“Who do you think you are? Shut up. I’m the creative, not you, do your job and entertain the client!” 😳
I think you know this struggle, or maybe you live that unfortunately all-too-common typical agency life. The turf war between account managers and creatives 🤬. Many of us creatives think we have a monopoly on creativity, the power to create ideas.

At the beginning of my career I was also one of them. Creatives are the superheroes (another post coming soon), the master minds. The ones who wow the clients. But I learned fast that this is completely wrong.

First of all, what is creativity? 👨‍🎨 If you ask google, google says: “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something”. Yes, I know, there are many more specific definitions out there, but remember Dieter Rams: Less but better. I like the google definition. This is creativity for me. And every person is creative, in their own way.

Now let’s have a look at the creativity in our day-to-day lives in an agency. We use our superpower to create concepts that take many things into account, like target groups’ needs, brand values, channels and so on. And all while keeping the subjective views of the client in mind 😉. There are so many details to consider and this works best in a good team with great creativity, knowledge, skills and diverse perspectives.

I’ve written a few times about it—for a creative concept, you need different perspectives to go from good to great. In my experience over the years, I have seen again and again how important it is to have your account manager with you in brainstorming and design sessions, as an active member in the creative process. I suggest, if you don’t do it already, try it out! Let them smash your ivory tower and become one creative team.

Think about who fights 👊 for your ideas in the feedback round after you give your fancy polished presentation? We all know that you can only fight with all your heart when your heart is truly in it! Account Managers must be an active part of the team. Encourage them to be a creative part, too. Don’t swipe their ideas into the bin. Be one team. We all have superpowers 🦹‍♀️🦸. Let’s use them together.