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This is a guest post by Marjorie Clayman, a great writer who represents the 4th generation of a family owned and operated advertising agency. Her subject matter is a bit different from what we normally publish on Thoughtwrestling, but it’s an excellent article with regards to creativity and collaboration lessons that you can apply many ways. So dig in!
A few years ago, Second Wind, an association for small advertising agencies, published a survey that they had sent to companies that use (or used) agencies. One of the questions asked the respondents to list some of their biggest complaints about working with advertising agencies. Almost overwhelmingly, the top complaint was, “They don’t listen.”
If you were to survey a lot of ad agencies today, one of their biggest general complaints about that particular line of work would be, “Clients don’t listen to our ideas.”
In both cases, I would wager a fair sum of money (someone else’s, not my own) that collaborative work on a creative project, like an ad, is what created the sensation of talking to a wall.
Why does creativity cause so much friction in agency-client relationships? There are several reasons. Let’s talk about a few of them.
The Ad is the Agency’s Product. The Product is the Client’s Product
One thing we are always cognizant of when we work on an ad is that we are doing something comparable to creating a photo album of a new baby. When we are working on a new ad, and I would say this likely goes for many agencies, the purpose is to promote a brand new product. For clients, that new product is the result of countless hours of meetings, think tanks, testing, and money, not to mention new production schedules, looking for new customers, and everything else that comes and goes with a new product. It is their new baby. It is their new treasure.
For the agency, the perspective might be a little different. The chance to work on a new ad is a chance to showcase new creative ideas. It’s a chance to create an ad that will win awards. It’s a chance to show talent to a brand new industry. I think sometimes agency people forget that all of that, as important as it is, is priority number two. The ad is for the client. Creativity must be used to highlight the product and the client, not to highlight the agency.
Content Versus Eye Appeal
Often times, the creative people in an agency like the designers or the art directors joke that copy in an ad is really just grey space. As they say, there’s a little truth in every joke. The battle between content, amount of content, and the look of an ad can often lead agencies and clients to feel that there is mutual lack of listening happening.
The development of an ad that is “copy-heavy” can be a tough task for an ad agency. I have seen some ads that look exactly like articles in the magazine through which I’m looking. I find this to be misleading, although it is borrowing, I suppose, from the online world, and it does trick me into reading. However, not many agencies go down this road. For the most part, clients and agencies battle over what should rule the ad, copy or imagery. Sometimes the client wants a beauty shot of their product, and the agency will insist that no one but the client will know what that picture means without a little copy. Other times the agency wants a beautiful image to represent the core of the ad, but the client wants 2-3 columns of copy in the ad.
The best way around these gridlocks is to do what both parties claim nobody does. Listen. Agencies, if they want to succeed, need to act like another employee of the client’s company. Why, from the client’s perspective, is it important to show nothing but a large, detailed photo? Why does that huge block of copy need to be there?
It is not the client’s job to understand why the agency wants to do something in a specific way. That’s like saying it’s the customer’s job at a store to accept the fact that they don’t get a discount even though the sign is still up. However, if you have found your agency to be reliable in the past, it probably doesn’t hurt to take a listen and hear what they are saying. Remember, your product is your baby. People don’t like to hear that they could be parenting in a different way. Similarly, you might not want to hear that your “baby” could be promoted in a different way. If the agency is sensitive and discusses this with you respectfully, it could result in an ad that everyone is happy with.
Ads are little art pieces. Beauty is in the eyes of the client.
As much as it might pain some people to hear this, ads really are small pieces of art. They are crafted. They are toiled over. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone will like them. Because agencies are in the service business (I can’t stress this enough), there can only be one victor in these arguments, and that’s the client. If a client says, “Eh, that just doesn’t hit me the right way, I can’t explain why,” then that is the way it is. It is your job, as an agency person, to listen and respect your client’s wishes.
That’s not to say that doing so is done without pain, especially for the art director. Sometimes creative ideas are the agency’s “baby,” and hearing that that new little guy just doesn’t cut the mustard can be discouraging. Sometimes, a conversation, carried out in a respectful manner by both parties, can untangle what the client didn’t like. Other times, it’s just a matter of starting over again.
That whole “advertising is dead” thing
A lot of people right now are saying that print advertising is dead. I think that a higher quality stream of ads could end a lot of those rumors. This higher quality could be attainable if creativity becomes a way to build a relationship rather than a way to cause friction between agencies and their clients. Find a creative way to present what the client needs to get across about the product. Make sure the agency understands why that content needs to be there, but allow for some creative treatment of that content.
Like any relationship, the relationship between a client and an agency is often times one of give and take, though in the end the agency is in business to serve the client. If an agency doesn’t let ego get in the way, and if the client allows that someone not so close to the product might have a perspective more akin to the people who will see the ads, both parties can collaborate on an award winning ad that has a clear message. That is how creativity can, and should, be used in today’s ad game.
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