What Ad Agencies Can Learn From Hookers and Virgins
Clients Want Trusted Partners, not Someone Who'll Fake It
Tom Martin |
My first reaction was pure laughter and, of course, a retweet. My second reaction was "I need to write a post on this topic." Then Marc Meyer posted a similar, although much more G-rated version of the same thought and it reminded me I hadn't written that post. So here it is.
It's tough to be in the ad biz right now. Media commissions have been getting squeezed for years, strategy and creative fees are under enormous pressure and now many clients are experimenting with cost-plus-performance bonus arrangements. It reminds me of the warning John Murphy gave us in ADV 101 at the University of Texas: "If you can envision yourself doing anything else in the world that will make you happy and make you money, change majors now."
Advertising has always been a tough business, but making it today takes true stamina.
What we have historically done for a living -- producing ads, logos and campaigns -- is quickly becoming a crowd-sourced commodity. So who can blame us for selling vaporware to clients? For telling them, "Sure we can do that" when asked if our firm does this or that. "This or that" often means lots of new fees for your firm and with far less price sensitivity than we see with more common outputs like collateral, TV spots, and media buys. "This and that" can be the difference between laying people off and having a pretty good year. So yes, lots of firms say they can do "this or that." Then they fake it or outsource it without ever telling the client the truth.
But as Marc so aptly points out -- don't do that.
Respect yourself and your client enough to tell the truth. If the only thing you know about Twitter is that Ashton Kutcher has more fans than CNN and you heard Oprah is doing it, say so. Then ask your client if they'd like you to help them find a true social-media knowledge leader and engage that person or agency to help the brand think through and maybe even enter the social-media space. The same advice goes for all things digital.
That's what true partners do. They help each other even when it may not be in their immediate best interest to do so. Be a true partner not just a vendor looking to make a buck. Your client might surprise you and compensate you for your time, let you mark up the outside resource or reward you with additional work that they move from that "Yes, we do that" agency they work with and are about to fire.
But whatever you do, don't fake it. Sooner or later (most likely sooner) your client will figure it out or your competitor will figure it out for them. You see in the digital world, it's really, really easy to spot the virgins. Virgins may understand the basics, but they make rookie mistakes that experienced practitioners in the digital space can spot immediately. And if that practitioner is a competitive firm, you can bet they won't waste a minute before notifying your client that maybe you don't really have the digital chops you claim.
Instead, proactively invest your firm's time and energy into learning all things digital. Here at Zehnder, we spent over a year learning social media before we ever whispered to a client that we could help them in that arena. And even then, we were quite frank about our experience in the space. Prior to social media, we used the same approach for selling our behavioral e-mail services. And in both cases, instead of looking elsewhere, the clients thanked us for our candor and signed on. Could they have gotten smarter folks to guide them? Certainly. Did they? No. Why? Because at the end of the day, your client wants a trusted partner, not just the smartest kid in the class. So keep that in mind the next time you think about turning a trick versus just telling them it's your first time.
~ ~ ~
Tom Martin is President of Zehnder Communications, with offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. He can be reached at Tom.Martin@z-comm.com. Or follow him at @TomMartin.
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It's funny because just this morning I was working with the internal teams here at my friend's agency and we were going through and reorganizing the capabilities list, and it dawned upon me that while we truly do know how to do these things, we're not specialists per se in all of them. Perhaps we should offer the disclaimer that we can "manage" some of these processes for the client, and talk more about how we go about handling 3rd party vendors.
The other thing that you call attention to is the "hub-and-spoke" model. I talk to a lot of smaller shops that are successfully running good-sized initiatives because they have really worked hard to establish management best practices as well as protocols for evaluating the right vendor relationships for particular projects.
Best,
Gunther Sonnenfeld
http://thinkstate.com
http://www.welcometonow.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/goonth
Thanks for the comments. jms1027 -- think you put too much emphasis on the headline and not enough on the point...
@TomMartin
Just last night at an event I asked why "viral videos" was listed as a bullet point on an agency's banner. The sheepish response was, "We know there isn't any such thing, but the banner hasn't been updated."
My advice was to take it down and burn it.
Nicholas E. Kinports
Digital Integration Manager
Blog: http://admaven.blogspot.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nkinports
Twitter: http://twitter.com/admaven
I find that many clients are wanting to implement a digital strategy for the sake of it..without a real understanding of what it means to dip their toe into Social Networking, Blogging or even email and ongoing CRM programs.
And yes...having a Twitter account does not mean you are a Twitter expert.
Mitch
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mitchdrew
Blog: http://mitch-tv.blogspot.com
Email: mitchdrewmedia@gmail.com
"You see in the digital world, it's really, really easy to spot the virgins. Virgins may understand the basics, but they make rookie mistakes that experienced practitioners in the digital space can spot immediately."
I think this is part of the problem... experienced practitioners and experienced competition *can* spot it immediately (and of course blog about it), but companies (clients, in this case) can't. They don't know when they are being bamboozled because they aren't engaging themselves. So, it's easy for an agency to claim they get the digital space when they don't.
I think agencies that *get it* need to offer training. Most don't because they fear the client will take it in-house. I'd bet in most cases once the company realizes how much work is involved, it will be outsourced right back out to the trusted partner that provided the training.
Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte
But often the challenge comes from the client side as many times they cause themselves more trouble and added expense in the end when they're not always being honest with themselves and their company as a project begins.
A little more honesty on both sides would certainly save a lot of missteps and money.
Great piece, thanks!
Jay Jacobs
Managing Partner
Shurn Group
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ideawhisperer
Blog: http://shurngroup.typepad.com
Email: jay.jacobs@shurngroup.com
Magazine:http://ipaperus.ipaperus.com/shurn/mentalmessages
As much as I'd like to lay claim to having first identified trust as the core of a successful, endurng client relationship, I confess this was old news in 1999.
Clever headlines aside, regardless of the discipline you practice, the size of your agency or its location in the world, or the the accounts on your roster, trust is a universal princple of client service. I speak of this at length in a television interview on www.artofclientservice.com. If you're interested, make a visit.
If you do, you'll confirm that trust is, in fact, about speaking truth to clients, but it also is much more than this.
Thanks for props on article. Both here and on Twitter seems everyone is getting a kick out of the title and enjoying/agreeing with the point of the piece.
To Robert Solomon, how very cool you stopped by. Just read your book last week on the plane -- good stuff. Interestingly, one of our CD's gave it to me. Wish I hadn't left it on the damn plane though... had made notes I'd still like to have!
To anyone who is starting out - read Robert's book -- regardless of whether you're in Acct Mgmt or Creative.
To everyone else, guess you'll just have to keep reading me ;-)
@TomMartin
Great piece! I've sometimes been told to "take the work and figure it out as you go," but all that does is erode trust with the client and make you look like a pure opportunist. If you're new to something, own your newbie status. As you said, you'll often find that the client is willing to take a chance on you anyway. At the end of the day, all we have is our relationships. Thanks for the reminder!
-Lara
Lara Dalch
Founder/Brand Strategist
Dalch Marketing Partners
www.dalchmarketing.com
@dalch
I fell into social media when I realized the power of a community to rally, inform and instruct. You may have heard of this community...the mommybloggers. Well, as a first time mom, they saved me from many sleepless nights. And introduced to to the shifting model of communications. It took two more years of participating and engaging in social media to finally feel confident enough to take the leap from my "traditional" agency to a small shop concentrating in online outreach.
My colleagues can photoshop like nobody's business in a pinch. But, we don't do logos. Or research. And we are happy to tell you that. We're also happy to admit when we are wrong or don't know what koornkd is (But I sure will find out because I love shiny new things!). And our clients appreciate that. And to Beth Harte's point I love teaching people how to use all of these new tools to get into the game and watch them take off.
Thanks for keeping it real, Tom.
Tiffany Starnes
@TiffanyStarnes
www.fabresmithcoco.com
I think it is great that you are such a straight shooting writer, and because of this, I do not feel bad for all of these half-truth agencies that are flopping left and right. They should have never gotten in the business to begin with---they were rotting it.
I am just glad that us young up-and-comers (paying attention) have a clearer vision of what to do. And that the GOOD ones, like yourself, are having the opportunity to share the true spirit of advertising in such important mediums like this great website.
Thank you Tom!
Another great article - right on point. I think you did a great job taking the title of the article and clearly defining a problem while presenting the solution.
One solution for making things easier for your client is ADstruc. The first online solution for the OOH advertising industry.
Check us out at www.adstruc.com
John
john@adstruc.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/ADstruc
I think outsourcing for expertise is absolutely acceptable if that means putting together the best team to give the client the best results. After all, this is part of the agency's responsibility. As you said, just be honest and be straightforward with the client. Thanks for this great post.
Rachel