Clients
Why great clients make better creative.
Every great piece of work has a client who said yes to it.
By Michael Cruz · · 2 min read
The short answer
Great clients make better creative because the work can only be as brave as the person approving it. The best clients give a clear problem, real access, honest feedback and a little trust, and they protect the work inside their own organization. Agencies make the work, but clients decide whether it survives.
Nobody makes great work alone
Every award case study has a hero, and it is usually the agency. That story is missing a character. Somewhere, a client stood in front of their CMO, their legal team and their own nerves, and said yes.
What great clients actually do
They bring a real problem, not a pre-decided solution. They share the uncomfortable facts. They give feedback on what the work needs to do, not on which shade of blue they like. And they fight for the work internally, where no agency can go.
They also know the difference between a risk and a gamble. Good clients take smart risks. Great ones make it safe for everyone else to take them too.
Our half of the deal
The agency has to earn that trust. That means understanding the business as well as the brief, taking compliance and regulation seriously instead of treating them as the enemy, and bringing ideas the client can actually sell upstairs.
In regulated categories like healthcare and financial services, the best work I’ve been part of came from exactly that kind of partnership.
If you’d like help with this kind of problem, it’s what we do at Summer Friday.
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