The creative process in marketing is flawed, and it is stifling creativity, according to research by BetterBriefs in partnership with the World Federation of Advertisers and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
The global study, The BetterIdeas Project, used feedback from more than 1,000 agency, marketer and in-house respondents across 54 countries including the US, UK and Australia.
The research highlights the creative industry’s weakened state and pain points, particularly in terms of idea evaluation, offering evidence-based strategies to reform the process.
“Creativity is the lifeblood of our industry and a core driver of growth,” said WFA CEO Stephan Loerke.
“Sadly there’s often a suboptimal creative process that delivers sub-par results. Advertisers and their agencies must invest time, effort and greater faith in fit-for-purpose briefing, evaluation and approval processes that foster collaboration and trust in order to generate bold ideas.
“Getting this right is the only way to truly harness the power of creativity and enhance the perception of marketing as a key driver of growth.”
The study found that less than a third of the marketing industry is well-trained in idea evaluation and that the idea approval process is described as painful, slow and subjective.
Only a third of marketers and a quarter of agencies feel proud of the work they make.
Half of marketers and three quarters of agencies feel that the quality of creative work is not improving over time.
Findings of the study include:
Strong ideas are important but hard to realise:
- Three quarters (76%) of marketers and 91% of creative agencies agree that “strong creative ideas are essential to the overall success of an organisation's marketing efforts”.
- More than half (54%) of marketers agree that creative work doesn’t stand out, and 75% of people working at creative agencies agree.
- Almost half (47%) of marketers and 76% of agencies feel that the quality of creative work is not improving despite the industry having access to more tools and increased knowledge of how creativity works .
Issues holding better ideas back:
- On marketers and their feedback, after agencies have presented ideas, the survey reveals that only 30% of agencies receive clear and constructive client feedback and that 70% of agencies are unclear on the feedback they receive.
- When asked to describe their current approval process, respondents’ most commonly used words were Painful, Slow, Subjective, and Inconsistent.
- When looking into the impact of this inconsistent process, on average, it takes 5 rounds of creative development (or rework) to get to a signed-off idea. This is up from 3 rounds in 2007, as measured by the IPA.
- The survey reveals insight about pride and trust in the field. Only 36% of marketers, 26% of creative agencies and 32% of in-house teams feel proud of their work across their careers.
- 70% of creative agencies don’t trust the creative judgment of marketers they work with.
How to improve the creative process:
Ensure the creative idea is evaluated against the brief and key evaluation criteria:
- 23% of agencies and fewer (15%) marketers agree that briefs are always used by their organisations when evaluating ideas.
- Only 10% of all respondents agree that ideas are always evaluated against clearly defined criteria in their organisations.
Empower agencies:
- Less than a third of agencies (29%) believe that marketers inspire them to do their best work.
- The findings show that marketers who inspire their agency to do their best work are three times more likely to feel proud of their work.
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