Somewhere towards the end of my career as an “advertising professional” I realised the business of advertising had become more about “getting billing” and less about “adding value” and it was the key reason I switched to being an independent consultant.
I don’t blame them really, because most ad agencies are reeling under the double-whammy of a) constantly fragmenting audiences which they’re not designed to address, and b) reducing commissions which they’re not geared to live with.
And nowadays when I receive SMS Alerts about “new business wins” by ad agencies, I cannot help but laugh at the ridiculous and delusional messages ad agencies put out every time they sign on a new account. None of these messages and follow up press releases have any bearing on reality, or the task which they’re really signing on for…
“TUV Communications wins 50 crore XYZ Business” or “ABC Worldwide wins 100 crore Brand123 advertising account”. It’s like everyone’s trying to outdo the other with “look! my budget is bigger than yours!” rather than speak of the impact of the brand and the task ahead and what it really means for the agency and brand.
The follow up press releases are cliched and meaningless too “We are delighted/honored to handle the business says the Agency dude…” invariably the Client is not available for comment… or if there is a quote it will be that “the agency was chosen for its fresh thinking and ideas…”
Hmm. Really? What a surprise!
Well, how about some real honest messages and quotes like the following:
“TUV Communications wins mandate to turnaround XYZ Business amidst tough market odds. While the number of 50 crores seems large, it is really media spend, and the agency will only get about 7.5 crores out of which it will have to manage a team of about 15 people in an office with huge overheads.
While the finance guys are excited at the thought of new revenue, and the servicing guys are excited about how the brand will look on their CVs, creative guys haven’t yet realised they will not be able to do anything new, but turn out the same old crap the brand has done for the past 5 years.”
or alternately how about a news report like this:
“Four agencies – AB, CD, EF and GH win over 200 crores IncredibleBrand business. They all have different mandates – one will do the film, the other some print ads, one will do the leaflets and one will spend the year trying to find something to do. However none of them can offer what the category and brand really needs – a digital strategy!
No agency is going to get media commission, rather a tiny fee from which they will have to feed over 50 employees on the business between the four of them!”
So what’s the real deal? Who are they kidding? Or are ad agency folk to used to selling puffery, that they fail to see it when it lands in their own laps??!
Discussion
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