I was thinking about how agencies in Trinidad and I imagine the world over have become commodities. What irony that we who parade as masters of differentiation and the inventors of the usp are not differentiated ourselves. So when I saw this comment from an Ad Age story entitled “Agencies and Media Brands Turning Into Commodities” I thought it also applied to the agency business in T&T.
Antony Young, CEO Optimedia US wrote:
“I discovered a family friend of ours who is an accountant, a few years ago was prosecuted for failure to pay his taxes. It struck me that advertising and media agencies whose bread and butter is to help their clients differentiate their brands, seem to be woeful at taking their own advice … and then wonder why they are asked to complete a spread sheets to itemize their offer.
This isn’t just a dilemma of big agencies, but certainly the “bigger, full service, global networks that are able to bring to clients ideas bigger than ads, across fully integrated media agnostic platforms aided by proprietary tools and processes” seem to fall into the trap more often.
How many agency brands can you articulate their one word equity or differentiating brand proposition? if you can’t, how possibly could a client. And so why would they pay a premium?”
Pepper Advertising has been trying to be different from the rest by pushing differentiation as our mantra. We want our clients’ brands to “own one thing”. And that one thing must be credible, relevant, ownable and sustainable. The thing is many clients only want tactics. And they want them fast and at a low price. And we don’t always walk away from those clients as we should. We are not in the volume low margin business. Good ideas take brains, sweat equity and some luck. If we act like a commodity, what gives us the credibility to be differentiators?
