By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth
There was a point in our not too distant past where branding and advertising were virtually synonymous, however that point in time has long since past. While advertising has become a much smaller component of branding, advertising agencies have not continued to develop their approach or methodology to keep pace with the rapidly changing, and increasingly sophisticated markets. In fact, I would go so far as to say that many advertising agencies are almost obsolete in their approach such that they add very little value to their client’s brands. In today’s post I’ll share my insights on why most advertising agencies just don’t get it…
Let me begin by stating that it is the CEOs responsibility to set the brand vision, and then to evangelize and champion that vision. I have observed far too many CEOs and entrepreneurs who abdicate their responsibility by just turning over their brand to advertising agencies and hoping for great creative output. The problem lies in that the concept of “branding” has moved far beyond communicating product differences and building “image.” In order to improve brand performance, marketing experts need to consider the value of building relationships, product re-design, reengineering the supply chain, refining distribution, reducing costs, introducing loyalty rewards for customers and many other variables. While advertising will certainly retain an important role as a component of branding, it is clearly not the driver of branded businesses that it once was.
Put simply, ad agencies create brand advertising they don’t create brands…Put even more simply ad agencies create, buy and place media, they don’t develop brand architecture and modeling which are used as a blueprint for all activities and communications for the brand. It is rare that you’ll find ad agencies that will even have the diversification of competencies that will allow them to provide strategic brand direction across mediums. While I have rarely observed a lack of willingness by agencies to dive into a project, I have often observed a complete inability to execute.
Even within their purported areas of domain expertise (media and mediums) the marketplace is littered with agencies who have huge gaps in competencies in PR, direct marketing, blogging, micro-blogging and other forms of social media, interactive media, search marketing, word of mouth marketing and any number of other areas. However it is their lack of experience and ability to deliver on brand strategy, business intelligence, knowledge management, innovation, corporate venturing, competitive analysis (and by this I don’t mean whose TV ad is better), intellectual property and other items that make ad agencies the worst possible choice to take brand direction from.
Okay, let’s call a spade a spade and bring the ad agency agenda out into the light of day. Ad agencies get paid to sell advertising not to build brands…Reflect back upon your last agency pitch and you may have been wowed by creative talent, and yes even a bit of brand-speak, but at the end of the day you were pitched on buying advertising. Ad agencies speak to your advertising budget, not your brand equity.
Bottom line…As a CEO your ultimate success or failure will be directly tied to the growth and sustainability of your brand equity. As such your company’s brand guardian should be the brand owner (you) and not your ad agency. CEOs should manage their ad agencies in collaboration with consultancies that understand strategic business and brand drivers across mediums, channels and markets. Don’t make the mistake of confusing advertising with branding and end-up over spending for the wrong reasons.
