Agencies Should Demand Better Briefs From Their Clients
May 31, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
The best advice I ever got about advertising wasn't about advertising. During a company paintball outing, the referee offered this: "Don't hide behind a rock and wait for someone to stumble into your sights. While you're doing that, they'll sneak up behind and shoot you in the ass. Go find them. Shoot them first."
It reminded me of Casey Jones' take on marketers who fail to provide their agencies with competent briefs, which generated a wealth of discussion earlier this week on Ad Age.
He's right to point the finger at clients for shirking their responsibilities. But he's only half right. As easy as it is for marketers to blame us agencies, it's a two way street and blaming marketers is easy too. It's the agency world's national pastime. However, it's also lazy and self-destructive.
So here's my take in response to Mr. Jones' argument. Agencies shouldn't wait around for a brief that may never show up. They should go find it.
Nothing gets accomplished if all we ever do is nod our heads in client meetings, then bellyache about them at the bar afterward. It exposes the real problem: we don't have the stones to expect and demand more from the client.
At every level of the agency, we have a responsibility to speak up. Account execs need to press clients for the information the team needs to do the job. Strategy and creative need to push back when a project's missing the insight from client we need to focus our efforts.
If we're not challenging marketers to be better, we're wasting their money. Often, it's our job to save them from READ THE FULL ARTICLE from Ad Age
