Why advertising agencies make me mad

Hacked Off Flack

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Date: 07 February 2012 11:41

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Us with PR jobs might like to think we have a vital role to play in society (which, of course, we don't), but however great our egos are, we are no match for those egotistical maniacs who run advertising agencies.

Why the world hasn't worked out that Sky+ has meant that TV adverts have become superfluous – I don't know.

You only have to sit through an advert break (difficult I know) to realise that people who create advertising campaigns are not the geniuses they think they are. Other than my wife, I don't know anyone who falls for such transparent messaging. Other than, of course, clients. They fall for their charms over and over again.

I am having this rant is because a client has just shown me an advertising campaign that we must now champion. The creative work is pants, but it’s too late for us to do anything about it. We have been given strict guidelines by the advertising agency about how far we can stray from its “brilliant” concept, which means we are considerably restricted. Making us look as crap as the ad.

So, for what it’s worth, here are five reasons why I hate advertising agencies:

1. They live in the past. The days of Mad Men are over. Advertising is just a part of the marketing mix these days, it doesn’t rule it. Ad agency execs may work “above” the line, but that doesn’t mean they are above anybody.

2. Advertising agencies think they are more creative than anyone else. Good ideas are ideas that work. PR agencies are just as likely to come up with a good idea as an ad agency.

3. Some clients love advertising agencies. Not all clients to be fair. Many realise that an integrated campaign needs a rich mix of approaches, and choose a lead agency that is most relevant for the work. But some clients ALWAYS go to an ad agency first, and that is usually to the detriment of the campaign as a whole.

4. Advertising agency folk look down on all other agency folk. They think that we would all like to work in advertising if we could, but we’re just not quite good enough to.

5. Ad agencies tend to attract people who don’t have an eye for detail. And in today’s complicated media mix, there are plenty of details that need to be considered. Recently a creative head waved his arms about in a meeting and said to me: “I’m sure you’ll find an easy way to translate this into a social media campaign”. He thought he’d done all the work by coming up with a concept, but hadn’t given any thought to how it would work across different media at all.

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Comments

Can't disagree with HOF about much of this article, although he has missed the biggest problem with advertising agencies - they tend to be staffed by 'yes men' (of both sexes). This is how charisma-free Chief Execs. end up on television, advertising company products, and studios struggle with awful concepts handed down by the client's 'marketing director'. I have sat in on a few joint Advertising/PR pitches where "Ooooh YES!" has been the pitch team's enthusiastic response to some poorly thought-through suggestion on strategy from the client or a gobsmackingly inappropriate graphics idea from a client director. My general experience of the difference between PR people and adpersons is that the former tend to tell the client the truth and the latter tell the client what the client would like to hear. Obviously not true of all agencies, of course. And I have to say that the ad agencies I have worked with in the past have been pretty creative in their campaigns and good fun to work with. But telling the hard truths to a client has to be done by a responsible communications adviser and not all ad agencies seem to 'get' that. Name: John V. Wright MCIPR www.blueplanetcommunications.com Date: 07 Feb 2012 01:23 PM
You've sat across the table from some duff advertising people. And no doubt ad people have, in their turn, sat in meetings with some naff PR people. Much as each group would like to think so, that doesn't collectively invalidate either of them, does it? Name: Robert Fenner Date: 07 Feb 2012 02:19 PM

Can't disagree with HOF about much of this article, although he has missed the biggest problem with advertising agencies - they tend to be staffed by 'yes men' (of both sexes). This is how charisma-free Chief Execs. end up on television, advertising company products, and studios struggle with awful concepts handed down by the client's 'marketing director'. I have sat in on a few joint Advertising/PR pitches where "Ooooh YES!" has been the pitch team's enthusiastic response to some poorly thought-through suggestion on strategy from the client or a gobsmackingly inappropriate graphics idea from a client director. My general experience of the difference between PR people and adpersons is that the former tend to tell the client the truth and the latter tell the client what the client would like to hear. Obviously not true of all agencies, of course. And I have to say that the ad agencies I have worked with in the past have been pretty creative in their campaigns and good fun to work with. But telling the hard truths to a client has to be done by a responsible communications adviser and not all ad agencies seem to 'get' that.

Name: John V. Wright MCIPR
www.blueplanetcommunications.com
Date: 07 Feb 2012 01:23 PM

You've sat across the table from some duff advertising people. And no doubt ad people have, in their turn, sat in meetings with some naff PR people. Much as each group would like to think so, that doesn't collectively invalidate either of them, does it?

Name: Robert Fenner

Date: 07 Feb 2012 02:19 PM

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