Today's question: Why is most digital creative so uninspiring?

I'm trying a new tack on my blog this week: a provocative question a day. But it will only work if you are interactive and reply.

If advertising is old hat and digital the future, why are there so many examples (from all over the world) of great ads, and so few memorable pieces of digital creativity?

Today's question: Are clients any good at running agencies?

I'm trying a new tack on my blog this week: a provocative question a day. But it will only work if you are interactive and reply.

The recent appointments of David Patton at Grey, and Neil Simpson at Publicis raise an interesting question. Are clients suited to the agency CEO job? If it’s a great idea, why haven’t more agencies tried it?

Today's question: Why don’t we recruit people to tell us whether advertising is working or not?

I'm going to try a new tack on my blog this week: a provocative question a day. But it will only work if you are interactive and replyAnother autumn. Another grad intake: potential stars of creative, account handling and planning. Why don’t we put a premium on metrics, and incentivise the very brightest to solve the biggest problem we have – predicting success?

Today’s big issue: We have to attract the cream of the crop

Campaign looked really different this week. How refreshing to concentrate on the future, rather than the troubled present or the failed past. But only the best grads will do.

It’s difficult to think of a more exciting time to enter this business of ours. Not just because the internet, which most pundits thought would just be an exciting new medium, has turned into a parallel universe.

Yes, digital offers huge opportunities. Importantly today’s grads are going to find themselves in the first team in no time instead of having to wait their turn. Digital is like sport. Agencies are recruiting for now, instead of ten years time. But there is also a crying need for young stars in the conventional marketing communications space as well.

I have seen more change in the last three years than at any stage since I stumbled into advertising in the naughty, exciting sixties. Coping with change, and exploiting the new avenues it offers, is a challenge for the brightest and the best.

The industry needs to look further back into the educational process than targeting people in their last year at Uni. Why aren’t there inspiring courses in Marketing and Communications to bring really good minds to the boil, with knowledge and understanding of our world already on board? Marketing or Digital Communications A levels? Why not? Let’s exploit the fact that marketing and communications are intrinsically fascinating to seduce the cream of the crop away from law firms and investment banks, which, let’s face it, are not a lot of fun.

But attracting talent and developing it are two different things. Unless agencies can match the professional firms as training and learning organisations, the grads will surely leave.

Today’s big issue: Why doesn’t the London ad village take provincial agencies seriously?

To hear people talk you’d think all the UK’s creative talent works in London. I’ve news for you folks – it simply isn’t true!It’s been a treat for this jobbing pitch consultant to take a walk on the wild side and reacquaint myself with out of town agencies. Evidence of really good work? Certainly. But equally important – marketing savvy, imaginative planning, genuine enthusiasm by agency teams to immerse themselves in client problems. Not to mention outstanding value for money. But is it really surprising? London has no monopoly of talent in any other sphere of excellence. And if we look at the US – where newcomers are often surprised that New York City accounts for barely a quarter of adspend – there are smart agencies aplenty across some 30 cities, not to mention Canada. Come on Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol. Recapture the glory days of the 70’s and 80’s where your agencies were always winning business from under the noses of the London shops. And don’t forget the People’s Republic of Scotland. There’s just as much marcoms genius on the streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow as you will find in the capital of the auld enemy.  

Today’s big issue: Why don’t clients pitch creative and media at the same time?

My experience over the 20 years of Agency Assessments is that most serious clients only go to pitch when they are looking for some kind of transformation. So why do the vast majority choose to have a big creative pitch followed by a big media one – or the other way round?

I understand why things are this way – it dates back to the emergence of media independents. But I don’t get the logic in 2007.

Nearly all the media agencies are owned by the big groups. Most of the big global and regional creative pitches are won by agencies that are already part of these groups – or soon will be.

So wouldn’t it make sense for clients to put the satellites and rockets back together again and call pitches from the best strategic, creative and media brains, working together? Add digital, CRM and Direct to taste – and what a tasty dish to set before a king!

Next big issue: Why don’t both sides of the industry make it crystal clear that they will fight unwarranted restrictions?

Campaign’s initiative on 'Action for Ads struck a chord with almost everyone in the business, and we thought the Advertising Association were going to lead the charge. But what’s happening now? Has the momentum fallen away as summer turns into autumn?

Surely it’s the perfect moment to strike. We have a new PM and a new Government now.

The latest polls suggest that the honeymoon is over. Despite closing the gap on New Labour, David Cameron is struggling with critics inside and outside his party.

The ‘Quality of Life’ initiative seems to be well accepted provided voters don’t actually lose out personally (as in cheap flights and free parking at Sainsbury’s). No problem with hitting the rich and their big cars! With both parties in flux, there can’t be a better time to be proactive in reasserting marketing and advertising freedoms.

We’ll never win by reacting to every last turn of the rack and thumbscrew. We need a properly constructed manifesto. There’s a big issue.

There’s a news vacuum. Gives us a chance to debate the big issues

Let’s face it “IPA bans Facebook” is not a gripping story, and few of the recent spate of appointments are big names. During and after the summer holidays, there has been precious little news in adland. I’m taking the opportunity this week to look at an issue a day. If there are still no big stories by the weekend, I’ll carry on. I’ll ask all the questions in the “Why don’t…” formatWhy don’t agencies bite the bullet and re-engineer? Business process re-engineering (BPR) was very high profile in the difficult days of the early 90’s, thanks to Tom Peters and Hammer and Champy. Scores of big companies took their processes apart and made radical changes. They took a lot of cost out and made themselves much more efficient. Surprisingly few agencies followed suit, and then with prosperity returning, everyone forgot about it. This could be the perfect time for far-sighted agencies to restructure, cut outgoings, liberate creativity and innovation, and offer clients what they want in terms of 360° service. Account managers would become project managers, and strategy a profit centre. No-one ever said re-engineering is easy or painless, but then neither is agency life. But a major change in process and organisation would help, I believe.

The Conservatives need an agency with the guts to tell them what to do

Interesting that David Cameron is looking for an agency in case the PM calls a snap election. I think they need one for the long term as well.Of course the Tories have to be ready. Since Gordon Brown has settled into No 10 and got over his baptism of fire, the polls seem to be giving him a honeymoon lift. Should there be an autumn election, it is imperative for Cameron that he has the most powerful campaign in all media channels, and the most convincing PPB’s. But above all the Tories need a quality agency capable of coming up with robust and believable strategy, and sustaining it for the long term. The Opposition have been producing an endless stream of ‘policies’ – some traditional, some amazingly un-Conservative in character (especially on the environment), and some plain barking. If ever a client needed great strategic planning, it’s this lot. If I had anything to do with it (and boy, would I love the job), I would insist on the utmost rigour: a clear brand positioning, a demonstrable strategic benefit, and frank acknowledgement of the barriers that are preventing voters buying the Conservative case. The agency must select the most telling voter insights, and come up with a credible Big Idea. For a country that has been forced to live under New Labour, maybe the Big Idea is that almost anything would be an improvement. Most of the world’s greatest philosophers have put freedom at the heart of their agenda. A package of freedoms from and freedoms to is likely to be a bigger vote-winner than the promise of another load of bossy legislation.