As different as the next guy
By David MacGregor,
Every agency claims to be special. Here’s how to live up to hype
[Advertising]
How do advertising agencies differentiate themselves from their competition? “Easy!” I hear the cry go up. “We’re more creative than them.”
If you were to rank New Zealand ad agencies on the basis of their creative output, how would you do it? By the number of awards that they won in the previous year? Awards don’t all have the same currency. You might argue that prestigious trophies like Cannes Lions and British Design & Art Direction awards have more gravity than, say, the Kiwi Axis awards … or that the Axis might be a more useful measure of ability because it is judged by the locals. On the other hand, perhaps D&AD and Cannes are more credible because they’re not judged by the entrants’ peers.
What happens if an ad agency has cabinets full of awards for campaigns that you think are bollocks? Scam ads or ‘ambient’ messages that were noticed by exactly seven people (two of whom were the art director’s dear old schizophrenic mother)?
What happens when the creative director with more golden awards than Croesus is lured to a rival creative shop? How can differentiation of a brand be dependent on individuals who are about as loyal as Henry Tudor to his wives?
So, if you own or run an agency, how can you differentiate yourself from rivals (including the competitors that aren’t even ad agencies)?
Own something. Don’t just do something. Everybody can do the things required to make great advertising, one way or another.
Own a category. If you specialise in a particular area clients will be attracted to your depth of knowledge. If there are few prospective clients in the category, aim to have a relationship with the brightest and the best. Add more verticals over time to progressively increase your share of market. Develop a reputation for being the only one who understands consumer motivation in a category. Develop international markets for your insights (New Zealand used to be considered a perfect microcosm).
Own your IP. There is plenty of scope for developing proprietary products in marketing communications. Commoditisation of advertising services has desiccated margins. Competition has driven prices down. One of my motives for creating Family Health Diary was my love/hate relationship with pitching for business. I felt if we owned the product and it was distinctive then clients would come to us. It has proven to be a highly profitable strategy. No more fickle new business swimsuit parades, and no ‘conflict of interest’ claims from multiple clients in the category. Why hasn’t the ad industry developed any technology of note? Make it a priority.
“The days of the magic black box are over: client briefs you, you go away and return with … Tah-dah, make room for the gongs”
Have your own voice. Turn people away who don’t really want what you have. The choice to work with an agency is entirely subjective. Don’t set numeric new business development goals. If your rainmakers bring the wrong clients into your business, they will meet their billings targets but unleash hostile cultural forces that can poison your relationship with staff and stakeholders. You wouldn’t marry someone thinking you could change them to suit you … would you? It seems obvious, but it is often ignored by agencies. Look after your own brand.
Don’t think ‘us’ and ‘them’. Embed yourself in your client’s business. I’m not talking about the traditional factory tour for the team when you win the account. Get an intimate knowledge of your client’s business and, for crying out loud, stop being pansy about ‘creativity’. The days of the magic black box are over. You know what I mean: client briefs you … you go away and return with … ‘Tah-dah’ … the ‘clear your mantelpiece, make room for the gongs’ solution. If you’re not engaging with your clients every day on an intimate level don’t be surprised when they run off with someone who does. Think about how you collaborate with your clients to co-create. Teach them some of your tricks. Open the kimono. Charge for it.
Differentiation by conformity is a one-way ticket to a hiding. The real difference you make, at the end of the day, is to be capable of making a profitable difference to your client with solutions they can’t buy at any price elsewhere.
Comments
Simon Young
Nice one. This is very good advice. I didn't realise you started Family Health Diary. Nice, quietly revolutionary idea. Would you say that all businesses - whether they're advertising or not - have to come to terms with that idea of owning a message? Of being their own media in some shape or form?
David MacGregor
In the early days of the commercial Internet one of the buzz words was dis-intermediation, the removal of the middleman from the equation. At the time the reference was directed towards wholesalers and distributors in the context of online retailing (is it still called eCommerce?). I don't know if the impact of the web on traditional media was truly foreseen. Flipping back through early copies of Fast Company magazine I don't get a sense that it was. But the fact is that the rise of blogs, in particular, have demonstrated that having a conversation with one's customers doesn't have to be mediated by a legacy publisher or broadcaster. Chris Locke talks about the phenomenon of direct contact with customers eloquently in his book Gonzo Marketing - which I strongly recommend (like a lot of Locke's material it seemed thrillingly radical when I first read it and utterly correct in hind-sight).
Whether businesses are willing to become media owners en masse is moot. The phenomenon of contract publishing seems to be going strong, recasting the role of publishers to some degree as the division between 'church and state' or editorial and advertising becomes more blurred by the commercial imperative of survival in a costly game.
If there is one thing that leavens discussion of the topic it is that of content. Just because a channel opens doesn't mean it will flood with a torrent of useful information. In most businesses resources are stretched. New Zealand businesses tend to run lean. Even if the inclination is there to communicate directly wit consumers the rewards may be inverse to the costs. Traditional media offers the promise of economies of scale. The effort to produce 30 second TV commercials is considerably less than managing a relevant and useful blog. While there is atrocious waste by broadcasting a message to a mostly indifferent audience, over time the benefits can accumulate. So I wouldn't imagine marketing departments will reorder themselves anytime soon. There has to be a pragmatic efficiency. How often have you heard "If it aiin't core business - outsource." (though I'd argue that conversations with customers is a core business for a marketing business.
Having said that, there are other models worth exploring that are highly relevant to New Zealand. One is syndication - why go it alone. My mantra in the early days of Family Health Diary (which I am no longer involved with) was 'many brands, not much money. Its logic or premise was that marketers often have small products whose budget was insufficient to warrant mass media campaigns - Anusol hemaroid cream springs to mind - by aggregating many small brands and using inexpensive production techniques (and eliminating the expense of conventional 'creativity') we gained leverage and a collective media bargaining power. Perhaps a variation of this would work in some categories. Rather than going it alone, participants in the building category could team up to convey their stories to consumers who are eager to know about new products, services and home improvement ideas.
Sorry to ramble…it is an interesting area and one that is ripe for the picking. From modest beginnings Family Health Diary and its sister 'masthead' brands Eating Well and Discover have become a significant force in NZ commercial media. If I still owned them now I would invest in a parallel, direct conversation with the audience. Not a replacement because it would take a long time to match the revenues of the traditional model but it would add a dimension that is currently missing - interaction with the audience and opportunities for user generated content (which is a terrifying prospect if one is thinking about Anusol).
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