Creative Partners is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing agency, specializing in strategic branding, interactive communications, consumer experience management, social media and non-profit marketing. It works closely with clients to develop winning business models and infuse the latest design and technology into their advertising and PR campaigns. magazine use a collaborative approach to the design process, engaging the creative team as partners from the start of the design process until the final product is delivered. magazine strive to build long-term relationships with their clients, establishing clear expectations, maximizing potential, and maintaining loyalty.

Creative Partners brings together creatives from a variety of disciplines to create unique customer experiences. Some of the areas in which they excel include creative research and development, web development, digital media, brand development, creative branding, online creative services, search engine optimization, performance management and more. This is a not for profit company that believes in promoting and creating the best work possible while paying creative partners reasonable rates and providing them with all the support they need. Their tagline is “putting the creative in front of the audience.” The team works collaboratively to provide client service excellence and a cutting-edge creative strategy.

The greatest strength of Creative Partners is their ability to forge creative relationships with clients and leverage their strengths to serve their customers better. Partnering with other creative minds yields synergies that create synergies, which create more business and, ultimately, more sales. Creative Partners helps clients strengthen their creative strategies by encouraging experimentation, testing new products and ideas, and facilitating creativity across the board. When creative teams are working together, cross-departmental communication is easier and creative processes run smoothly.

A creative partner often appreciates the importance of constructive criticism and looks forward to hearing what other creatives have to say. The agency appreciates constructive criticism and welcomes it as a way to learn from the mistakes of others. Creative Partners strives to be proactive in getting feedback and addressing concerns and complaints promptly and professionally. They also value their creatives’ input because it helps them stay fresh and keep creative companies ahead of the competition.

Creative agencies sometimes hire agencies or creative professionals who do not have an understanding of marketing, advertising, promotions, social media or online/offline strategy. This can lead to miscommunication, ineffective branding, duplication or a loss of clientele. The creative partners understand that these agencies do not have a “magic button” to solve agency issues. Agencies that do not understand the agency’s creative services vision can lead to frustration and ineffective communications.

Creative agencies sometimes engage in “creative defrosting,” a practice where they pull a project that has been underway for months and, with little notice, quietly kill it. The reason behind a creative defrosting is usually because the original creative partner was not focused on the client’s vision. The creative partner may have offered support in the beginning but, once the client has started to implement the creative strategy, they become distracted and stop giving creative direction. Agencies that continually have creative problems with projects have their communication channels tightened and fail to deliver the client’s goals. Sometimes it takes months to bring a new creative partner in and get things moving again, but if you have the right partner, they can jump into the project and make it happen much faster than you could on your own.

Agencies must also remember that a creative partnership does not always mean a win-win situation for both parties. Some creative services may take too long to finalize because the client and creative partner are not in tune with one another. The creative partners need to understand the client’s timeline, budget and timeline of implementation. If the clients have an unusual timeline or do not have a budget for a specific campaign, it could be detrimental to a creative services relationship. Agencies also need to understand that creativity should not be a constant at all times. The creative partnership between the client and creative agency should be established based on mutual understanding and then the creative process should allow the two parties to engage in a meaningful discussion about how best to implement the client’s vision.

When working with creative agencies, it is important to be open and honest with them about what the agency is working on and the timelines involved. The creative partner needs to see the finished product and know when the agency will be done with their work. It should be understood that agencies work in a collaborative fashion. Collaboration does not mean that each party is better than the other, it simply means that both parties are working together towards a common goal. An agency that continually engages in non-collaboration will likely find that their projects do not move as quickly or as smoothly as they would like.