Creativity Is Just Half of the Equation

I am working on an RFP for a municipality and one of the deliverables is a success matrix – in other words, how will we know that what we are doing is successful?

It is, to me, one of the more difficult questions to answer.  In fact, we often answer the question with a question – how will you, dear client, know if we are successful?

If you have made the decision to hire outside communications counsel, we know that you understand that the dollars you are allocating to this effort are not just an expense item on your P&L, but rather an investment in your brand. So it is critically important that you and your agency know what is expected, what will be measured and how.  What are the tangible and sometimes intangible things that need to be achieved in order to determine whether the effort hit its mark?

It’s not just getting a news story in the daily newspaper or creating an eye-catching digital advertising campaign that is considered successful.  To assess impact and success, we have to know that the messages reached your intended audience and that the action we wanted to have happened actually did happen.

Creativity is just half of the equation. The other half is measuring the effectiveness of that creativity.