The Context
Client hire you to come up with great ideas for their products or service. Which means they appreciate great ideas. But something else they appreciate, which far too many creatives forget to deliver, is an understanding of how those ideas took shape, and what they are rooted in. Clients love to hear the why behind the what. And so, part of our job is educating them on how we approach the work itself. How we see thing. Why they move the way they do. The one two punch of delivering our ideas to clients is, pair content with context. Clients want you to share both. How much money are you leaving on table by not telling buyers how your ideas took shape? It’s worth thinking about next time you’re given an assignment.
The Tool
Looksee
LOOKSEE — Pairing context and content to show clients your unique way of approaching their business problem
Pphysics is the science of why things work. Why they move or don’t move. It’s all about how you see things, think about questions, quantify problems and realize models. It’s a simplified abstraction of reality. Adam may have been buzzed, but that conversation always stuck with me. Because although science is mostly a left brain endeavor, it has a surprising application to the creative process.
Scott's Take
Here’s a use case from a recent project of mine. Our client was a fitness brand, looking for ad campaign ideas to help acquire new customers. They provided our team with all the standard collateral like their brand book, market research, buyer profiles, and an inventory of previous campaigns. And then they gave us a week to ideate. Awesome. Love when that happens. Because that’s the fuel my creative brain needs to lock into place. The next few hours of my day included reading hundreds of five star reviews of the client’s fitness clubs, listening to a podcast with the president and founder of the company, perusing advertisements for other brands similar to theirs, digesting survey results from their customers, and pulling notes from a few personal development books in my library. That took about two hours. Then I started a blank spreadsheet for my copy inventory. And at the top of the document, I positioned the company’s brand insights, do’s and don'ts and guidelines to frame and set up our ideas. Then I shared the details of my research process. Then I wrote the actual ideas. Context first, then content. And to our delight, the client was thrilled with the ads. Not only with the creative, but also with the creative direction behind them. It opened a conversation with their marketing team about starting a creative partnership, which we still have to this day. And it wasn’t just me. The rest of the team did an amazing job as well. But what makes me proud is the way we did it. How we showed the client our unique way of approaching the business problem.
The Rest
That’s what companies are actually paying for. Because anyone can make stuff that looks better. The question is. Can you make stuff that makes people see better?
The Benefits
Increase people’s receptivity to your work
Help clients understand how your ideas took shape
Become viewed as a creative partner, not just a vendor
Do creative work that makes things look better and make people see better