THINK ABOUT IT: Do You Evaluate or Assess Your Agency’s Work?
Evaluating is not the best way to get great work. Instead it produces the opposite effect.
Evaluation orients the evaluator to look for what is incorrect or wrong. The practice of evaluating causes the evaluator to miss what is productive and needed to make something work better.?
The very practice of evaluating often causes (little) minds to miss the big picture. Is there a potentially worthwhile idea among the agency’s proposals? Evaluation washes away the seed of an idea before it has the opportunity with proper water, sunlight, and care to sprout. It kills ideas and saps morale—your agency’s!
As a young Naval Aviator, I was warned to avoid “target fixation.” It’s about being so focused on the target that you fly into it. It’s not a happy ending. Evaluation causes a similar fate. You miss opportunities.
This polemic against evaluation does not suggest that we marketers should not apply critical thinking to our ad agency’s proposed advertising. We must use critical thinking to identify whether the agency’s proposals reflect proven principles of effective advertising. We must determine if it will motivate target customers to purchase, prescribe, or use our brand.
Instead, I invite you to move your focus from evaluation to assessment. There's a distinction that is more than semantics—as I see it—between evaluating and assessing advertising.?
Evaluating is scanning for and telling the agency what they’re doing or have done wrong” LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS WON’T WORK! As mentioned, it misses the big picture. It’s picayune.?
Assessing looks for what you need to see that’s missing to make the agency’s proposed advertising more effective. A proper assessment leads you to identify what’s not working and, importantly, what it will take to make it work (not from a prescriptive perspective but a directional one).?
Evaluation looks at why the glass is half-empty and pours out the contents. Assessment looks at what it will take to fill the glass. We all want a full glass.
After completing a thorough assessment, we know what we think about the agency's proposals. We have a sharp point of view based on proven principles as to the likelihood of the effectiveness of each submission.
When we have completed our assessment, we need to provide direction to the agency that will improve the outcome of their recommended advertising. Once again, when we comment, we should not evaluate. Instead, we use coaching to fill the glass.?
Contrast evaluation, LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS WON’T WORK; with coaching, HERE’S WHAT I NEED TO SEE … TO MAKE THIS MORE EFFECTIVE (or TO REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF THIS IDEA).
Assessing is about scanning for and discovering the seed of an idea. It's also about coaching—commenting to capture the potential of a BIG idea.
Think about it as filling the cup, not berating the agency for half-empty work. It’s a collaborative practice to build upon good work to (hopefully) make it great work!
领英推荐
THINK ABOUT IT:?
You can employ assessing and coaching beyond working with your ad agency. You can and should use it in both your professional and personal life. It will make a difference in the quality of the work and your relationships, and expected outcomes.?
If you found this article helpful, please follow me on LinkedIn?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/ , where I share my perspectives from 50 years of successful worldwide brand marketing experience.
Also, please encourage your team to subscribe to Brand Development Network International blogs DISPATCHES and MARKETING MATTERS. They provide thought-provoking information that can help bolster your team's performance. All it takes is to register at?www.bdn-intl.com .?
Are you interested in making your marketing matter more??Read my most recent book,?AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS:?How to Go from Dumb to Smart Marketing. It will identify those critical errors and, importantly, point the way to marketing excellence. Learn more here:?https://bdn-intl.com/avoiding-critical-marketing-errors .
Peace and best wishes,
Richard D. Czerniawski
?? ?????????????????????? | ?????????? & ?????????????????????????? ??????????????????. ???????? ?????????????????? ?????????? ?????????????????? ???? ??????????????????????????????. ???????????????? ??????????????.
1 年Well… Agree and disagree at the same time. Evaluating agency work doesn’t mean losing the big picture. Not always. It is necessary to review what was achieved and what was not. For sure, there are some marketers who blame the agency for all its faults. I know some managers who evaluate the agency and themselves at the same time. This approach helps do a better job for the brand, which benefits all parties.