16 May 2010
Emarketing and the rebirth of client creative
20/05/10 14:04 Filed in: Gareth Lloyd
As Bill Bernach (founder of DDB and one of the true greats of advertising) once said, “It is one thing to have a selling proposition and quite another to sell it.”
I wonder then what Mr Bernbach would have made of today’s emarketing solutions providers that have given clients the tools to do their own online campaigns? For while the software these companies provide is good, they seem to be missing the point that they are facilitating ‘client creative’. And this simply won’t sell as well as ‘creative creative’.
Effective communication requires far more than adapting an email template to your corporate guidleines, pasting in some copy and uploading the result to a server for digital dissemination. If you need to convey a marketing message in a way that will engage your recipient, you need to have the skills to tell your story well. Key thoughts have to be communicated clearly, key needs identified and answered. Visuals have to be chosen well and used in the right way.
These are the skills clients choose agencies to provide. Which is why you don’t see many clients picking up a digital camera to make their own TV ads. Or a microphone to make their own radio ads. Clients know their product and their markets, but it is creative people who bring the two together. So while Emarketing software is a great new tool for companies, you don’t have to be a Bill Bernach-like genius to understand that client creative will undermine its effectiveness.
Add Comment
Risk vs reward
17/05/10 13:37 Filed in: Gareth Lloyd
A friend of mine who ‘works in the City’ recently recommended I buy shares in a small oil exploration company. It was, he admitted, a high risk investment because if the company didn’t find oil where they were drilling, the shares would fall considerably. I steered clear. A few weeks later they struck oil. The share price rose immediately from under 40p to over 90p. Within a few days it was worth over £2. As I write this blog, it’s £2.20.
So why am I telling you this story? Because what annoys me the most is not the lost profit – it’s that I didn’t practice what I preach. We are forever trying to convince cautious clients to trust us, a small agency, with their marketing budget. And many still prefer the ‘safe’ option of sticking with bigger agencies, despite their higher costs and longer lead times. This has to be wrong. The reality is that small agencies simply have to ‘strike oil’ because if they don’t, they fail. So they put enormous effort into every project, giving clients a lot more for a lot less outlay. So I believe the risks are altogether lower, while the potential rewards even greater. And if you can see the value in this argument, please get in touch with Daisy.
Michael Scott replies My comment: Interesting article. I'd choose a smaller, keener agency like yours personally. But many marketing people feel safer using the big players - especially when it's not their own money they're spending! I think this is changing though because the figures no longer ad up in my experience.
Add Comment