An advertising
agency in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico.

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Hiring an ad agency can be daunting. We’re not clients, but we have learned what makes good client-agency relationships. Here are a few thoughts:

Do you really need an agency? If you have more than a few communications needs outside of your company’s available time or expertise, you may. If you enjoy doing any of this yourself, ask if you’re willing to give it up.

How do you make a short list? First, ask other business owners or marketing directors you know. And chances are you’ve been contacted by sales representatives – ask them which agencies return their calls. Peruse the local business press. Or do an old-fashioned Google search. If you get a good feeling, call to arrange a meeting at your place or theirs.

What to look for? People who listen and are genuinely curious about your business. They shouldn’t act smarter than you. Turn up your BS meter when they do their spiel. Get a sense of whether they like one another. And most importantly: you should like them. If you think you’d avoid them at a party, take a pass.

Should you hire an ad agency with experience in your category? Yes and no. Experience brings wisdom. But an agency that is new to your category can offer fresh perspectives.

What questions should you ask? Find out who would be working on your business and be sure to meet the key players. Are the senior people pitching your business going to run your account, or will it be handed off to others?

If they show you creative work or case studies, ask when it was done, who did it and if those employees are still there. Your work could end up looking very different than what you see in a credentials presentation.

What should it cost? It really depends on the scope of work and the amount of attention your business needs. Be careful to weigh cost and value with creativity and capability. A good agency will explain how an ideal client/agency relationship works, and how you’ll work together going forward.

The best relationships are based on clear expectations. Here’s hoping you find a match.

 

We all have our comfort zones – what’s easy, what we’re good at, what we hope to gain. Risk is relative, defined by our perspective. Anything beyond what we know feels, well, risky. But as obvious as it seems, it helps to be reminded: creating good advertising isn’t about us. It’s about resonating with our target audience, and that target may come from a different point of view than we do.

If we work hard to understand a given audience, and put ourselves in their shoes, what we initially define as risk will often turn to “no-brainer” when we take the viewpoint of our target. The hard part, of course, is setting aside our own perspective – which involves risk of the more personal kind.

The ideal place for risk to live is just outside our own comfort zone – where the personal risk is mostly offset by the rewards of sound strategy.

Of course, it never hurts to keep the Tums on hand and chew with gusto.

 

Clients are faced with a certain dilemma when creating a communications campaign. Should they hire generalists; that is, a full-service ad agency, or specialists; group(s) with a skillset in one area of communications. As a full-service firm, we are sometimes labeled the former. But while we do execute across a broad array of tactics (advertising, design, interactive, guerrilla, etc.), we like to think of ourselves as “idealists.”

We believe the simple idea should always drive the execution. The idea needs to be applied to the most effective tactics and developed to its most thoughtful execution using the unique features and ability of each medium. Starting with the idea and knowing your audience is everything. This is where great campaigns - and great individual executions - come from.

Today there is a proliferation of communications gurus. There are industry-specific ad specialists, web specialists, out-of-home specialists, radio specialists, and the list goes on. The existence, and in most cases, success of these groups comes from the natural understanding that if a person or company does one thing, they are much more likely to do that thing very well. But in communications, there is another side to this debate. When people specialize in one task, they tend to evolve into pursuing one way to do that task. Eventually, the work looks, feels and sounds the same for each client, no matter the business category. Repetition and practice make perfect for say, a special teams football squad. But in communications, cookie-cutter sameness across clients and within categories can be the enemy.

So, as you develop your next campaign, think to yourself: “idea first.”

Idea first: What is the idea?
Idea first: Where will this idea have the most impact on our target? (In his living room? At her place of work? Online? At a restaurant? In a sales presentation?)
Idea first: What is the best way to communicate this idea within this space?

The debate about using generalists vs. specialists will go on. We simply want to add a new group to the discussion. Idealists.

 

© 2008 3 Advertising LLC, a full-service advertising agency in Albuquerque, New Mexico.