Why You Don’t Bring the Design Team in at the 4th Quarter

Apple. Coca-Cola. Nike. McDonald’s. OREO. Liquid Death. These brands have built design systems that have seamlessly woven from product to campaign through the funnel. The systems have wedged into our minds, refrigerators, closets, desks, emails and TikToks.

The need for comprehensive design thinking is undebatable in a world that has become increasingly global and digital. However, the question for marketers is, “Where do they go?” Do they hire a great design firm like COLLINS or JKR? Do they build an in-house staff and do it themselves? Does the CMO’s nephew, Kevin, just take a stab at it? Or … do they turn to the lead creative agency? Nah, let’s not get crazy.

Come on! I’m inviting you to get crazy with me.

Big work for big brands

As someone who has worked agency-side my entire career, I believe we are (or should be) in pole position to do this work. We’re deep in it. We work with the clients day in and day out to understand the business challenges. But we’re not in it so deep that we limit ourselves to the internal politics inside the corporation.

We have an intimate understanding of the consumer and where the brand might be able to go. We work inside a media plan and understand where a system has to work to be effective. And when things are going well, we’re in it for the long haul.

We’re celebrating 30 years with GEICO and a decade with OREO. Wieden + Kennedy has been with Nike for 41; McCann and Mastercard have been together for 26. We get brands because, in large part, we helped build them.

But for some reason when most agencies (including ours) attempt to build design departments, it is so easy to get it wrong.

Saving the best for last

As agencies, we silo design away in its department, where it’s removed from the rest of the team’s intimate knowledge of the brand.

And we bring them in way too late.

Ask designers and they’ll tell you the same: They’re not involved early enough. “We never get in front of the clients” or “You hired us for design, but you have us building decks.” There may be some finger-pointing to structure and silos. “The art directors have no idea what they want; they’re going to override us anyway.”