Gary Vaynerchuck has just released a post where he defines what a Post Creative Strategist is, and why it is an important new role, given the current media landscape. He defines the role in the context of creative agencies, but it seems to me that this applies to any company that’s producing content. Someone should be wearing the “Post Creative Strategist” hat at least some of the time. I am just not sure how many companies are ready for the implications of having such a role.
For us, this post creative strategist is the most interesting role because it is still an “anthropologist”, it’s still an emotional intelligence focused “psychologist”. It’s still a curiosity finder.
Garyvee
This role could be very powerful because it’s inherently based on testing and learning, a lot like agile development:
they’re not going into a lab for a month and doing research, coming out and saying Ta Da and handing that research to the creative team. Instead, they’re living and breathing the research everyday just like the customer.
Garyvee
Doing things this way would feel awkward for people who are accustomed to taking pride in producing beautiful, impactful creative. It’s a lot like forcing science on art. It requires moving fast, and not worrying about perfection at first. Gary shows how a soap company might do this:
they might put out soap content for 15-20 different demographics and then see what people are saying & determine what works from there. It’s testing and learning.
Garyvee
Here is where the going gets tough for a “regular” company.
- Are you willing to create that many pieces of content?
- Even if you had the data, are you willing to use the data to create even more content?
The only way I see this working in a regular enterprise is for the “post content strategist” to be given support at the highest levels. This means prioritizing the production of new content based on his or her findings. This is a lot easier said than done. In fact, there are a lot of ideas in people’s heads that never get executed because well…there is so much to do! This is precisely why Gary is able to share all his strategies with the world and not worry that people will copy them…As silly as it sounds, the reason is as simple as…it’s too much work!
Are you going to put this advice into practice? If your company is not a creative agency, you might not need to hire a whole new person for the role, but can someone on the team take on those post creative strategist tasks? Are you prepared to invest in executing their findings?
I agree with Gary that the companies that do this will win if they are resilient, patient, and robust enough to execute these strategies. I am curious to hear how many will actually do it though. There is no doubt Vayner Media will do it, and props to them for that. Will you do it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
PS: if you actually are ready to scale your content creation rate, here’s a handy how to from Gary. Now that’s commitment!
Kemura 