# Creative Communications Sharp Edges

Critical mistakes that kill creative quality, waste resources, or damage brand.

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## 1. The Vague Brief

**The mistake**: Briefing creative with unclear objectives. "We need something cool for social." "Make it pop." No target audience, no goal, no success criteria.

**Why it happens**: Strategy wasn't done. Stakeholder doesn't know what they want. Rushing to production. "Creatives will figure it out."

**Why it's devastating**: Creatives produce work that misses the mark. Multiple rounds of revisions trying to hit an undefined target. Time and money wasted. Tension between stakeholders and creative team.

**The fix**: Every brief must include: target audience, objective (what do you want them to do), key message, success criteria, constraints (budget, timeline, mandatories). No exceptions.

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## 2. The Revision Spiral

**The mistake**: Endless rounds of changes. Each stakeholder adds feedback. Scope creeps with each round. "One more small change" becomes ten more changes.

**Why it happens**: No approval process. Too many stakeholders. Subjective feedback without clear decision-maker. Fear of commitment.

**Why it's devastating**: Deadlines missed. Creative quality degrades with over-revision. Team burns out. Costs spiral. The final product is a camel designed by committee.

**The fix**: Defined approval process with clear decision-maker. Maximum revision rounds specified upfront. Consolidated feedback (one voice to creative). Time-boxed review periods.

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## 3. The Off-Brand Asset

**The mistake**: Creating assets that don't follow brand guidelines. Wrong logo usage, off-palette colors, inconsistent typography. Each piece looks like a different company.

**Why it happens**: Brand guidelines unclear or unavailable. Rushed production. Different vendors/freelancers each time. No brand review step.

**Why it's devastating**: Erodes brand recognition. Looks unprofessional. Undermines all the equity built in brand. Confuses customers.

**The fix**: Accessible, clear brand guidelines. Brand review as mandatory checkpoint. Templates for common asset types. Brand training for all creative contributors.

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## 4. The Platform Mismatch

**The mistake**: Creating one asset and cramming it into every platform. TV spot cropped for Instagram Stories. Print ad repurposed for Twitter without adaptation.

**Why it happens**: Budget constraints. "We'll make it work." Don't understand platform differences.

**Why it's devastating**: Cropped visuals that miss key elements. Wrong aspect ratios. Text too small to read. Captions cut off. Looks lazy and unprofessional.

**The fix**: Design for each platform from the start. Lead platform first, then adapt (don't just resize). Understand platform constraints before creating. Platform-specific asset checklists.

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## 5. The Uncleared Asset

**The mistake**: Using photos, music, fonts, or footage without proper licensing. Stock photos used beyond license scope. Music in video without sync rights.

**Why it happens**: Didn't check licenses. Assumed it was fine. Used temp music, then shipped it. Downloaded from Google Images.

**Why it's devastating**: Legal exposure. Takedown notices. Lawsuits from rights holders. Embarrassing removal of published content. Fines.

**The fix**: Clear rights for everything before production. Maintain asset license database. Never use "temp" assets in final work. When in doubt, don't use it.

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## 6. The Approval Bottleneck

**The mistake**: Creative sitting in approval queue for days or weeks. Key approver unavailable. No escalation path. Deadline missed while waiting.

**Why it happens**: Unclear approval process. Approvers overloaded. No backup decision-maker. Approvals not prioritized.

**Why it's devastating**: Missed deadlines. Campaigns delayed. Creative teams blocked. Last-minute rushing when approval finally comes.

**The fix**: Defined SLAs for approval. Backup approvers for each role. Escalation process. Approval timeboxes. Tools that surface approval needs prominently.

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## 7. The Single-Use Asset

**The mistake**: Creating expensive creative that can only be used once. Highly specific headlines, dated references, single-platform optimization.

**Why it happens**: Optimizing only for immediate use. Not thinking about reuse. Campaign-specific everything.

**Why it's devastating**: High cost per use. Constantly creating from scratch. No asset library to leverage. Inefficient creative operations.

**The fix**: Design for modularity where possible. Create master assets that can be adapted. Build asset library. Consider longevity in brief.

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## 8. The Literal Interpretation

**The mistake**: Creative that just illustrates the product literally. Showing a laptop to sell software. Stock photos of "business people."

**Why it happens**: Safe. Easy to approve. Doesn't require creative risk. "Just show what we sell."

**Why it's devastating**: Invisible in crowded markets. Doesn't differentiate. Boring. Fails to connect emotionally. No memorability.

**The fix**: Brief for emotion and differentiation, not just depiction. Push for concepts that surprise. Show the benefit, not just the product. Take creative risks worth taking.

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## 9. The Unfeedbackable Feedback

**The mistake**: Giving subjective, vague feedback that creative can't act on. "Make it more premium." "It needs more energy." "I'll know it when I see it."

**Why it happens**: Stakeholder can't articulate what's wrong. Don't understand creative process. Personal taste masquerading as feedback.

**Why it's devastating**: Endless rounds trying to guess what's wanted. Frustrated creative team. Wasted time. Relationship damage.

**The fix**: Train stakeholders on giving actionable feedback. "Instead of X, try Y because Z." Reference examples. Tie feedback to brief objectives. "How does this fail to achieve the stated goal?"

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## 10. The Over-Produced Asset

**The mistake**: Creating highly polished, expensive content when low-fi would work better. Agency-quality video for organic social. Studio photography for Instagram Stories.

**Why it happens**: "Quality matters." Agency habits. Don't understand platform context. Over-investment in every asset.

**Why it's devastating**: Slow to produce. Expensive. Often outperformed by authentic, lower-production content. Wrong fit for platform.

**The fix**: Match production level to platform and purpose. Test lo-fi before committing to hi-fi. Embrace authenticity where appropriate. Production value should serve strategy, not ego.

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## 11. The Orphan Asset

**The mistake**: Creating great creative that never gets distributed. Perfect video sitting on hard drives. Assets created but never launched.

**Why it happens**: Campaign killed. Strategy changed. Approval never came. Production finished after window closed.

**Why it's devastating**: Complete waste of resources. Demoralized creative team. Sunk costs.

**The fix**: Distribution planning before production. Launch commitment before investment. Kill projects early if strategy changes. Better to produce less that ships than more that doesn't.

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## 12. The Translation Disaster

**The mistake**: Localizing creative poorly—literal translations that miss cultural context, imagery that doesn't resonate, or worse, offends.

**Why it happens**: Translation without cultural review. Assuming visual language is universal. Budget-constrained localization.

**Why it's devastating**: Messages that don't land. Cultural insensitivity. Brand damage in new markets. Wasted localization investment.

**The fix**: Cultural review alongside translation. Local market experts involved early. Test with target market audiences. Some concepts don't translate—create new ones.
