The Client Blog – penned by Andy Baker, Nat Geo’s SVP/group creative director – aims to give the industry insight on how excellent creative collaborations come together.

Baker launched The Client Blog in July with the goal of providing client-side perspective on what it’s like to create campaigns. Baker is both creative and executive, and he really seems to enjoy the process of creative collaboration. That’s good because creating provocative, attention-grabbing campaigns requires tons of both.

“I write this blog in part because I love what I do, and because I really enjoy the creative process—but it’s also to discuss and dissect the nature of collaboration between client and vendor, says Baker. “I felt that when I looked around, there wasn’t much out there that gave the client’s perspective on creative, so I just started writing. I’m a big believer in personal creative projects – in fact, we often find new vendors and photographers based on the creative work they do for their own personal creative expression. The blog became a fun personal creative project for me, a great venue to discuss the client POV, and the collaborative nature of the creative projects we work on at Nat Geo.”

Since then, Baker’s posts haven’t necessarily been frequent – especially because he underwent shoulder surgery early this fall – but they have been in-depth. He’s posted about many Nat Geo projects – including “Killing Lincoln,” “Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout?,” ”Brain Games,” and “Drugs Inc.”

Now, Baker’s blogging about the channel’s latest production, “Killing Kennedy,” which stars Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin and, like “Killing Lincoln,” is based on the best-seller by Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly. “Killing Kennedy” premieres on Nat Geo on Nov. 10, and the channel has been preparing for months.

Creating the marketing for “Killing Kennedy” was highly collaborative. Nat Geo brought in several outside agencies and contractors to help with the production, including The Mill for visual effects, Variable for cinematography and photography, independent photographer Joey L. for still and key art and South District Films’ Dan Marks for editing.

The Mill helped Nat Geo design the key promo, which offers an original perspective of the bullet traveling backwards from John F. Kennedy, over Jackie Kennedy’s lap, through the crowd and back into Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle.

“Our goal was pretty simple,” says Baker. “We wanted to show the Kennedy story in a way that hasn’t been seen before. The assassination of JFK is a story that’s been told many times, so we wanted to capture it in a wholly different way. When it came time to shoot, we knew that we were partnered with two incredible companies that could bring this story to life in a way not seen before.”

Nat Geo’s new creative director Tyler Korba wrote the script, and then working with The Mill and Variable, Nat Geo crafted the promo. “When it came time to shoot, we knew everything we were going to accomplish with these two companies,” says Baker.

Beyond shooting video, Baker places plenty of importance on key art and still photography, which was why it was important to him to work with a photographer of the caliber of Joey L.

“Print photography and key art are just as important as video,” says Baker. “We’re going to be doing billboards in big cities and if you are going to have a billboard in Times Square or on the Sunset Strip, you want it to look really good. In a perfect world, you want that art to look just as killer as a Hollywood movie poster. It takes time to get that right. We have to make sure that the whole team—both video and stills—is working together efficiently and creatively.”

That’s why Nat Geo seeks out partnerships such as the ones it has with The Mill and Variable – agencies with whom Nat Geo has worked before, on campaigns such as “Killing Lincoln,” and have proved themselves willing to work collaboratively.

“I love it when a vendor comes in excited and full of energy with things like detailed, thoughtful shoot documents with style frames, lighting references and sketches,” says Baker.

One of the big benefits of reading through Baker’s blogs is the number of useful takeaways he provides at the end. For example, in his “Killing Kennedy” blog he offers the following helpful tips:

1) Go with who got you there.

2) You’re only as good as your idea. And your pitch.

3) Preparation, preparation, preparation.

4) Don’t forget about print, and let your talent help you discover the shot.

5) Yes, shooting is hard. Unless it’s with an 8mm camera.

The Client Blog is “a way for all of us to work together better,” says Baker. “Hopefully it’s helpful to creatives on both sides. The whole goal is to show that the client/vendor relationship can be extremely positive. With the right mix of collaboration and creativity, you can have fun and do great work.”

Follow Andy on Twitter @ajbake and check out The Client Blog at theclientblog.com.

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