Getting the best from committees…
I’ve just taken part in a group discussion on LinkedIn entitled “why design-by-committee should die” and it got me thinking about the times we’ve had to work with committees…
A few years back we worked for a major charity. Every decision took place in a room full of people who all represented various subgroups within the charity. There were obvious politics at play and long-standing feuds and the agency that had been working on the account up to that point had been tying itself in knots trying to satisfy everyone.
The work was, as you’d expect, the common denominator. It was trying to say everything without alienating or upsetting anyone. It was wallpaper.
When we came on board the MD asked us what we could do to create an awareness campaign that would have more success than the previous work they’d been running. We appraised the work to date and then investigated the original briefs and the workflow process. It was obvious the campaigns were completely dictated to by every subgroup within the committee.
Our advice was to get the committee to input into the brief but only the MD would decide the final brief (with us) and what concepts/designs to run with.
The result was a full campaign that ran on 48 sheet posters, On public transport and even appeared on EastEnders and Corrie! It was one of the charities most successful campaigns (and won us a few awards).
The previous work had headlines, bullets, lots of dull copy, caveats, directions, calls to action and contact details all over it, all in the same size type with very dull art direction. You could see where each person on the committee added their view “Could you add this and make it bigger than that”…
The work we recommended communicated three specific messages which were displayed on individual Posters and Journal Ads. Each poster contained 4 to 8 words and were specifically targeted at peoples misconceptions about the condition we were trying to raise funds for. The art direction was engaging, eye-catching and original.
Where the previous agency had failed was they were more willing to take the fee rather than push forward their expertise. Once you allow a committee to take control of the area YOU are the expert in, you have lost the battle. Set the rules out at the beginning and gain agreement as to how you will work together.
Finally stick to your guns (or live with the consequences). If things start to go wobbly remind the committee that the end result (as dictated by the brief) is why they chose to use a professional agency in the first place…
Posted on:
Thursday, July 1st, 2010, at 12:46 pm.
Categories: News