Taking part in a recent PSFK Conference, my presentation concluded with an audience discussion session. The first comment from someone in the crowd was, “With all the years you’ve been in the ad business, you must have seen many changes.” I was about to explain that I’d seen hundreds, but stopped and thought for a minute, then replied that in truth, I’d only seen two radical changes: firstly, the absorption of just about all the major agencies into four global ad conglomerates, and secondly, the birth of new media (- both of which have totally changed advertising in the last 25/30 years). Yet, in spite of this, most Big Dumb Agencies (or BDAs), continue to be run like an 18th century Opera Buffo, making less profit than your average ice cream vendor, whilst turning out unadulterated crap.
This long held belief of mine was reinforced while doing the research for my upcoming book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders, a fifty year update on The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard’s 1957 classic. The primary reason we’ve arrived at this state of affairs is because the BDAs and the holding companies they belong to are publicly traded companies, so their major concern is making quarterly numbers that hopefully will keep the criminals on Wall Street happy. Which makes you wonder why Interpublic is still in business.
Perhaps it is best summed up by the CFO of a once respected BDA, who reputedly said a couple of years ago, “Fuck the work, it’s all about the money!” Yet at the same time, these dinosaurs are desperately trying to jump aboard the New Media Express before it leaves the station. They invariably attempt do this, not by growing their expertise in-house, but by buying up specialist companies who have already made a name in the black arts. Having done this, they then proceed to suck the creative juices out of these unfortunates (whose principals take their millions and go off and start another desirable property for the BDAs to lust after) until the reason for the original purchase is long forgotten. Eventually, the hot company is reduced to a stone cold parody of its former self and is then cast aside in favor of the next “digital du jour.” The BDA continues sailing towards the glistening icebergs on the horizon whilst deluding itself that a couple of $3 million Super Bowl spots they can then do a YouTube viral thingy with will solve everything. I shall continue to explore this insanity in excruciating detail in the coming weeks, because for some unexplained reason, psfk have asked me to do a regular rant about it. Pour yourselves a stiff drink and standby. Cheers/George
George Parker is a guest columnist for psfk.com. He the perpetrator of adscam.typepad.com, which is without doubt, one of the most foul and annoying, piss & vinegar ad blogs on the planet. He is the author of MadScam and his next book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders, will be available on Amazon in two weeks. He will be promoting the crap out of it in coming weeks. Pour yourself, etc, etc.
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Where’s the normal swearing that accompanies your post George! :)
February 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 am
How deliciously refreshing to hear someone speak about BDA’s without sugarcoating or apologies. Either most agency leadership are wearing blinders the size of Mini-Coopers, or they’re self-absorbed idiots. Last April I read an excerpt of Allen Rosenshine’s Advertising Hall of Fame acceptance remarks and nearly had a meltdown. In the early ’90s I left BBDO because leadership refused to acknowledge or plan for the rising influence of the Web. It was astounding to think that 15 years later, Allen still didn’t get it. If you care to read it, here is my meltdown, as posted:
“The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth”
This past Monday I was invited to a cocktail reception for the new Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University. The VCU Brandcenter, until recently called the VCU Adcenter, is a graduate program in marketing communications. What makes the program unique is its approach. It has structured its curricula to reflect a marketing communication vision that ad agencies have been paying lip service to forever, but never really accomplishing – organically integrating the business and strategy bits with the creative and interactive bits. Led by ex-Ogilvy Chief Creative Officer Rick Boyko, the program plans on expanding its online/digital focus by adding a full-fledged interactive track in the fall semester.
In a conversation with a recent graduate of the program though, I got the sense that her job search in New York was turning out be a rude awakening. Because despite the fact that most of the advertising behemoths have interactive capabilities, these are generally balkanized organizations with no real seat at the grown-ups table.
It’s been a little over a decade that agencies have been trying to figure this out. In all of the time since then, despite the multiple iterations of organization charts, agencies have never quite figured out the integration. Most likely because the people at the top still see interactive as banner ads, websites, and unequal to “legitimate” advertising.
Perhaps nothing articulates this as clearly as Allen Rosenshine’s acceptance remarks at his Advertising Hall of Fame induction. This Chairman Emeritus of BBDO who has been called one of the 100 most influential people of 20th century advertising said, “Beware those who would have us believe that advertising has become irrelevant. It always was, and always will be, as relevant as we make it. The geeks will not destroy us. Only we can do that.” In an interview with Ad Age’s Rance Crain, Rosenshine added: “The internet becomes and is a brilliant resource for information. It isn’t branding because it doesn’t have the capacity to deliver the emotional content of branding.”
Hmmmm. I don’t know how much time Mr. Rosenshine has spent on the Internet in the the past ten years, but cumulatively, consumers have been spending hours online with compelling creative executions from brands like Audi, Dove, and Toyota, to name a few. So, if he really wants to go head to head, here’s the choice for brands: create a rich, interactive, online experience that clearly articulates your brand, gives users value in the form of content or entertainment, and allows them to interact and engage in a dialog with you and with each other; or broadcast a :30 spot that most likely will be Tivo-ed out of the programming. Want to think about it?
In a piece about the Brandcenter in Creativity Magazine this past January, editor Teressa Iezzi quoted TBWA’s Lee Clow: “Brands today cannot be sustained by what in the past has been called advertising…everything a brand does that connects to the consumer is media, is brand communication. If orchestrating the art of all those media conversations isn’t advertising, then perhaps the creativity of what we’ll do in the future needs a new name.”
Bravo, Brandcenter and lookout Madison Avenue, here come the geeks.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Founder…
Don’t worry, I’m working up to it. Give me a couple of weeks.
Cheers/George
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Linda…
Glad you liked my first effort for psfk… There will be more, so stay tuned. I agree with your take on the entrenched ideas and methodologies of the BDA’s, as demonstrated so well by by Allen Rosenshine’s and others of his ilk. As I say in The Ubiquitous Persuaders, as long as the BDA’s are all part of the Wall Street traded BDC’s… Little will change. It will be up to the new guys on the block to create a shit storm.
Cheers/George
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
George .. Off to a great start! Looking forward to the next and the next and the next …!
February 4th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Paul…
Many thanks… Oh yes, I’ll keep this going as long as Piers and Christine put up with me… And why shouldn’t they… I am after all, a fucking prince.
Cheers/George
February 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm