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January 20, 2004
Varnish remover
I really like the Brand Autopsy weblog because it's honest and direct. John Moore and Paul Williams are voracious readers; if anything, they should be in charge of business book reviews for Publisher's Weekly. Here's an example, based on John's review of advertising tome "Bang!":
Instead of offering solid advice on how to create, nuture, and implement great marketing ideas, BANG! offers readers a glimpse into the happenings of a happenin’ ad agency. The authors glamorize how so many of their best campaigns were created at the last minute -- sometimes minutes before a presentation to their client. Do you really want to trust your company’s marketing campaign to an advertising agency that boasts about continuously developing their best ideas at the last minute?
As someone who used to work at a mid-sized marketing firm, I know the happenin' belief system is found within many of the world's ad agencies: flash = marketing + image = product. It may be a formula for selling soda, but it hardly works for the other 99% of the world's products and services.
Other blogs that reference Varnish remover:
Ben … the book is littered with other stories that further perpetuate the stereotype of ad agencies being about sizzle and not about substance.
One story in particular that made me furious was when the Kaplan Thaler Group (KTG) was involved in a new business pitch. The client had sent a list of questions that all invited agencies were expected to answer. Linda Kaplan Thaler (from KTG) decided not to go through the exercise of answering the questions and instead pitch the client one of their BIG BANG! ideas. Needless to say, KTG did not get the business. However in the book, Linda wrote how she was proud that KTG stayed true to themselves and pitched their great idea instead of following the wishes of the prospective client.
In my eyes, there are so many things wrong with that approach. The one that gnaws me to no end is that the KTG put an IDEA before strategy. I have been involved with too many ad agencies that shoehorn strategy to fit an idea. Sound strategy should always come before an idea. Substance begets sizzle. Always.
