New research reveals crisis in ideas evaluation and approval
It’s taking more time to get worse work that doesn’t stand out – that’s the troubling finding from a major global piece of research into the creative process.
The BetterIdeas Project was created by the same team behind BetterBriefs. Conducted by BetterBriefs and research agency Flood + Partners, and produced in partnership with the WFA (World Federation of Advertisers) and IPA (The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), the research represents the opinions of 1034 industry individuals across 54 countries including the USA, UK, and Australia, with representation from both B2C and B2B sectors, marketers, in-house agencies and external agencies.
The survey found that while 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’, 54% of marketers and 75% of people working at creative agencies thought that their work doesn’t stand out. Moreover, 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.
Feedback and approvals issues are partly to blame. Only 30% of agencies said that they receive clear and constructive client feedback on their ideas. Perhaps this is because just 10% of all respondents agree that ideas are always evaluated against clearly defined criteria in their organisations. And just 23% of agencies and even fewer (15%) marketers agree that briefs are always used by their organisations when evaluating ideas.
Unsurprisingly, this is leading to more rounds of amends, with the average needed increasing from three (as measured by the IPA in 2007) to five today. When asked to describe their current approval process, respondents’ most commonly used words were Painful, Slow, Subjective, and Inconsistent. The majority of agencies did not think that the right people were signing off their ideas on the client-side, while only 27% of marketers believed that they are well-trained in how to evaluate ideas.
The survey also uncovered a severe lack of trust and of pride in the work. 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.
Commenting on the research, WFA Chief Executive Officer, Stephan Loerke said, “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.”
