Thought Reader

A collection of POVs on creativity, leadership, and all things marketing

Curated by Ashley from StuffAboutAdvertising

Are agencies doing too much?

Remember how I said some things in this newsletter might challenge perspectives? 😉

In this post, Stephanie argues that agencies don't need to spend so much time immersing themselves in the brand and redoing the strategy that the client has already developed. And that a lot of times, after months of work, the agency's strategists come to the same conclusion the brand team did.

Now, I have definitely experienced way too many instances where 80% of the project timeline goes to strategy, and the creatives have to scurry to get things done with the leftovers. So I'm all for reassessing how much time is dedicated to that phase of a project.

But, "The brand is responsible for the strategy" gives me heart palpitations. Clients don't always have their eyes on the prize-winning strategy. They may have one in place, but is it right? She makes the point that clients are paying agencies for their outside perspective, so shouldn't brands be welcoming that fresh outlook on their current game plan?

Definitely check out the comments on this one for some great discussion.

Is it even a test if you require proof?

Organic social takes a whole lot of experimentation. And Meredith is urging team leaders to support those tests without asking for proof that everything's going to work. If you want content that is truly unique, you're not going to see any evidence of it having worked before, because it hasn't been done before.

How can AI make creative testing suck less?

On a recent episode of the Uncensored CMO podcast, Jon Evans interviewed Mailchimp CMO, Michelle Taite. When talking about the use of AI in marketing, Michelle mentioned that her team used it while testing a new campaign. In between focus groups, they used AI to very quickly change up the visuals and see what the next group thought. Like most creatives, I abhor testing campaigns, but I do love the idea of being able to get quick feedback on possible revisions instead of having to guess later on in the process.

Their conversation about AI happens 24:54-28:10.

Wanna chat about it?

Hit reply and let me know what you thought about this week's posts.