The Pitch: In the end it's relationships that count

By STEWART GILBRIDE *

It used to be said that advertising agencies won new business because of brilliant creativity and lost it because of poor service.

Was that ever true? Well it certainly isn't now.

The success of many brands is still directly related to the quality of the relationship - in its broadest sense.

Some of the world's leading brands have retained the same agencies for more than 100 years.

Ironically, exactly what constitutes a "good relationship" is becoming more and more difficult to define.

Long lunches and expensive wine were once all you needed to sell creative work and keep clients loyal. Some say it might also have been the reason many chose to work in advertising in the first place.

Carefully crafted creativity still differentiates, and over time, builds brands. Yet when things go wrong and the creative team puts more stock in cleverness than communication, budgets overrun or deadlines are missed, it's the strength of the relationship that buys a second chance.

Clients are demanding and agencies are promising a lot more than ever before. But there is an alarming and widening gap between what agencies claim to do, and what they are perceived to be delivering.

So are marketers and their agencies on the same wavelength? When clients cite lack of interest, inexperience, high turnover, over defensive creative egos and loose control of budgets it's clear that perception and reality are out of sync.

It's an alarm bell that rings far too frequently.

So what do marketers really want? It's assumed that business decisions are made rationally. Agencies are expected to have significant expertise in management, strategic and creative disciplines. Yet many relationships are still formed on the basis of a shot in the dark creative pitch an artificial situation that reduces a serious business decision to a farce. Routinely developed free of charge and subsidised by media commissions, it's not surprising that creativity, the very essence of advertising, might have become a mere pawn in the relationship game.

Agencies have given advice on brand building and how to ensure emotional connections with consumers. But they've seldom applied this wisdom to their own businesses. They've allowed creativity to become a commodity.

This leaves the door wide open for assorted consultants, graphic designers, print brokers and boutique agencies to offer their own specialist skills, throwing in strategy and branding which were formerly the domain of advertising agencies.

Marketers, just like all other consumers, are looking for an emotional connection with people they like and trust. The subtle differences between strategic creative concept development and the nuts and bolts of design and production have never been sufficiently differentiated or valued. Agencies have deftly separated emotional from rational triggers in selling their clients' products but are allowing their clients to slip away.

In short, the marketing community is increasingly placing relationships ahead of ideas, creativity and branding.

It might be worth reintroducing those long lunches.

* Stewart Gilbride has worked in advertising, brand management and film production and now runs his own advertising consultancy, Terrier.

* Submissions for The Pitch are welcome and can be sent to: simon_hendery@nzherald.co.nz