What Business Are We In?

I admit, I’m like a dog with a bone when it comes to this topic. I’m in Advertising. Have been for the last 15 years. And over that time, I’ve heard everyone from the President’s of the various agencies I’ve worked in to the mail room guy – talk about the business we are in.

So let’s be clear.

Those of us in Advertising are in the business of IDEAS.

Ideas are our ‘product’. We research, we absorb, we analyze, we brainstorm, we concept and we eventually weave together an idea that will sell whatever our client is in the market of selling. Our ideas are our intellectual property and our passion. They are why we come into work in the morning and how we pay our mortgage. The actual production of these ideas is the easy part. Coming up with the ownable, unique, competitive, emotive and brand building communication solution is a task of Herculean proportions.

So I ask you – why in the world do we give it away for free?

I’ve never yet heard a client say “I’m going to buy that idea even though I hate it, provided you make it look really pretty on a website!” or “hmmm, I’ve seen that idea a thousand times before but as long as you dress it up in a pretty yellow starburst – we’re good to go!”. Clients want to work with agencies with big ideas. Clients buy big ideas. And big ideas put roofs over our heads. Don’t get me wrong. Flawless execution is also a mandatory. But NEVER at the expense of creativity. So again, why would we give it away for free?

I get that we are in a competitive environment and agencies fight for survival on a daily basis. I also get that clients want to sometimes see what you can come up with before handing you their trust (and their marketing budgets). But past work for other clients can demonstrate smarts and creativity. You would never dream of walking into a department store and saying to a clerk “I’m going to take that couch home for free. If I like it, I’ll come back and buy the armchair. If I don’t like it, sorry, I’ll just go shop at another store.” Sadly, I think agencies do this too often.

Perhaps if those of us in the business of ideas put a value to our product – our thinking & our creativity – we can slowly create a movement. A movement where we place a (reasonable) price tag on the process of ideation and demonstrate in the process that we place serious stock in what we do. In return, I believe that Clients would respect us for it and the outcome would be ideas that everyone is proud of.

Rant over :)

Robin Whalen

Tags: Advertising