In advertising, great work is not enough to succeed

There is an old advertising industry cliché that goes something like this — you win on creativity, you lose on relationships.

To succeed in advertising, it is not enough to do great work. While you cannot succeed without it, the relationship with the client underpins everything, from how the work is created and how it is received. For brands to succeed in the long term, relationships need to evolve into deep partnerships between committed organisations and individuals.

Why is this particularly true in Ad land? Here’s my top five reasons:

1. Brands are co created

Brands need agencies to succeed and that’s why agencies exist. In the best cases, brands and agencies partner on a crusade to fulfil a single minded strategic objective and in the worst, agencies mechanically produce undifferentiated work that does not even inspire the people who make it, let alone the consumers who are meant to respond to it. Deep partnerships between client and agency allow perfect alignment and sharing and the achievement of a single-minded brand vision.

2. Brands are emotional

Marketing is a business driven by emotion and attracts emotional people. The partnership between client and agency therefore is, and should be, one that is connected by the very best emotions that make us human. Deep trust, open communication and dialogue and permission, on occasion, not to be perfect.

In many ways, the ideas of trust, open dialogue underpinned by a meaningful purpose are attributes we aspire to infuse in the brands we build and it is therefore not surprising that those same attributes show up in the partnerships intended to create them.

3. Brands need to be nurtured over time

A key characteristic of great partnerships is tenure. The average tenure of a client-agency relationship has been reduced from 10 years plus to approximately two to three years, and CMO turnover on client-side is similar. Assuming the required service and creative standards are met, rebooting a brand every 3 years reduces the ability of a brand to maintain continuity and consistency of promise.

4. Passion and care

Caring about the brand is a prerequisite for success. The ideas business is more about passion than punching a time clock. Passion and enthusiasm on both sides of the partnership creates the energy needed to fuel the next brand breakthrough.

5. Permission to stumble on occasion

If you are not failing, you are not trying hard enough. Being committed means allowing room for failure, while at the same time creating opportunities to do brave and break-through work. Digital allows for quick and low cost experimentation, something that encourages an iterative processes and learning. The best partnerships look for opportunities to get uncomfortable and do something potentially extraordinary even if there is no guarantee of immediate success.

Ad agency, RPA, in partnership with USA TODAY, recently conducted an anonymous online survey of more than 140 US advertising agency and brand marketing leaders in order to better understand the Agency-Client relationship. The results of the survey were revealed at the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

One of the most prominent results of this survey was that 98% of both clients and agencies believe that a trust-based union leads to better work. That’s not so surprising. Our attention spans are short in the digital age and because we’re no longer as prepared to stay committed to a brand, employer, etc.

It’s imperative that we look to creating stronger relationships across the board, with trust and commitment at their very core. Agencies, employees, employers who feel like they are trusted partners in a long, fulfilling relationship are more willing and able to deliver creative solutions.

Image: Simply CVR.