Making The Case For Stronger Advertising Account Management

Recently, I read an article in Ad Age that was disturbing, but should serve as a wake-up call for all adverting agencies.  It was about the growth of in-house ad agencies based on an Association of National Advertisers’ survey.

Given the tight economy, it is not surprising to find that clients are pulling some services previously performed by their outside agencies in-house.  What is shocking is the finding that the development of creative strategy is moving in-house.  The article blamed this movement on cost cutting.  But I would propose that if ad agencies were truly offering services that the advertiser could not do on their own, that this would not be happening.  It is a simple question of value added.

The trend of moving services in-house has been developing over a long period of time.  I honestly believe that it started twenty-five years ago with the advent of planning.  Yes, that is right. Planning. Planning, as it has evolved, may have inadvertently hurt the business. (I am not denigrating planners.  I believe in them.)

Until about twenty five years ago, the development of strategy was part of the account function.  The original reasoning behind planners was to strengthen the creative product.  At that time, there was a school of thought, particularly at the creative agencies, that account people were too busy servicing the logistics of the business including traffic, billing and other daily duties.  Planners, originally, were to obtain consumer insights and ostensibly replaced the research function as well as to partner with account people in the development of strategy.  Over time planners have displaced account people from the strategic function which has now left account management responsible to simply get the work out.

As a result, account people are no longer trained to delve into their clients’ business. Planners get the insights as to how and  why consumers buy and use products and services.  So account people no longer spend time doing sales analysis, going out with client sales people, doing store checks and, in short, becoming fully conversant with their clients’ marketing and sales.  The marketing function has now been fully taken over by most clients and, in my observation, most account people rarely are involved with significant internal client marketing meetings..  At the same time, procurement has cut back on servicing and slashed agency compensation to the point where senior people are actually doing the day-to-day work including the things that were once relegated to more junior account people. Procurement cost cutting has made it difficult for account people to do the very things which they should be doing in order to provide a value-added service to their clients.

And now, social media is beginning to replace some planning functions because so many consumer insights can be gained for relatively low cost on line.

As a result, everything is starting to move back to the advertisers themselves.  Because in-house people are right there, under the thumb of client marketing executives, agencies may no longer be providing anything other than creative execution.

A few months ago, I published a post on how agencies had been keeping and saving accounts.  It all amounted to strong account people who got their agencies fully involved with their clients. In every case, strong account management leadership contributed to winning or saving accounts. It is time for ad agencies to strengthen their account groups and to reinvest in them by allowing them to learn their client’s business so that they can make a true contribution to client marketing, strategy and advertising.  Agencies once received commission.  I always said the purpose of the commission was to buy objectivity.  Clients respected that point of view.

Most clients still respect a strong and informed point of view from their agencies.  Account people must be responsible for that once again.

There is absolute proof that this strategy is successful and profitable.