Answers for Adam: Why do agencies struggle to build their own agency brands?
You’ve heard the story about the cobbler whose kids got around in old shoes, it reminds me of the current state of agency brands. Grab hold of any creative agency brand, and barring two or three notable exceptions very little pulls them apart.
At a rational level nearly all creative agencies have strategy, creative, account management and production as the services they offer. At an emotive level I don’t get a lot of difference either.
At a push the new ones will amplify their nimbleness, smaller size, and possibly independence. The more established ones will highlight the benefits of being connected to a global network.
With a lack of a clearly articulated brand most agencies therefore rely on ‘talent’ to differentiate themselves. Unfortunately, when the talent moves on so does the equity of that particular agency (again with some notable exceptions).
My question is, if as an industry we are extremely good at helping our clients create powerful enduring brands, why do so many of us struggle to create an equally strong agency brand?
Adam Ferrier is CSO / Partner at independent creative and media agency, Cummins&Partners. Twitter @adamferrier
Interesting topic – this article raised similar points (with the same metaphor around the shoemaker) albeit in a longer way – http://www.carltonassociatesinc.com/wp1.cfm?id=81
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I think you hit the nail on the head, Adam. Rampant talent migration results in agencies being perceived as purveyors of generic goods.
The days of an Ogilvy insight, or a Berbach style are long behind us. All this ‘individual knowledge’ has been synthesised and commodified so that most of us practice to these precepts. No-one has a genuinely unique methodology anymore.
Agencies really are the people they employ. People like yourself are the brand. The marketing occurs in outside channels such as Gruen where your visibility and commentary do most of the work. Same for Todd Sampson.
Go to Big Red’s website and its just a single contact page. Why? Because Ted Horton’s reputation is so strong, particularly outside of our industry and in the clients’ executive suites. Droga (himself) is a singular talent, and that reflects onto his agency but the results (in Australia at least) don’t necessarily match the promise.
When GPY&R lost the Defence Forces after years of brilliant category-defining work, they appeared just a bit churlish with the ad they ran. They took bad advice on that one.
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Because nothing’s harder than writing an ad to sell yourself. Try it if you don’t believe me.
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The three toughest jobs in any agency, from personal experience, are:
1. The Agency Christmas Card
2. The Agency Party Invite
3. The Agency Credentials
This is because everyone has an opinion on all three and they are always different.
Here is the result – really poor credentials presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVfk8U4zRdk
About eight years ago I suggested a solution. Here it is:
http://www.trinityp3.com/2006/.....ed-market/
It still stands today.
@Darren_Wooley – please tell me that the PAW credentials video was a spoof???
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errr, Rich, I think the clue is in the ‘poor’ and ‘paw’ homophone.
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Hi Adam,
From my experience many businesses, including agencies, start-up without firstly defining their brand, it’s a common mistake.
Generally, these talented passionate individuals have an idea and decide on a name and logo to provide a market presence to drive their commercial objectives. The inherent risk being these well intentioned people can become purely numbers driven, as opposed to brand driven.
This can work initially when businesses are very small or sole-operators. However, as the business grows, the only premise to expand and recruit resides in the identity that has evolved from the business idea and name.
Because they have no defined business brand they can’t effectively manage perception or the association’s internal or external people have towards their business, let alone build brand equity. Try asking 5-10 individuals (internal people) what their brand stands for. I’m pretty sure you’ll get 10 different answers, not good!
In regard to creative agencies, they’re expertise traditionally resides in the strategy, creative expression and communication of brands to achieve their clients marketing objectives. To be fair, they’re not essentially in the business of defining and engineering brands to enable their client’s business strategy, it’s a different brief.
Creative agencies are really no different to other businesses who haven’t clearly defined their brand. If you don’t have the necessary expertise internally to define your brand, then do the right thing for your business and people, and find them externally.
It’s never too late to re-group and ask the hard questions to uncover the collective truth about who you are, where you’re going, and what you really want to be known for.
At the end of the day, your brand is your business, your best friend, your closest confidante and business ally. Make it worthy, make it real….
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Because the rules that we apply to clients’ problems don’t apply to us. Advertising agencies are magical brands that can mean everything to everyone and do anything for anyone. We are good at making creative decisions, not painful ones that lead to specialisation and differentiation. We are our worst client.
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From my knowledge, it isn’t often that you’ll find an Australian agency consisting of a team, who’ve collectively clocked up ‘a lot’ of years under the same roof together (remember, marketers do tend to move jobs more regularly than other professions). If you do find an agency like this; I’d bet they’d have a strong brand because the business has been consistently nurtured by the same characters, personalities and beliefs, in an organic fashion, over a number of years – learning from failures and celebrating successes. They will set realistic goals to their people, that are acknowledged and rewarded if achieved. All new people/employees/talent that walk through their doors will be engaged from the get go, they will understand what the brand values are of that agency are and what success looks like. They will also be on-boarded with the vision that they will become (in time) a vital part of the business, with plenty of career progression. If the employees are engaged, inspired and feel respected and valued, it will result in behaviors that align with the agencies overall values goals.
Those that don’t have a strong agency brand.. they should go back tot he roots of the business, think to themselves why in the first place they created an agency, and then take some tips from my points above!
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We do not build our own brand for the general public, which is what’s being discussed above, because we prefer our work and our relationships to bring like minded clients to us. Our brand is strong with those that matter, and some of us prefer to keep it quiet.
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There is a lot of valid points above for why agencies should create a brand but I think the fact is they don’t need one. Agencies live and die by retaining clients and new business, the former doesn’t need a brand nor does the latter as agencies are selected based on recent work, awards and people.
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Surely identifiable, different and client-relevant culture & capability are the key. Culture should be able to survive changes of individuals, if you have a sense of the common values that characterise the team (which means hiring to them and modelling them as a leader). Capability means you should have the focus to commit being a demonstrably better solver of a particular kind of problem (which again means hiring for those skills/experience profiles and investing in training and tech). As an agency, I suggest you have a brand if the market has a pre-formed expectation of this culture and capability difference..
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Most agencies spend so much energy looking after their clients’ brands they have little time for their own.
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Thanks for joining the discussion.
@another agency I’m not talking about building a brand for the general public (although there is some advantage in doing that). I was talking about building a brand within our industry.
@darren. Great stuff. To true.
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