Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
should relieve any pressure that you might feel about missing the
“
on the first shot.
Another benefit to knowing your client on a somewhat personal
level is trust; the better they know you, the more comfortable they
arewithyou,andthemorecomfortabletheyarewithyou,the
more they
personality target
”
ll trust you and your decisions. The trust will continue
to build the longer you work with them, but in the beginning
you
'
re probably going to have to earn it. After all, they are paying
you good money to make sure their products and services sell well,
right?
'
It Takes All Types (of Clients)
A great art director I know once told me that you can generally
classify clients into three high-level groups and that you should
quickly figure out which one a client falls under when talking to
them about your work. Those three groups (for which I
'
ve made
up my own names) are as follows, in no particular order.
The first type of client is the
type. These clients know
about technology, they know that online is in the natural progres-
sion of advertising, and they embrace it with open arms. When
talking to a tech-yes client, you can usually speak in industry and
technology terms. If they don
“
tech-yes
”
'
t understand what a certain word (or
acronym) means, they aren
t often shy or embarrassed about
asking. However, you may still want to take the terminology down a
notch by lightly explaining some of the things you feel people out-
side of the advertising and technology fields may not fully under-
stand. They may know a thing or two, but you
'
'
re the expert and
there
s a reason they hired you instead of doing it by themselves.
Thesecondtypeofclientisthe
'
type. Like the
tech-yes type, the tech-maybes know that online advertising is some-
thing they need to do and they are willing to do it. The difference
is that they are not quite as sure in their knowledge of the technolo-
gies. Their instinct is to give you any information you need or ask for
and then trust you to be in charge of their project. Depending on
your team, this can be either a very good thing or a very bad thing.
For example, if you have developers on your team who are overly
enthusiastic and loyal to a particular technology (Flash, HTML5,
whatever), those developers may take the project down the wrong
path with their blindness to other options. In that case, the project
may fail, the campaign may suffer, and the client
“
tech-maybe
”
'
s trust will be lost.
On the other side of that coin, if your team is smart and knows the
right tools for the job, then the project, campaign, and client all have
a much better chance of success due to well-placed trust in you, your
team, and your work. When you
re talking to a tech-maybe type,
remember to try to keep the industry terminology down a little and
explain what you are talking about.
'
