I've been a Marketer for 8+ years. Here's what Client feedback ACTUALLY means… 1) "Can we make it pop more?" = I watched one episode of Mad Men and now I'm basically Don Draper 2) "Make the logo bigger" = I’ve just seen the British Airways advert 3) "We want storytelling like Apple" = We have the budget of a lemonade stand but expect Jony Ive results 4) "It's just not quite right" = We’ve all talked internally about how poor the quality is. You’ve got one more shot. 5) "Make it viral" = I think you have a secret button that summons 10 million views but you're selfishly not pressing it 6) "Let's circle back" = I'm hoping you'll forget about this project entirely if I delay long enough 7) "It needs to be more creative" = I want you to read my mind, which contains precisely zero specific ideas 8)"Let's add more copy" = I paid for an English degree and by God, we're going to use every word I know 9) "Can we see more options?" = I'll reject everything you show me until you accidentally create what I pictured but couldn't describe 10) "Let's run this by my husband/wife" = The person with zero marketing experience but who’s watched the John Lewis advert every year and has got a great eye for critiquing everything I do Welcome to the marketing world’s elephant in the room The client and agency relationship! What other client feedback terms are out there? 😅
This is one I get often: "Let's make it more authentic" = I've seen this same aesthetic on 12 different Instagram accounts and want you to copy it exactly while somehow making it feel unique to our brand that sells the same products as everyone else.
Madmen is a terrible portrayal of modern marketers. I wish we could nail one presentation and spend the rest of the afternoon getting hammered on whiskey in our massive office.
😩😩😩 nr 7 is my nemesis! Why why why
marketing is where intuition meets endless revisions. 💯
I'm really feeling this Lemonade Stand budget 🍋
This is spot on! Clients often expect social media managers and marketers to perform miracles with minimal resources. 'Make it go viral' is a classic! 😂 Strategy, creativity, and execution take time—good content isn’t magic. Anyone else got a wild client request?
the logo is never big enough, is it? 😆
Just push the button 🚨😅
The answer is always no! 😂
Multi-award-winning Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | NED | Board Member | Advisor | 20 years experience in commercial growth and turnaround
1dAs a client, I have found most feedback from non-marketers on marketing assets to be well-meaning, and am more than happy to hear it. Often they are just not confident enough to explain it quite as they would like. And ultimately, if it's good and right, it gets done. If not, it doesn't. But I will share the one piece of feedback I heard a then-senior colleague give the agency we were working with at the time in a group meeting. The immediate silence that followed it, the nervous glances exchanged between people who weren't certain they heard it right, and the one person muttering "the fcuk does that even mean". The feedback : "can we make the script 10% more sarcastic?".