Some advertisers know how to handle their ad agencies well. They are usually the ones who get the best advertising. We often see the same agencies producing indifferent work for others.
You will learn to treat your advertising agency better if you realize that they perform a specialist function at an economic rate. Try to set up agency services in-house and you will know how costly it can be. But economy is not the only advantage the agency system offers.
Advertising agencies nurture experts in a variety of disciplines - media planning. research, copy, art, film, TV, radio program, AV and so on. As the years pass they acquire breadth of experience over a wide spectrum of products and services. Which can be harnessed, to your advantage.
A problem you encounter may be new to you, but the men in your agency may have encountered similar problems while helping to sell other products. Agency people are better informed about media as they are in constant touch with them.
You are too close to the product or service you are offering and hence may miss the flaws altogether agency mea can take a more objective view. A little objectivity as the initial stage may ensure timely advice and save you from costly blunders. (I know from experience this some people do not even bother to register their trade mark-with disastrous consequences later on).
Partnership
The agency-client relationship has been described as a close working partnership and an attitude of give-and-take is always helpful. To keep this relationship at its fruitful best here are a few guidelines.
Treat agency personnel with courtesy, always. In India many people have a condescending attitude to “suppliers” of goods and services. Suppliers depend on your orders, and so you perceive them as inferior or subordinate This is altogether wrong. An agency is not subordinate of your company, nor is an agency executive a subordinate of your marketing people. He has an independent status. To bruise his ego is not the right way to get things done.
Infect your agency with enthusiasm for your product or service. Demonstrate the superiority of your product or service to the agency people as you would to a prospective buyer. Share with them information on the advantages that you have over competitive products. This of course, includes market research findings. Mark a copy to the agency of every appreciative letter you receive from customers. Keep the agency informed about any special recognition-awards won in India and abroad and so on.
Involve the agency fully. I know one advertiser who sends territory-wise sales figures to his agency every month. Another used to give free access to territory managers monthly reports. Most sophisticated advertisers involve the agency from the very concept stage of a new product. The brand name and the surface design of the pack is the case of consumer products can have a bean.. on advertising effectiveness later on. Sometimes your agency will be able to suggest a product with a meaningful difference to the consumer – and this difference may make it easier to sell the product later.
Give a thorough brief before making for advertising proposals. Some advertisers give a written brief. Some brief their agencies in person, others expect their agencies to hang around and ferret out a brief for themselves. A written brief is the best; ideally it must contain a thorough review of the current year and marketing plans for the coming twelve months. (Some work on three-year or five year briefs, updated ever year). Agencies look for sales figures segment-wise. They also need information about competitors on relation to product quality, price, packaging, promotion and advertising. How do you intend to counter competition in the coming year? What is the weight you will assign to the various elements in the marketing mix? Any improvements in your product, pricing, packaging or distribution ? How do you perceive the climate for selling?
A brief is usually more valuable if it is backed b research. Many advertisers seem to grudge small amounts of money on research while they will cheerfully part with large sums for media expenditure. Research can help to provide guidelines for your advertising. Seek your agency’s advice on this if you don’t have research personnel in-house.
Define your marketing objective clearly, and work out the advertising objective. It’s better to give a clear indication about the budget you can afford. Some people ask the agency for a budget with detailed workings, and then disclose that they can afford only a small fraction of the amount. This can be quite demoralizing because dc… media planning is a back-breaking causes. Be candid about what you can spend, and re-examining the position if the agency feels the amount can buy very little. In case of doubt about how to arrive at a budget, ask your agency for methodology that will help you.
Encourage your agency to clear with you, in advice, the main points to be carried in the advertising. These days what you say in your ad is much more important than how you say it. If there is agreement on the content of your advertising, much heartaches can be avoided later on when detailed proposals are presented. Agencies generally try to arrive at what is generally called a “copy platform”. The definition may change from agency to agency, it’s usually a written plan that contains the most crucial information about the product or service and explains the manner on which an advertisement is to be put together. The advertising objective, the selling theme and the visual and verbal approaches are the main components.
Subroto Sen Gupta, well known advertising practitioner and teacher, once wrote, “I am a believer in a written document on creative strategy, agreed between client and agency as the starting point in creative work.” He was of the view that the document should define the target consumer.
Streamline your approval procedures. Who in your company approves the advertising proposals prepared by the agency? Ideally he should be the one to whom the agency must present the advertising plans. Make sure that the brief and the strategy document had his prior approval. Care should be taken to see that approval (or rectification) is not based on whims and fancies. In one company I know there was a convention that the right to reject anything also carried with it the responsibility to explain why. And whoever wanted a finger in the approval pre had to make their comments as the agency presentation. Hierarchical and committee models for approval were generally discouraged.
Creativity
You can drive agency men crazy with inane components “It doesn’t appeal to me”. “Lacks punch”. “Not creative enough” are some of these. Ads are meant to appeal not to you, but to the target consumer. Subhas Ghosal, veteran ad man, once discussed creativity there.
Any judge of advertising whether he is creator or buyer must never forget must never allow the fact to be obscured, that it is not creativity per se that he is passing judgment on. He is assessing the level of persuasion attended – words like creative and creativity confuse the issue – We are users of advertising not purveyors of aesthetics. Mind you, persuasion and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive, sometimes they may even coincide and on the rare occasion the purely aesthetic may be wholly persuasive. But as the true yardstick, persuasion is number one.
Treat the advertising professional with respect. Mere courtesy is different from respect. An experienced professional often has insights denied to others. Some advertisers follow the practice of not interfering at all with the proposals submitted by the agencies they have faith in. Their argument is that advertising must be at the level of experience of senior agency people rather than at the level of experience of the product manger or the marketing manager whose specialization is generally in other fields. Much depends, of course, on the calibre of the people in your agency.
Payments
Pay agency bills in time. Agencies face the penalty of disaccreditation if they don’t pay media bills within the stipulated credit period. As they have not tangible assets, it is difficult for them to secure substantial bank credits. Some advertisers are in the habit of solving their cash flow problems by withholding payments to suppliers. Suppliers provide for the contingency by padding their quotations. Agencies have so quotations of their own, as the rates quoted are those of media, and their commission is a fixed percentage. Agency personnel should not be running around for money if you want their time to be devoted to your advertising.
Don’t ask for concessional rates of artwork and other forms of rebate of commission in kind. Kickbacks, whether in cash or kind are forbidden. The idea is that agencies should invest the entire 15 per cent commission in improving advertising skills and infrastructural facilities. Those who violate the rule are misappropriating money from this “development fund”: advertisers are the ultimate sufferers.
Curb your demands. Resist the temptation to use as ad agency as a studio for designing your personal Diwali cards. Every job cannot be an urgent job, refrain from pushing the agency from one deadline crisis to another. Good work demands adequate planning and time.
Disputes
Reduce disports to a minimum. One advertiser cleared a consignment of posters a month after it reached its destination. Moisture had seeped in. and the posters were unable. The advertiser refused to pay. Reasonable? A newspaper with space problems could not carry an ad on a scheduled date will you blame the agency? Be human. Ask your self whether a department of your own company could have fared better in each circumstance. Don’t treat the agency as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong.
You can see the agency point of view reflected in what I’ve written. Some day I must write on “How best as ad agency can serve an advertiser.” Any suggestions?
Tailpiece
Which agency has more billings? Lintas or Thompson? Enterprise has released an ad which says: “There is considerable debate these days about which is the largest advertising agency in the country. There is, however, little argument about which is the best”. Enterprise seemed to me to be enterprising!