Why do agencies wait for briefs?

re: Why do agencies wait for briefs?

Susanna Simpson — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:09:51 GMT

I agree the payback does come later. My agency pitches proactive ideas to our clients every month. Also people usually always buy from trusted relationships unless they have broken down. That's how business works. As a fellow agency owner I have always found our best clients and our greatest work comes from long term trusted relationships, but they all started somewhere...its about building the business for the long term. Don't give up. I just won a new client last week having had my first meeting with them in 2003!! It pays to keep in touch and chip away, at some stage they will let you in. In my experience the best way to start those often hard to find new relationships is to proactively identify a business issue that a client is facing and go in with an idea that addresses it. After all isn't that the point of what we all do?

re: Why do agencies wait for briefs?

shay boyd — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:35:51 GMT

Having had a foot in both camps,painter and foreman, I think there are ways to sell your agencies creative nous,but your ability to generate great ideas will only be put to the test via a focused challenge,or brief? With client imput and deeper insight. But I'm all for showing off and always looking for answers. Shay Boyd MD Clay London

re: Why do agencies wait for briefs?

Rory Sutherland — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:35:30 GMT

Ahem. The much-loved (by planners) story about Michaelangelo and the Sistine ceiling, er, isn't true. The pope did had some idea of what he wanted, but M didn't like the idea and insisted on doing his own thing instead. I quote: "Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. When the work was finished there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Great Flood." Personally, as a Protestant, I think it is a bad response to a bad brief - woefully over-elaborate and self-indulgent. And the media choice is appalling - people look at walls not ceilings.

re: Why do agencies wait for briefs?

charlie robertson — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:32:39 GMT

A potential recipe for anarchy. Unfocused creativity - anyone can do that and many do. Maybe need to make the distinction between Briefs - which are often dull in themselves and Briefings - which need to be inspiring. Bit of stimulus on the commissioning process: 'Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling' now in paperback

re: Why do agencies wait for briefs?

Peter Riley — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:26:27 GMT

It's a fair point and something my agency has been doing from year one (I've never lost the ingenuous enthusiasm of a start-up). We have an internal process where we remind ourselves we are consumers and ask ourselves what our favourite brands should be doing to please us. I'd like to say that prospects admire our free thinking and our bold consumer insights, but in order to wrestle an opportunity away from an incumbent, we need to be different, often radical. Whilst most clients will profess to admire different and radical thinking, it's often not that simple. Take mobile marketing as an example. I am telling anyone that will listen that 2008 is the year of mobile (we're on our third mobile campaign of the year). Every client is interested: they have to be, otherwise they think they'll fall behind. But they're often not ready for the leap into new ideas, such as mobile marketing. Granted, part of the agency's job is to guide clients into the unknown, but prospects, in my experience, prefer to be guided by their own agencies, who they know and trust. My point is, your comments are valid and welcome, but I'd like to qualify them by challenging prospects (and clients) to be more receptive to strangers at the door.