Commentary

Healthy Creative (For The Non-Creative)

It will come as no surprise that I spend the majority of my time with creative types. That’s mostly because it’s my job, but also because they’re a ton of fun. (Which may be why it’s my job…) We share a love of ideas and a fascination for where ideas come from and the process of realizing them. 

But in today’s hyper-complex, hyper-blurred, hyper-fast, hyper-hyper world, great creative needs more than just a team of great creatives. Clients, account folks, analysts, project managers, ux designers — well, everyone needs to engage in the pursuit of great creative. The conversation and the actual work of making the creative great needs to include all of y’all.

The quality of healthcare creative matters. It’s the key to marketing effectiveness and the return on your marketing spend. It keeps the creative team happy and engaged. It’s also a sign that you’re doing your job well. 

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That’s the job of all creative. But when you start talking about health care creative, there’s one more thing. And it’s pretty profound: great creative can and should help inspire people to be healthy. Simply put, better work means better health.

I’m committed to the idea that great creative helps people make better, more confident decisions and I believe in the power of creativity to improve human health and well being

If you’re already producing people-inspired, high-performing, game-changing creative, you need not read any further. In fact, I’m sure you can teach me a lot and I would like to hear from you. But if you can imagine elevating your work to new heights, please read on. 

Three things you can do immediately to significantly impact on the quality of the creative work:

1. Declare yourself creative.

Congratulations, you’re creative. You’re officially essential to the process of making the work better. Beyond the obvious impact on your attire and a sudden urge to doodle in the margins, this means you’re an idea person. You love ideas. You love to talk about them. You appreciate their power and respect their uniqueness. You also fight to protect them.

Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

2. Go big.

I’m often amazed at the impact seemingly innocuous decisions have on the quality of the creative and our ability to inspire better health. I think that’s because we’re not focused on a powerful enough purpose. It’s easier to succumb to the pressures of the status quo if all we’re doing is filling ad space. 

But a shift to a larger purposehelping people make more confident healthcare decisions and helping them improve their health and well being — is significantly more motivating. It can inspire people to innovate, fight harder and challenge “the way it’s always been done.”

It’s a purpose worth fighting for.

3. Sow what you want to reap

Great creative doesn’t just happen. In spite of the fact that it may feel magical, it’s not. Great creative is a result — the sum of the entire creative process and experience.

Too often, folks focus exclusively on the product (the script, the adlob, etc.) ignoring the complicated and messy stuff that profoundly impacts the quality of the work. The messy stuff is the human stuff and the workplace stuff (communication, relationships, time, fear, etc.) and it needs to be planned for and managed. 

What will this do? It creates an environment that respects the people and process needed to produce great creative. Great leaders establish, maintain, protect an environment conducive to awesomeness.

Take care of the process and the people and you will take care of the most important part of your marketing — the inspiring work.

2 comments about "Healthy Creative (For The Non-Creative)".
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  1. Ake johansson from maximooseflow, September 9, 2014 at 11:47 a.m.

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  2. Stephanie Rogers from PARTNERS+simons, September 9, 2014 at 1 p.m.

    Great post, Craig. We, too, believe in the power of creativity to improve human health and well being. And I've long held that great creative ideas come from cross-functional team collaboration. Never has that been more true than in today's fragmented media landscape.

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