In an August post written for the Small Agency Diary blog, Tom Martin talks about how ad agencies have neglected to act in their clients’ best interests. Writes Martin:
We’ve slacked off. We don’t invest nearly enough in our
people and resources to ensure we are actually ahead of our clients and
in a position to look around the corner and see what’s coming. We have
a serious talent gap in our senior-management ranks, and we’ve (by and
large) forfeited sound strategy in favor of cheap production tricks and
cute one-liners that will line our shelves with awards but not
necessarily our clients’ shelves with dollar bills.
To address these issues, writes Martin, agencies can take a cue from The Mob, specifically the Consigliere. For those of you not hip to Mafia speak, the Consigliere
is the person the Mob boss turns to for insight and advice before
making any big decisions. Most importantly, the Consigliere is the only person who can challenge the boss – and not get whacked at the knees with a baseball bat for doing so.
So how can you act as your clients’ Consigliere? You can begin by
educating yourself and your agency about how the Internet and the Link Economy have changed business as we know it.
According to global research conducted by IBM,
the “next five years will hold more change for the advertising industry
than the previous 50 did.†And part of this huge shift is how buyers
find products and services. The survey authors noted that of the more
than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts surveyed, most find
their information online:
Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view,
interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world as they
continue to shift their attention away from linear TV and adopt
ad-skipping, sharing and rating tools. Survey results suggest personal
PC time now rivals TV time.
Because buyers’ attention has shifted to the Internet, it’s crucial
that you push your clients to use new media tactics in order to deliver
the results they want. This means that you may have to tell them they
need an updated, professionally designed, optimized for search engines
website. Or that they need to consider social media because their
customers are hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube –
instead of reading the paper or watching TV.
Giving this type of advice might mean you’ll have to redesign and
optimize your own agency’s website in order to be a good example to
your clients. As social media guru David Meerman Scott points out in
his Web Ink Now
blog post, “Advertising agency websites: Digital Masterbation,†agency
websites are “light on compelling content†and instead rely on Flash
intros and black-and-white photos of agency personnel with funky stuff
in the background in order to show that they’re “cool.â€
However, none of this cool stuff puts any dollars in your clients’ pockets – or yours, either, to be honest.
If you want to change this scenario, get on board with the whole
“Internet thang.†Learn about search engine optimization and
pay-per-click and how you can use both to generate Internet-based leads
for your agency. Then use what you learn and apply it to your clients’
marketing objectives.
As more and more traditional ad agencies (and even public relations
firms) are beginning to address how best to serve their clients’
emerging marketing needs, it’s critical that you consider the enabling
technologies, strategies and tactics that will ensure you to deliver
the best possible advice and guidance. If you don’t, you risk being
just one more wiseguy who gets whacked for failing to get the job done.
