It’s human nature to judge a book by its cover. So, when was the last time you took a minute to step back to assess how your company looks and feels on the proverbial ‘bookshelf’?
Too often the quality and content of the visual assets you use is all that people have to go off of when forming opinions about your firm or your product or your services. So, how and when should you press pause, take stock, and assess what you currently have out there?
A creative audit can take as little as thirty minutes to do, save you untold time and money, and generate thousands in revenue. So, here are a few indicators (that we recommend you look out for) that maaaay suggest that a creative audit is due.
Deviceful’s 4 Horsemen of a Creative Audit
1. Competitors’ creatives start to change.
If the companies around you start making creative changes, there’s probably a reason why. You never want to ignore a change in the lay of the land. Being different and sticking out from the rest of your market can be a blessing or a curse but the chances of it being a curse increase significantly when it's prompted by others’ actions rather than your own. Do you know what can easily tell you if you’re the ugly duckling (getting left behind) or turning into a swan (growing into your own uniqueness)? A creative audit.
2. Someone else (without too much of an incentive to do so) suggests a creative audit.
What are friends for if not dispensing brutal honesty? It’s easy to lose objectivity when looking at your own work so, if the topic of a creative audit ever comes up or is suggested to you, please hear it for what it is - a sign that there’s something you need to address. People don’t bring up doing a creative audit because it’s fun, listen to them when they do.
3. It’s been a while since you’ve done one.
Things move quickly. Times change. Before you know it, years have gone by since you’ve taken stock of what’s around you and that can significantly increase the risk of you running creative way past its natural end date (so it ends up becoming redundant and underperforming). Scheduling in time to collate and assess your creative is very important. Even if you are constantly analysing, put a note in your calendar to ask yourself “do we need to perform a full creative audit?” in twelve months' time.
4. You’re imminently going to be working on a new campaign, your positioning or your branding. Audits should be an early step in any repositioning or re-branding work. A creative audit can also save you tonnes of time and money if done before the launch of your next campaign. Reduce, re-use, recycle. Learn from your past wins and mistakes. Work smarter, not harder by performing an audit and using its findings to inform what you include or exclude from your work going forward.
This one shouldn’t even have to be listed but…
The ultimate indicator that a creative audit is due:
You’ve never done a creative audit. If you’ve never sat down to go through the existing assets that your business has - you need to RIGHT NOW. How do you know what’s working and what isn’t working, what’s needed and what’s not if you haven’t taken an inventory of what you’ve got and put some effort into looking at it with a critical eye?
So, what do you do now that you’ve decided you need to perform a creative audit? Partner with us!
Working with specialists like Deviceful means that you can benefit from the team’s years of experience - helping you work in a faster, smarter, and more scalable way.
So, don’t let your creative let you down - speak to our specialists to stay ahead!
