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How to Increase the Visibility of Your In-House Department
“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”
– Malcolm S. Forbes
As the leader of your creative services organization (including video teams), it’s up to you to create the necessary visibility in your organization to drive success. Creative teams and their leaders aren’t always the best at tooting their own horns or sharing their successes; but if you want your group to grow in projects, revenue, and visibility, it is a must.
When building visibility and asking for a seat at the table to discuss everything from budgets to decoupling, know your value and impact on the organization. Here are four things you can do to increase your creative department’s visibility in your organization:
- 1. Quantify your impact. The advantage internal creative teams have over external agencies is the access to data, and that includes confidential data that wouldn’t otherwise be shared outside of the organization. Begin to gather various data points on your projects. Start with your Service Level Agreements (response times, comps provided, revisions, deliverables, campaign/deliverable success metrics, and cost savings because of using in-house instead of outsourcing) and build from there. Follow up with your customers after project delivery to gather the data needed; and in a few short months, you will be able to tell a powerful story (using numbers). One client of ours is controlling the distribution channels of all creative work in an effort to gather data!
- 2. Build high-end capabilities and marketing tools. As visual communicators, you know better than anyone that showing your capabilities is much more powerful than talking about them, whether it is a dedicated YouTube channel with your high-end video capabilities in a demo reel or printed samples of your design work. If you have the ability, build the site or a newsletter to internal stakeholders, and send out recent projects (make sure they are the high-end ones) along with reasons why working with your group will drive benefits for them and the company. If you don’t have high-end pieces, build them anyway to show what your capabilities are.
- 3. Educating your customers helps build confidence in your abilities. Clients are often curious as to how their deliverable can be better than the competition or how they can incorporate cutting-edge techniques. Whether it is a lunch-and-learn on VR or coffee and bagels to discuss classic communications best practices, educate your client base. It will not only help them see you as a subject matter expert, but it will also help drive brand consistency. You’d be surprised how your relationship will transform because of it.
- 4. Enter competitions and land some industry awards. A great way to build the credibility and confidence of both internal clients and potential clients you wish you bring into the fold is to show them how their internal team stacks up with other teams (including agencies). Analyze your work mix and apply for 3-5 awards per year in those categories. These types of activities are often placed on the back burner and seen as a luxury that comes with extra time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Putting in the extra time not only boosts the morale of your internal team but also provides great visibility into your department. Share the awards/wins/nominations with internal communications teams so HR can use them to help recruit stronger personnel.
If you’d like to discuss this blog or ideas specific to your organization, email eliana@crewscontrol.com
About the author: Eliana Hassen is a strategist and marketing tsar who has spent over 20 years working with Fortune 500 brands and their creative service organizations (and video teams) on optimization, execution, and performance.
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