It’s easy for your big ideas to get pushed aside keeping up with the day-to-day work of a busy marketing department.
Project managers are trying to keep jobs moving. And Monday morning panic quickly launches your team into a week of putting out fires and steering clear of near-misses until you land safely on Friday afternoon.
You made it through another week. But those dynamic projects that you have in your mind have yet to be started.
Whether it’s a B2B campaign, brand video, or a capabilities landing page to position your internal creative department, we need to get these projects out of our head and onto the page as a first step.
Why spec work is important
How many times have you watched resources spent on projects that you know will have little impact?
It happens all the time. Primarily because a pattern gets established as to what tactical creative is needed for a product rollout or marketing campaign and there’s a templated “to do” list that people are comfortable using.
It’s also an easy sell to whoever has to approve the budget — because it’s familiar and there’s a track record that won’t cause any disruptions (“this is what we do every quarter with our rollouts…”)
The results will be predictable and acceptable. And the team will go on auto-pilot to knock out the various headlines, copy blocks, and design.
How do you change course?
It’s highly unlikely that the VP of marketing will stroll over to your cubicle and assign you that brand video you have storyboarded hundreds of times in your head, or the outdoor campaign to introduce a new hospital to the community.
So how do you make it happen? You make it real for them with a script and storyboard, spec ads, or sample podcast..
And when you present the work, watch their faces light up.
Remember, they want to have an impact on the organization too. Show them the path they need to get there. You can even present it alongside the requested approach as an alternative.
Now It’s not just you pitching an idea and hoping they can imagine it. It’s sitting in front of them in the form of a video storyboard, series of ads, or a testimonial. Heck, you can even put together the budget to get it done. Make it easy for them to approve or at least take to the next level.
Who will work on your spec projects?
(HINT: offer it to your internal creative team first!)
If you have an experienced creative team, it’s very likely they’re chomping at the bit for a project that can have some impact and that you are excited about.
Even if they decide that what you want is outside their skill set, they will respect you for coming to them first and discussing it.
There’s nothing more frustrating than being a dependable team player and seeing interesting projects farmed out to a freelancer or outside agency.
If your team feels they can handle it, give them a shot.
Send the more routine, self-contained projects out to freelancers and let your team work with you on the projects that will get noticed. It will help create a deeper bond between you and your team and facilitate trust.