Dread the debrief? Rob Morrison has had some horrors. But what doesn’t kill you makes you a whole lot wiser. So before your next debrief, Rob’s tips on managing them might be rather useful. Here are his thoughts:

Ah, the humble debrief. How many great ideas have died at the hands of a few sentences on a one-pager?

I had a debrief recently which read, “Good news, they approved the work, we just need to take out the idea.” Ugh. After the initial disappointment I started thinking about the worst debriefs I’ve ever had to swallow (with no anesthetic). How I handled them then. And how I do it now.

First, a few examples.

There was the car rental client who used to say, “It needs more wow factor.” He said it so often and so loudly he convinced himself “wow factor” was actually a thing. Like it had meaning. Like there was a gauge which went from 1-10 measuring “wow”.

Then there was the telco client who insisted we change the photograph of the kangaroo because it looked too much like Skippy. Hint: They all look like Skippy. We dug back into the photo-library and found an image with the right kanga/Skippy balance. No idea how.

Finally, there was the financial services client who nervously started a debrief meeting with, “We love all the creative”. But then slowly unpicked every element. My response was to turn all the work face down to demonstrate, this is where we are now. Controversial but effective.

So, here are Rob’s Top 5 Tips for managing those hard to swallow debriefs.

1. Listen. (No, really, listen.)

It’s genuinely one of the toughest skills to master. To be open-minded when someone is pulling apart an idea you think has genuine potential. Don’t start thinking of a counter argument. Don’t offer instant answers you’ll regret later. Don’t start writing your resignation letter in your head. Instead, listen. You’ll often be surprised. Maybe the client missed the idea in the scamp or roughie you presented. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding. Maybe they’re using adland language without knowing what it means – I had a client constantly say “slogan” when they meant “call to action”.

2. Cool off. (No, really, cool off.)

The red mist never does anyone any good. If a debrief has ripped your heart out, don’t write an email. Don’t make a phone call. Don’t white ant those involved to other creatives or anyone else in earshot. Go for a walk. Have a quiet lunchtime drink. Play some vigorous sport. Get out of the situation and you’ll always end up with a better perspective. I was once ordered to take a 4-day weekend because I was hanging on too tightly.

3. Compromise (but only on the small stuff)

Often a client can’t tell the difference between a major and minor amend. They see a headline and a copy tweak as equivalent. No, really. So, if they’ve asked for 14 changes to copy and 1 headline change, don’t push back on everything. Because you’ll save none of it. Let them have the minor changes but fight for your headline. Client feels like they won 14-1 when, in fact, you’ve won.

4. Keep it up (even on deadline day).

Show the client your version of the work at deadline day. See if they can recognise how much better it looks. How much clearer it is. How much more engaging. Importantly, this never works. The client will still run the approved work. But it will train your client to trust you next time. It’s a touchstone idea you can refer back to when the next piece of work is suffering death by 1000 cuts.

5. Move on (as a last resort).

Some mountains are just too large. We recently had an idea die because the global client changed their tagline – without giving anyone any notice. It meant four months of work had to be re-worked. The local client was hugely apologetic. But there was nothing they (or we) could do.

Of course, if none of that works just dial it up from 5 to 6 on the “wow factor”.

Rob Morrison is a rarity in advertising – a grey-haired creative. Rob’s experience includes time as a Creative Director at Ogilvy, BWM (now Dentsu Creative), George Patts (now VML), Campaign Palace and Wunderman. He now runs his own consultancy – morrison.collective.

Here are two more opinion pieces from Rob Morrison: