It's a story told too often. A business develops a new product that they're really excited about. They've worked hard, taken in feedback from their customers and developed a game changer. They have to show it off. "Maybe a video," someone says. So they reach out to a vendor or they wander over to their internal team to setup a meeting. After explaining all of the bells and whistles of their new product they agree on a concept. It's money. Everyone loves it. The video team goes to work and a few weeks later the stakeholders get their first look at a draft. It is amazing! So close to what everyone imagined. There are only a few tweaks that will make the piece perfect. Another week goes by and the video team uploads a brilliant piece. "Where should we put this?" someone asks. After a little conversation they decide to post on Facebook and Youtube. So up it goes and... "Look 10 views!" A few days later some more views roll in.
Crickets.
This is where I see most vendor-client relationships falter, hope diminish and creative projects fail. Too many creative projects pass through marketing departments with 50% of a great plan. Businesses are missing out on great ROIs because the plan ends after someone hits "upload." It does no good to create exceptional creative and then burry it in the recesses of the internet. If we continue to view the final approval of creative as our finish line, we should not be disappointed when our videos only get 100 views, no one clicks through to our offer and our ROI is effectively in the trash.
What creative projects need are plans that extend beyond final approval and upload. They need a distribution and promotion plan - that should be the finish line for creative projects.