“We who are about to die… salute you.”

I remember watching a movie about Gladiators a while ago. During one of the cliffhanger scenes in the movie, the following statement is uttered by the Gladiators as they greet the great Caesar before their big epic battle: “We who are about to die, salute you”. If I look at the advertising and brand building industry today, it resembles this scene. It’s no wonder we are in the shape we are in. Just look at the things people are saying about us, not to mention the treatment the majority of us receive - I am not going to reference any recent industry happenings where two big agencies where dealt a very rough hand by a very BIG client. I do not know the details, I do not want to know the details - but the fact remains that what has now transpired will echo through our industry and the repercussions will be felt. A benchmark has been set on how to treat agencies.

But today, the situation has changed. As Niall Fitzgerald, CEO of Unilever, famously said a few years ago: “There is an alarming discrepancy between what our brands are going to need and what agencies are good at.” The concept of ‘branding’ has moved far beyond communicating product differences and building ‘image’. This means that advertising agencies need to shift from creating advertising to providing high-end strategic advice about not only marketing, but about the business as a whole.

However, personal experience and studies suggest that brand owners do not yet believe that agencies are delivering at that higher level; good news for consultancies providing brand strategy advice.
- Philip Kotler – B2B Branding 2006

In his now very famous book, The Want Makers: Lifting the lid off the world Advertising Industry: How they make you buy (1989), Eric Clark stated a few very interesting things. One of the parts that grabbed me the most, was at the end of the book. It was a small paragraph were he listed famous peoples’ perception of the advertising industry. I would like to share a few of these with you.

“It is an Evil Service” - Aneurin Bevan

“History will see it as one of the evil things of our time” - Malcolm Muggeridge

“Young People should be weary of the advertising, through the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire” - Pope John Paul II

The general sentiment about the advertising industry is that it is in trouble! I would use more expletive words, but will refrain from committing social media Seppuku or Harakiri! It is the one thought that is on everybody’s mind. Especially if you have salaries and overheads to cover.

The truth is that our industry is at a crossroads - nay, a Tipping Point. Everything we do is being questioned and as a result everything we recommend is being questioned. Budgets are decreasing, stress levels are increasing and the statement ‘it can be done cheaper’ (but at the same professional level and output as last year) is becoming common place. To date, however, I am not seeing any industry leader standing up and saying, enough is enough; this is how we are going to solve it. It seems that the stigmas and sentiments I shared with you at the beginning of this post are going to be legitimised and proven to be true. Us “pirates” will continue to be cut throat and it will be every man for himself! It is incredibly difficult to define yourself in this industry, or to deliver sound strategic advice and direction when you are constantly being questioned or ridiculed.

Just think about it, if there is a perception about the industry you are in, you will be painted with the same brush - take a closer look at those perceptions above again! Anyone hear any good lawyer jokes lately? Well the fact is, that not many lawyers are being treated like advertising or Brand building agencies.

But, like my 8 year old niece always says - “All is not lost”. Let me just put this down for the record. I love my job, I love what I do and the things that we create. The World of Branding is changing, the very constructs we use to define the reason for Brand Success are changing. So we have two options. We either evolve, or go the way of the dodo. I for one still have a little fight left in me, so I want going to propose 5 ways of how we can rebuild the industry - some more obvious than others. But, at least I am saying something.

Solution One - Become Business Minded, but Consumer Focused

As a industry, we have been focused on the big Idea, the wild Television advert that is going to win THAT award. The impactful below the line campaign that went viral. But, did any of us stop to consider the impact on the Brand?

Campaigns are one thing and I love amazing creative ideas, but I love them even more when they are backed up by solid, focused and effective Brand Strategy that is in it self long term focused and rooted in good old fashioned consumer focused thinking.

We need to start remembering the consumer again - they are the reason we exist, and this goes for our clients as well. Treat your consumers like people and human beings, and not consumers, and they will love you for it.

Solution Two - New Business Models and Regulation

As an industry there is very little regulation or even standardisation and as a result we can undercut and change prices any way that we want. This makes the ‘BAD paint brush’ even bigger and the end result is tha all of us lose credibility.

If we are to survive, we will need to rethink how we make money as an industry - our prices will have to be regulated and agreed upon - not by some council, but we amongst ourselves. This also means more collaboration of not only intellectual property, but also of resources and ideas. If we do not work together we will fail and the Bad sentiment will increase until we are simply reduced to Mac operators and job bag carriers.

Solution Three - More Human Brands

This is the new buzz word. I and my esteemed colleague, Thys de Beer, have developed a new Strategic Methodology specifically developed to build better Brands that are more human focused and more engaging.

This speaks for itself; the new call from consumers is that Brands need to be more authentic, more real and credible. This means treating consumers/ people with more respect and give them more value and better experiences. If you think this is fool hardy, then go and ask Mr Price how their new campaign is doing? Pretty well I think. The Brand we create will need to be principled, credible, a true individual, stable and stand for something more than a great price and competitive edge.

This means we need to shift our thinking.

If you give people a great and relevant idea and dream, and you make it real for them, they will follow you forever as committed consumers.

Solution Four - More True Strategic Focused Offerings

Everything we do, will have to become more strategic. We are seeing the death of the twelve month communications plan and clients are calling out for 2 - 3 year business/ Brand plans on how to grow and evolve their business.

As an industry, our thinking will have to shift towards strategy and more strategic offerings to increase business success. If you do not believe me, please revisit the Kotler comment above.

Solution Five - Be Brave in Everything we Do

This is something that Mike Abel stated on this blog a week or so ago (http://mikeabel.wordpress.com/). This is the unfortunate situation we find ourselves in. Being Brave should go for everyone in this regard - the clients, us and all the other partners, from research agencies to the online guys.

Being Brave means looking at business, collaboration and how we create in a new light and through new lenses. Being Brave means that we need to work together to restore respect and integrity in our category and our service offering. This should also apply to the work we deliver. The consumer is rapidly changing, their wants, needs, desires and the way they communicate and engage with our Brands. Therefore, we need to meet them more than half way and create Brands that do more than engage or connect, but that create truly committed Brand relationships.

Rambling this might be, but as I have said, I think I have a little bit of fight left in me. The industry is in trouble, but we can only make it work for everyone if we work together to change not only the perceptions about the industry, but also how we make money and the type of work that we deliver.

We need to become more credible, through becoming even more strategic and consumer focused. We are not in the ripping off business - the world has become far too transparent for that. To me, we need to be in the buisness of creating amazing value adding, life changing experiences, and through this life long relationships between consumers/ people and Brands that truly want to make a positive difference.

I am sure there may a lot more direct and realistic things we can do to rectify the situation - but these are my two cents.

Andre le Roux
Strategic Director
Arctic Circle

@AndreTheThinker