The best feedback doesn’t slam doors shut, it opens them and then paints a picture of what might be outside. Here’s how you tell your agency what you like, and what you don’t, in a way that keeps your relationship and the project moving ever onward.
Telling someone you don’t like something is never easy. Even the most seasoned marketers might need a deep breath before they say to their agency that, actually, this isn’t what they were expecting.
But feedback is a central pillar of a good brand-agency relationship. Without useful, directional, considered feedback, there’s always the risk that a brand leaves an agency partnership disappointed.
So here’s some thoughts from us, and our network, on giving gold standard feedback: how to set it up, keep it going and make it work, while building an agency relationship that leads to exceptional outcomes.
IT’S ALL IN THE SETUP
Good feedback starts long before an agency has put pen to paper, or mouse to screen, or even thought about early concepts. Being able to share honest thoughts on creative work means setting up the relationship in the right way – in short: treat an agency as a partner in your success and not a vendor.
“It’s a single framing that’s required, which is that it’s a partnership, not a service, and as soon as you start treating it like a partnership everything becomes easier,” says Claire Grinton, Head of Growth and Marketing at digital product studio ustwo, and former Director of Brand and Creative at fintech Wise.
That means setting goals, together, and agreeing feedback stages, together, and generally being all-in on the fact that you’re moving forward as one. Importantly, it’s a partnership that needs buy-in from both sides.
“We can’t just be hands and brains for you – it has to be a collaborative partnership.”
Ana Realmuto – Partner, Graphics Dept
“We’re committing to you as a client and investing with you in the work that we do, and we expect you to equally invest back in some of that work,” says Ana Realmuto, partner at creative agency Graphics Dept.
“We need a client’s full participation in order to make something successful. We can’t just be hands and brains for you – it has to be a collaborative partnership, and we need you to do a little bit of work to help us get there, and make something successful.”
APPOINT A FEEDBACK WRANGLER
As they say: it’s all in the delivery. No-one wins when there’s eight people writing comments on one document at different times.
Feedback is impossible to implement when it comes from multiple sources with competing opinions, aims and agendas. What’s needed is a single person who can shepherd and distil feedback from across the team, and then present it as a clear point of view.
“That person can absolutely get different feedback from lots of different people, and that’s fine, but there needs to be a singular direction in that feedback,” says Claire.
“It’s fine for all sorts of chaos to happen within your organisation; fight the fights you need to have. But then you need to present a united front to your agency partner, because otherwise you’re setting them up to fail.”
“We really require one source of truth,” agrees Ana. “You have to align on who’s going to be your decision-maker. It’s great when the client team is invested in hearing everyone’s voice, however we want to avoid conflicting internal feedback and strive for a more singular voice from the client side. Additional food for thought is welcome, it’s just about making sure the top priority is clear.”
GET OUT OF SUBJECTIVITY-LAND
It’s hard to quell the impulse to share your opinion, but good creative feedback isn’t about subjective thought.
Comments should be tied back to the original aims and objectives, rather than personal feelings about things like typefaces or creative concepts. You might despise a particular colour an agency is suggesting as your new brand palette, but as long as they has a solid strategy behind using it, then that personal opinion has to come out of the equation.
“Opinions are valuable. There’s wisdom in the things you feel, but you need to interrogate them.”
Claire Grinton – Head of Growth & Marketing, ustwo
“User testing can put you back in the objective rather than the subjective,” suggests ustwo’s Claire. “Rather than saying, ‘I don’t like this pink and I don’t think people will take this seriously’, it’s more about saying, ‘I may not like this, but my branding agency is telling me this is a really underused colour in this sector, and if the goal is to vault ahead of competitors that look the same, this is going to do it.’
“Opinions are valuable,” she adds. “There’s wisdom in the things you feel, but you need to interrogate them and be skeptical about your own feelings.
"Ask yourself: am I the audience for this? There still might be value if you’re not, but applying those types of questions and skepticism is critical.”
BAD FEEDBACK IS SHORT FEEDBACK
The best feedback doesn’t slam doors shut, it opens them. Simple ‘I like’ or ‘I don’t like’ statements won’t help move creative work forward, and it couches feedback in the framework of personal feelings.
Short feedback also deprives agencies of context. Ideally, thoughts on creative work are delivered via ‘yes and’ or ‘no, because’ sentences.
As Graphics Dept’s Ana says: “The reason someone saying ‘we don’t like this colour’ is bad is because it doesn’t give us any understanding.”
“If we can understand where someone is coming from, we can bring their vision to life more clearly.”
Nate Bruzdzinski – Partner, Graphics Dept
“If we can understand where someone is coming from, we can bring their vision to life more clearly,” says Nate Bruzdzinski, partner at Graphics Dept. “But if we don’t know the problem, we can’t find the solution.
“Statements of ‘this is successful or unsuccessful because of xyz’ are good feedback, or when a client says ‘it’s successful because it mirrors us in this way’ or ‘this relates to us and we can see this doing xyz thing’.
"Those kinds of feedback elements are really helpful because it makes us feel we’re building towards something together.”
SIT WITH THE WORK BEFORE YOU REACT
Your first reactions aren’t always trustworthy. Think about how many times you’ve seen something new and hated it, before realising that actually you just needed a bit of time for it to settle in?
Over to Nate for more: “You have to ask, is this what we feel? Or am I reacting immediately? We hope that brands sit with the work and really give it the time of day. We understand brands are busy, but they’re also hiring us to do a fairly important task together with them, and we need them to be invested.”
“After meetings, we share everything we’ve presented directly with the client – to give them a chance to marinate, digest, think about things, spend some time with it and then write us back,” adds Ana. “We don’t believe in getting everything you need in the meeting. We don’t want it to be so flippant.”
AGENCIES ARE POWERED BY FEEDBACK
Projects are iterative. No agency expects to present a perfect kernel of truth in the first meeting – they want brands to push back, and explain, and tussle with them a little bit. After all, that’s the only way for the work to get better. And ultimately agencies want to feel proud of the work they’re making for brands.
“They either think they’ve done a good job and then you have some challenging conversations, or you need to ask how you got to that position.”
Claire Grinton – Head of Growth & Marketing, ustwo
As Claire says: “No-one shows up to the first round happy about bad work. So they either think they’ve done a good job and then you have some challenging conversations, or you need to ask how you got to that position, and if you’ve not set your expectations clear enough or not set the agency up for success. No-one tries to do shit work.”
So, to summarise: be clear about what success looks like, and how quickly you expect an agency to deliver it. Build in plenty of opportunity to do rounds of revisions and phases of work.
Avoid personal opinions, but add context. Short feedback is unhelpful feedback; think in terms of ‘yes and’ or ‘no because’ sentences. Give the work time to settle. And finally, know that feedback is what fuels an agency’s work and, ultimately, the success of your partnership.
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Image shown: Hurry Up & Have Fun branding by Graphics Dept
