Industry 'must act now to unlock the best creative ideas'

Marketers and their agencies face a wake-up call over the development of game-changing creative ideas, with poor feedback, laborious sign-off processes and a lack of inspiration proving huge barriers to the progress of outstanding campaigns.

So says a new global report, which provides evidence-based action points on how the industry can collectively improve the process of developing exceptional creativity.

Conducted by BetterBriefs and research agency Flood + Partners, “The BetterIdeas Project” has been produced in partnership with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).

The comprehensive global study represents the opinions of 1,034 agency, marketer and in-house respondents, spanning 54 countries including the UK, US and Australia, with representation from both B2C and B2B sectors.

In its exploration of the creative process, the research reveals that over three quarters of marketers and 91% of agencies agree that creative ideas are essential to an organisation’s marketing effort.

It also identified, however, that the average rework rate is high and time-consuming; it typically takes five rounds of creative development to get to a signed-off idea (up from three rounds as recorded in IPA research in the UK in 2007).

To ensure creative ideas can flourish, to cut down on wasted time and effort, and to increase the pride the industry has in its creative work, the report is able to pinpoint key areas that the industry can improve within the creative development process.

The first is to provide training on how to evaluate ideas and deliver better feedback, which includes ensuring feedback is objective, rather than subjective (personal opinion).

The study found that only 30% of agencies and 27% of marketers agree they are well-trained in evaluating ideas, while only 30% of agencies and around half (52%) of marketers agree that clients/they provide clear and constructive feedback.

Meanwhile, a considerable 89% of agencies and 84% of marketers agree that personal opinion has a big impact on decision making.

The next recommendation is to streamline the approval process, including ensuring that only the necessary people are included in the decision-making.

The report reveals that only 23% of agencies and 56% of marketers agree the current approval process works well, with respondents describing the approval process as inconsistent, slow, subjective and painful.

In fact, currently, 43% of agencies and 62% of marketers agree that the right people sign off on creative ideas.

The third recommendation is to ensure the creative idea is evaluated against the brief and key criteria.

The study reveals that just 23% of agencies and even fewer (15%) marketers agree that briefs are always used by their organisations when evaluating ideas, while only 10% of all respondents agree that ideas are always evaluated against clearly defined criteria in their organisations.

Finally, marketers are being urged to empower their agencies, with less than a third of agencies (29%) believing that marketers inspire them to do their best work.

Commenting on the findings, BetterBriefs co-founders Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler stated: “Creativity is a powerful tool that enhances advertising effectiveness. While many ideas are generated, only a few are approved and brought to fruition.

“The BetterIdeas Project shows that evaluating ideas is crucial for our industry. If briefs serve as a guide for agency thinking, then ideas are the vehicle that propels effectiveness in the advertising world.”

IPA director of effectiveness Laurence Green added: “This timely report is a wake-up call for our industry, but one which also alerts us to quick wins in efficiency and effectiveness: because good briefs and good briefings achieve both. The IPA is delighted to endorse this publication as a stimulus for new, improved processes and better training.

“The result – no less than five rounds of rework, according to this dataset – is in nobody’s interest. It’s inefficient, obviously, but militates against effectiveness also. As the great DDB/Avis creative contract taught us: conviction, not compromise, must carry the day. This work lights the touchpaper for a recommitment to shared goals, to briefs as lodestars, to less subjective and – above all – less plural feedback. After all, search all the parks in all the cities, and you’ll find no statues of committees.”

Finally WFA chief executive Stephan Loerke concluded: “Creativity is the lifeblood of our industry and a core driver of growth. 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 full report is available to download from the BetterBriefs website: https://www.betterbriefs.com/