Be Bewitched by Your Advertising Agency

Melbourne Herald Sun, Friday 29,2011

Do you remember Darren in Bewitched? He worked in an advertising agency, which seemed pretty cool when I was a kid. He was incredibly versatile: sometimes writing a campaign, sometimes art directing.

Or he could be servicing the client and taking him to restaurants, or making the TV commercials and probably booking the media. Fortunately whenever he got into a pickle - frequently - he had a wife with a magic nose who could save the day.

When I got into the business, agencies still looked much like his, though there were a lot more staff to handle the various specialties.

But agencies would work with their clients in planning their marketing, preparing campaigns, running ads. They receiving much of their income as commission agents. Today nothing much has changed - and everything has changed.

For a start, they now avoid being called "advertising agencies". In fact they go to great lengths to dodge the phrase. Like Saachi & Saachi: "We're not an ad agency, we're an ideas business. We are a full service, integrated communications network."

Or J Walter Thompson: "JWT is the world's best-known marketing communications brand."

This is because they believe that businesses equate the word "agency" with that typewriter and drawing-board image of Darren's day. Whereas, today's agency is all computers, digital media is the buzz, newspapers and network TV no longer have the total dominance they once had.

I remember being advised some years ago, when I ran an agency, to change its description. "Clients think of agencies as expensive and too structured. These days they want more flexibility, and to pay less."

So I did change the description, to "Marketing Solutions". To which prospective clients replied, "Oh, does that mean you're an advertising agency?"

Yes, change your spots as often as you like, you're still the same pussycat underneath. And whatever the label, there are good ones and bad ones. You need to be able to tell the difference.

A good agency will work with you to develop a product and plan a campaign or the year's advertising budget. Because they are experienced with a lot of different clients, they should give you a different perspective, a clearer view.

Yes they do depend on commissions and service fees. However they are described or structured, it still comes down to the fact that if they can't make a profit from your account, you have no value to them, so be cautious about striking hard deals.

A good agency can help you manage your advertising and marketing day to day and probably save you the cost of a couple of extra marketing staff.

But most importantly, they should be able to bring a whole new creativity to promoting your product. It may not always be in media you fully understand, talking to a different generation. But if you know your product well, and your market, you'll know when it's right.

How to tell a good agency? You look at their presentation and think, gee that's good. I've never thought of my product in that way. They really make me want to have it.

Their creativity should do more than please you. It should excite you. Maybe even frighten you. "I know it's true but can we really say that?" And the hairs rise on the back of your neck, you feel a prickle in your spine - that's the response a great idea should arouse.

And don't worry about what they call themselves. Focus on what you want to achieve - and allow them to help you do it.

ray@ebeatty.com
Blog: themarketeer-raybeatty.blogspot.com