Jeremy Hull, Chief Product Officer, NAMER shares his thoughts on Client Councils with Digiday
Last month, Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, flew into London to meet with marketers on the X client council, as well as a number of agency execs for various meetings. The outcome was positive, despite the gloomy outlook for the platform, Yaccarino charmed the council and meetings were laid-back and welcoming leading to the ad execs considering spending again on the beleaguered platform.
The question therefore is what’s the purpose of a client council, if it merely results in a laid back gathering and are they worth joining?
Jeremy Hull shared his thoughts with Seb Joseph on the key question every potential member of a council should consider before joining – will your feedback genuinely be heard and acted upon? Put simply, if the council is merely a testing ground for new pitches aimed at senior marketers; or if it’s mostly for show, offering little chance for real input and featuring the occasional staged Q&A where questions are heavily curated then perhaps it’s not the right forum to join.
“I’ve found that the further down you get in these opportunities for feedback, the closer you get to the teams and people who are building the tools, which usually means the conversation is a lot more productive,” said Hull. “A decade ago this happened when Microsoft had 12 developers waiting to talk to us about a new UI they were launching. Anytime this has happened I come out of the meeting enthusiastic, inspired or more knowledgeable about whatever the company is trying to do.”
