Not everyone is creative.

But everyone has an idea for an ad.

Not a good one, mind you.

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I’m not sure why, but it often involves a rhyme. Or celebrity. Or a cat doing funny cat things.

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I’m not knocking those specifically, but even product owners advocating these ideas with “ooo, ooo, ooo, I’ve got one”gusto often leave out the product, the audience, the strategy, the medium, and the brand.

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It is fun to play ad creative.

If you watch enough ads, actually watch, you can easily believe the bar is pretty low.

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Anyone can be an ad creative if all the things we need it to do didn’t matter.

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I am warming to my theme, but I’ll just crank the heat. Most ads that stink, stink because of us, the client.

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I’m using “the client” to represent entire organizations not a person. I’m also not letting creatives off the hook, there are some bad ads that are just bad creative. But to the original point, a good client shouldn’t have let that out the door.

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Have I produced a few bad ads? Sure. In giant corporations, I’m not the final decision-maker, nor even within five approvers of the final approval. I am still fallible even when I do have input. But I have the credibility to speak on this topic. I’ve been in it, and I know how to spot it.

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Bad ads are often bad because of the client.

This doesn’t mean you are a bad client or bad marketer or bad person – or ever had bad intentions. In fact, I think bad clients intend to be good. You generally want the best for all. You are under pressures from others. You are trying to find compromises. You are trying to appease people with different objectives.

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Having been the client, I have allowed bad ads to happen, and I can pinpoint the reasons they do. I’m sharing the five most egregious barriers to great creative while I am in a period between employers that might assume I am referring to them specifically and take offense. As such, I am available to help your organization overcome these barriers.

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Poor Input

The catalyst for this article came from a discussion about a terrible ad running between innings of a Braves game. I won’t out the advertiser, but it was a “jingle-like” production with the jingle featuring a list of attributes and product info. My partner just looked up and said, “that was awful.”

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I agreed. But I would bet my career that it came from a brief that had multiple mandatories the client insisted be vocalized. How does one list facts no one wants to hear? A ridiculous jingle full of product points.

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I am not bashing the jingle. Pepto sings about diarrhea. Diarrhea. A word so feared most people can’t spell it correctly. For Pepto, I hope the brief was, ‘we deal with stomach and bathroom issues no one wants to talk about. How do we make it a subject light enough to introduce diarrhea without freaking people out?’

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Bold choice, Pepto. Bold choice. It was well executed if a little bizarre, and that’s ok.

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Poor input leads to poor ads.

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There are solutions. You, the client, have to be committed to simplifying your message. Write better briefs. I can help.

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Data Ignorance?

Ignorance does not mean stupidity in this instance, simply disregard.

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I have been in countless meetings about the importance of brands representing their values, particularly to appeal to the Gen Z audience, only to have the outcome be the exact opposite. I would be remiss if I didn’t admit… this isn’t easy. Appeal to a Gen Z’er, lose a Boomer is the fear. It isn’t as black and white as the data itself.

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Personal preference often overrules data. Rationalizing results sidelines the importance of the data. Misunderstanding the meaning of the data can be corrosive. Ironically, fear of reliance on the data can invalidate the data itself.

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For whatever reason, many companies have reems of data at their fingertips, but either aren’t willing or able to make use of it to create a great ad.

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The creative isn’t a statement of the data. Good creative is built on an insight inspired by the data, and by someone willing to stand behind that data.

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How do you fix this? Sell in your conclusions first. Align on what the data means. Then align on how the work satisfies those conclusions. Analysis and pulling meaning from data is something I enjoy. I like to ask why and dig deeper for stronger insights, and I think good clients must.

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Imagination Deficit

In meetings, I’ve heard very smart people say “that’s not what I had in my head” when they see the final output from the concepts they approved.

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Of course it isn’t.

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Many clients are excellent businesspeople with a deep understanding of numbers, sales, and the makeup of their widget. Asking them to imagine their widget coming to life from the page and accurately having the final work in their head is unrealistic.

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In truth this isn’t always an imagination deficit, it is often ego and lack of communication. There always should be opportunity for a finished product to come back different (aka better) than what you have in your head. We hire agencies to provide ideas we can’t dream up. A good client will ensure they understand the baseline of the creative before they final approve it and will not keep a personal contract board in their head.

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Did you ask questions to understand the creative direction? Did you clarify details? Did you share your expectations?

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The feedback a client gives is critical to enhancing the work. Sounds oxymoronic. Give feedback that encourages the work to blossom vs. focusing on the yellowing cuttings. Those are going to fall off on their own by giving this plant room to grow. I work well with agencies to understand the idea but give the input and freedom to improve it beyond the limits of my own imagination.

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You do You - Tolerance

When we get feedback from our friends counter to who we are, we have no problem telling them “you do you.” Humans are curious creatures that walk willingly into calamity as long as it aligns with how they view themselves. A company in calamity isn’t conducive to profit though, so there is risk and fear.

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In no way am I saying a brand should live on the edge and throw themselves into controversy. I’ll leave this to Elon Musk.

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What I am espousing is acting in accordance with your brand, persona, and values without fear. When you pull back from this, you dilute who you are. Diluting most anything makes it less effective.

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If you are true to your brand, risk should be mitigated by the rewards. Ads that result from undercutting your values will not be your best. They will yield shrugs of indifference from your audience because they do not feel authentic.

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I have stood behind great work and fought for authenticity.

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Entertain to Engage

Arguably, the history of ads probably doesn’t support me, so I am speaking more as a consumer, aka the end viewer of ads forced upon me. ?

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I am talking more about brand than performance ads. I have been in this business long enough to know there are and should be both. For many products, a small percentage of the population is shopping at any given time. You must be able to make your brand positively memorable for those that aren’t in market right now, and also provide the impetus for those who are shopping to buy from you right now.

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As much as I love what I do, many ads are just awful. They are a hinderance to what I was watching/reading/doing. I have to see them over and over (I’m looking at you … media people). Those that entertain me, will have my (positive) attention longer and I will feel better about those brands.

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We will get tired of even the best ads. Its true. But if an ad hammers me with information, talks at me, or gives me nothing to engage with, I won’t recall it, and I won’t act on it in time.

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Clients generally don’t insist on entertaining creative. Most clients think agencies just want to make crazy stuff that wins awards. They don’t. If the agency doesn’t drive your brand and/or business forward, they won’t be your agency very long. What they want is an ad that can win an Effie AND a Lion.

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To engage, you must be able to entertain. And as clients, you need to insist on it while paying attention to the other four points on this list. I have developed work as a client that was profitable, memorable and award winning. It can be done.

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How can you stop being a bad client?

Follow the above and/or consider having someone like me with a history of making good and effective work join your team.

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It isn’t hard to stop being a bad client when you hire someone on who is already a good client. The hardest part is letting go and allowing people to do what they were hired to do. And in the end, that really shouldn’t be all that hard, its about stopping poor tendencies more than honing new ones.

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When you have that idea of a commercial with Mike Tyson stroking a cat saying “don’t fidget with widgets,” you may just want to keep it to yourself.

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Not everyone is cut out to be a creative director. And only a few of us are great clients.