Reflection - Visualization

Challenge    I am an Experiential Marketer and I curate experiences for brands trying to engage  consumers in meaningful ways. A challenge that I commonly face is trying to communicate  the brand campaign’s message through engagement while keeping the brand’s core  message and story intact. But a bigger challenge, though internal, always seems to place  itself right at the beginning of the conceptualization process.    When I take a brief from a client for an upcoming campaign, the communication is smooth  as I work with multiple brands and marketing managers to be able to understand their  requirements, pain points or any other concerns they may have. The real challenge is when I  have to communicate the same brief to my project team which consists of various  departments, such as creative/design and production/operations managers. They all come  from different walks of life and perceive each brand differently than I might from my  understanding of the client’s brief.

Selection    Getting the entire team in one room and explaining the client’s requirements and other  points of the brief to each individual’s capacity can be a daunting task. I instinctively turn to  creating visuals of each point since I am adept at using PowerPoint and that is a common  software used across my industry which also makes the document easily shareable. The  visualization tool helps me create a mood board of the brief with the help reference images,  diagrams and relevant messaging/headlines.

Application    I usually start gathering these images as part of the initial meeting with the client and share  those with the client on the spot in order to ensure that we are on the same page. This  mood board then evolves during the team meeting with inputs of all team members. This  helps define with clarity each point and detail out visually, the scope of work for the team.    The mood board is then shared with the client for feedback or approval. Once we have an  approval on the visual mood board we get cracking on brainstorming the implementation.  The creative implementation has the design team incorporating elements from the mood  board and merging them with the brand’s identity and other existing assets to create  elements customized to the brand being showcased. The production managers start  working on creating prototypes or sourcing materials and elements basis the mood board in  order to recreate working models of elements that can be presented to the client. And I use  the mood board as the starting point as I preparing my final presentation to the client  including all creative (visual) and operational aspects.

Insight    Applying this tool greatly helped me & my team streamline the process of understanding  and decoding a client brief. We were able to begin the brainstorming process much faster  than we used to. It also ensured that we did move away from the actual requirements of  the brief while giving us enough space and time to experiment creatively and operationally  (in trying to keep client costs low).

Approach    Next time I would like to let my entire team interpret the campaign brief document and  create mood boards of individually. I feel it will allow each of the members to exercise their  creative muscles and also allow us, as an organization, to broaden our creative horizons. We  will also be able to present more ideas to the client and ensure variety coming from  different schools of thought.


Reflection - Visualization Challenge I am an Experiential Marketer and I curate experiences for brands trying to engage consumers in meaningful ways . A challenge that I commonly face is trying to communicate the brand campaign ’s message through engagement while keeping the brand ’s core message and story intact . But a bigger challenge , though internal , always seems to place itself right at the beginning of the conceptualization process . When I take a brief from a client for an upcoming campaign , the communication is smooth as I work with multiple brands and marketing managers to be able to understand their requirements , pain points or any other concerns they may have . The real challenge is when I have to communicate the same brief to my project team which consists of various departments , such as creative / design and production / operations managers . They all come from different walks of life and perceive each brand differently than I might from my understanding of the client ’s brief . Selection Getting the entire team in one room and explaining the client ’s requirements and other points of the brief to each individual ’s capacity can be a daunting task . I instinctively turn to creating visuals of each point since I am adept at using PowerPoint and that is a common software used across my industry which also makes the document easily shareable . The visualization tool helps me create a mood board of the brief with the help reference images , diagrams and relevant messaging / headlines . Application I usually start gathering these images as part of the initial meeting with the client and share those with the client on the spot in order to ensure that we are on the same page . This mood board then evolves during the team meeting with inputs of all team members . This helps define with clarity each point and detail out visually , the scope of work for the team . The mood board is then shared with the client for feedback or approval . Once we have an approval on the visual mood board we get cracking on brainstorming the implementation . The creative implementation has the design team incorporating elements from the mood board and merging them with the brand ’s identity and other existing assets to create elements customized to the brand being showcased . The production managers start working on creating prototypes or sourcing materials and elements basis the mood board in order to recreate working models of elements that can be presented to the client . And I use the mood board as the starting point as I preparing my final presentation to the client including all creative ( visual ) and operational aspects . Insight Applying this tool greatly helped me & my team streamline the process of understanding and decoding a client brief . We were able to begin the brainstorming process much faster than we used to . It also ensured that we did move away from the actual requirements of the brief while giving us enough space and time to experiment creatively and operationally ( in trying to keep client costs low ) . Approach Next time I would like to let my entire team interpret the campaign brief document and create mood boards of individually . I feel it will allow each of the members to exercise their creative muscles and also allow us , as an organization , to broaden our creative horizons . We will also be able to present more ideas to the client and ensure variety coming from different schools of thought .