Is bringing your advertising "in-house" a smart move in these belt-tightening times?
When costs need to be cut the use of outside consultants, including advertising agencies, is always a tempting target.
No doubt, bringing functions in-house can save on cost. But it can end up costing in other ways.
Advertising is very much a business of opinions and subjectivity.
And where subjectivity exists, so does the idea that because anyone can have an opinion – anyone must be able to do it.
The reality is, Advertising Agencies are filled with people who have studied for years and fought against 100’s of candidates to carve a career in a highly competitive industry. And in the process they have generally gained coalface experience across many categories and many brands. All of which are transferable.
Agency people spend thousands of hours in their careers solving marketing communication problems. This gives them the experience to process information and to get to the point very efficiently. And to avoid pitfalls and clichéd ideas that won’t work.
This specialization is exactly the same as with a specialist lawyer, tax accountant or tradesperson.
Clients would rarely take a Lawyer to task, their years of acquired knowledge well respected.
Nor would an Accountant suffer the criticism, scrutiny, and corrections from those outside those disciplines.
But it is not unusual for a CEO, Marketing or Sales Director, or business owner to decide they can write a headline and come up with an idea.
They push the idea downstream, and charge Marketing with the task of hiring a "designer" to bring their magic to life on a computer. They buy the dog and they bark for it.
Worse still, in-house designers either conform to a "house-style" years after it has become tired and ineffective, or blow with the breeze and produce inconsistent material that resembles no relation from campaign to campaign. And often they just follow directions from the top.
The end result? A brand with a confused identity.
In-house creative people are subjected to day-to-day pressure to adopt the corporate brand, and in turn may opt to limit their thinking to the path of least resistance. But what about the consumer brand? Well perhaps in-house departments are loathe to present a challenging new idea that will may cause friction and risk more work if rejected?
Agency creative people can be frustrating when they challenge assumptions or inject out-of-category thinking.
However this is exactly where they provide value and offer a competitive edge. Friction and challenging is vital to the creative process.
New ideas are always challenging.
Safe ideas are safe because they are old, comfortable ideas.
And why would you expect old, comfortable ideas to raise so much as a yawn from your prospective target audience?
Consumers are saturated with marketing messages every day and have better things to do than look at the same old safe advertising.
In a world where there are too many choices and me-too competitors, quality branding and advertising strategy is increasingly the thing that differentiates one offering from the next.
Advertising should not be looked on as a cost, but an investment.
Whether it's about cost or control, the adage "stick to your craft" may save your brand from longer term damage.