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Ad Agency Creative Process

Delivered October 30, 2019. Contributor: Jennifer P.

Goals

To gain an understanding of the checkpoints of the creative process at an ad agency

Early Findings

  • The standard process at an ad agency is typically broken into pitch, presentation, assessment, and creative design.
  • The beginning of a project at an ad agency begins with the pitch from the client, where a creative brief is presented to several ad agencies.
  • The agency that presents the best solution lands the job, after which a contract is signed and the agency arranges fees and discusses job expectations.
  • After landing a job, the first part of the creative ad process is to do an assessment, which will inform them on their client’s position in the industry, market share, brand recognition, competition, and any other relevant company information to create an effective ad campaign.
  • The creative team now begins to design the actual ads and media for the campaign. This process may involve graphic designers, copywriters, videographers, and sound specialists.
  • The first steps of the creative process are typically led by an account manager, who begins by writing a creative brief, which will establish timeline, budget, proposed media, and be presented to the client and signed off on before work begins.
  • Then the entire creative team will work on the project, which can take several days to weeks depending on the projects size and scope.  
  •  Other members of the agency might also check in on the process to make sure it is lined up with client expectations, timeline, and budget.

Proposed next steps:

You need to be the project owner to select a next step.
Provide a case study of a specific ad agency's process from pitch to creative conception of a campaign
Provide an analysis of what skills or specific abilities are required to be used throughout the creative process for both the account manager and creative team at an ad agency