I guess it depends on the size of the client. Right?
“AdWeek” had a very interesting piece this week about a supposed switch of companies who are now decentralizing their agencies rather than following the lead agency concept.
Of course, there are many factors to consider for this trend shift. Essentially, however, it boils down to:
“Among the factors contributing to the swing toward expanding agency rosters is the rise of global chief marketing officers who, in the past, consolidated business at one shop to make it easier to manage and to ensure brand consistency, and now are focused on creativity, said Arthur Anderson of Morgan Anderson Consulting in New York. “
Is the role of the agency to assist in branding strategies and consistency, or to provide the creative to try to enact those strategies? (For the purposes of this post, I’ll include PR-related activities under the “creative” category.)
Like a lot of agencies, my employer touts itself as being strategically oriented. We don’t do creative just for the sake of being creative. There’s a purpose — all of what we do is tied to the overriding focus of our clients’ branding and communications approach.
Of course, the “AdWeek” story focuses on large, multi-national and/or multi-brand companies. And, the relatively speaking larger agencies that work with them.
Maybe that’s it for those of us who work on the agency side of the business: If you want to focus on creative, work with large, generally household names, and enjoy competition with other agencies on the same client, then go big. If you want a bigger role and provide branding along with creative input to the client, go small.
The large companies have CMOs and staff, regional and global offices, and often IR people. Their focus is on branding; not creative.
The small and medium B2C and B2B companies don’t have the staffs and regional offices to focus solely on branding. More often than not, the key “marketing” people are sales-focused. With multiple responsibilities, they don’t have the time to focus on branding, much less creative. So, they rely on their agency (note singular) — if they have one — to play a greater role in branding, creative, and other aspects of marketing communications.
But, regardless of our agency size or the role we play, we all have one thing in common: No matter how connected we (feel we) are with a client, it is easy to forget that we are still an outside cost. While agency professionals are all about relationships — with clients and clients’ customers — we must not forget about the pure business aspects of what we do. We’re still just a supplier. Another vendor. Subject to the whims of budgets and client personnel changes.
Whether we are in “creative” or “branding,” we must focus on providing the best value to clients — while always being ready to replace them when they get ready to replace us.
– Mike
Technorati tags: advertising agencies, public relations, PR, marketing
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