Who’s standing up for the work?

I’ve been having a few conversations lately on the future of agencies and in all truth, considering some pretty serious questions.

Are clients buying creative people and strategic thinking from creative agencies, but when it comes to media agencies they’re really just buying space?

Do clients actually want to buy thinking from anyone, or is that just thrown in as a cherry on top, because they’ve commissioned a TV Ad or some media space?

Are most clients longing for a return to the full service agency, as Tim debated last week?

And most serious of all, when above-the-line advertising spend is the first part of a marketeer’s budget to be cut, has the business community lost faith in the power of advertising, full stop?

Part of the problem is our own behaviour. Increasingly, I’m seeing agency people tiptoe around their clients. We don’t want to lose the business. We don’t want to appear difficult or challenging. We don’t want to rock the boat.

From a survival perspective,  it’s not a smart strategy to go out there on a limb, when everyone else is happy with the status quo. It’s lonely out there on your own.

Except often the status quo just isn’t good enough. It doesn’t lead to excellent work.  It doesn’t push through innovation. It doesn’t take risks but it doesn’t reap the rewards either. And without these extraordinary rewards, is it any wonder that the business community isn’t seeing how advertising is positively impacting on their bottom line.

As experts in our field, we have a responsibility to be confident and to stand up for the work. If nothing else, the mere future of our industry depends on it.

Neasa

All Good Things Come Indirectly

In a climate where most Irish companies are rife with anxiety about their bottom line, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a focus on profit, is the best way to create a profitable business. Yet paradoxically, this isn’t always the case.

The most successful and profitable companies are not necessarily the companies most focused on profit. Compare these mission statements:

Lehman Brothers: Our mission is to build unrivaled partnerships with and value for our clients, through the knowledge, creativity, and dedication of our people, leading to superior results for our shareholders.

Google: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Whereas Lehman Brothers’ mission as a company is ultimately to deliver shareholder value, we saw very plainly, the fallout from a business culture based around monetary greed. Google’s company mission, by contrast, is to create the best damn informational service around, for their users (thanks to our new search manager Steph for this insight).

The fact that Google has become one of the most lucrative companies of the twenty first century, is a byproduct of this goal. It isn’t the goal itself.

Similarly, when we look to Marketing, the coolest and slickest brands aren’t out there trying to be cool and slick. They are focused on other more important things, like product innovation or design excellence. We see a glimpse of this philosophy from Apple COO Tim Cook:

“We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating …  And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well”

This thought is as true for individuals as it is for companies. The people who excel professionally, those who earn the most money, are rarely focused on their salaries. They are driven by intrinsic motivation, not short term monetary rewards. Their focus is on doing their work to the best of their ability. Success and money come as a byproduct.

When was the last time you had a good night out, by trying to have fun? Like most of the worthwhile goals in life, all good things come indirectly.

Neasa