crayola

Notes

How to promote yourself internally.

Capabilities brochure.

Promotional campaign.

Develop and distribute a capabilities brochure

Just like an company would, create a piece that touts your abilities. Don’t have the money build a web site or HTML e-mail campaign.

Include your mission statement and samples.

And above all treat yourself like a real client, write a creative brief, assign a timeline with deadlines and follow through.

Create a promotional campaign.

Show off your concepting chops - if everything you do is boring with tons of restrictions use this to have fun and show everyone what you are capable of.

Open house.

Workshops.

Display work.

Open House

Invite your internal clients and prospects to a show and tell - with drinks and snacks.Show off samples of work, introduce the entire team and take them on a tour of your newly decorated “creative space”

Workshops for internal clients

Display Work

Pick a highly-visible, high-traffic area or better yet where you have every work start meeting. Most of your “clients” don’t know what work you are doing for others.” Soon they’ll be asking if there work will make it up on the wall.

Rotate the work often so that it keeps peoples attention.

Film festival.

Blog.

Competitors work.

Film Festival Stage a “film festival” of top industry work.

What better way to help reinforce the success of effective creative by showing top industry work. It’ll open up the avenue to discuss the merits of good creative and how it helps build a brand.

Publish a blog or newsletter on trends and achievements

Maintain competitive bulletin board

It’s always important to know what your competitors are doing - it’ll demonstrate that you care about what’s going on in the marketplace. It also is a good demonstration of why you need to do something that is more

And there is always bribery.

Notes If you have no access to the clients - ask for it. If you can’t get then teach whoever does get access how to become an ally.

BUILDING BETTER CLIENTS.

How to be accepted as an ally.

“We’re part of the marketing division. We deal with them on a day-to-day basis. We regard them as a working partner. That’s the luxury you get with an in-house agency—we have as much say in what goes out the door.”

-Joe Schneider, Creative Director, Disney Yellow Shoes

Friends vs. foes.

Teacher vs.creative.

Humor.

Humility, deference & genuine interest.

Friends rather then foes.Gain a sense of “us” you are in this together both trying to build your brand and meet your business objectives.

Teacher rather then creative.Turn frustration into opportunities to educate. They aren’t brand experts - you are. So when they say something frustration educate them on why that is.

Preempt coworker fears with self-effacing humor.This can disarm them and start off on the right foot.

Demonstrate humility, deference and genuine interest.Be polite and respectful. Welcome others thoughts. Ask how you can help. Gain their trust.

“The ultimate goal is to build a more collaborative environment so the creative people and strategic people are able to support each other. You can call it utopia if you want to. Ultimately, that’s where business will find the most benefit out of having an in-house creative department.”

-Tim Hale, Senior Vice President, Fossil Creative

Your role.

No to “No.”

The results.

Clarify your Role

Let new people know your experience and your expertise. You are an expert on brand, advertising, and communication. They are the experts at ______

Never say No,

Make sure you understand what is driving their request. Then consider it - they actually might be right. Share the pro’s and con’s of it. Even if the only pro is they get to win - which sometimes if very important. I’ve taken a dive on some projects to build trust. Trust that later came back 10-fold on a project that had a lot of potential.

Care about the results and demonstrate it.

Give ideas no one asked for.

Post-job evaluation.

Well-crafted brief.

Give ideas no one asked for. Be proactive. Demonstrate you a re always thinking about business objectives and improving the quality and effectiveness of your work.

Do a post-job EvaluationThis not only lets you know how they think you’ve done but gives you an opportunity to discuss the merits of effective creative.

Not to mention building a relationship by showing that “doing cool creative” is not your end goal. You are in this together.

Always, use a well crafted. BriefResist crafting a “Creative Long” it just doesn’t work. Pay attention at this point, start convincing, start sell-ing good work. If you can get the client to agree to a well-crafted brief it makes it much, much easier to sell unique, effective creative.

Notes

How to speak suit.

The lingo.

Be specific.

Tangible vs. intangible.

Learn the Lingo

If you want them to under-stand “good” creative you must know what they deal with. Flip through their mag-azines and pub. Read their best sellers. Take a business course.

Be Specific

You live in a world of gray areas, but business folks need answers - in black and white. They also need why’s. “It looks better when the logo is smaller” won’t get you any brownie points.

Talk about the Tangible - not just the intangible

You’re focused on ideas. They’re focused on the deliverable. What form will it take. Give them examples; things they can hold and feel.

Objective vs subjective.

Results vs the means.

Talk about the Objective not just the Subjective

When will it be done? How much does it cost?

Set, publish and adhere to

cost and time guidelines.

The more you act like an outside firm the more you’ll be treated like one. Just like the creative brief, you need to set the parameters of the job up front including time line and cost. Make sure you are in agreement on this before hand.

Talk about the Results, not just the means.

Every discussion about ex-ecution should relate to the objectives of the project.

Quote follows to elaborate point.

“We really try to teach our designers that when we’re talking to our business partners, talk dollars and cents, talk about the objectives in terms of retail… As long as we approach it with that kind of mindset, and business can see we’re approaching it with that kind of mindset, they’re much more apt to give us more leeway.”

-Tim Hales, Senior Vice President, Fossil Creative

How to teach suits to speak creative.

Your language

Gut feelings.

Problem-solving urges.

Resist the kitchen sink.

Teach them the language.

Make them comfortable with expressing their gut feelings

First instinct

It’s how everyone in the world will be receiving the creative. Trust that and don’t over analyze.

Urge them to resist their Problem-Solving urges.

It’s in their nature to iden-tify solutions immediately. Encourage them to discuss issues with you at length. Remind them that it’s your job to solve the problem for them. This takes persistent guidance.

Resist the Kitchen sink ad

Remind them that research shows that if you try to say too much the audience will register nothing. And more then one-main point is to

“We have a class that we teach to the new marketing people. It’s called ‘Fueling Creative Fires’ and we talk about our thinking process and we teach them how to criticize creative. We don’t need to hear” ‘Is that the best color, the best photo, the best typeface?’ Those are things we went to school for. They have to trust our professionalism on those things…

…The message that we’re giving them is: ‘Ask yourself, does it ring true? Does it speak to the consumer? Is it single-minded? Is it a jumble of too many messages?’ Those are the kinds of things we need to hear from them.”

-Joe Schneider, Creative Director, Disney Yellow Shoes

Notes

Living with the brand

Define the brand.

Develop the standards.

Put the standards in writing.

Be a brand expert.

Define the brand

If there’s not already a clear statement of the brand’s positioning and personality write one.

Develop the standards.

Put them in writing.

Be a Brand Expert

Keep up to date with books and trends in branding. Things are changing at such a rapid pace. The more informed you are the more trusting they will be of you.

“I can describe Fossil’s core brand values in four or five single words. Fossil’s about vintage. Fossil’s about creative design. Fossil is for the young, lifestyle consumer. Sense of humor. Eclectic. All these things define everything we do.”

-Stephen Zhang, VP/Fossil Image Director

Control vs guide.

Resource vs The Gestapo.

Stay in touch.

Don’t control. Guide

A brand is an entity with a life of it’s own. Just like a person it must grow and change. Roll with it. Adapt as you go. Just keep the right picture in mind.

Be a resource not the Gestapo

Acting like the brand or creative police will put people off. Not to mention please to rebel against you. Make it clear that your role is to help, provide answers. You are a resource. You are their partner in selling ______.

Stay in touch.

Follow up and ask how things are going. Ask them if they need any help. Know of anything coming up.

BE PROACTIVE.

Making Presentations

How to stay in control of a presentation

Don’t offer handouts until you’re done. (Don’t enable them to divide their atten-tion, or jump to conclusions.)

Reveal ideas progressively. Present boards one at a time.

Use a parking lot for tangential topics so you don’t get thrown off track.

Ridiculous request.

Get approved an idea you like.

How to handle a ridiculous request.

Be agreeable. Don’t laugh - at what they are trying to accomplish. Always bring it back to what the objective is and what the problem is - you are the problem solver and creative professional.

Keep the door open - thank them for their suggestion. Then ask to go further explore and see what works best.

Give them what they asked for. Then give them what you recommend. Appearing open-minded and diplomatic is the way to maintain their trust.

How to make sure an idea you like gets approved.

Only present ideas that you like. If you don’t they will always pick the one you don’t like. You can’t control their choice, but you can

Notes

STAYING (OR GETTING) INSPIRED

Talk to customers, staff, competition.

How to keep morale up.Stimulation without caffeine.

Recognize achievement.

Have fun.

Keep everyone stimulate. without needing caffeine(project sharing, shifting)

Everyone burns out when work becomes too routine. Everyone needs fresh challenges in front of them, even those you give yourself.

Recognize achievement.

Enter your work in industry competitions. Hold your own internal awards. Recognize someone’s efforts in a meeting. And always share the recognition and praise.

Have Fun

Keep the atmosphere as loosed and relaxed as you can. The more somebody enjoys their workplace, the better their spirit and more influence they have on everyone else. Not to mention better work.

How to keep it fresh.Talk to everyone.

Shop the competition.

Industry pubs and web sites.

Award books - just because an piece made it in to the award books does not mean it was effective or strategic. Don’t turn the brain off when looking at them.

It’s an annual not a manual.

Industry marketing conferences.

Industry marketing blogs.

Creative industry pubs, awards books, and Web sites.

Develop a well-furnished mind.

“Well-furnished” mind.

Notes

Dealing with budgets and schedules.

How to succeed on a limited budget.

Think Positive.

Purchase inspiration.

Question the medium.

Don’t overdue it.

Think Positive. Confidence rules.

Purchase inspirationAward books

Question the mediumProduction costs can be a significant percentage of the budget. Consider various options for production while still in the design phase. Ensure that the end result is not only effective, but cost effective.

Don’t overdue it.Some jobs are just basic, period. Bang it out, move on. Feel no guilt because tomorrow will bring you another opportunity to be creative.

Ask for favors from aspiring photographers, etc.

How to justify a bigger budget.Carefully.

Comparisons.

The return.

Elsewhere.

“Bang for the buck”.

Present the idea Carefully

Always speak in terms of business objectives and results. Play the language game - invest, incremental, opportunity cost and real-locate

Make ComparisonsIs the competition spending more money and winning. Have you done something similar that proved to need more money.

Express the investment in context of the return

Find the money elsewhere

Can you scale back another project or kill it?

Talk band for the buck.

Can utilize the new creative for other materials to keep the average cost down. Talk about what you’ve already negotiated. This normally would cost, but I’ve been

Make sure everyone knows your capabilities.

Ask for the assignment.

When you get it, ace it.

How to beat a deadlineSet it yourself.

Get help.

Trick yourself.

Set the Deadline yourselfGet involved in scheduling at the front end. Educate them on how long it takes to do different kinds of jobs. Remind them that more time means that you will be able to be more responsive and therefore able to help them achieve your business objectives.

Get Help.Delegate. Divide the labor so that everything can be done simultaneously is. Bring in outside people.

Trick YourselfPretend you’ve got half the time. Trick others.

How to keep desirable projects in-house.

Your capabilities.

Ask.

Ace it.

“...in most cases, because we’re so close to the brand, we’re quicker to come up with solutions, because they (outside agencies) have to do all the research on the brand, learn all of the history of the brand and do the fact-finding, before they can come up with a solution that takes it to the next level.”

-Tim Hale, Senior Vice President, Fossil Creative

Notes Notes

Brainstorming.Larry Asher

Q+ADeal with unanswered or new questions that have cropped up during the day

Fill out evaluations

Brainstorming Exercise

Q/A

Notes

Thank you.