Talking brand. Looking bland.
Big network advertising agency brands. I’m not talking about the brands they represent but rather the name on the door. #Saatchi #TBWA #Y&R #BBDO #DENTSU #DDB #LEOBURNETT #PUBLICIS #MCCANN These are amongst the many big names with which people in the industry are familiar. Today I want to ask, what makes them different from one another? Or rather what did?
At its height, the name of the door gave clients an idea of what to expect. TBWA\ promised Disruption – a mantra I truly believe is the purest of all of them. It is simple enough and can manifest in the ideas themselves or even the media strategy in which they are executed. It may as well have been called ‘Creative’ instead. But TBWA\ have done well to brand their approach. BBH are strategy headstrong and it shows in how they approach communications. In New Zealand, DDB was the place to go to for great comedy writing. In the early 2000s, Saatchi & Saatchi would always do the epic shit. McCann believe in telling the truth well. All good reasons for clients to first know what they wanted + needed for their brand.
But do clients care anymore? Do the agencies care how their (creative) strength should be labelled?
Not delving into why clients are looking elsewhere more and more, let’s talk more about the impact of how the industry is staying relevant in today’s market. [I only speak for Asia.]
Every network agency pushes for their work to be aligned to the guiding star of the brand name in some shape or form. As a creative consultant who’s brought in regularly to help on big projects + pitches, I’ve personally seen efforts away from my desk and on the walls that highlight this. Great effort, even though it may be mandated efforts from some overlord office thousands of miles away. We know that the world of advertising is very tough today. Clients have too many options for breaking up their marketing budget and if the agency bottom line is not met, jobs will have to be cut. Now this is an important point: ad folks are smart. If we can post rationalize why the grand idea that will make everyone famous meets the client brief, we can certainly always thread the needle of how the work meets with the brand ethos. Over time though, when you step back and see the collective of work, it’s not so unified anymore. Perhaps it’s because the agencies have gotten too big. Perhaps it’s because there’s more to do with less people on the job – at both ends of the pay scale. Perhaps (and again) nobody inside the agency cares anymore; they are just trying to stay busy closing the gap left by the diversification of client budgets.
Let me simply my argument. If you didn’t know that a particular client brand is handled by a certain agency, can you tell which agency worked on it? I think there was a time where you could easily do that because of the agency reputation, and also because the creative heads were personalities who poured their particular style and belief into the work. CCOs, ECDs, CDs ultimately sell an opinion on creative direction. It is an immense gift afforded to them by their employers. They are the gatekeepers for how work should look. But I’m not sure it is connected to the brands that are printed on their business cards anymore. I’m NOT bashing heroes who I admire and look up to; I’m just saying maybe it’s too hard to do it today. A creative leader has to be in charge of a supermarket chain account as well as an insurance company and a sports brand account. Rigid measurement, big data, media companies who don’t want to work together with the agencies, and all the other pressures mentioned already mean that the work between the brands done in the same building starts to look fragmented in terms of agency’s creative mission statement.
Why does all this matter?
How can we sell branding to clients when we find ourselves not building our own in terms of creative synergy? What does this do to the younger creatives who will work in the office for 2.3 years and then just move to another place for a small bump in salary or the artificial bump in title that is used to lure them? What does this do to the creative boss who is working 12-16 hours a day to meet with the demands of winning/retaining/producing work? Big network agencies also have a transient issue, in the sense that some agencies have over 50% of creative staff on non-perm contracts. There’s no incentive to learn more than they need to because the companies are not showing them love to begin with. It’s all a slippery slope and we are feeling the brunt of it right now.
What’s the lesson here for creatives? Look to your leader. If they aren’t able to push your company mantra into every piece of work, proactively suggest why your idea aligns with the company brand more. Do it every time if possible. Do the same in meetings – don’t leave it to account management or planning to push it for you. The faster you understand the way your brand should speak to clients the better it will be for you to get to a higher plane in a way you perhaps had never considered. If there’s resistance or people don’t care about it, maybe it’s time to move? (But please get a job before you quit.)
Peace.
