Category Archives: interesting observations

Lower Cost Does Not Mean Higher Quality in the Ad Industry

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Michael Farmer

If we were on a guided tour of the advertising industry, here are the points of interest that ought to be on every sightseer’s list. 1) The Advertisers. “Lower cost” is their strategy du jour, with reductions in media spend, cuts in agency fees, continued use of cost benchmarks and investments in less expensive internal agencies. Amazing! Increased shareholder value — marketing with the stroke of a pen, crossing out columns of unnecessary figures. Continue reading →

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The mismanaged creative agency pitch

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Darren Woolley

There was a creative pitch many years ago for Stanley Cook, manufacturer of Titan Nails at the time, later sold to BHP and then Otter Group. Anyway they briefed six creative agencies, about three too many, to come up with an ad campaign over the weekend to encourage builders and tradesmen to choose the Titan brand over the cheaper Asian nail imports. On the Monday morning the agencies filed in one after the other to present to the Managing Director, the Marketing Director and the Head of Sales at the time. Each agency had had basically three days to put a campaign together and 45 mins to present it to the senior management of Stanley Cook Limited. Continue reading →

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Who Will Put “Accountability” Back in “Account Management?”

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Michael Farmer

Account managers were giants of accountability during the Mad Men era, when agencies were paid by media commissions and it was important to convince client executives, up and down the line, that high media spending was good for brands. Everyone benefited from this. TV advertising was effective, so clients and brands benefited from this account management salesmanship. TV advertising unleashed the agency’s creative capabilities and allowed creatives to flourish and do their best work. Continue reading →

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The importance of unsubscribe management

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Anton Buchner

From 25 May 2018, Australian businesses of any size will have to comply with the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements if they: have a business entity in the EU, offer goods and services in the EU, monitor the behaviours of individuals in the EU. Continue reading →

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Ageism in advertising is as much a cost issue as a perception one

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Darren Woolley

uis Loizou, a Freelance creative Director in the UK recently shared on Linkedin his thoughts “I’m not 54. I’m 22 with 32 years experience”. It is a passionate and considered argument for why older advertising creative professionals have not passed their used by date, but are actually “still passionate but with pragmatism and discipline”. Continue reading →

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Managing Marketing: Discussing creativity, innovation and their importance to business

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Darren Woolley

Ed Pank is the Managing Director of WARC Asia and a self confessed Digital Marketing Evangelist, Start-up Builder, Advertising Insight Generator. Here he talks with Darren on the importance of creativity and innovation in business today. They explore the nature of agency creativity and explore the role of the agency in developing customer and business innovation. Continue reading →

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The challenges in measuring the value your agencies contribute to your marketing

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Darren Woolley

How do you calculate or assess the value of your marketing spend? In the past three years we have had a large number of projects designed to achieve just that – a fact based assessment of the value of the marketing spend. Specifically marketing communications or advertising and largely focusing on spend with external agencies and suppliers. Continue reading →

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Dare Yourself To Ask: Is Your Marketing Team Terrible?

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Stephan Argent

For anyone to hear the words ‘your marketing team is terrible…’ would be pretty devastating. But the reality is, when talking to agencies, we often hear comments about marketing teams that – in the context of how the client / agency relationship is unfolding – are well… less than flattering. The most common complaints vary from broad capabilities to specific day-to-day challenges and include things like: Continue reading →

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7 ways you might be demotivating your existing agencies

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Nathan Hodges

All marketing teams – naturally – want enthusiastic, committed and motivated agencies working alongside them to improve their business performance. In attempting to get to that ideal end-state, however, marketing teams can underestimate – or miss completely – the effects their actions often have on the motivation of their existing agencies. Here are seven of the easiest ways to demotivate an agency team. Have you ever been guilty of any of them? Continue reading →

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Warning Signs Your Agency Relationship Is Heading For The Rocks

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Stephan Argent

While many agency relationships have their own natural rhythm and their tide of satisfaction ebbs and flows a little, sometimes rocks can appear seemingly out of nowhere. In most cases, the rocks should be navigable – providing you know they’re ahead and providing there’s a clear chart to course to avoid them. And while agency relationships don’t necessarily have lighthouses to warn of danger, there are some common warning signs that your client / agency relationship isn’t as strong as it needs to be. Continue reading →

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Managing Marketing: The impact of science and technology on media and marketing

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Darren Woolley

Ori Gold is the CEO of programmatic platform Bench, and here discusses the impact of science and technology innovation and the best way for marketers to deal with this rapid and constant change. Embracing complexity and applying the scientific approach of test and learn is central to thriving in the changing world of marketing and business. Continue reading →

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Leadership and Talent Challenges for Madison Avenue’s Makeover

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Michael Farmer

Transformations are tough. They put organisations between the proverbial “rock and hard place.” The executives in place have not been successful in managing long-term declines — yet, they need to be mobilised to “do something completely different,” whether or not they have the understanding for it or the requisite skills. Senior executive leaders are challenged by transformations, which require bold and unwavering leadership, but since this kind of leadership has been lacking (which is why transformations are required in the first place) existing leaders may not bring enough commitment and conviction to overcome their organisations’ doubts and resistan Continue reading →

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If your marketing function is not driving growth you’re not doing it right

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Darren Woolley

One of the big issues facing marketing is the perception, commonly held in businesses, that it is nothing more than the ‘colouring in department’. It is a demeaning phrase and one I heard earlier this year when I was invited to participate in a CEO Forum in the City by one of the accounting firms. Continue reading →

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