Measuring Creative Impact

One of the reasons why execs question whether or not to invest in Creative is because they think it's hard to measure. And that's our fault because we usually report on things like:

• Assets created - this number doesn’t actually mean anything and only creates more busy work so you can beat the number next quarter
• Time to create - another one that doesn’t actually matter but it forces you to move faster to lower this one which hurts quality
• Clients supported - happy clients are important but quantity ≠ quality so if this is just a number then you’ll have to take on even more work to grow it
• Client NPS - this is the important client metric so keep doing this one

These are solid internal metrics to keep track of so you understand your own team’s performance but if you’re wondering what the execs actually care about... REVENUE!

How does Creative contribute to Revenue?

This is an important question because many assume that Creative doesn't have a part to play here. I beg to differ! My team's have always been involved—whether directly or indirectly—in every piece of work that a customer or prospect ever saw. They designed the ads, built the web apps, made the product videos, set up the decks, created the brand guidelines and did so much more. All of these things contribute to revenue.

So for me, when I think about Creative's contribution to revenue it happens in 3 different (but simple) ways:

1?? Direct contribution to revenue

This is the most straightforward metric to track because it's already being tracked by all of your clients (the marketing stakeholders).

I have no idea why this happens but everyone seems to think recognition starts and ends with the team that owns the channel or media. That's wrong. The recognition needs to belong to the entire team responsible for the work and that includes Brand and Creative.

So in this particular instance what it means is that if the B&C team designed, built, filmed, edited, etc. the project, they are directly responsible for it's success (or failure) so when you look at the metrics for that project, they can be attributed to Creative just like any other group.

This is why it's so important to follow up on how a project or campaign performs because you did the work and need to understand its’ impact.

Another benefit here is that you also get a sense of where the business gets the most bang for it’s buck from Creative so you can focus more resources there.

2?? Indirect contribution to revenue

I love this one because the number is so much bigger than direct.

I know that sounds counterintuitive but this is actually what you want. Your Creatives can't do everything and you don't want them to do everything because most of what’s asked is busy work. Busy work is still visible and impactful though so you need to make sure that it looks and feels right.

How? Your B&C team should be enabling your entire marketing team to do their work on their own. That comes in the shape of templates, presets, tools, guidelines, logos, wordmarks, all of it. So if your marketers can build a landing page, design an email header, or find a photo on their won, the success of those projects should be indirectly attributed to Creative.

By tracking this performance, you can see which teams are using the tools most, who's getting the most value from them, how freelancers are contributing, what systems are used most (is it the CMS or Canva?), and where to continue investing.

3?? Creative sourced contribution to revenue

Indirect is the biggest source of revenue but this is my favorite. And the reason for that is because direct and indirect rely on other people's ideas—your clients reach out for help either in the form of hands on support (direct) or needing tools/templates (indirect). With creative sourced contribution, we're the ones coming up with the ideas.

It requires knowledge of the business.

It requires the trust of the marketers.

It requires room to think.

But if you can make those things happen, then you can come up with original ideas to pitch back to the marketing team. Those ideas are the most fun to work on, usually the most differentiated, and most importantly the ones that elevate B&C from service organization to partner organization.

As a partner organization, Creative has a voice and the ability to marry their technical skills with the business acumen they’ve accumulated. This is a benefit because these are the same people who’ve contributed to hundreds of projects that support revenue goals and know what the audience will and won’t respond to. When you pair that with their knowledge of their own disciplines you’re gonna run into some cool ideas.

On the revenue side, the number here may not be as big as the indirect bucket (because that's literally the whole marketing team’s work) but it's usually sizable and outside of the dollars, the brand impact is huge as your more differentiated ideas tend to get more media and awards coverage.

While these aren’t the only metrics that matter, they do matter the most to ensure that you continue to get budget, headcount, and room to operate. Because in this industry it’s not about the art of creative, it’s about making impactful creative. And impact = revenue.