Week 6: Brief and Strategy | Thinking for strategic, brand and global difference, client engagement
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Research strategies and project plans used by agencies, studios and creative practitioners to reach a global audience.
- Distill your research to develop a strategy and project plan for your selected project brief.
- Communicate the rationale for your strategy and project plan to be delivered through a five slide Keynote presentation.
Lecture Introduction
For the sixth lecture we continue to present our creative practitioner interview series, offering insight into identifying, developing, project managing and completing an industry focused project.
This week the creative practitioners answer the following question:
– How do you develop a strategy and project plan for a client / audience in a continually evolving global market?
FELD
They have no set plan. Projects are different and what works for one might not for another. However, their first step is to try and meet with the client because you can gain so much more information that could never be gained by email, even video conference calls lose some of that information because there won’t be the natural behaviour coming through from from those involved. You might also be let down by technology, then there’s no information at all.
In general: communication.
You need to get to understand the other parties, analyse them personally, emotionally and professionally, then you can make your own assumptions into what they like. Your assumption could be right or wrong but you will get a chance to follow or challenge them. Clients like you to raise questions – clarify any points which you’re unsure of. If you don’t have any at the time, take time later to find some, it’s always good to feedback as it can make the client feel more involved.
Take some time to analyse what you need, what the client needs and what the structure should be but be prepared to let any developments or stages to change as things progress, decisions you make at the start might not be relevant at the end.
Create a flexible environment and keep communicating, others involved might have a different opinion which you could have missed. Also, there is always the budget and timeline to define, if you struggle with this area then you need to include the time for it in your structure.
Accept & Proceed
Be aware of change – allow plans to evolve, have conversations with consumers for insight. A “deep-dive” workshop setting works well iin their strategy planning.
research and opinions gained are then discussed with the client otto see how they view their own products and to get their opinions on the data collected, this brings out much more information on a project than would happen without the client feeding back from the start.
Wouter
Again, every project has different needs so a strategy plan is important to get right at the start.
First = Research.
They do their own research beforehand to get to understand the relevant market, the client and the product.
Next they host a brand workshop to include a cross section of the people working for the client and not just the people at the more senior levels. Opinions are gained from consumers, partners and any other people involved in the work to create as complete a picture as possible, even if they are already familiar with the market.
Edenspiekerman
Stijn van de Ven
Their plans are based on an already tested process. Depending on the location of their studio, the approach can develop from this base into one more suited to the location: LA, Amsterdam or Berlin. The local markets need to be approached in a different way.
Luke Veerman
They start with research into different fields of design practice, as well as the markets of the client. Next, if it’s a global market product, they interview consumers from the different regions so that the product can be developed to fit in with the different markets.
Another approach they use is to ‘pitch’ the idea to the other studios with their group to get different opinions or experiences. When possible, they like to include more people from outside of the immediate groups into the projects. This brings the benefit of even more opinions.
Reflection:
Some have a set plan whilst other say they don’t but in each case what they do have in common is communication, you have to talk to the client as you progress though the stages. I agree with FELD, meeting the client at the start of a project brings a much better understanding of a brief (however brief!) and also a better level of understanding between the two sides, it breaks down a barrier which might otherwise exist.
One studio I worked in used to hold a de-brief after any large projects with their main client, they were a way to see how things did or didn’t work very well which helped along the next brief.
The practitioners interviewed all look as though they are from large agencies where I’d imaging the projects are more long-term and so would allow more time for research, development and stages of interaction with the client, but it would be interesting to get the view of a smaller set-up to compare the development processes.
Week 6: Resources
Creating the perfect design brief – Notes
Ch11 (P141-160)
Ch12 (P161-166)
Ch13 (P167-172)
Reading through, I’ve grabbed some useful points for starters and reminders…
Week 6: Workshop Challenge
The Challenge
- Develop a strategy and project plan for your selected project brief.
- Utilise a variety of visual and written methods to support a full and innovative rationale for your project development.
- Create and record a five slide Keynote presentation to outline the rationale behind the strategy and project plan of your selected project brief.
Please consider the following when preparing your rationale: positioning, scope, goals, requirements, how to engage with a global audience, brand insight and technological innovation.
Keynote Script:
1- Chosen brief: Creative Conscience Global Competition
V/O
I’ve chosen the creative conscience competition brief, it asks us to use our creative skills to aid those with mental health issues.
All we’re asked is that the outcome is optimistic and empowering.
I’m going to look at creating awareness of the mental health issues that people working within the emergency services, the police in particular, have to face for themselves.
2- Research
V/O
As well as looking into existing campaigns for the pros and cons of their message and delivery.
I’ll be holding a set of open interviews with serving officers in the West Mercia Police, each at a different stage of their career and with different rolls within the service. This will get multiple points of view on the situations they face and the ways in which they deal with them to keep their minds healthy.
I aim to go back to the interviewees for feedback as the project develops
3- Project plan and development
V/O
I’ll need to create a concept with simple language to use through the campaign and keep all the messages clear and succinct.
A language which will allow us to reveal the issues in a way which will reinforce the strengths of the emergency services, rather than labelling these issues as weakness.
So far my thinking is that the campaign will be image-led for dramatic impact, but it also needs to give some statistical information to quantify the importance of the problem.
4- Audience
V/O
I can’t be specific about the target audience at this point other than it will be a campaign aimed at the general public,
I will define categories such as age range and social background as they become apparent during the research stage.
5- Roll-out
V/O
The campaign will be delivered through print-based advertising and social media, as with defining the audience, specifics will need to come from the research to help guide were things will be best placed, for example, venues in town and city centres, transport and public buildings could all be prime outlets to show the overall campaign message throughout the uk.
Social media can be used kickstart the campaign and keep its momentum, and also target particular demographics based on age and location.
To take the campaign further it can be reset and rolled out to highlight the same issues for the rest of our emergency services.
Interviews:
Develop a set of open questions for the interviews to gather qualitative information from primary sources. Interview officers at a different stage of their career, with different rolls within the service. During these interviews I’m expecting to be able to see changes in body language to help emphasise feelings of frustration or changes in mood as we speak about different circumstances.
Initial questions will be for a straightforward set of ‘name rank and number’ answers to put the people at ease and get them used to speaking to me about their work before introducing the more detailed information gathering set.
Note: Reassure that the recording is purely research and will not be broadcast in any way.
Prompts for open questions for interview
– What’s your position/dept in the police?
– What kind of situations do you deal with day to day?
– In your position, what part of your job do you find the most stressful?
– How do you deal with those situations? Chat with colleagues/make light of it or is there an ‘official process’
– Does experience make you more immune to stresses?
– Do you know people dealing with it/left because of it (don’t say who). Triggered by single event or by build up over time?
– If a campaign was used to raise public awareness, would that be a positive or a negative?
– If used as an internal resource, what would they connect with?
Play Keynote
Reflection & Outcome
How many Hob Nob biscuits does it take to interview a policeman?
No, it’s three…
