What's in a name?

It looks like a duck.  It quacks like a duck. 

Don't try to tell me it's not a duck.

Is "agency" now a dirty word?  Is it something that companies who  create and place advertising and public relations now want to avoid?

Readers of Advertising Age's Agency Issue might wonder, as the cover headline screams, "Why does it seem like agency has become today's dirty word?"  And why would one of the nation's oldest ad agencies, Campbell-Ewald, commemorate its 100th anniversary by proclaiming on its website "We are not an agency"?   The site goes on to explain that they're "hundreds of diverse minds rattling as one."

Another agency giant, Saatchi & Saatchi, says, according to Ad Age, "We're not an ad agency.  We're an ideas factory."  Lowe tells people it's a "high value ideas company."

What a bunch of B.S.!

These so-called non-agencies are still operating under the traditional agency model, no matter what they call themselves.  They help clients market goods and services, using advertising and other marketing and communications tools to convince people to purchase.  They may also help clients develop new product offerings to open new markets.  In some cases, they even take an equity position in a brand, sharing the hoped-for success in ways beyond the fee or 15% commission.  None of these things are new, by the way.

Some agencies have tinkered with the way they organize account teams, taking down the walls between creative, media and account management.

The Ad Age piece says agencies are making these changes in response to what they believe clients are looking for and, in part to what talent may be seeking in a workplace.  Not the "old fashioned agency," but an innovative, free-form amalgamation of people who can do it all -- create memorable TV ads, develop kooky ideas for guerilla marketing that get attention and publicity, come up with stuff that creates buzz on Facebook and other social media platforms, and make crazy videos that "go viral" on YouTube and beyond.  

For some reason, agency heads think an agency can't do those things, so they re-invent themselves.  "We can do it all for you," they say, "but we're not an agency."

These agencies are terrified of being pegged as irrelevant or out of touch.  So what do they do?  They become -- in name, at least -- idea factories or product development equity partners.

How does this measure up to what clients are seeking?  If I were a client, here's what I would want -- an organization that could:

    -- Listen and hear me

    -- Research and analyze the marketplace and apply that     knowledge to possibilities for products or services I offer or     could offer

    -- Determine the best way, within my budget constraints, to     tell potential customers about my offerings in a way that will     compell them to purchase... again and again

    -- Bring new thinking to the table, pushing us to try new things     while realistically recognizing limits that might come with our     corporate culture

    --  Be open and honest with us

    --  Maintain a balance between the sometimes conflicting     financial goals of the client and the service provider (ie., the     a-word.)

The outside company that provides those marketing services should also have a clear idea of their role and how they define themselves.  Simply saying what you're not just doesn't cut it. And vague esoteric descriptions like "hundreds of diverse minds" sounds a bit unfocussed.  It could apply to many organizations that have nothing at all to do with advertising or marketing.  And I would look to stay away from a place that calls itself "an idea factory" unless I'm looking for mass-produced ideas from the factory floor.

If these are the best descriptions these non-agencies can come up with for what they do, then get me a good old ad agency ... quickly.

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Comments

[David Reich]

Well, now the name game is spreading to the PR agency world. Golin Harris says it is breaking new ground by calling some employees "strategists" and "catalysts" and claiming its people now handle strategy as well as PR.

This is new?!! What a bunch of crap! It's just putting new names on work good PR agencies should have been doing all along.

The sad thing is that some big clients will fall for this and pay absurd fees to have AEs and Assistant AEs who are now being called Strategists and Senior Catalysts.

WTF?

[David Reich]

Oops, meant to post a link to story in today's NY Times about the Golin Harris name game.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/business/media/15adco.html?ref=media