Partners, Not Vendors

AdCritic.com: 2007 Creatives Roundtable (via Gawker.com)

Last month, Creativity invited 11 highly talented and highly opinionated creative honchos from a diverse range of idea shops to deliberate on what they need to do, and who they need to be in order to get a brand message across in today’s unpredictable advertising climate.

I found the six interview video clips mildly informative. I think this might be due the fact that we’re watching the creative directors talk, opposed to seeing what they create, so it’s not their fault.
With that said, one statement did stand out for me from William Gelner, Group Creative Director at BBH. He said, “The best clients are looking for partners, not vendors.” This is great way of working with clients and it can only make better, more integrated work that elevates the client’s brand and message.
While a vendor does their job and then shoots out an invoice, a partner gets inside their client’s head, always there to guide the messaging as it evolves and changes. If you’re serious about the creative field, there’s really no reason you wouldn’t naturally become a partner with your client. Your enthusiasm, determination and creative vision should come through to your client and when they see it, they’ll have no choice but to jump on it.