You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘advertising agency leadership’ tag.
In my last post I waxed eloquent about the economic reasons for pursuing a diverse client base. “Duh,” you say, despite the many agencies that ignore that obvious rule.
Yet there are other reasons for diversification, all of which have their own economic underpinnings but get at larger agency management practices. Here are a few – along with an invitation to share your insights here as well:
CULTURE
- Diverse client work keeps the creative from getting restless. Sure, they whine anyway. But you can tolerate it better when you know that you’re doing all you can to keep their fertile minds challenged, amused and engaged. You still might find their legendary and ubiquitous carping an irritant, but now you can smugly dismiss it.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
- The ability to tackle different kinds of challenges makes you more valuable to existing clients. The more you can do – and learn to do well, even for other clients – the more valuable you might be to a client that uses your skills in only one way.
- A willingness to embrace the new keeps you relevant in the marketplace. You know, that place where your prospective clients live. It’s a cliché anymore to say how rapidly changing advertising, marketing and media are. But it’s dead true. If you aren’t learning how to solve new problems with the next generation of strategic thinking, technology and creative adaptation, then you are the admiral of a sinking ship.
RECRUITMENT
- Building a reputation for diverse capabilities also helps in recruiting fresh, hot talent. What agency animal with any go in him/her wants to move to your zoo if nothing exciting ever happens there? And with fresh talent should come better service for existing clients, new approaches to prospects and many even a new recruit who brings a client along with her/him.
This morning on the way to work I noticed that the light had changed to green – just a bit sooner than the car in front of me. The result wasn’t catastrophic, but it was a little messy and uncomfortable for everyone involved.
That’s what it can be like when agencies get ahead of their clients on strategic and creative direction. Sometimes it’s just a little ahead of where the client is ready to be, resulting in a fender bender. Other times, and we’ve all heard the stories, the lack of coordination between the parties can result in a major collision.
Pushing the boundaries of what the client already knows is core to the agency-client relationship. It’s often why clients choose agencies: To bring fresh thinking, new energy, creative advances and informed strategy.
Yet every day agencies forget that there is no single stance for them to take in their client relationships. It’s not just lead, lead, lead. The best account management practice is determining whether to lead, follow or accompany.
Leading: Seems that everyone wants to lead all the time. Imagine the chaos that would cause if it ever happened. Fact is, it’s something everyone wants to do but few accomplish often enough. Leadership is not strong-arming your client into a direction it’s not prepared to embrace. Instead, leadership is bringing well-grounded new information and perspectives. It is persuading. It is seeing beyond and translating that into a vision to which they can aspire – and to which you can lead them. Lead as often as you and your client can agree on that role. But always lead with respect.
Following: No matter what your ego tells you, your client is not wrong, uniformed or just plain dumb all the time. (Read an earlier post on this topic, “Think you’re smarter than your clients?“) Sometimes you should follow their lead, and not just because they own the purse strings. They often know their own climate for risk better than you, are more likely to know their particular marketplace best and above all know what they can get through approvals among the higher-ups. They’ll use your strategy/creative smarts plenty if you use your political smarts to earn that. One caution: By all means follow when it’s right, but following too often could relegate you to pure vendor status.
Accompanying: A good deal of lip service is given to partnering and collaborating with clients. During the pitch, that is. “Ooooh. It will be heaven on earth when our agency partners/collaborates with your team to create beautiful music,” the siren song goes. Yet how often does that actually play out. Not as often as perhaps it should, and rarely as often as it should with intent. There is room for genuine cooperation despite some agency styles based on a superior-subservient worldview. Genuine partnership can be the key to a trusting and lasting relationship.
Lead. Follow. Accompany. When it comes to agency-client relationships (or any relationship for that matter), the real leader knows when to assume the appropriate role.
Finally, someone has declared that the emperor (sometimes – too often) has no clothes. And that’s not a pleasant sight all the time. Nor is the word he uses to describe sub-par work a pleasant one: he calls it “crappy.” Nor is his soapbox low-profile.
That someone is Derek Walker, owner of the Columbia, SC-based agency brown and browner advertising. His scolding article, Doing That Crap Is Going to Cost You: Agencies (and Clients) Pay More for Shoddy Work, appeared in Advertising Age‘s The Big Tent blog.
It’s a worthy read, albeit a rough ride for advertising and marketing agencies that have settled for less of themselves in the recent downturn. (I suspect its message will be lost on those who have always settled for less, and sadly there are many agencies in that category.)
His missive rang true to my principles, so I couldn’t resist leaving comments in his post. I’m sharing my commentary here lest it not be found in the long list of others who have responded to his hard but true assessment:
_____
Agencies at the highest risk of producing “crappy” work:
- Have no clear sense of themselves – their service set, value proposition or for that matter value to clients
- View new client acquisition, and even current client development, as transaction-based vs. relationship-based
- Believe that their talented team members are mere workers
As a result, these agencies will:
- Almost always compete on price
- Miss opportunities for innovations that keep their businesses viable over time
- Struggle to attract and retain the best talent (unless the marketplace is at the bottom)
While some agency leaders might bristle at his article, Derek Walker has done the entire industry a service by sharing his insights.
Reader Comments