Two Heads are Better Than One
And a few other things I’ve learned this week.
During my second week in office, I have had the opportunity to meet with a variety of people at the agency. With each meeting, I walked away with a little more insight into how Les Gaulois operates. Last week, I discussed their belief in the power of stories, and how these can be harnessed to create truly meaningful work. However, I couldn’t help but wonder: How do you find the story? How do you know if it’s the right story, or if anyone will care?
Here is what I have heard:
Start with your audience
It seems really obvious. Trust me, I had a little bit of a “duh” moment myself when this was shared with me, but hear me out. Here at Les Gaulois, they are implementing a new method/process called Design Thinking. I plan to elaborate on this more next week, but essentially, the gist of it involves using a specific set of measures to ensure you are placing the consumer at the center of the creative process– and including your client from start to finish. Essentially, you’re going back to the field and actually talking to your audience: who are they? what do they want? Simple, right? It seems like it, but I think we can all agree you can lose sight of this when in the thick of a campaign and you’re on a deadline.
Talk to the experts
And not just those within the agency (though those are extremely important as well)– use those relationships with tech companies, media partners, whoever– there are people who have a specific knowledge set that can help you get to your insight or story quicker. So, use them. I was lucky enough to join my team at a #CreativeBreakfast with Twitter. There, we had the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers from within their own organization and from outside sources– that morning it was Ben Shaw from BBH Live. It was a great morning that gleaned a lot of interesting information on platform innovations, consumer behaviors and how to create relevant and meaningful content based on your audience (see above).
Get Together
One of the biggest things I have noticed is the constant collaboration across departments. It’s easy to get bogged down in job roles, but sometimes, it’s worthwhile to bounce an idea off of your colleague– even if they don’t have the proper “background”. My co-workers are always meeting to brainstorm or go over a creative brief– and those included are not only strategy or account. They will pull in, wait for it, experts on the topic as well in order to gain new perspective on the problem at hand. There is a certain strength in numbers, and that’s definitely exemplified in this office. It’s like the old expression, “two heads are better than one”. Plus, who doesn’t like to hang out with their cool teammates?
Especially when they bring you cake…and throw you a welcome party. You’d definitely want to hang out with them then.
Stay tuned next week when I take a deep dive into the cornerstones of Design Thinking, and explore its application at Les Gaulois.
À bientôt,
Marissa
