Content and Creative: Marketing’s Power Couple

When it comes to power couples, content and creative are like the Bennifer or Brangelina of the marketing and communications world.

They go hand in hand, but we’re guilty of crowning content king and relegating creative to a lesser royal title. Instead, your goal should be to make sure this is a cohesive relationship that puts both elements on the same page, at the same time.

Here’s a peek at our content-creative collaborative process here at Chartwell Agency and ways that we’ve worked – and are working – to refine it.

Start with a clear direction.

This can be a formal creative brief with common/frequent questions (demographics, audience, tone, etc.) that you have standardized for each project or specific questions tailored to the task ahead. Either way, the questions are critical to the content-creative relationship – like months’ worth of dating compressed into one or a few conversations.

Make sure you and the client are on the same course with the same objectives. Similarly, make sure your whole team and the client’s team understand the objectives, messaging, tone, and tactics. A clear path makes working toward a common goal less cluttered with distractions and obstacles and helps you define the right solution(s).

Create personas to help drive home the content and the creative. Who’s reading the content and seeing your creative? Create for THEM, to the best extent possible.

Don’t develop in silos.

From the creative brief stage, do a kickoff for the project with your team to help get everyone on the same page – and focused on the same goals – faster. And from there, work together to develop the content and creative so the process doesn’t take place in silos.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, members of our Chartwell team worked remotely as part of our ROWE culture. We’re often asked how to collaborate effectively when people are remote, and the answer is to be intentional about doing so.

We share, explore, cultivate, expand, and refine each other’s ideas in person and through video chats and phone calls. We’re intentional about working together to develop content and creative that tells the right story and shares the proper visual direction.

Deliver several versions.

Try, and then try again – right? It’s possible you came up with the best ad tagline, but the copy doesn’t fit the creative space or need. Always be willing to refine your content and creative so the end result is a solid concept.

This point underscores the importance of that creative brief referenced earlier. You put the work into gathering that information, so use it! Continually refer back to that brief or notes to make sure edits are in line with and getting you to that end goal.

And be willing to estimate projects accordingly, allowing time and money for collaboration and revisions for the best possible outcomes.

Our experienced team at Chartwell Agency understands that content and creative are two major players in the marketing and communications power couple game. We’ve invested resources to build our strengths – from people to processes – in these areas because we want to do the best work for our clients, as well as grow and change as the industry evolves. Join us on the journey.