You're leading a team in advertising. How can you keep everyone on the same page?

Keeping your advertising team aligned hinges on clear communication. Start by ensuring everyone understands the campaign's goals, target audience, and desired outcomes. Next, delegate tasks and ownership to prevent confusion and duplication of effort. Foster an environment of open communication through regular meetings, progress updates, and a free exchange of ideas. Utilize communication tools like project management platforms and video calls to streamline this process. Finally, encourage collaboration by creating a space where team members feel comfortable sharing feedback and working together creatively. By implementing these steps, you'll cultivate a cohesive team environment that fosters successful advertising campaigns.

Fire the ones who do not follow instructions. Leadership comes from the top down when you set the pace and direction for the work make sure everyone knows their assignments and is held accountable.

Leading an ad team? Think of it as being the band manager. Lay down a clear setlist (plan) where everyone knows their solos (roles) and harmonies (responsibilities). Regular jam sessions (meetings) keep the groove going, ensuring everyone's in sync. Use a shared playlist (project management tool) for real-time updates. And always encourage feedback—it’s like tweaking the sound mix for the perfect balance. Keeping everyone in tune means you’re set for a standing ovation.

While having defined roles, embracing role fluidity within teams can revolutionize both efficiency and speed. This means team members are not confined to the tasks defined by their initial roles but are encouraged to adapt and contribute beyond these boundaries as new needs arise. This approach fosters innovation and enables the team to quickly address challenges while maintaining structure through tools like RACI matrices and Gantt charts. Role fluidity demands trust and communication but leads to significant benefits in project velocity and execution, challenging conventions to excel in creativity.

A great art in communication is being able to communicate your thoughts across mediums, at various lengths of detail, while being able to use examples and convey to others the goals you’re trying to reach. Balance inputs and feedback with analytical context to your team, stakeholders and clients. Share your thoughts and perspectives based on your experience when needed.

Regular team meetings enable effective team communication, ensuring your team gets the same quality updates at the same time. It’s very important to structure those meeting around specific agenda (focusing on key projects or team targets and discuss the progress towards them) as this will ensure each participant can contribute to the conversation and manager gets well rounded perspective on current situation. Inclusivity will ensure effective communication, diverse opinions and ideas. It also promotes the culture or collaboration and teamwork spirit, as the team sees the wider goals their work will contribute towards. Avoiding siloed conversations can help to avoid any misalignment / confusion and duplicated work inside the team.

Picture dynamic sessions where ideas are performed, not just shared role-playing ad scenarios or competitive pitches within the team. This will transform team members to embody out-of-the-box thinking. Controlled chaos ensures every team member is heard and creativity flourishes as flowers in spring. Integrating tools like the creative inspiration ideas boards can move this creative energy, making it continuously evolving. This approach can unleash unparalleled creativity in advertising, making the creative journey as enriching as the outcomes.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." A famous quote for Helen Keller In advertising, that’s so true , collaboration is important at every stage. From brainstorming ideas to execution and feedback, diverse perspectives enrich creativity and ensure campaigns resonate with a wider audience. Involving team members in decision-making fosters a sense of ownership, leading to more effective and innovative solutions. Ultimately, collaboration in advertising is about leveraging collective strengths to create impactful messages that connect with consumers.

Touchpoints aren't just important for your audience, they're important for your team too. A lot of folks I've met with over the years have cadence calls to ensure their customers are still in touch but it's just as important to have them internally to ensure that you are all looking at the same project and the outcomes together. It's so easy to think that once you hit the "go" button on campaigns that you only need a cursory check in to make sure everything is still running but the truth is, all campaigns are better served with the more eyeballs and review are on them AFTER you've set them up. This is where you can improve them, or address pain points.

Contrary to the traditional approach, my team never uses slides for internal communications. While these are useful for client communication, we found they slow the exchange of ideas, critical in the e-commerce industry. This doesn't put in second view on our learning or celebration of achievements but enhances it. We utilize Slack channels dedicated to sharing key takeaways from articles, books, and more, pushing an environment of continuous learning and engagement. This method might seem unconventional, and a more structured approach including slides and presentations might become valuable as we scale. However, by now, our commitment to agility and direct communication keeps us innovatively aligned and consistently "on the same page".

Keeping everyone on the same page isn't just about talking; it's about connecting and evolving together. - Start with clear goals. I've often seen confusion when objectives aren't crystal clear from the get-go. - Regular check-ins are key. Don't let silence build walls. - Share everything (well, almost). Transparency builds trust and aligns efforts. - Use a central platform. If you have info scattered across emails, messages, and docs - centralize. - Celebrate wins, analyze losses. It's surprising to see how this keeps morale and focus high. - Encourage feedback. I don't know why some leaders fear this. Insights from your team can be gold. - Adapt and evolve. The ad world doesn't stand still, and neither should your team's approach.