Oh, the pressure of it all

Michael Hedges September 9, 2008

It’s tough in the ad business today. Really, it is. Maybe Martin Sorrell is jetting around from location to location buying and buying but back at the shop those darned clients are demanding more.

Marketing services company Sapient organized a survey of client marketing managers – online, of course – and released the results to the bigger world in hopes of persuading the ad people to engage in a bit more social networking rather than ‘notworking.’ Everyone’s a critic, yes? Sapient put together a little list of wishes clients have for their ad agencies.

Topping the list is ‘greater knowledge of the digital space.’ Nearly half the respondents said they had – or might – switch agencies or – horrors – bring in an in-house specialist because “greater digital knowledge” is required. About one-third expressed a lack of confidence in their current ad folks when it comes to online and interactive marketing.  Didn’t your grandmother once say “You can’t fool a fooler”?

Another client wish, quite resoundingly, is for ad agency employees to actually use the Web 2.0 brilliance they recommend. Note to ad agency account execs: get on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and all the rest and spend hours on hours updating, poking, sending, answering and recommending. It’s networking, not ‘notworking.’

Ah, another wish: promote the most presentable geek in IT to Chief Digital Officer. Clients like that. And buy him or her some socks.

Clients who pay the bills are interested in reaching customers who are reaching for them. ‘Pull technologies’ – that would be online communities and social networking channels – are far more attractive than ‘push’ programs. Everybody wants to reduce that cost of sales.

Branding is high on the client wish list. Everybody wants to be a brand, not just a product. Hint: enlist a few university marketing professors – wild hair, speaking French.

And, too, clients still want the basics. From time immemorial ad agencies have honed their brain storming skills… with clients in the room. Strategy sessions are exercises in event marketing. Never forget who’s buying lunch.

Beyond all else, bring files and piles of numbers. Two-thirds of the clients in the Sapient survey voted analytics to the top of their wish list. Relevance can be determined at another time. Don’t be lulled into believing that the client won’t read anything longer than two paragraphs. This is the age of accountability and there’s always somebody who’ll read everything.

Ah, let’s not forget creativity. Three-quarters of the surveyed clients expect the ad agency to have the creative ‘right stuff’. If you have a creative person it’s probably best to keep them away from all of the above.

Sapient’s Chief Creative Officer Gaston Legorburu, summing up the findings, mentioned one other thing: do it today.

“Marketers want agencies that can deliver on these demands today - not by 2009 and beyond.”

So, dear media people, don’t think too harshly of the ad agency person who just tore your proposal into shreds, ranting madly. He is, unless he’s Martin Sorrell, having a tough day. Empathize…and set a meeting with his client.

Sapient is a business and technology consultancy with headquarters in Boston. Its “Agency of the Future” survey was released September 2.

A survey by mobile phone company 3 UK, reported by the Telegraph (UK) (September 8), showed that 35% of UK businesses refused to allow employees to log on to Facebook, et.al. during working hours. Social ‘notworking’ has, they say, reached epidemic proportions. Figures for ad agencies were not revealed.

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