By: Brooke Robinson – Manager, Creative Partnerships, Initiative

In our industry, you become acquainted with the word “no” pretty quickly.

In fact, I’d wager that a “no” in one form or another is lurking in your inbox right now. But as often as we encounter this pesky two-letter word, we go to great lengths to avoid it.

As marketers, we frequently become so engrossed in crafting the perfect strategy or showcasing our cutting-edge technology to ensure buy-in that we rarely tap into one of the most significant resources in our organizations: creative grit.

Creative grit represents the determination, resilience, and innovative thinking that empowers us as marketers to pursue imaginative solutions (even after encountering that initial “no”) that can elevate a good idea to an award-winning one.

We should view rejection as a catalyst to flex and build our creative muscles. Pushback from a client on a strategy, tactic, or out-of-the-box idea should never be where work is abandoned; it should be the turning point. When treated as a constructive challenge rather than an obstacle, we, as creative professionals, can reevaluate our solutions and dig deeper to refine our strategies with newfound insight.

The ability to reassess, evolve or pivot on an idea is just as important as conceptualizing a groundbreaking idea or strategy in the first place. The true challenge lies in striking the perfect balance between creativity and effectiveness.

As discussed by Werner J. Reinartz and Peter Saffert in “Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn’t” (Harvard Business Review June 2013: 106-111), creativity should align with the brand message and resonate with the audience. At its core, creativity must serve a purpose while still laddering up to campaign objectives.

By challenging teams to work with creative grit, you challenge them to objectively evaluate the disconnect between creativity and effectiveness from a new and questioning point of view.Leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering an organizational culture of creative grit. A culture that promotes risk-taking, enables open communication, and celebrates creativity provides fertile ground for innovative marketing strategies and empowers teams to build confidence in overcoming “no.”

As leaders, cultivating creative thinkers while developing a working environment conducive to creative problem-solving is crucial to harnessing the full potential of creative grit. Here are a few simple practices that agencies can implement to challenge team members to view obstacles as opportunities for growth and establish a culture of creative grit:

• Allocate tools and resources that bolster innovation and creativity. This can include access to specialized training, workshops, and emerging technologies that facilitate creative thinking and idea generation.
• Develop a culture where teams are encouraged to seek proactive feedback from clients and colleagues to gain insights from the “no.” Having open and honest conversations will help improve overall client satisfaction, but it will also help foster a stronger relationship between working teams, enable continuous improvement and creative innovation, and ultimately lead to a better understanding of our client’s business.
• Provide support through campaign post-mortems or retrospectives that thoughtfully analyze feedback to stimulate fresh thinking and drive innovation. This is an opportunity for collective problem-solving from across disciplines to get a holistic view of the campaign while providing a platform for post-campaign brainstorming to generate new ideas and approaches to similar challenges in the future.
• Create an open and transparent culture of communication in which team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas and offering constructive feedback.

As we look to the future of marketing, “no” isn’t going anywhere. It’s about time we recognize this two-letter word not as a barrier but as a stepping stone to honing our skills and creative grit. It can empower us to transform setbacks into remarkable achievements. Behind every rejection lies an opportunity to reshape the narrative and redefine what’s possible.

Brooke Robinson is manager, Creative Partnerships at Initiative

Image via Unsplash