Originally posted here (Spanish) in 2017.

There have been so many meetings where I’ve received a ‘hmm… I don’t know, honestly, I don’t like it’ or when you receive an email saying ‘everyone loved it, but there’s something we don’t like, how about…’ When I was an Art Director, those responses were like daggers to the heart. I saw my best creations go to the trash bin because someone ‘didn’t like them.’ It was frustrating.

Today, on some occasions, it still is. In reality, I haven’t been working in this field as long as all the directors who have mentored me, so I don’t know what their view of this topic would be. However, today I’m going to share my perspective…

In 2007, I remember when La Escuelita came to Costa Rica to give a creative duo workshop. Sixteen years later, I’m still giving my team the same workshop. It’s becoming more refreshing each time, because there’s one point that eases my frustration and makes me think more carefully: ‘We must move from a ‘like or dislike’ to a ‘useful or not useful,’ Fabiana Renault said in the auditorium. When she said that, I think my life started to make a bit more sense in terms of strategy and business.

At that moment, I was already starting as an Art Director, and the advice was meant to be applied to brainstorming: don’t waste time thinking about whether it’s nice or not, but rather if the idea works or doesn’t work. That clear. Over time, I applied it to every project. I thought about whether this idea would ‘serve’ my director within their strategy. Then, as a Creative Director, when creatives shared their ideas with me, I heard them with that in mind, but above all, I heard them thinking about whether they would serve my client’s strategy. Were they absurd just for the sake of being absurd, or did they absurdly respond to the brief in a way that worked?

Similarly, I often ran into clients who said ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘it’s just not quite there,’ and that’s when I began to understand that to overcome this wall of ‘dislikes,’ you must consider certain points. I enumerate them here, hoping to eliminate some ‘dislikes’ in advertising.

1. Selling the Idea:
   If you go to a meeting and only present an image, it’s almost certain you’ll receive a ‘like’ or ‘dislike.’ If you received the former, congratulations, there’s no going back. If it’s the latter, how did you present it? Did you sell it or just show it? Did you explain that there’s an insight behind that image that was turned into a concept? No? That’s often the reason why a ‘dislike’ is received.
2. Advisor, not Provider:
   If you haven’t established enough trust with your client that you know more about their business than they do, then you’re just a provider of advertising services. If you’ve reached that level of trust, welcome to the world of being an advisor! You’re one step away from being a strategic partner. ‘Dislikes’ will decrease, and you’ll face a bigger challenge: retaining the client and delivering better things with each request, and most importantly, results.
3. Opportunities:
   From my last Creative Director, Mauricio Fallas, I was fortunate to learn that in every job order, there’s an opportunity, and every opportunity can lead to a great idea. Maybe not a Cannes-worthy idea, but an idea that makes your client feel good about working with you and above all, an idea that drives their business. Because, yes, this is a business. Instead of that flyer (which might get a ‘dislike’), you provided an activation. Seeing more. We’re in the business of ideas, and a good, justified idea is very unlikely to receive a ‘dislike.’
4. Creative Maturity:
   This point is interesting. I can define it in two ways: the first is the ability to understand that the idea is good because it benefits the client. It’s correct, fulfills the request, and is sure to advance their business toward their set goal. The second way is to accept rejection of an idea.

   Once I had the opportunity to bring a graphic proposal to a meeting. We hit a wall because it wasn’t what the client expected (which could be another article’s topic). My role as a Director is to understand, take the order, and move forward, returning with something better than expected. That’s when I realized that talent isn’t everything in life.

   The Sr. Art Director, very strong conceptually, couldn’t accept the rejection. She tried and tried to justify it, but no, it simply wasn’t what the client expected. In my world, I’ve learned that in these situations, one must keep the line and return, as I mentioned earlier, with something better than the client expected. But in her world, she didn’t. She simply created the logo that the client marked up and that was it. She didn’t put any care into it, didn’t explore other graphic paths—nothing, this is what he wants. She didn’t receive a ‘dislike.’ She received a ‘it’s not what I expected and I don’t feel like the idea is well presented, I pictured it differently…’ She couldn’t control her frustration and did that; she went from an Art Director to a logo provider. It’s due to this lack of creative (and business) maturity that many advertising ‘dislikes’ persist.

    

5. We’re All Art Directors:
   We have to understand this: from the moment a person can choose what to wear and believes it looks good under their criteria, they can direct art. That’s why you’ll always encounter opinions, and that’s fine, because in the end, they’re just that: opinions. We can’t have absolute truth. The art of an idea is like painting a house. If the plans and the foundations of the house are well-made, well-thought-out, and in a way that the house withstands the test of time, you can paint it any color. Now, if the idea was built on the art direction, take a good look at it; it might not align with the strategy.
6. The Strategy:
   Creativity without strategy is art. Creativity with strategy is advertising. If our proposals are based on a clear communication strategy, there’s no reason to receive a ‘dislike.’ The worst thing you can receive is a ‘it’s not useful,’ which gives us another chance to redo the work and do it right without much setback. To think that you can be effective without strategy nowadays is like thinking you can be a photographer without a camera.
7. Time:
   I feel that most of the ‘dislikes’ in my life occur when we aren’t given enough time to properly solve something. You’re asked for a ‘post’ or a ‘video’ with less than 24 hours to create real work. For me, that’s an issue of organization, not of the advertising agency, but of the client. As I read somewhere once, when something is ‘urgent,’ it’s not completely so. Even today, I receive many ‘dislikes.’ Many of them, despite having strong strategic and creative support, lack a justified basis. Those kinds of ‘dislikes’ won’t go away, so let’s try to work more closely with the client, be more of an advisor than a provider, and transform them into a ‘it’s not useful.