JK’s Marketing Process Promise: Get Your Project Done Right

Email. Video. Direct Mail. Websites.

The variety of touchpoints to your customer is what drives a stronger, more robust response. However, all of those touchpoints can create production headaches.

Man, do I love a marketing process when it comes to getting a project done right at the advertising agency I am at right now (and who am I kidding — my entire advertising career to this day).

I’ve been at this game long enough to have seen what can happen when a marketing process isn’t agile, yet it’s concrete enough for getting things out to market.

What Can Happen?

• Deadlines get missed.
• Quality suffers.
• Clients are unhappy.
• Agency partners are unhappy.
• Campaign fails to drive business results.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Years ago I had an awesome associate creative director open my eyes to what a great process can do to get a project through an agency. What she taught me has stayed with me for years and I still use a version of that process to this day at J&C.

Marketing Process Is Basic, Baby

It’s really basic; it’s not rocket science.

Step 1: Kickoff. A new project is kicked off to the creative team from the account team.

Step 2: Concepts. The creative team takes the information and thinks of the big idea — that is the fun part and where the magic happens.  

Step 3: Production. The creative team goes into production mode, making that big idea a reality.

Step 4: Routing. Time to route layouts throughout the agency.

It doesn’t matter if you still manage your production process by job bags and printouts or you use an internal routing system like BaseCamp — it’s all about trafficking. I believe in taking up that responsibility myself or working in tandem with a traffic manager (project manager) because of my passion for the work and my passion for a perfect product.

The routing step can also include: 

• Passing the creative to the copywriter to make sure all the copy is in the right place
• Handing the creative to the art director to make sure all the typesetting is good and images are what the art director had imagined while thinking of the big idea
• Visiting the proofreaders for that extra touch of perfectionism in grammar and spelling

After that’s all done, that’s when I get my hands on it to give it that final finessed look and feel and make sure all is on target from the creative brief, including: messaging, content, visual look and feel, branding, etc. 

Step 5: Quality control. Whether the creative is an email stream, landing page or website, quality control ensures everything is properly tested to prevent human or technological errors.

Click here to download the Email Marketing Mobile Optimization Checklist to quality control check your email for mobile devices. 

Step 6: Final blessing. Now the creative is ready for the account team to look over and give their blessing before a presentation or pass off to the client.

This process helps ensure that the creative gets from an internal concept to the outside world without mistakes.

Is It That Easy? Yes.

Easier said than done, correct? Nope. It is easy and should be easy.

For some of you reading this, you may be thinking I am over simplifying “The Marketing Process,” but it really should be easy. I will throw in a “but,” though. EVERY project is different. I totally get that. Each one has its own special set of circumstances. I am talking in general.

I love guiding projects from start to finish as the creative director. I love seeing a project come to fruition from a big idea from a talented group of people.

There is so much satisfaction in seeing a project through from beginning to end — knowing that the process I have honed and evolved through the years works and guarantees perfection.

Use some kind of process to get the job done and all will be well…that’s my Process Promise.

Ahhh, another job well done. Now…on to the next campaign….