What Does Success Look Like

I read an interesting article in Adweek today. Titled, The Search for Creative Leadership, it documented the challenge of searching for top creative talent with deep skill sets in both traditional and digital mediums. While the premise of the article caught my attention, it was the quote within that got me thinking. (Note: in a direction different than the article's intent.)

The article quoted Mike Hughes, President and co-CCO for Interpublic Groups, The Martin Agency as saying, "Clients aren't going to trust us if they think you're just one of those creatives who [just wants to win awards.] Creative people won't trust us if they think we're just taking orders from the clients. What we have to do is be transparent. That's not a natural trait for the best creative people."

At our Indianapolis marketing firm, strategic creative is part of the mix of services we offer along with brand development and marketing strategy. It has been our philosophy for some time to shy away from awards programs. Instead, we prefer to ask our clients the question, "What does success look like?" to define the measurable outcomes of an engagement. We believe if the focus is on results, the "award" is a satisfied client and a positive business outcome. We'll take that over a trophy on a shelf any day.