And now for something a little more serious.
Posted on
2008-Jun-6
at
08:38
In a candid discussion with a couple agency folk, the idea that clients no longer trusted ad agencies came up. It was not a shocking discussion. For most of my short career I have noticed a general distrust, in some form or another, from the client side.
I'm sure there are many reasons but looking deeper I have thought maybe it's because we don't practice what we preach.
Here are a few examples:
We are constantly counseling clients to have an intimate relationship and understanding of their consumers. None of the agencies I have worked have taken the time to study and keep abreast of our consumer - the 'client'. We tell clients they must find a differentiator for their brand. How often do you find an agency claim 'we are really good at x'... and something other than account service, creative and media buying because that's the price of entry. And if we are so creative and like to shift paradigms why do we cling so tightly to an agency structure that was perfect for the 1950's. I'm sure the list goes on.
Every once in awhile I find an article on how the agency model is broken. I have never found an article on how to fix it. It's true there are a few agencies taking steps to try and correct weaknesses. But is it working? And I wonder if there will ever be a universal agency model again. The world might be changing to rapidly for that.
I'm going to start a thread in the forum. I'm interested to hear what you think.
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