But what would a marketer say if you asked what the perfect recipe is for creation of review and content? It seems to be an increasing challenge to get things “just right.” According to the 200 agencies, marketers and publishers that participated in the survey, there are far too many of some ingredients (or cooks in the kitchen), while there might not be nearly enough of others.
Too many projects, people and tools that are used incorrectly
For starters, there is far too much going on, with 79 percent of our respondents saying “too many projects occurring simultaneously” was a factor in them running over budgets. And that will likely only get worse, with 88 percent saying that demands for creative assets have increased at least somewhat within the past year.
Another one of the problems is that there are too many chefs in the kitchen, with 74 percent of respondents saying they work with five or more departments to develop creative assets. And 32% also work with external agencies. And having so many people involved is causing problems with getting content created on time, with 79 percent saying that having too many individuals involved in the creative review process is contributing to missed deadlines. And this could be leading to another problem: 84 percent said there are just too many rounds of creative review.
Then there are the tools that are designed to help them, with 83 percent saying their organization’s use of such tools makes collaboration and communication more complicated. (In fact, 71% said “much more complicated.) According to the report: “As the survey and our interviews make clear, creative asset production is being complicated by confusing and inefficient digital tools. The fact that organizations are using so may tools at once—many of them with somewhat overlapping yet somewhat separate functionalities—is almost certainly contributing to this phenomenon, creating more redundancies and inefficiencies.”
Too little time, money, resources—and ultimately creativity
Another issue is that a whopping 82 percent of marketers say they have somewhat fewer resources than necessary to meet the demands of creative asset production.
And it seems that they’re not being given enough time or money to complete the work, with 93 percent saying they sometimes run over their original allotted time and 84 percent running over budget for creative review and production.
This means they’re also not always able to do what they were hired for in the first place: Being creative. An astounding 81 percent said that, due to their cumbersome creative process, the quality of their creative work suffers because other considerations inevitably wind up being prioritized. And 95 percent said there was at least some gap between the average level of their organization’s creative output and the desired level. And 72% said that the gap was a large one.
“Ironically, by piling on layers of oversight and interdepartmental involvement, organizations are actually weakening their creative output,” according to the report.
For more information on the report’s findings, please read ‘Layers on Layers’: A Creative Collaboration Report or take a look at our infographic tied to the report. To learn how Hightail can help improve your creative collaboration processes, sign up for a free trial.
