When presenting creative to a client you have to remember a few things. First, keep in mind that whatever you are presenting will be representing the client and you need to make sure there is reasoning to the madness – if its quirky, funny, weird or serious make sure it represents the brand and culture of the company you are speaking of. Second, be confident – the last thing a client wants to see is a creative team presenting to change the way a company looks to the public and not be 100% certain that this is the right approach. Thirdly, the client asked you to present ideas for a reason and that reason is to improve on their current situation – this means you better have put your best foot forward and show them some new and innovative work rather than the works they currently have in market.
Golden Egg Method
With that I share with you the Golden Egg method. Its a simple method and probably a lot of you are doing it already and are just not aware that you are.
There are 3 types of eggs that you should know and have in your creative presentation – these will represent the 3 types of campaigns that you will be presenting – there is the white egg, silver egg and the golden egg.
The white egg
The white egg is what I consider the traditional campaign, this is the campaign that the client is use to – the question is how are you going to serve it up so that it will be different? Poached? Over-easy? scrambled? In the mind of the client this is what’s considered the “safe” route, they are use to this – they know how it works and they’ve seen how the audience responds to this. Sad to say, but with all the efforts you put into this presentation this may be the campaign that moves forward. Don’t be upset though – this is a good thing – having a white egg in the basket shows the client that you know the brand and you know the culture, this is just a mere campaign that will help keep moving the company forward.
The silver egg
I will come back to this later – even though this is whole method is called the “Golden Egg” method, this is the most important one.
The Golden egg
This is the campaign that is the most innovative – most of the tactics in this campaign is years away from what you know the client would actually do, but its the funnest one of all. In this campaign, you can let your creative juices flow – dabble in the new technologies that are out there and see how you can implement it to your client’s business goals. Most likely this campaign is not going to move forward but it shows the client how you are thinking outside the box and should be an agency considered to stay for the long-run because of your forward-thinking and momentum to take a company into higher levels of marketing.
The silver egg
Now we’re back to the silver egg and the most important egg. This is the egg that you are going to recommend – it will follow suit to the traditional or “White egg” but implement just a sprinkle of “Golden egg” flavor. In these campaigns take a look at what the client currently has in market and just add to it, sometimes its as simple as a social media component, or even a e-newsletter program whichever the case may be the “silver egg” is the campaign that moves the client forward in a non-evasive way making a simple explorative change cohesive to the overall brand and culture. This campaign shows the client that you care about their business and you want the business to be innovators without breaking the mold. Your agency will be held on high regards, because within a “silver egg” campaign you demonstrate that you actually care about the company’s needs, asks and goals while at the same time introducing them to newer levels of thinking. Do this more often with your client and one day they’ll be ready for a “Golden egg” makeover.
When presenting do it in this order – white, gold then silver egg. Remember the first campaign kicks off the meeting and sets the tone for the rest of the presentation – start to strong and from “left-field” and the client may get the notion that their business goals were not your highest priorities leaving you to have to back-paddle from that point on, the last campaign is the one that will leave a lasting impression and since its your recommendation it will be the hardest of the three to move away from. Do it this way and your presentations will be productive as well as successful.
Need some more presentational tips? Take a look at some of these links:
Jason Uzarraga 