Article Contributed on: 5/13/2008 6:05:08 PM
Q&A with Dan Schrad, Creative Director at
Faction Media.
Creative director Dan Schrad from Faction Media, a top interactive digital advertising and B2B marketing agency, answers question regarding his role at the agency, offers advice to newbie creatives, and discusses shifts in B2B design.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your position?
A: Clearly, working in this industry means working with great people. From designers to copywriters to art directors, I'm privileged to work with very smart, talented, interesting and funny people. You learn so much from your peers day-to-day that it makes you feel lucky to be a part of it.
Generally speaking, creative people thrive on challenge and change. With the people we have here - smart, talented, and engaged - motivation is seldom a problem. When to let go and trust becomes far more important than wanting to control - and you're either "built" to trust instinctively or you're probably not suited to do this job.
Problem solving is central to this industry - aligning a complex marketing problem with a clear message provides a constant challenge. You combine that with the ever-evolving technological landscape, and there's always a new and interesting way to craft a message and pair it with a medium that's just over the horizon.
Q: What's your favorite part of the creative process?
A: There is something very personal about what we do on the creative side. There's a little piece of every person in the work. While we're creating something and giving it the right voice and the right tone for the audience, we're taking a small portion of our own view of the world and applying it - we're bringing our experiences into the work. When your audience connects with that view and responds, it's a tremendous validation of your effort. It's something you can really take pride in - and it motivates you going forward to the next project.
The creative team at Faction Media is really unique. The process is very open and collaborative, and everyone has the right to voice an opinion. I've been other places where people hold ideas very close to the vest, and it creates a strangely competitive, insulated environment. Here, everyone is open to criticism, because we're all in it to make something as good as it can be. The people we have here are very unselfish and in-tune with the team concept. I'd like to say that there's been a conscious effort to build the team that way- but it's honestly been an organic process. As we continue to grow, however, it'll be something we look to hold onto.
Q: What is the your biggest challenge in your position?
A: We've undergone a considerable amount of growth over the last 2 years, and growing responsibly has been at the top of everyone's mind here. It can be challenging to make a considerate, informed, and thoughtful personnel decision in the face of a mountain of work. There are ways to stem the tide during busy periods to make sure you're not rushing to judgement and making changes that effect the culture and the personality of the company. Most agencies hold their culture very near and dear, and we're no different.
Putting the processes in place to support the work we do has been an integral part of making the growth as painless as possible. Without the organization and processes in place to help create efficiencies, and therefore, valuable time - you don't get to spend the amount of time you want to with an idea or the execution of the idea. Scalable systems that make sense and don't impede the actual work in an organization are invaluable, and they require foresight and effort to be implemented properly. There's a symbiotic relationship between time and process, and we're all at our best when we feel like we have the time to really craft something.
While most creatives know this, communicating it to the client is a challenge, particularly as we continue to rely on technology to do things faster every day, and the expectation of speed is assumed. Faster is not always better, and when you and your clients look back at the work you've collaborated to create, the deadlines and timelines are seldom a consideration. What it boils down to is the work, and how successful it was. I'd like to get all our clients thinking that way, and then I'd like to buy the world a Coke.
Q: What are the creative confines of B2B?
A: Simply put, I don't think there are any confines - you can always solve a problem in a new and interesting way. There is sometimes a more specific audience, and therefore, a more specific strategy to market to that audience. That can also create a more complex set of parameters and goals than you might have in B2C. But to me, that's where the challenge and interest lie.
Historically speaking, B2B creative work hasn't been perceived as overtly entertaining, but that doesn't mean it can't be. With B2B, you generally sell products that have much lower recognition - or the cost of entry is far higher than of B2C. The challenge is to invent a story that's interesting and sells the product in an unexpected way. You need to think creatively about where the audience is and when and where they are most receptive to your message. You're still talking to a human being on the other end. You want to craft a concept that draws people in regardless of whether or not they're a "consumer" or a "business customer" - and you can't lose sight of that. It's the big idea that hooks people in and gets them engaged, regardless of labels.
Thanks to the web, the lines between B2B and B2C are blurring. The interactive space gives B2B the opportunity to touch people in the same way that B2C does. Both lines of business are relying on reaching more increasingly niche audiences and the web is enabling that, so going forward I don't think you'll see such a clear cut delineation as you have in the past.
Q: What advice would you give "newbies" about entering an agency fresh out of school?
A: Transitioning from school into the agency environment is a quick learning process - or to be more accurate, a trial by fire. When you first come into an agency, you're doing a lot of heavy lifting and adjusting to the pace and the way things work. After you learn the process, you learn to stretch within the opportunities that come along with your professional growth. Pushing yourself and your conceptual thinking on whatever might be in front of you is a key to making big personal and professional strides.
Getting in tune with the strategic thinking behind a concept is a big part of producing increasingly relevant and "good" work. In school, you tend to focus on the technical and aesthetic aspects of design and writing - which is fundamentally important. There were always a few professors when I came up that were in tune with what kids would be experiencing on the "other side", and would assign project much in the same way we encounter them here - defining an audience and laying out clear goals for success. Really focusing on that information instead of just dismissing it as "parameters of an assignment" shows a level of consideration and forethought that put you in a position to create something purposeful and relevant. That's what I look for when I'm looking at student work. Style gets such a heavy emphasis in most portfolios, and while important to demonstrate interest and enthusiasm in the craft, it doesn't translate into a way of thinking that can work on any type of project, for any audience. Style can put you in a very small box. I'm a big believer in form following function.
We make a concerted effort to involve as many of the creative staff as possible in the strategic planning of a given project or campaign regardless of title or experience. That ensures that when someone has to make a judgement call on a concept, design or production that they have the perspective to make the right decision based on the overall strategy of a given campaign. It also helps keep the client's goals at the fore throughout the process.
Q: How do you create work that works for the client?
A: It all starts with a solid strategy. If you've come to develop a strategy based on research - that you're confident will be effective - you build upon that with creative. Creating messaging that is relevant to the audience at the time they'll be encountering it in the scope of the overall strategy creates a perfect scenario for us. We make creative decisions and judgements based upon the strategic goals, and can in turn use those goals to reinforce why we traveled down that road in the first place. The strategy sells the creative, and vice versa.
That said, you can always do something unexpected while staying aligned with strategy. To some extent, designers and writers are actors - creating characters, words and images that play a role based on the audience. Being able to visualize and put yourself in someone else's shoes is essential to the craft. You have to be able to think like your audience to market to them.
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About Faction Media
Faction Media is a full-service digitally led communications agency that helps clients compete, evolve and grow in an increasingly complex and fragmented marketplace. Faction provides digital strategy, audience insight, creative services, interactive development, search marketing, performance analytics and marketing optimization to Fortune 1000 companies including some of the largest and most innovative businesses in the World.
Faction Media's Unified Marketing™ approach combines new and evolving interactive tools with traditional channels to identify, build and execute the most effective and successful brand and demand generation campaigns. A commitment to performance accountability, technology, and innovation has defined Faction's place as a leader in the world of modern communications and marketing.
For more information on Faction Media visit
factionmedia.com
Dan Schrad
Creative Director
Dan comes to the Denver area by way of a Midwestern upbringing. He got his degree in Art from the University of Northern Iowa. He spent four years working for a design firm in Chicago before the long, cold gray winters finally got to him. He moved to Denver and began as an Art Director for Lundwall Creative. He spent five years there, working mostly for cable providers like TCI and AT&T - as well as cable content suppliers like ESPN, Fox, FX, The Speed Channel, and the National Geographic Channel.
In 2003 Dan went out on his own and started a small design firm, D Line Design. He worked with a range of agencies and clients in town and nationally, on accounts like Miller Brewing, Fullers, Smith & Turner Brewing, Coors, Gates, Lucidata, Electrovoice, Avaya, Johns Manville, and a host of small and medium-sized businesses. "It was a fine balancing act between corporate clients and small businesses, which gave me the opportunity to get back in touch with why I love this industry. You get to see your efforts make a real impact on a business, and that's a big energizer."
Over the years, Dan immersed himself in the "emerging" internet - taking his print design experience and applying it, learning and evolving with interactive projects from 1995 to today. Dan likes the two mediums to work together for the client - as in integrated marketing, which has led him to help establish strategy and execution here at Faction Media for the past 2 years.
When the work is done, Dan shifts gears, literally, hopping onto his fleet of bicycles for a tour or race through the high country. That is, when he's not playing with his 2 sons or working on the house.