I am attending a marketing course Shoppers Marketing at Lok Jack GSB and after the first hour I was reminded why I love Marketing. Having worked in advertising for the last 5 and a half years, this got me thinking about how as an agency we could add more value to our clients as Marketing experts and not only creative idea executors. For me, an advertising campaign, no matter how creative, cannot be successful without the right marketing strategy. At Pepper, we differentiate ourselves by serving as an extension to our clients’ marketing teams. In my AE role, when a client acknowledges the Agency as the expert and actively takes our advice and allows us to help them craft the strategy, I feel the most productive. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. We are more often seen as tactical executors or media planners.
Given that clients generally give the direction and agencies just react, it makes me wonder if I’m on the wrong side. Ironically, one of my clients and a potential client are in the same course and listening to their challenges and responsibilities, it seems that their jobs are more fulfilling. While the world of advertising is exciting and interesting, marketing and branding seem to be so much more engaging. Can anyone shed some light on if its better on the Agency or the Client side? By better I mean more productive, interesting and really being able to make a difference and grow a brand. So Agency or Client?
Am I a client or an agency person?
Here are some general questions that hold some truth as provided by anonymous agency and client stars.
– You like to tell people what to do? (client)
– You like to wear t-shirts to work? (agency)
– You like to manage budgets and make decisions? (client)
– You like to create solutions under deadlines? (agency)
– Apple? (agency) PC? (client)
Though superficial, these still draw smiles while holding grains of truth, but for most of us the decision runs a bit deeper or seems more complex.
Client life is NOT easier.
Not true anymore or not a given. Marketing departments shrank (Bubble burst, Global Recession) driving longer hours, hand-held addictions and loss of a desire to have fun. Clients are grinding it out in many cases as hard as their agency partners.
Agency life is NOT necessarily more fun.
Agencies have been decimated by clients slashing budgets and working with procurement, driving layoffs, leaner staffing, grumpier over-worked clients and cutbacks on employee perks – think whole bagels become bagel “quarters”. Agencies are doing more with less.
Relax. Relativity still plays in here…so agencies are still more fun and clients do have it easier BUT the gap has shrunk dramatically.
Source: http://www.avkthinks.com/2010/01/agency-side-or-client-side-3-simple.html
