Six questions to ask yourself before giving feedback on creative

At some point in your marketing career, you’ll probably be asked to give feedback on creative. Before you open your mouth, ask yourself these questions.

Is this my call? Or just my opinion? Feel free to give feedback either way, of course. But understand that if you’re the decision maker, every passing comment will interpreted as an order, so be careful what you say. And if you aren’t the decision maker, people might decide against implementing your feedback at all. So if that feedback is really important, you need to phrase it in a way that sells it.

Where’s the good in this work? Phrase your feedback so it sounds like you’re not killing something bad, you’re clearing space so the good can shine through. Don't say, "This doesn't work." Instead, try, "This part prevented me from understanding this great idea."

Will my feedback make the work 10% better? If it doesn’t, don’t give it. I got this tip from an ECD, shortly after I became a CD. He told me that if a team loses ownership of their idea, they'll stop giving up their nights and weekends to work on it. And the quality will drop by a lot more than 10%. So if you're going to change something, make sure the improvement is obvious.

Are you giving feedback on their idea, or pitching your own? People become creatives to bring their ideas to life. Not to execute your idea for you. Severing the idea from its execution is a recipe for apathy.

Can I give this feedback without physically touching the work? Especially in today’s virtual culture, it’s tempting to draw lines through things and drop comments into decks. That reduces your feedback to a punchlist that can be ignored. It’s harder to ignore strategically sound direction that’s delivered as a challenge statement.

Do I have a thick skin? The creatives killed 95% of their own ideas before they shared the work with you at all. So if you voice an idea and the creative team shoots it down, don't be offended. Go back and get a different idea. That's the expectation for creatives, and it's only fair that the rules apply to you, too.