How to make collaboration work between university and external creative teams
Scary, Sporty, Ginger, Posh and Baby (!) nailed it with “2 become 1”.
Although the context and content of their proto–ballad had nothing to do with creative collaboration for universities (who knew!), the song title makes a useful short-hand.
But why is collaboration between university creatives and their external partners important, and how do you make it work?
It’s important because:
Having both sets of experience increases the size of your toolbox and the diversity of thinking
Any internal team (from marketing through to academics) can become siloed, blinkered and prone to falling back on the familiar
Every market sector (including Higher Education) is highly competitive, so access to both institutional expertise and the outsider perspective can improve your preparedness for disruption
The evidence from academic research proves that creativity benefits from both a deep knowledge relevant to the problem (and what’s been tried before), along with a willingness to break old habits – even break the rules
The benefits to the project and the individuals involved can be enormous when you get it right. Relationships can be forged that remain strong during the good, but more importantly, the difficult times when the going gets tough. That’s when you need people you can rely on, and that trust is built over time.
Both teams can grow through shared knowledge and experiences.
Why it can fail
There’s an understandable tension when someone else is brought in to work on a project.
The internal team can feel overlooked and under-appreciated
The external team can feel wary of being limited by narrow thinking and internal politics.
So recognise these challenges and prepare accordingly. Make sure your culture is conducive to supporting creative collaboration. If it’s already riven by in-fighting, mistrust or poor leadership then I’m afraid it’s doomed to failure. You need that fixed first. But if it’s not, you’ve got the foundations to build on.
And accept there are different strokes for different folks. Not everyone moves at the same speed. You can’t have Blockers, but you can be patient and allow the early adopters to lead the way and others to follow their example.
How to make creative collaboration work
My insight is based on 30+ years in multi-disciplinary creative teams (25 as a Creative Director), and a range of projects with universities, enterprise hubs and spin-outs. The recommendations aren’t exhaustive but refined from practical experience.
The experience, knowledge and passion of your internal team can be blended with the challenge, broad-sector experience and outsider perspective of an external team. Creatively that relies on two key elements:
Shared objectives
Leadership has a vital role to play. If collaboration is not supported from the top it will never work. Use every small win as progress. And avoid setting teams up in opposition from the start.
Ensure there is clarity over roles and responsibilities. Make both teams equally responsible for the objectives and, wherever possible, mix up the people to deliver the various workstreams. Empower them to give a greater sense of purpose.
Shared values (is a bonus). Organisations have corporate values. The smart ones ensure they become behaviours. The teams can live these as they engage.
Mutual respect
Collaboration is about human relationships before technical capabilities.
Recognise shared ambitions. Discovering what inspires and motivates the teams will help to build trust and a culture of creativity. What binds you is greater than what may divide.
When you get it right you get the best of both worlds – two become one.
All of this relies on both parties playing nicely and leaving their egos at the door, along with any chips on their combined shoulders. Yes, it is that basic – anyone who says otherwise is deluded. I’ve heard many horror stories from universities (and agencies) that prove the point.
"It can be really daunting for in-house teams when external agencies are brought in to work on creative projects – but it doesn’t need to be. It does need an open mind though and a willingness to collaborate, work as a team and be respectful”. Ali Freer, Head of Brand, Loughborough University
And this feeds straight into Social Capital.
“It’s not just about the talent of a few superstars, it’s about how a team works together. And that’s built on trust”
Margaret Heffernan
(More here by the brilliant Margaret Heffernan).
Trust between team members increases effectiveness. And that should be the goal for everyone involved, from the VC to the Dean, from the Head of Marketing to the Design Leads, Creative Director to Junior Copywriter.
As Mel B sang “Set your spirit free. It's the only way to be”.
Once you apply Shared Objectives and Mutual Respect maybe collaboration isn’t as scary as you thought.
Case Study: Loughborough University
Paul Atkins, Head of Design at Loughborough University and Ian Bates, Firehaus Creative Partner share a stage and their story to a packed room at the ACPME 23 Conference
“Collaborating with Firehaus brought a wealth of expertise and changed the creative dynamic of the team on this project. Working with others brought new ideas to the table and made the Loughborough Business School branding even more exciting. Identifying where external partners can add value to projects is so worthwhile – and for us, the Firehaus team quickly became part of ours”.
Paul Atkins, Design Team Leader, Creative and Print Services
Strategy Phase
As referenced in a previous article, right at the start of the Loughborough Business School rebrand project we set up a multi-disciplinary Rocketship Team. This brought together a diverse range of voices from across the School and acted as the lightning rod during the various stages of research, positioning, ideas and articulations. It became an invaluable platform for engagement, challenge, counter-challenge and progress.
This level of collaboration built relationships and understanding. It consequently set a precedent that continued into the creative process.
Creative Phase
The first step is an important one and it’s worth giving some thought to so you start on the right foot.
For this project, we had a brief that had been defined in the Strategy Phase. The positioning, purpose, mission and vision for the Business School had been clearly defined and summed up in the Brand Idea – Progress With Purpose.
Once the Loughborough and Firehaus creatives had digested the brief individually we started by sharing inspiration – work from any and every sector (notably, very little from HE-world). Design, typography, film, colour-grading, copywriting, you name it we shared it. Work that we liked and thought may have some bearing on where this project could go.
This played an important role not only in the creative inspiration per se but in a shared understanding and ambition for the project. Effectively we built mutual respect, working out how we would communicate and collaborate without ever having to have the land-grab conversation because our roles and responsibilities naturally found their place. All rather grown up.
Progress with Purpose had its internal launch in Spring 2023 and it was great to celebrate the design, copy, film and photography we’d collaborated to produce. But there’s more to come!
Five practical suggestions to improve creative collaboration.
Always have a written brief – understood and approved by the SLT
Use an inspiration-sharing session – as a starting point to build relationships, shared understanding, motivations and ambitions
Start with the big idea (for the brand or a campaign) – the details will come later
Decide who is de-facto Creative Director for the project – someone will have to act as the overall creative lead
Present outputs as a team – and take the pushbacks and plaudits as a team
“Creative relationships don’t happen instantly, they usually build over time. But the beauty of this project demonstrates that it doesn’t have to take long when people play nicely.
It can be really daunting for in-house teams when external agencies are brought in to work on creative projects – but it doesn’t need to be. It does need an open mind though and a willingness to collaborate, work as a team and be respectful. In-house teams can’t do it all, but we can bolster our capacity and harness our collective talents to produce some really powerful stuff. It really does work both ways.
Firehaus celebrated our in-house creativity and been a fabulous advocate with our internal stakeholders. We’ve learnt from them and scratched our heads with them and ultimately, we’ve developed a relationship built on trust and mutual respect.”
Ali Freer, Head of Brand, Creative and Print Services