It's better to have a creative department where adrenalin runs wild, than one where rigor mortis has set in.

Published in
September 1995

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If you're a marketing director, here are four 'bullets' for you to keep in your top drawer when you're next dealing with an ad agency.

A senior marketing manager once complained that his agency was not "hungry" for his account, and that he intended to sack them. Would we consider taking the account? he enquired. Knowing his agency, I wondered why anyone would want to dump a good outfit like it. The problem was in the man's marketing, not the advertising. The agency was not excited about his product, because the client was not motivating them in the first place. So, instead of "firing" them up, he was considering giving his account to us. He was certainly not the type of client we wanted to deal with. Because, how could an advertising agency, whatever its pedigree, deliver red-hot ideas, when there was no marketing mind to spark off the process? As the adage has it, the client gets the advertising he deserves. In the interests of better advertising, here are four ways to "fire" your advertising agency, before contemplating the nerve-wracking task of courting someone else.

1. 'SET FIRE' TO YOUR BRIEFS
Give them intelligent briefs. Do your homework. Tell your agency the real reason you want a campaign. Is there a problem? Is there less soya in your sausage? Do you want a TV commercial which looks better than that of your competitor, or do you want to communicate something specific to your customer? What is your marketing strategy? Don't bore them with what your wife thinks of the product. Tell them what your dealer in Kahatagasdigiliya says the customer says. Don't show them an ad in Fortune magazine --or LMD-- and say: "I want something like that." Show them your competitor's share of voice, and say: "I want a schedule that'll drown his message". Often, this means setting new "fire" to your time-worn, traditional approaches. Torch those old ads, where your pack shot was the only idea, and the headline contained your company's name in 48-point, extra bold. Fire up those positioning statements, and give the agency something hot and spicy to digest. Then sit back and watch the sparks fly.

2. 'FIRE' YOUR EXECUTIVES
Don't put retired generals in the front line. Even when it comes to drawing up battle plans, the armchair commanders who fought in World-War II, may not be suited for inter-galactic wars fought with satellites, remote controls and FM frequencies. Send them through refresher courses and fire drills. Sure, send them to camp out for a week at the agency. Get them to see how the "ideas-people" keep abreast of marketing trends, how the media department tries to find creative ways of getting the pathetic 120-column centimetrer ad (that you think is a lot of good money) not get lost in the quagmire of newsprint. Get them to keep in touch with the new paradigm of advertising that treats the consumer as a shrewd, intelligent being --not as a moron. Advertising doesn't have to appeal to the least common denominator, to be successful. Ernest Woodruff, the Atlanta businessman who acquired Coca Cola in 1919, gave new meaning to the phrase 'hiring and firing'. Early in his reign, Woodruff called in a meeting of his sales-force, and without warning, sacked them, telling them that from that day, Coca Cola had terminated its sales department. The next day, he summoned the stunned employees, and rehired them for Coca Cola's new Service department, saying that they were not salesmen, but servicemen. Selling Coke syrup was only part of the job! Why replace them, when you can retread them? The secret is to inspire them. Too many decision-makers in the frontlines, are making manoeuvres that merely secure their jobs. They don't always believe in the company --they believe in their career path. Firstly, make them feel they belong to the company --and believe in it. 'Firing' your executives, means getting them to imbibe your corporate goals. Make them see the big picture. However small a part of the marketing mix it may be, your advertising is what people notice first. So, don't let an over-cautious amateur smudge the panorama you've been carefully creating on the larger canvas of corporate image.

3. 'FIRE' THE OLD IDEAS
Don't create a time warp. Conventions are turned on their head. Yesterday's sacred cows should be abandoned. Rethink the old notions, scrutinise them through a magnifying glass, not a soft-focus lens. A CEO once asked us to remove the word "hate" from his adverting, calling it an ugly word. I spent many a satisfied afternoon at meetings with his officers, listening to him unwittingly using the word. He never swore, he was never cynical. But the word kept popping up in his vocabulary, in contexts that were not at all 'ugly', but surprisingly astute and tame. David Ogilvy, the advertising guru, once scoffed at humour in advertising, saying that selling is a serious business, and that "people don't buy from clowns". Years later, he was big enough to recognise the changes in the buying environment, saying humour, when used well, could invest a homely quality to a message. We also get comfortable with conventions, it's often good to question anything that looks similar to what you've been doing in the last three years. Ask "what if" questions. Consult the younger people on your side. Often, what looks far-out to a person over 50, is pretty standard to someone in his 20s. (When the latter corresponds to your target market, go back to the second rule).
There are tremendous changes taking place in the media, and in the technology of producing material for the media. Don't be content with sizing your advertisement similar to some other advertiser's format. What looked good on page 23 of today's newspaper, may look absurd in a full-colour supplement, two months later. If you've always done 15-second commercials with fast cuts and slice-of-life, you might consider the 45-second variety; or vice versa.There was a time, when marketing managers thought milk powder was a serious product that could only be sold on a serious communication platform (the literal "sacred cow", if there ever was one!). Today, milk-powder ads are employing animation, talking bovines and extra-terrestrial, as well as the time-worn mother-endorsers. Tomorrow, it might be head-on comparative advertising or humour. Don't shut down the options. Don't shut down innovation, in an environment where the only constant is change.

4. 'FIRE' THE CREATIVES
They're supposed to be the ones with 'fire in their bellies', but that fire gets lit, only when you provide the spark. Meet them outside formal meetings. In the boardroom, they'll only ask you "safe" questions, and will reply yours with acceptable answers. Ask them "off-the-record" questions. Make them feel accessible to you. Everyone in advertising expects the clients to be demanding, but don't let it end up a one-way-street --from them to you. Feed them with tid-bits, even when there is no work being done.These, often become the bone-structures of unusual ideas. For instance, keep them informed of any developments in, say, distribution, competitor activities, rumours, sales achievements and unexpected trends. Once you cultivate a rapport with your creatives, they get easily fired up --at times becoming over-enthusiastic. But it's better to have a creative department where adrenalin runs wild, than one where rigor mortis has set in. In truth, creatives are highly proactive, at the expense of pragmatism, but it's a good thing to encourage. Don't shut down their suggestions (without checking first, where they came from). Fire them up. Soon, they will feel you're on their side. Soon they will be playing "what if", and not waiting to be briefed, to come up with breakthrough advertising --which is what made you contemplate firing your old agency in the first place.