Creative direction
Online Reviews and Site Testing with Adobe CS Live
Last year Adobe was nice enough to give me the perk of working with them on the prerelease of CS5 and Adobe was even nice enough to quote me in their global press release when they launched CS5. So I’ve have been working with the new applications for a while now and since the launch and features like content aware fill have rightfully been getting the lion share of the attention focused the new feature additions. There are two new additions that haven’t been getting much love that I wanted to feature because they are really useful and I’ve been using them more than any of the other new additions lately.
When you launch any of the new CS5 design applications like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign you will now see this CS Live icon appear in the upper right hand corner as well as in a tab on a fly out panel running down the right side of the screen. Click on the icon and you will find a list of a number of new online features integrated into all the applications but the two I wanted to focus on are Browser Lab and CS Review.
Browser Lab
Any time you develop a web site or any browser based experience one of the most challenging parts is testing the final product to be sure it works in all the different browsers and platforms. I can be incredibly frustrating because you have to be able to run the tests on a Mac and PC and it could look perfect in Safari but is upside down and backwards on IE7. To try and simplify this process Adobe has now introduced BrowserLab which is an online application that lets you run simulated tests on your work on multiple versions of Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari. You can decide which browsers you want to test and organize them into custom sets for multiple test cases. Once that is done just flip over into Test mode, enter your URL and the site pops up for testing and QA. You can view the results one at a time, side by side or my favorite Onion Skin. In the Onion Skin view the application overlays all the versions over one and another and it makes it really quick and easy to find big problems or subtle differences.
CS Review
Every agency has some kind of online client extranet where they can post comps for client review and to capture all the feedback in one place. The problem is that if you don’t own your own agency you don’t have access to these kind of tools until now with the release of another online application called CS Review. The reason I like this application so much is that it goes one step beyond simply capturing comments and creates an online review environment that integrates into the workflow of the CS design applications. Start by choosing CS Review from the CS Live menu and you will first be asked to create a Workspace which works like a folder. From there you can name the file you want to post for review and choose the quality of the upload. Once it is uploaded the file will open on Acrobat.com where you can highlight areas to comment on or send it out for review by your clients. When your clients review and comment on the work they only need to have Flash installed in a browser and not any Adobe design application. The resulting comments can then be viewed online or they will are pulled back into the design application and displayed when that file is opened. It’s this flow starting with the application that moves into an online review and then back into the application that I really like because is creates a seamless workflow instead of multiple different systems that have to be manually combined to work smoothly.
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Tell me again how copying is really flattery?!?
Exhibit 1 – The Luxury Collection ‘Explore the Collection
Click here to see The Luxury Collection site
Exhibit 2 – Middlebury College Web site
Click here to see the Middlebury University site
The Luxury Collection web site was launched a little less than two years ago and the redesign, which was done in collaboration with BBDO Atmosphere and their phenomenally talented creative director Arturo Aranda, was the first step in their re-branding and the creation of the brand’s new global visual language. The strategy and inspiration for the site came from the world of art museums and galleries where you can see unique and varied works of art from across history that are bound by the curation of the museum that brought them together and made them into a collection. Explore the Collection brings this strategy to life with the properties displayed as slivered works of art against a large white background like the works lining the walls of a museum. You can either explore the slivers by rolling over them or search interactively by Destination or Pursuit which will narrow down the numbers of slivers displayed.
This morning a link to the Middlebury College web site lands in my inbox. I clicked the link and could just feel my blood pressure go shooting up and face getting hot as I stared at my screen.
Before I say anything else I want you to click the links for both sites and decide for yourself. I can wait…
I my humble opinion I think it’s pretty easy to see more than a passing resemblance between the two sites seeing as how the layout and user experience are exactly the same.
Maybe I’m making this into something more profound than it needs to be but if an agency (in this case White Whale Web Services) is going to get paid by a client they have to have the talent and ethics to give the client what they paid for – an original idea. Doing this is an abuse of their trust because they are looking to you to be the expert. They are looking to you to be the professional. They are looking to you to be anything but the group who is going to exploit the fact that they don’t know they are just getting a re-skinned version of something someone else already did. If they wanted a site like someone else they could have gone to TemplateMonster.com and saved a hell of a lot of money.
Maybe my bigger issue is that I want to know when we all got so lazy? Why can’t we can’t come up with our own ideas? Why can’t agencies write their own blogs so I don’t have to send out cease and desist letters every month? It’s becoming an epidemic that I see time after time when I speak at conferences and people come up to me and ask what the ‘secret’ is for success. I tell them all the same thing – a lot of hard work. It means that on every single project, every single day you have to put in the time and work your ass off to come up with an original idea and not taking the easy way out and copying someone else. Such a simple concept but seemingly harder and harder to find.
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Why good ideas will turn your clients into tiny drug addicts
I get the same question emailed to me over and over again – Do you have any advice for dealing with clients who constantly have problems and changes? It a complicated solution but part of the answer to the problem is, like the headline says, because you are making your clients into little drug addicts and you don’t even know it. Before you think that I’ve finally gone over the edge – let me explain.
Let’s start by looking at the typical life cycle of any creative project. You get the project from the client, you come up with some concepts to solve the problem, you present those solutions back to the client and then you go build the solution. We can narrow down from there to say that problems with our clients start after the presentation and go until the project is finished. What happens after the presentation that makes this happen?
When you present a good idea to a client they get excited. They get happy. They tell other people about the idea. They put the comps up on the wall of their office. But most importantly they get an endorphin hit from all that excitement and they like the way it feels. It’s different than what they feel in all of their other mundane and repetitive meetings during the day. They like the way it feels so much that they are going to go looking for that feeling (another hit) again as the process goes along. The problem is that after the creative presentations are done they aren’t going to find that feeling again because you go from the creation phase into the production phase. So how do they get another hit? How do they feel that way again? They make changes to the work, no matter how good the idea is, in an attempt to get that rush and feeling of creating something new again. The problem is that making changes during the production phase is that it is the worst possible time to do it because it creates a lot of re-work and added expense.
So how do you give them that hit they are looking for and keep control of your idea and project?
Give them a road map
The best thing is to let your client know what the road ahead is going to look like and walk them through your process so they know aren’t going to get that feeling again until the end of process when they see the finished product. You should also explain what their involvement will be along the way with timing and milestones. It gives you something to manage to and something you can refer back to if the client starts getting restless and wants to make changes looking for that hit.
Mock-ups, prototypes and ripomatics
If you have a client who really needs that hit of new creative to get them through, then you need to build a bridge between the hit they get from the energy and optimism of the creative presentation and the next hit they will get from seeing the final finished version of the concept. It’s a balancing act that means you need to show them more work or include them in some part of the process so they feel like they are contributing and creating the end result with you. Each medium presents its own challenges for how to get this done and how to strike that balance between control and inclusion. For print work I create mock-ups so they can see the ad in a a real newspaper, magazine or mock-up of the final produced version. For digital work I will ether create prototypes so they can see the comps come to life or try to include them in the process for things like user testing so they get a hit from seeing the work in a new form and have a check-in point that they are good with the executional direction before we get too far down the road. For broadcast work I use a similar approach to what I do for digital by either creating animatics or ripomatics of the storyboards or including them in the process for things like VO session. I think all of these work because it gives your client a new thing they can show around the office and makes them feel like an insider who is getting to see the final work before the rest of the world.
Obviously this isn’t true for everyone and there are client who just want to make changes to flex their power and make themselves feel like their are control but take a new look at your problem clients and maybe you will see them in a new light. Maybe their constant changes are a twisted compliment to the quality of your ideas and the fact that they want more of them.
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What makes an online community successful?
Last week I spoke at the Social Media & Community 2.0 Conference about Non-Traditional Insight-Driven Community Building and I’ve had a few emails asking for me to elaborate on one of my slides so I thought I would post the answer here.
When you use social media to create an online community the biggest challenge is going to be how does your brand stand out from your competitors who are all trying to get the same consumers into their online communities? One of the keys to success is to build your community so consumers see some kind of value in their participation in your community. That value is critical because while both traditional and online communities form around shared interests, the bond to the digital community is really thin. This happens because a community that is formed in the real world is based around physical proximity and participation so people have to go to that community to be a part of it. The effort required to physically go somewhere to participate in something is much, much higher than the 5 seconds it takes to click a ‘Follow’ or ‘Like’ button. So because of that difference you have to work much harder to keep the digital community working, keep that consumer seeing the value and keep them from losing interest and breaking that thin bond and dropping out. I have found that when consumers see value it falls into three different kinds of modivators.
Emotional
They join or participate in the community because they have an emotional connection to the communities subject matter. It could be a cause they are passionate about or a brand they connect with on a personal level. Of the three different triggers this is the strongest because the bond is on a personal and emotional level which will be harder to break than the other two. The best examples are communities for brands like Apple, Microsoft Xbox or Toms Shoes.
Intellectual
They join or participate in the community because they want to either give or gain knowledge round the communities subject matter. The members who want to give knowledge feel a sense of empowerment for being a teacher who can speak with authority on the subject matter. The members who want to gain knowledge join the community because it allows them to learn from a community that would not be geographically possible outside of the virtual world and it removes the intimidation that could be found if the situation was taken into the real world. These could be founded around large and generic subjects like cooking or brands like Adobe, Ford or Twitter.
Financial
They join or participate in the community because that participation brings them financial gains or savings like discounts or special offers. It could give be as straight forward as coupons that translate into dollar savings or access to special merchandise that isn’t offered to the general public making them feel like an insider who has special access to the brand. The best examples are communities for brands like Coupons.com or Gilt.com.
How do you use these triggers?
I have found a lot of success building communities to cater to and take advantage of all three of these different motivators by cycle through these three different motivators in the marketing messaging. This means that one week give out some tips about the brands area of expertise (intellectual), the next week talk about something that is core to their business (emotional) and then the next week send out a discount or offer to drive sales or customers into the store (financial). By cycling through the messaging you keep the communication fresh so it isn’t the same thing over and over again, you cater to the individual motivators as well as consumers who fall into multiple categories and you are able to build the brand and drive sales.
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Presenting Creative 101 – Part 3: The Presentation
THE PRESENTATION
12 FEET VS. 4 FEET
As I have studied more and more about what goes into being a good presenter I have found that it happens on conscious and unconscious levels. There are a lot of things that you are naturally aware of on a subconscious level that you can use to your advantage. The first of those things is having an understanding of how you can use your proximity to your clients to your advantage.
Whenever you look at the physical spacial relationship between two people any time you move inside of a four foot radius from someone you are inside their persons space and that will create a strong positive and comforting connection or negative uncomfortable reaction. The inverse of that personal space bubble is if someone is more than 12 feet away from you they are in disconnected space. This means that there is so much space between you and your audience that they feel that they can disengage from you and what you are presenting. We have all seen this in action in school because it’s why all the slackers would always sit in the back of the classroom.
Use these spacial relationships to your advantage and make sure that whenever you have to give a presentation you’re in the sweet spot between 4 and 12 feet away from your audience. This means that if you are presenting in a large boardroom table position yourself in the middle of the table so you are in the sweet spot instead of standing at the end where you will lose people at the other end.
DEATH TO THE SEE AND SAY
If I wanted everything read to me I would have bought the audio book
One of my biggest pet peeves is going to a meeting or conference and having to sit through slide after slide as the presenter does nothing but read the content on each slide. A lot of people do this as a crutch when they are really nervous or think they aren’t a good presenter. The problem is that no matter what that presenter is really saying your subconscious is hearing what I have written on the slide above. That happens for two reasons. First, your audience can read the content on each slide faster than you can say it so they know where you are going and tune out after you have talked about 1/3rd of the slide. Second, and more importantly, is that when you stand there doing nothing but reading your slides you are subconsciously telling your audience you don’t know what you’re talking about.You aren’t providing them with even the most narrative beyond what is written on the slide and it creates a subconscious perception that you lack authority. Having a client or an audience come to that conclusion about you is catastrophic because they will never have any trust or confidence in you.
ALL EYES ON ME
Killing the skip aheads
Whenever you do a presentation it’s an exercise in keeping the focus and attention of your audience on you. I have found that understanding basic psychology helps that happen and some things you can do that will help are:
PROJECT OR USE ONE DECK
You want every client looking at the same thing, at the same time, so you keep them from skipping ahead, forming opinions about work without the benefit of an explanation and then disengaging from what you are saying. When you present either project your presentation or use one printed deck so all eyes are on one thing, This keeps everyone engaged, look at the same thing, focused on you and most importantly lets you control the pace of the meeting. If you give everyone their own copy of the presentation you lose that control and that focus which is so critic to being an effective presenter.
NO HAND OUTS TILL THE END
Keeping any hand out till the end supports the use one deck concept I explained above but it recognizes that clients will want to be able to look at the work after the meeting. If you do it sooner then you will have 50% of the group on the same page, 25% not paying attention at all and 25% flying through it ignoring what you have to say. Keep their focus on you during the meeting and then they can have their own copy to review at the end.
BUILDS. BUILDS. BUILDS.
I am a firm believer that the words ‘Powerpoint’ and ‘design’ should never exist in the same sentence but I think it is critical to use slide builds in any presentation. If you look at the slide above you see a a basic slide with a title and 5 bullet points. If you show this slide with all the content already revealed then your clients human nature is going to be to read the content you put up on the screen. They can read faster than you can talk and they aren’t listening to what you have to say. They know where you are going to go with that piece of your presentation so you will start to lose a high percentage of the room who will drift off until you go to the next slide. You have lost their focus simply by not having each of the bullet points build in when you want them to. So while it may seem like a small thing, using builds for each line of the slide will keep the room focused on you and keep them listening to what it is you have to say.
PASSWORD PROTECTED PDF’S
There are a lot of occasions when you aren’t going to have the luxury of presenting to clients face or face or even over a web cast. In those instances you still need to try to control the focus of the presentation as much as you can so I will send out the presentation as a PDF but make them password protected. This way I know I can at least control when everyone sees the work and I can try to minimize the people who skip ahead as much as possible.
It can be a controversial technique and I’ve had some clients get really at mad me for doing it. My explanation is always that my team and I have put a lot of work into the project and I want to the chance to be able to present the work and the thinking . I don’t want assumptions to be made ahead of time which are going to mitigate what I have to say because they have already made up their minds.
I also do this because on an unspoken level I have to maintain my position as a leader and have my client give me the basic respect of listening to what I have to say. If I send that presentation ahead of time, let them go through it without me and form their own assumptions then I am giving up that leadership and respect by subconsciously admitting I have nothing to add.
USE STRUCTURE TO OVER COMES YOUR NERVES
Think of it like presentation training wheels
If you are nervous about presenting them here are two different techniques I have used that may help you get over that fear and help to start to build your confidence.
CHASE THE RABBIT
The hardest part of a presentation is the beginning because you have to be the first to stand up in front of everyone, get all the conversations to stop, set the tone and get a rhythm going. It can intimidating and scary so when you are just starting to do presentation think about having a more senior member of the team start the meeting. It gives you time to get into the flow of the meeting, get rid of some of the butterflies and you can follow (chase) that more senior member of the team. It is a simple but effect way to get your confidence up.
HAND OFFS
Similar to chasing the rabbit, doing a presentation with another person so you can hand off from one section to another helps break the presentation down into smaller parts and lets you study and evolve your technique in the meeting.
BENEFITS
Talk about your work in terms of business benefits
This is associated with the concept I discussed in my last post that ‘Not everyone can see it’. In that case I was talking about the fact that everyone can visualize concepts and designs in their head. In this case it is the fact that most clients don’t look at your work in the same design terms that you do. They spend all day talking about business issues so you need to look at your audience and see if you need to do the same. Instead of talking about your choice in fonts, colors, etc. in terms of what it does for the design, talk about in terms of how it solves the business problem and what business benefits it will provide. So when you are presenting the work think in those terms so instead you will say things like “We chose this typeface and color palette because it resonates with our core demographic, that will build the brand recognition and that recognition will help increase sales”. I have also found that when you are able to do that then your client will see the thinking in a way they understand and will not try to find it themselves in the designs. If you have clients that rip apart your designs and nip pick everything little thing it is probably because they are trying to find that logic and those benefits so the designs make sense to them in a way they understand.
TAKE THEIR TEMPERATURE
Check in early and often
Checking in with your client through the course of your presentation is important for two reasons. First is that it makes your audience switch from a passive listening mode to an active thinking mode to answer your question. That simple switch in thinking modes helps wake them up, focus them and make sure they are keeping their attention on you. It is also a really good trick if you are presenting blind over a conference call because asking questions and checking in will keep your clients from skipping too far ahead. The questions will create a sense of risk and they may not be able to answer a question if they are too far ahead or not listening.
From here we will be moving on to how to handle problem clients and dealing the aftermath of the presentation. If you have comments, thoughts or additions feel free to put them in the comments because this is by no means a complete or definitive document and I always love to hear other opinions.
Read more of: Presenting Creative 101 – Part 3: The Presentation »
Presenting Creative 101 – Part 2: The Set-up
In the first part of this series we look at look at how as creatives we have to do more than just present our work and there are some key things we need to understand to be able to get a client’s trust. Now we are going to look at the most important part of any presentation – the set-up.
THE SET-UP
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
One size doesn’t fit all
Anytime you are going to do a presentation you want to find out as much as you can about your audience so you can so you can put together a plan for how you are going to sell you work. That plan should dictate your presentation style and lead to questions like should the presentation have a lot of detail and set-up or should you get right to the point? It should also lead to executional questions like do you need to comp up every single variation or will your audience be able to get the concept with just a few key visual? Working through these types of questions and use the answers and your insights to your advantage because they will help you find the best way to communicate with your audience and get your work sold.
ASSIGNED SEATING
Use seating to help control the focus of the room
Knowing your audience is also key to knowing if there are clients or group of people that will cause side conversations and distractions during your presentation. These problematic groups can derail your meeting, create a lack of focus on you or bigger problems. A simple way to control that is to use where people are seated in the room to control the focus. If there are two clients who usually sit together and have a side conversation then put them on opposite sides of the table but close to you so they can’t talk to each other without interrupting you. It is a small thing but it can really help the flow of the meeting and get the work sold.
KNOW THE ROOM
Seating, projectors, white boards, lighting…
Don’t let something as simple as not having the right laptop adaptor for the projector or the dial-in number not working make you look like you don’t know what you are doing. You haven’t even opened your mouth and your client is sitting there thinking “you want me to give $200,000 to someone who can’t even figure out how to turn on the projector to start the meeting?”. It may sound harsh but subconsciously it happens all the time. So don’t let something that small and simple hurt that critical confidence you are trying to create with clients. Before your meeting swing by the room you are going to use and to be sure you know where the room is located, how it is laid out, how the lighting works, what cord the projector uses and if there is a power outlet you can use. It will take 2 minutes to answer those questions and will be well worth the time.
MAKE IT AN EVENT
If it is an important meeting – make it feel important
If you are having an important meeting or are presenting a big project make it feel like something different from all the other meetings your clients sits through every day. I use things that are a part of the clients brand like take aways, snacks, flowers or even candles to create a visual impact as soon as they walk into the room. It tells my clients this is going to be an important meeting, that I understand their brand and that I am excited about the work. It starts to create that sense of confidence before the meeting even starts or they see one piece of creative. Plus all of this can be done for as little as $20 – $40.
TELL ME A STORY
Bring your creative process to life
You can use the concept of telling a story two different ways. The first is exactly what you would think in that your presentation should, like any good story, have a beginning, middle and end. The beginning of your presentation should set the pace, introduce the story and set the stage. The middle should elaborates on the beginning and be the heart of the story where everything is explained. The end should wrap up everything and set the stage for the next episode.
You can also look at it that when you present creative work you have the license to make the way you present more of a work of theater. I don’t mean put on costumes and sing songs but instead think about the fact that you have the license to improve upon the story you tell your client about the work. You can take the fact that you really came up with the concept you are presenting while sitting at your desk and make it into how you were driving to work, saw something, were struck with inspiration and the concept came to you. It is a more engaging and personalized approach than simply standing up there and revealing the work.
LIMIT CHOICES
Edit. refine. edit. refine.
Getting your client’s trust means that you present anything you have to have a point of view about their brand, their work and the project your are presenting. This is important for two reasons. First, is that point of view puts you in a leadership position as someone who is in charge of the business and that position creates trust and confidence. Second, is because it will help you refine and edit your the work you’re going to present down to only the choices that are in line with your vision. Not having that vision usually leads to two different actions – throwing in the step child and guessing.
We have all done it at some point. You have 2 really good options but you told the client you would present 3 concepts so you throw in that step child concept no one believes in to hit your number. You present all three, the client picks the third one you threw in at the end and now you have to put whip cream on the onion to make it work. For a long time I thought it was because clients, like dogs, can smell fear and you key on the one concept you were afraid of. Since then my thinking has evolved to knowing that it was my fault for throwing in something I didn’t believe in and not doing a good enough job of selling the two better ideas. If I would have stuck with my vision then the finished project would have been one of the concepts I knew would have worked better.
Onto the subject of guessing. I recently had an agency do a presentation to one of my clients where they presented 8 different campaign directions and I got the sense that they felt like they had really gone the extra mile to produce all of this work. I saw it as a group that was completely lost with no clue about where to take the business. They didn’t have a point of view, they were grasping at straws hoping something you stick and as a result I had no trust or confidence in them. I would rather they present a strong singular vision, even if it was wrong, than just guess wildly.
Have faith in your vision and have the strength to present it because your client will respond to that much better than if you just guess and hope you hit something.
PRACTICE. PRACTICE. PRACTICE.
Then practice some more.
If you want to get better at presenting then practice. It’s so simple it’s obvious but we all know because of the demands on our time it is really hard to find the time. If it’s early in the morning or at night after you have gone home you have to find the time and an audience to practice. It is so important because you have to be in command of the material and work on your personal style to get better.
It may sound silly but I used to practice with a video camera sitting next to my dog. I did it so I could look into somethings’s eyes when I was practicing instead of talking to a blank wall. I had the video camera so after I went through my pitch I could play it back to see if the performance matched the mental image I had in my head of the performance. Time after time I found when I watched the video playback it was like when I recorded my answering machine message and thought “I don’t really sound like that do I?”. You smooth things over in your head and create a slight different perception of yourself. Being able to step outside of myself to see how I looked and sounded was really important to understand how to do a better job. It’s easier than ever to do this now with pretty much every every iPhone and smartphone having the ability to record video. You can set it up anywhere, anytime to grab some practice time. Just remember to delete it before your significant other posts it to YouTube for some laughs.
WHAT DO YOU WANT THEM TO DO?
The most important thing in any meeting or presentation is making sure your team has a clear understanding of what you want the client to do at the end of the meeting. The way you build the deck, the story you tell and everything in between should all lead your client to taking that action. If you can’t answer that simple question then the meeting is going to be a mess that wonders around with no goal and too many chances for things to go wrong.
From here we will be moving on to the presentation before ending with how to handle problem clients and dealing the aftermath of the presentation. If you have comments, thoughts or additions feel free to put them in the comments because this is by no means a complete or definitive document and I always love to hear other opinions.
Read more of: Presenting Creative 101 – Part 2: The Set-up »
Presenting Creative 101 – Part 1: What are we presenting?
Throughout my career I have consistently been given high praise for being really good at presenting creative and it didn’t happen by accident. Early on I realized that my design skills were only going to take me so far if I wasn’t able to sell my work. The problem was that I left college afraid to talk in front of a group and hadn’t been given any tools to sell my work. I needed to get over my fear, understand hot to sell and the psychology of it all. I started to hanging around with people who sell to high end clients for a living like venture capitalists, sports agents and PR agents to study their techniques. I even went so far as to read police interrogation books to understand how to analyze people and what makes people tick . It may sound really extreme but like I said this wasn’t anything I was taught in art school so I had to make up my own curriculum. Like the illustration above points out , the further you go in your career the further you are going to get away from you brought you into it. You are going to be doing less design work and the more budgets and presentations.
As I traveled around and worked with other creatives from all over the world who graduated from the best design school I heard that they had the same problem. So I wanted to share what I have learned with a broader audience in the hopes that it can help you too. It normally takes me about an hour and half to do this starter class so I am going to break it into three articles and try to keep the points short and to the point. This first article looks at the core to any great presentation and what we are really selling. Then in the second article we will go over the set-up to the presentation and the presentation itself. Finally we will look at how to handle problem clients and dealing the aftermath of the presentation. I hope this helps, please share what I have learned and if you would like me to present the full class at your conference drop me a line.
EVERYONE PRESENTS CREATIVE
The first thing that EVERYONE from the designers to the project managers and everyone in between needs to realize is that everyone in the creative team presents creative. Even if they aren’t pitching concepts or showing comps they present their work and the core principle listed here work for everyone on the team because all the pieces of a project are linked together.
PRESENTING = SELLING
Present spreadsheets. Sell creative.
Once you get everyone to understand that this is a part of the core DNA of any creative group then you need to change the way you think about presenting because what we are really doing is selling. If you have the results of an ad campaign from last quarter then you present it to the client but when you have a new project you are trying to make someone BUY something. Making someone buy something takes a totally different way of thinking from presenting.
SELLING CONFIDENCE NOT COMPS
So we are selling not presenting but what is it we are really selling? Comps? Concepts? Sorry but none of the above. We are selling trust and confidence. Unlike a car salesman who will let you sit in the car and take it for a test drive, we are selling air. We are selling the idea of something we want to make. Something we think will move people. Something we can roughly sketch up but wont be able to really show you in a finished form until we go on that photo shoot with the high price tag you’re going to find at the end of the presentation. So you, the client, need to trust that I know what I am doing. You need to trust that this is a great idea. You need to trust that the future of your career is safe in my hands and I am going to make you look like a hero at the end of all of this. Without that the best idea in the world will never see the light of day and will never make a difference to anyone.
HOW DO YOU SELL TRUST & CONFIDENCE?
Selling confidence sounds simple enough when you say it out loud but I have spent most of my career trying to perfect the process and it is a skill you will have to constantly evolve and adapt to meet the challenges of new projects and new clients. Here are some of the big things you need to do and be aware of to build trust with your clients.
ONE VOICE
Everyone needs to support each other no matter what
Selling creative and conveying confidence are a team concept. As you go through a project a client will interact with a lot of different team members and anyone one of them can break that confidence and throw a project into problems and changes in a heart beat. Problems and disagreements will happen but they need to be worked out behind the scenes. You need to speak with one voice on every presentation and cast doubt on what someone is saying or presenting so your client gets confidence from seeing a team that is completely behind one concept.
SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS IN THE IVORY TOWER
Look at your work with fresh eyes so you can sell it
When you work on a project for a long time you get immersed in the details and problems which is a natural part of the creative process. When it comes time to finally present that work to the client you need to be able to develop the ability to remove yourself from that forrest of details and problems to be able to see the project with fresh eyes. To get short term memory loss so you don’t skip over key details and selling points, assume the client knows thing they don’t and, most importantly, you won’t do justice to all the hard work your team put into the project.. It is critical to be able to see how to present the work in a clean and simple way to someone who knows nothing about it so they can understand it and have confidence that it will work.
NOT EVERYONE CAN SEE IT
Don’t assume clients can see creative the same way you can
Working in digital I have been in a lot of meetings where co-workers use terms they know the client won’t understand to sound cool. The problem is that you may think you sounded cool but you probably just lost the connection with your client, made them feel self conscious for not being in the know and none of that leads them to feel confident about you or the work. You need to realize that not everyone has the ability to see designs in their minds eye the way that we can so you have to take that into consideration when you talk. Be overly descriptive or sketch the solution on the back of a piece of paper so everyone can see it. This will also help eliminate any confusion and those dreaded words from your client at the next meeting – “Oh… That wasn’t what I had in my head after our last meeting”.
Also realize that coming out of any presentation your work will probably be re-presented and it won’t be done by you. I always want to be confident that when my client leaves a meeting with me to go back to their office to show off the work to their boss they will be able to talk about it confidently because they understand all the details that went into it. If I talk over their head then that next presentation isn’t going to go well and the project could be sidetracked before it even got started.
EVERYTHING COMMUNICATES
You aren’t just selling your work with your words
Think about the fact that when you are presenting you are communicating with more than your words and that your body language and tone can say just as much. Doing things like slumping down in your chair, looking off into space or having an ambivalent tone about your work all subconsciously communicate a lack of confidence in what you are presenting. Think of it like a poker game and your client is subconsciously looking for tells about what you are really thinking.
PASSION & AUTHENTICITY
It’s OK to love your work
When it comes to creative the TV and movie generated idea of a slick person standing at the front of the behind a podium delivering the information in clear monotone can really hurt them. You were asked to create something out of nothing and that process should have infused the final result with elements that mean something to you. You aren’t presenting spreadsheets so have some passion about the work and let your client see it. Saying simple things like “I really love this idea” will let them know that you believe in the work. It will let me know you are going to bring this to life with the same passion you had when you created it. It will give them confidence that you have something invested in the project and that it means more to you and your team than just another assignment.
EMOTIONAL FOCUS
Go to your happy place
From the time I was around 8 years old though high school I shot competitive archery at a near Olympic level. It’s a sport of control and repetition that becomes a head game because it all about you. There is no team to jump on a mistake and save you. You win and you get all the glory. You lose and there is no one to blame but yourself. As a part of my training I had a coach who drilled it into my head that in high pressure situations nervousness is a self created emotion. When you need to make a shot your emotions are completely in your control.
Standing in front of a room full of clients needing to sell them on your concept can be intimidating. Anytime I need to deliver in a big meeting or present at a big conference I get nervous. It’s a natural reaction. The key is be aware that this is going to happen, that it is OK if it does and try to develop things to help you deal with it. For some people it is practicing the presentation until they know it forwards and backwards so they can go on autopilot. For other people it is finding comfort in going about the presentation in a ritualistic way so they find comfort and control in going through familiar ordered actions. For me it is finding a quiet place a few minutes before I need to present to sit down, close my eyes and think about something that makes me happy. It is usually something outside of work and away from whatever it is I am about to go do. Something that helps me get myself centered, clear my head and my nerves. This should be different for everyone since your personal triggers are going to be different.
All of this is just the beginning and like I said I will be moving on to the set-up for the presentation and the presentation itself in the next few days before ending with how to handle problem clients and dealing the aftermath of the presentation. If you have comments, thoughts or additions feel free to put them in the comments because this is by no means a complete or definitive document and I always love to hear other opinions.
Read more of: Presenting Creative 101 – Part 1: What are we presenting? »
Death to the client version
I need to vent and say that the fact that designers portfolios and award shows are littered with “agency” versions of campaigns drives me crazy. I don’t agree with this thinking that there is a good “agency” version that was done by the smart people at the agency and a bad “client” version that through client interference was made into a weak and diluted derivative of the what the agency really wanted to do. The reality is that when that TV spot runs, that print ad is printed or that web site goes live, consumers only see and your success metric will only be based on the the “client” version. I think that if the “client” version sucks then it is your fault that you weren’t a good enough salesman to keep them on track. So since you are going to do a ton or work either way why the hell don’t you make it something you can be proud of?
Before everyone goes leaping for the comment box to tell me it isn’t that easy know that I say that having had more than my fair share of difficult, demanding, head strong, screaming and clinically insane clients so I know it isn’t as easy as just saying there should only be one version and call it a day so here are something to do to keep things on track.
Practice safe design. Use a strategy and concept.
I have written about this before but always get your client sold on a strong strategy and concept. It gives you a clear direction and standard that you can use to keep things on track after the presentation when the client begins to get nervous about if the idea is really good enough, what will their boss think about it and if it will really work. Those nerves make them start to rethink things and make nervous changes. Having that concept that answers their needs will help you weed out a lot of those changes because it is easy to take a pass through the changes to see if they will support the concept or not.
Also if you keep the focus on the concept for the project and show them how it will answer their business need then it takes a lot of the pressure of the actual visual design. When they don’t see that solution then they try and find it in the visual design and they will tear it shreds looking for it.
Don’t follow blindly – Listen and find a reason to make the logo bigger.
If you work for me you know that it’s not your job to not just blindly take orders and do the clients bidding. It is the job of every designer that if you get feedback that isn’t going to help or support the concept then go back to try and understand the reasoning behind the request so you can find a better way to solve the problem we will all be happy with. I have found a lot of success with this because the client knows you are listening to them, they feel like they are part of the solution, we can create a reason for the change to happen and I don’t have a concept that gets derailed at the 11th hour.
Embrace changes from everywhere.
We all know that change is a core part of the creative process. When a creative director tells you to fix something in a comp it is change. When you rewrite a TV script it is change. But when a client tell you to alter something then change takes on a different and negative connotation. I this happens because it is input that is external to the creative group so it isn’t accepted in the same way. It’s critical that you alter your process so all change is looked upon equally and, like I said above, you find ways to make those changes make sense in the concept so you keep your concept on track.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
The last part of this whole process is the unspoken power struggle for trust and respect that is at the root of all of this. When you present the work you are in control. Things go well if your client respects and trusts you then they will trust your vision for the project so the final result is produced to your vision. If they don’t trust you then after the presentation they will take over control and show you no respect by dictating changes, tell you how to change the concept and doing your job for you. When this happens you have to find a way to regain control of the project and build up that client respect or you will find yourself in situations time after time where you weren’t in control of the creative direction but you will be held responsible for the results. I have an article I wrote a while back that goes into more detail on the issue and is a good read if you are having issues in this area.
I think that if you try to make this change and change the mentality of your creative group then you will not only have to no longer create two version of every project but you will see happier clients who get better and more effective work.
Read more of: Death to the client version »
Is the recession just what creatives needed?
About a little while ago I sat down with Richard Christiansen the Creative Director and Founder of Chandelier Creative and Commonwealth Utilities at their purple piano, latex sofa and life size horse lamp adorned studio to talk about their latest work. About 15 minutes in to the conversation he said something that has rattled around in my head ever since which was “the recession is the greatest thing that ever could have happened to us”. It’s one of those statements that catches you a bit off guard and you struggle to get enough time to process the comment in the flow of the conversation. I prefer the direct route so I just dug in to get an explanation.
For Chandelier it has broken down the class system and egos of designers, photographers and artists who wouldn’t return their calls a year ago. I started to think more and more about the statement and it is true for me too. For my professional life I have seen more of the agencies I work with are more willing to collaborate and invest in our relationship and in my personal work I have found photographers who work for The New York Times are now returning my calls and working with me on my projects. I look at this as a silver lining and needed reality check among all the bad news of the past few years. I know that I am very, very lucky to have those opportunities and the toll the recession has taken on my team and the industry is something no one would celebrate. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this and if you have seen the same thing in your work or your home market.
Read more of: Is the recession just what creatives needed? »
Meeting Santiago Calatrava
Inspirations are an interesting thing because they so often have nothing to do with our chosen profession. For me I have quite a few but the two men who consistent top the list are chef Ferran Adria and architect Santiago Calatrava.
Ferran Andria is one of the most controversial chefs in the world as his food questions the very nature of a meal. Recipes are created by a combination of chefs, scientists, industrial designers and art directors in a place called ‘el Tiere’. His restaurant El Bulli in Spain has 3 Michelin stars and is regarded as the best restaurant in the Western world. I highly recommend watching Decoding Ferran Adria hosted by Anthony Bourdain which is the best look in Ferran’s work and world.
My favorite architect is another Spaniard, Santiago Calatrava. His clean and modern designs have inspired and fascinated me for years and I had the chance to meet him Monday night at a book signing at the Taschen store in SoHo.
I have been lucky enough to meet a lot of the people who inspire me and I find these meetings to be an interesting interaction because what is it we hope to get out of these meetings? I am very rarely able to have a lengthy or meaningful conversation but I continue to be drawn to these meetings. I have come to the conclusion that I go because I am trying to close the gap between the work and person to understand their process and how they use it to summon such great creativity. I am also looking for how that creativity and unique approach can translate into my own work. I think that this is especially true in the case of Ferran Adria where I have never tasked his cooking or met him in person but find his process and approach riveting. I have tried to blend my style with the spirit and open creative approach o the Tiere in my own studio in the hopes of similar results. In Calatrava I draw inspiration from a comparison between architecture and web design. In both there is a need to create something large and functional but it can be beautiful and standout from the crowd in a bold and striking fashion.
Read more of: Meeting Santiago Calatrava »
