How ad agencies make themselves redundant.

It's not exactly breaking news, and I have written about it recently, but ad agencies that stick to the old and outdated Mad Men style model surely seem to be heading to the museum.

With every passing day there seems to be another article or piece in the media about the problems facing the ad industry.

Whose to blame? Well, in a nutshell, it's the agencies themselves and more often than not the holding companies.

The old school ad agency system had a good run. It was fun. But times change. The problem is many of the traditional model agencies and those running them don't want to change or even accept that change is needed.

Many factors led to the demise of the old model, including the separation of media and creative which upended how the agencies could charge for their time and creative output.

Time sheets and charging for every possible head hour became the core of the agency business where as many people as they could find were thrown onto assignments to make sure the invoice to the client was a hefty one.

They need to do this to charge as much as possible to pay the rent on the gleaming city tower they inhabit, to pay for the abundance of staff, to pay their holding company overlords their share of the pie, and many need to pay for all the award entries.

Big is not beautiful, or creative.

When I first landed in New York the agency I joined was packed to the rafters with 1,500 people, the agency I had left in Singapore had around 120-150 people. The funny thing for me was that the Singapore agency had more work going through it than the workload in the New York agency. I once joked in a meeting that I didn't understand what 1,350 people in the agency actually did. In truth, I wasn't joking.

Shiny objects.

The other mistake agencies made and many still make, and full disclosure back in the day I was along for this ride, was that they got swept up in the race to get more trophies on their shelves than their peers.

Cannes was and maybe still is the worst example of how many agencies still live in the past. Sure it was fun for a while but it's way past its use by date.

I once had an incident about 10 years ago where it came up in conversation that I had won awards at Cannes, upon hearing this the person I was talking to suddenly became very excited and said - 'Wow, that is incredible, what was the movie?' I then explained that the advertising industry had their own Cannes event that gave out awards for ads. Her response, now with a less than impressed look on her face, was quite dismissive - 'Why would they do that? They're just ads.' I quickly changed the subject.

Yes, awards were good and for a time they played a role in getting many creative people jobs and promotions, yours truly included. But that was then and this is now.

Creativity shines on its own.

There are talented creative people out there today who are getting hired due to their Instagram accounts or YouTube channels and the like, to me that is much more impressive and creative than a trophy for an ad featuring a cat playing a piano. No offense to piano playing cats.

Creative agencies don't need awards, they don't need big buildings, they don't need a sea of people, they don't need endless meetings, they don't need multiple processes, they don't need silos, and they most certainly don't need holding companies.

What creative agencies need is - relevance.

Moreover, agencies that stop trying to invent a new model will flourish. As I've written about previously there is no way to predict the future so trying to develop an agency of the future if ridiculous. Instead, focus on the now and focus on delivering creative solutions in whichever medium is correct for the brand and the audience.

It's 2018 and operating and thinking like it's 1980 is the fast track to the recycling depot.

Creative agencies that focus on their client's business needs more than awards and catchy new model names will be the ones that clients will want to work with.

Great client/agency relationships are just that - relationships. And any successful relationship is based on trust, listening, and giving - from both sides.

Trust: If a client can trust that an agency is completely transparent and is doing everything in its power to help that client succeed then that is the pathway to a happy relationship. The same goes for the client side, it can't be a Master/Servant relationship, it's about teamwork as you're both in this together, both sides have to trust that the other knows what their doing and that each bring different qualities to the table.

Listening: Again, this is needed on both sides. Being open to ideas that come in from both camps is essential. The client knows their business better than the agency and the agency should know the agency business of today better than the client. By listening to each other and exchanging ideas both can grow and flourish.

Giving: Under promise and over deliver, it's simple. Agencies that give their all and deliver more than ever expected will cement strong ties with the right client partner. The same applies to clients who give the agencies more than expected, such as more creative freedom where needed and trusting in an agency's ideas that may seem a bit out of the box, this harks back to the aforementioned trust portion of the relationship. Clients need to give their agencies room to breath and a certain level of creative freedom.

The business of providing ideas to clients can still be a fun and profitable one if approached in the right way, a way that makes sense today, not one that worked 25 years ago.

Oh, and nothing makes an agency more outdated than still using the words 'ad' or 'advertising' in their names.

So it is simple. Agencies need to decide - be redundant or be relevant.

The choice should be easy.

Rodd

I'm a Creative Director / Writer / Strategist / Thinker and a bit more. I work with clients/brands directly and with agencies and production companies. I also teach creative thinking and idea generation to groups and individuals. You can read more of my LinkedIn musings here. You can also find me on Twitter,  Instagram and on Facebook. Or drop me an email – [email protected]

Words (aside from credited quotes) Copyright Rodd Chant 2018

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