Not content with content.
There should be a name for a type of word, whose very utility – in ad agencies – leaves me with a feeling that can be an antonym of the same word. Wait, what?! Let me explain. The word content makes me nauseous. “Easy mate, content is king these days.” Yes, it is today. So then why are so many ad agencies + clients getting it wrong?
Let’s rewind. I’m a guy who started advertising at the start of the millennium. I was inducted into an industry at the tail end of the bottomless budget era. As a result, most copy creatives who are either from that gen or the one/s before it, know how to paint with words, given the carte blanche that those budgets provided. A good tale on TV could stop you from using your ree-moat con-troll. (It was a rudimentary device used to change what was on a gigantic tablet that sat in your living room.) When I started in New Zealand, TV was everything. And the kiwi market was one of the handful of markets that always knew how to punch above its weight and win global accolades for this artform.
Fast forward 15 years, and the distraction of digital soundbites is now coming back full circle. In Asia, agency award hunger is never waning perhaps due to its importance in assessing the equity of a network. Awards are currency and creatives are the brokers that facilitate this bottom line equity. The two most simplistic implications – that’s all this lowly creative author is capable of formulating – are that if agencies don’t get awards then they lose out at a global level, and if creatives don’t keep hunting for the next shiny statue then they lose out. A glass half empty guy would call that a lose-lose scenario.
Let me be clear; I LOVE awards. Not for the salary and title bumps that they come with, but also for the rockstar trappings that come from all the hard hours poured into the work. At some point though, even the least astute creative must question why the well is running dry. Is it us we think? You see, creatives are an emotional bunch. The biggest secret to our [downfall] is that we care too much about what we do. Ssshhh, management might be listening. I have conversations with intelligent recruiters in Asia who say their KPI is to find someone who can bring their esteemed networks out of an award drought. Yes, awards are awesome for everyone who are directly or indirectly involved. But are we asking the right questions in order to get back to the adult table?
As an ad agency, if you can’t tell a compelling story for your client’s brand then you are failing. Sure, you’ve done the big data analysis, you’ve created a series of media and brand strategies that gets your brand in front of the right audience but are you telling the right stories? You’ve got the click rates numbers up but where is engagement and longterm brand affinity?
We now live in a world where luxury brands rely on KOLs / Instagrammers with significant followers to represent their selling points. These investments may equate to micro marketing budgets (compared to ad agency fees) that result in short term results. Agencies are all about long term results; it’s a cost structure thing. ;-) Why do CMOs need to circumvent their efforts this way? Because ad agencies are not providing an ROI that is worth their time using the big boys.
Let’s come back to content now. Let me repeat what is I acknowledged before: content is king. The problem is that if storytelling sells then we (ad agencies) need to re-educate our clients on the benefits of the long term brand sell. In order to do that we – as ad agencies – need a model that shows confidence in that. A good advertising entrepreneur friend of mine told me recently that “clients don’t need long term goals anymore. There are enough ways of reaching the short term goals without the [inconvenience] of what agencies want to push for.” Agreed. But I do believe that the big networks can turn this sentiment around and everyone (especially creatives) get what we want.
The big networks need to re-think their creative strategy.
I get it. Network agencies serve a higher cause. But can we stop thinking so much in terms of Q2 or Q3 and start concentrating on what’s great for our clients in actual brand growth? Let’s start talking to clients about things like, “sure we’ll give you the ad you want. But instead of the usual upsell on budget for the ad, can I interest you in a creative platform that will actually start a conversation on the streets?” I speak for B2C brands of course. Good creative leaders understand the consumer pulse and we are on the streets ensuring we understand our audience. So put creative leaders like us in that room with the clients who feel like a betrayed spouse. Let us regain their confidence. There’s a lot of us who are passionate change makers. Management needs to give it a chance. Let us be heard. We may not all be in boardroom attire but the passion is there because we are still here. There's still a chance to turn this game around. The best is yet to come.
All my posts have a lesson for creatives. So here it is:
If you are a creative who feels they are in a perpetual motion, turn the page. Start understanding that your role is beyond your title. If you don’t grow and learn what is happening in the industry that feeds you, then make this the time for you to start doing that. This is less of a call for being rebellious and for more a call for you to become accountable. Creatives live a relatively sheltered existence with the current politics of the agency in which they are employed. If you give a shit, then do some shit.
Peace.
