Why creative teams need the safety to fail [according to a senior director for M...

Why creative teams need the safety to fail [according to a senior director for Magic: The Gathering]

Plus, bootleggers, burglars, and bloodborne pathogens

Updated: 09/22/25

Whatever terrible thing you've pivoted a campaign around - a delayed launch, maybe customer backlash - I bet it didn't involve a multi-hundred-thousand dollar burglary.

This week's master can put that on her bingo card. But, more importantly, her bingo card also includes working with a list of brands too long to say in one breath: Special Olympics, Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Coors Light, Les Schwab, and the legendary Seattle radio station KEXP are just a few.

Today, she heads up the creative team behind the marketing art for the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering. She sat down for one of my favorite interviews yet, not least because I learned that her grandpa was a Chicago bootlegger whose house was raided by Eliot Ness of The Untouchables. But also for the great advice she shares about facing adversity and working with creatives.

Alicia Mickes

Senior Creative Director, Wizards of the Coast (publishing company of Magic: The Gathering)

• Fun fact: Alicia loves to collect random certifications. She's got certs for tattooing, personal training, TRX, cake decorating, ceramic restoration, and even bloodborne pathogens training.
• Claim to fame: If you've seen the MOD Pizza logo, you've seen something Mickes has designed!

Lesson 1: Take ownership, but don't take it personally.

Mere weeks before Hasbro was set to release a version of Magic: The Gathering based on Wild West outlaws, the worst happened: Images of unreleased products hit the internet following two high-profile thefts.

"A bunch of cards got leaked because people started selling product before it hit stores," Mickes recalls. "It really blew our planned marketing campaign."

And while I couldn't confirm if the thieves had old-timey waxed mustachios, Mickes relays the story with an ear-to-ear smile and a touch of mischief in her eyes.

Which isn't to say she doesn't take the situation seriously, but you get a sense that that smile is at the heart of who she is as a leader, a marketer, and a human being.

"We could have gotten really mad about it. [Instead,] we tried to play into it and have fun with it."

To illustrate her point, she shared a blog penned by their communications director that tackled a similar leak head-on with inside jokes and even a few sneak peeks of their own.

We spent time trading war stories. Product launches blown by eager fans zooming in on early marketing materials. Negative feedback strewn across the internet.

The takeaway is this: On a long enough timeline, all of us will face a marketing crisis. And whether it's a branding misstep, a social media meltdown, or actual grand larceny, Mickes says it's important to take ownership without taking it personally.

Sometimes that means "accepting that you did something wrong, or that you did something people don't love, and being okay with it. That's just human. I want all my team members to know they have a safe place to create, and explore, and take big risks. And big risks fail sometimes."

"It is what it is. And so we pivot."

Lesson 2: Collaboration starts with culture.

Mickes is a big believer that a high-performing creative team requires a supportive culture.

"With all the testing in the world, it doesn't mean things are going to land the way you want," she explains. "It's important to have a group of people to talk your ideas out with, to brainstorm with, and to bounce ideas off of. And know that it may not be the idea that gets picked, but it may help contribute to the overall finished product."

But that kind of dynamic doesn't happen by accident.

"I make it a point to create a culture of psychological safety, where everyone feels comfortable being themselves and talking about their ideas."

Now, the topic of culture-crafting could fill the next year's worth of newsletters, so I asked Mickes for her number one, gotta-have, most impactful piece of advice for working with creatives.

"One of the quickest ways to build trust is to help your team members get wins." That might look like exploring time-management strategies with a team member who wrestles with work-life balance. Or teaching communication techniques to someone who is afraid of interpersonal comms. (Or who, like my co-worker who shall remain unnamed, but who edited this, is afraid of phones.)

"We have check-in meetings where you share the things you're struggling with or share your work to talk out. It takes time, and isn't necessarily part of the creative process, but it aids the creative process in the end."

Lesson 3: Fun is not the opposite of work.

When you're constantly focused on A/B testing, engagement rates, and driving ROI, it's easy to forget that marketing is, at heart, creative work. And creative work should be fun.

"We're one of the loudest groups at work. We always get in trouble, because we're over in the corner yelling and hooting and having a good time," she laughs. "Some folks think we're not working, and I'm like, no, that's us getting to the answers!"

"Creatives that are having fun and feel relaxed and safe are going to make better work. It's not a competition. No one's trying to win anything. You're in there, together, trying to make the best thing possible."

It's a simple formula. Clever minds + fun + safety = Good marketing. When something resonates with your team, there's a greater chance that it's going to resonate with your audience, too.

"And when the whole group says, 'Hell yeah! That's it!' that's when you know."

Lingering Questions

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION

What's a creative hot take that will make a marketer second guess how they work with creatives?-Brandon Smithwrick, Founder, Content to Commas

THIS WEEK'S ANSWER

Mickes says: In my experience, the business side (i.e., product strategists, sales and marketing managers) bring in creative too late... often treating them as the shiny gift wrap around the product strategy - but in reality, the creative is the product strategy.

If you involve us only at the end, you're not getting design, you're just getting decoration. Every time you hand us a baked plan and ask us to "make it pop," you've already cut the legs out from under what could have been a more powerful marketing campaign.

Let creatives lead earlier! I always encourage working in groups: Have early holistic campaign development conversations with key stakeholders from media, strategy, product, and creative. The future of marketing is all about experiences where creative execution is indistinguishable from brand strategy. If you still think of creative as just "making things look good," you're never going to create an authentic experience for your consumer.

NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION

Mickes asks: As marketing shifts from communication and storytelling to creating authentic cultural experiences, how are you or your company rethinking the role of creative?

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