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Are you choosing an agency or getting the leftovers?

Jul 26, 2017
1 min

Are you choosing an agency or getting the leftovers?

As agency tenure has declined the new business market for agencies has, of course, naturally increased. In a busy new business market, the better agencies have to choose more carefully which pitch invitations to accept - they can’t afford to go after everything. But agencies are repeatedly told their market is oversupplied, and advertisers approach it like it's a buyers’ market. Ironically, is a shorter average agency tenure making it more of a sellers’ market? And, if so, ar

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Five ways to spot an agency bullshitter.

Jun 26, 2017
4 min

Five ways to spot an agency bullshitter.

“False positive” is a scientific term. It’s used when something gets a positive result from a test that should have produced a negative result. In the world of medicine they are acutely aware false positives (and false negatives) and therefore they will often retest results before acting, particularly if the result seems unlikely and the actions are serious. In the advertising world, the term false positive has a place too. I find it a useful way to describe somebody who has

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How much transparency should clients expect?

Jun 22, 2017
4 min

How much transparency should clients expect?

The whole issue around client/agency transparency seems a little opaque. There appears to be an almost blanket expectation of total disclosure by marketing services suppliers to their clients, and that this should be considered normal, reasonable and fair. But as is the case in all good debates, we should first define our terms. What is transparency? The common expectation among advertisers is that transparency means the open disclosure by the agency of pretty detailed inform

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It’s all about the talent.

Jun 21, 2017
3 min

It’s all about the talent.

There is an inextricable correlation between an ad agency’s talent and the value the agency can create for their clients. It’s the primary reason many of the older agencies had the names of their founders above the door or recognized by their initials. These figureheads like Bernbach, Ogilvy and Burnett were not just trying to appeal to new clients as their reputations grew, they were also beacons to the industry’s best talent. There isn’t a machine (yet) that can develop eff

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We don't need Einstein to solve Client/Agency relationship problems

Aug 31, 2016
4 min

We don't need Einstein to solve Client/Agency relationship problems

Einstein once sagely noted, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” As obvious as that might seem it is perhaps not so obvious to the marketing and advertising worlds, which appear to continue repeating their aggressive/defensive behaviour when they both wish for different and better results – at least according to the findings I’ve seen from the IPA report “From Mad Men to Sad Men”. (Campaign 24.07.15 From Mad Men to Sad Men

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My wife is dating again.

Apr 19, 2016
4 min

My wife is dating again.

OK. Guilty. In a slightly cynical manner I borrowed your interest with an offbeat headline, sorry. But please bear with me – I’ll get to an important point. Just pretend for a minute that my wife had been dating again. We might have had a conversation something like this: Me: “Have you got any plans for the weekend, darling?” My wife: “I've got a couple of first dates lined up, that’s all.” she replies casually. Awkward silence as the sense of incred

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