Clients & Creativity

"It's important to have a client that's prepared to make risky decisions and take responsibility internally, otherwise good ideas can be watered down to the point of no impact," says O'Dell.

"If they are prepared to take a risk, the work creates a bigger impact and looks better in your portfolio."

A bad client can wreak havoc with your creative process, while a good client will give you space to create your finest work. Make sure you're working for positive people with our essential guide.

Money talks

Money, obviously, is the real deal breaker in business. Creative companies often run pretty close to the red line, so clients payments need to be closely monitored to ensure the creative firm isn't left in the lurch financially.

After all, non- payment or late payment is the main cause of bankruptcy, whether in design or any other field. "You can have a good working relationship that gets hampered when your financial director asks you to stop doing work with a client because they haven't paid the latest instalment in their bill," says Glenn Elliot.

He says this is usually through an inability to pay, but not always.

"If a client you're struggling with is unhappy they can withhold milestone payments, which can seem unfair if they're constantly rejecting work and asking for dozens of minor changes.

"You have to keep the communication going and try to avoid escalating things." A client who tries from the outset to squeeze the agency dry financially may be worth giving a wide berth, says Dean Ford - founder of Dean Ford Creativity (www.deanfordcreativity.com).

"Constant haggling over price is a sure fire way to strain the relationship."

Trust me, I'm a designer

A good client should treat the creative agency as a partner, not a faceless supplier. "It can be a big leap for a client to develop a really open and trusting relationship with an agency," says Glenn Elliot.

The problem is that clients are used to the more transactional relationships that they have with their suppliers.

The onus on fostering sound relations is as much with the agency as it is the client. "Sometimes you have to take it in steps, but try to find a way of giving your client good news, and be proactive, as this develops clients into partners."

For Andy Farmer, trust is everything. "Whether you're a digital agency, a brand agency or anything else, the client is trusting you to solve a problem for them.

“A good client will feel that an agency is operating as part of its marketing organization, and when you get to that stage it's fantastic, because that's the only way you get the inside knowledge you need to be able to do your best work.

"If you're kept at arm's length, it's very difficult to get the brand understanding you need to do things that work for both the client and its end users."

Clients unused to working with a professional agency are also a challenge, Elliot says. "You need to educate them on so much in order to win their trust.

Sometimes clients have worked only with freelance designers and are used to giving masses of direction, so when you try to do a job properly with strategy and insight they spend all of their time arguing with you."

All clients go on a 'journey' when it comes to using creative agencies, says Elliot, and it's the ones who are most familiar with the route that make the most rewarding customers.

Demand some respect

A client is bound to try to get the most from its money, but you should make sure you work for people who know the purpose and value of design.

“Clients work in increasingly competitive spaces with pressure on budgets, targets, and operations, so it ís inevitable that there ís a push back on the agencies,” says Glenn Elliot.

But, the client must understand what design can do for the business. “If the client doesn’t understand the agency’s work or value then you’re going to get into trouble,” he says.

Charlotte Clements bemoans free pitching as being detrimental to good relations. “It’s frustrating, because your portfolio should really sell your ideas and experience. You need to weigh up whether it’s worth it - customers do want a lot for their money.”

Too much, says Colin Hall. "Neither agencies nor clients will benefit from free pitching in the long term because agencies will be continually under pressure on cost, and the client won't enjoy the level of creativity they want because they're not paying the right rate for it."

People problems

As with any relationship, your relationships with your clients may require a bit of work - a bit of give and take here and there, and a lot of talking. Ultimately though, you'll have to be prepared to pull the plug on the relationship if you don't think you have a future together.

“We had to sack a really big client last year because the relationship was just impossible to get right," says Glenn Elliot.

"They went through three account managers in nine months and we used up all of our management time trying to make them happy."

Elliot adds: "Their MD was so distrustful he used to ring up several people in our team, one after the other, and ask each the same question - it was really destructive, and despite the fact it was a six-figure account, we had to let it go."

Andy Farmer, business development director at digital agency Design UK (www.designuk.com), agrees that bringing new people into the relationship can result in some seriously shifted goalposts.

"Different people coming into the organization may have their own pet agencies or different expectations," he says.

Keeping it brief

You can often smell a rat with a client when talking about the brief. Briefing a creative agency or designer is a difficult skill, and people in business aren't necessarily trained in it or even aware of it.

A woolly brief will only spell trouble for the creative process, and will leave everyone nonplussed when the work is delivered. Alicia O'Dell says the best clients are ones who know what they're talking about when you first meet.

"They've done their research and prepared a brief that doesn't necessarily specify the exact deliverables, but what they want to achieve and how it will be measured - whether this is a change in perception or response rates," she says.

This, she stresses, allows the agency to use its knowledge and creativity to show how the client's objectives can best be achieved.

"The ability to brief is the most important thing, because if everyone understands the problem fully the solution will be so much more satisfying for everyone involved," says Dean Ford.

Briefing is key for Colin Hall, too. "Clients should brief honestly and never entice design companies to produce more creativity than is necessary," he says.

Good clients never over-state their budget or their aims, and trust the creatives to work within their parameters. Start-up companies can often spell trouble, reveals Charlotte Clements, because their ideas may still be in development.

"They often come to us for ideas before they're ready to get going with the project, and if they aren't clear about their brief then we won't be either," she says.

How do agencies tell between positive clients and nightmare ones, and build a roster that delivers creative fulfilment, financial reward, and industry buzz? We found out...

Sean Ashcroft

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