Ad industry could do with a little more trust

Dubai: If you are an advertiser, would you like your ad agency to be simply a magic box that accepts your marketing data and spits out finished layouts and TV commercials, no questions asked?

Or would you rather have a hands—on partner with whom you can discuss your marketing ideas, and who would give you a professional, experienced view of how these ideas would ultimately affect your brand and the reputation you have worked so hard to build?

More and more, relationships between advertiser and ad agency have become superficial and works on a “what’s new and now” basis, where the marketing manager suddenly moves to another company with more perks. When the new marketing manager comes in, he brings a different agenda complete with a pre—planned search for a new ad agency.

What a lot of advertisers do not seem to realise is that your ad agency is your best business partner and marketer of your brand. Your ad agency knows everything there is to know about your brand and the market it moves in, often spending time and money on research that benefits both of you in the long run.

So, when your brand undergoes some kind of upgrade or formulation improvement, isn’t it only fair to share this with your ad agency? Sharing of information entails trust, and trust is earned by diligence on the part of the ad agency to continuously assure the client through an unabated devotion to the brand’s welfare that they are trustworthy.

However, some advertisers have been known to deny their ad agencies full disclosure when it comes to their brands... are you one of them? No matter how many times the ad agency signs a non-disclosure agreement, the advertiser still doesn’t trust them with much—needed information. This results in a dysfunctional relationship that cuts deep into the psyche of the people whose main reason for living is to think of ways to promote the advertiser’s brand the minute they open their eyes in the morning.

The advertiser—agency partnership must be in the centre of what you, as an advertiser, does if you honestly care for your brand, since the agency team contributes what a lot of advertisers cannot — no matter how “creative” they think they are — to the ultimate success of the business.

Advertisers know about marketing, it’s their expertise. Therefore, the advertising component must be handled by the agency, since they have the training and the experience to know what they are doing.

In a perfect world, this would be the norm. In the real world, advertisers have certain ways of working with their agencies that demotivate instead of motivate, erode trust instead of fostering trust, hamper the creative process instead of letting it flourish resulting in watered—down work.

You may be among the many advertisers who operate on the assumption that the best way to “handle” their ad agency is to be tough, to push and squeeze so that more work can be done, and to always dictate what they want, no matter what. Unfortunately, this is quite short—sighted and will only breed “yes men” who will give you whatever you want, not what your brand really needs.

Constant badgering on your part will certainly do that. So, is there hope for any of us who are entangled in this maddening advertiser-ad agency love-hate-love relationship scenario?

Time will tell. If both sides can agree not to be disagreeable on every little thing that comes up, have clear-cut expectations at all times, collaborate more and confuse less, be more honest and transparent, so that when things get bumpy we can look at each other and get on with what we have to do without pointing fingers.

When the advertiser treats the ad agency as a partner, rather than a supplier, working together becomes seamless and effective. Creative solutions are easier to achieve.

The sooner advertisers and agencies can see eye to eye once again, the sooner we can all relax and go back to what we are supposed to do – great advertising that actually sells the brand.

— The writer is the CEO of Venture Communications.