Ever wondered about what it would be like to be in an arranged marriage? Negotiating to be chosen to receive your partner’s dowry? Hoping that you may actually come to like each other? Well, that’s pretty much what the new business process is like. After flirting with one another throughout the pitch process, suddenly, there we are. No one quite sure how it’s all going to work out. Uncomfortably wondering what’s next. Unlike an arranged marriage, however, we don’t get a lifetime to figure it out.We have work to do, immediately. It’s pretty much sink or swim. Maybe we need to sign a pre-nup. At least some sort of mutually agreed upon Rules of Engagement. Welcome to Episode 47 of Navigating the Fustercluck—a podcast full of snackable insights to help you navigate the detour-laden world of creativity & marketing. My name is Wegs, like eggs with a W, joining you from Deaf Mule Studios in Dallas, where we’re going to look at client/agency relationships, which all too often turn into relationshipwrecks. The question is why? It starts when we get so wound up about winning over prospects and winning their business, that we just hope and wing it when it comes to how we’ll actually work together. Neither party wants to overshare and reveal things that may become a deal breaker. We convince ourselves that we can work out whatever speed bumps come our way. But that’s not always the case. We’d all be better off if we were honest with one another right from the gitgo. Which only begs the question, what should those Rules of Engagement look like? The following are some possible examples. Client Briefings Some clients are taking back the briefing process. And they’re excellent at it.Some struggle to share a document that works. Yet we do nothing about it.Even when the work suffers. What can we do about it? What if we talk beforehand. Agreeing on the main points before the client brief becomes the primary blueprint for the work. You can’t count on the agency brief to smooth over all the rough spots. Can client and agency strategy people learn from writing groups? Trading versions back-and-forth until their thinking is polished? Also, to make sure that ample time is given to the work, that client brief has to arrive asap. Collaboration Most agencies try to keep their clients’ eyes off the work as long as possible, even though according to an AMA conference I attended, it’s proven that more rounds of feedback add to the work more than extra time to create. Personally, I like an tissue session or two early in the process, then more unadulterated time afterwards to grow those directions. It’s when you hold off on feedback that you’re more likely to miss the boat. Work upfront to determine a feedback process, write it down and uphold it. Rules of Engagement are a joke if you don’t take them seriously.Creative Development Due to an accumulation of unofficial “rules”, the work often stagnates withdo’s & don’ts based more upon personal preference or isolated “consumer feedback”. These myths warp the reality of the situation and limit our creative exploration, and we don’t even know it. Somehow, we become convinced that we have to show this or say that or people just won’t get it. But we don’t really know that. I worked for a car client that insisted that every :30 commercial needed to do 7 separate things and in a particular order, then wondered why the work all looked the same. What if every creative review the agency is asked to bring one direction that breaks free of these do’s & don’ts? Something that challenges our preconceived notions. Work that gets exposed in testing. Work that teaches us things even if doesn’t hit the bullseye. That said, every option has to be given an honest effort. No sandbagging so that the agency’s wilder efforts and personal favorites get a better chance...