HQvB says "no" to dogwalkers. Not here. Not ever.

"Big agencies typically have big paying clients that they can do groundbreaking work for. Instead they are "rummaging around in the gutter".
Dirty Little Secrets, Marketing, March 24, 2008, pg. 14, by Paul Ferris, Executive Editor

We think it's about time somebody spoke up publicly about the dearth of award show freebies created by Canadian ad agencies, otherwise known as "dogwalkers". It's the advertising industry's equivalent of the doping scandals rocking the sports world.

They seem harmless enough. Free ads done for small, or phony clients that allow agency creative departments to show their mettle.

But it's getting way, way out of hand these days. And the ones that pay for it are the clients. They pay for it through high fees. After all, the people making those dogwalkers are paid well, especially if they win some awards for them. And since traditional agencies' profit models are based on selling time, somebody has to make up for the time spent on freebies. And how do you think traditional agencies get the money to pay for the production and media placement of these "campaigns" for clients who have no money? Government grants? We think not?

Clients also pay in terms of energy, resources and passion that is re-directed away from their business to the dogwalker's freebie, which leaves people with less time to focus on their paying clients.

Then consider that when you ask a photographer or director to do a dogwalker for free, they expect to make that contribution to your agency's reel up somewhere else. You guessed it, they make it up on a paying client's next project.

Now factor in the money the spent on entering these dogwalkers into award shows, (a single Cannes entry is well over $1000) and the time it takes to prepare the entries for every show, all of which have very specific and very different formats.

Add up all the above and I think you'd be staggered as to the amount of money, time and energy that goes into the self-indulgent award show freebies. It's literally hundreds of thousands of dollars at some agencies.

Most important perhaps, is that this practice instills a belief in agency people that you can't do great, breakthrough work for paying clients.

It's disgusting. And it has to stop.

But like doping in sports, the incentive to win awards is too high for agencies and creatives to stop on their own. All agencies want to be on the Agency of the Year list, and that takes awards. Creatives want to make more money, get promoted and lengthen what can be a short-lived career. That also takes awards.

So they cheat. And like in the doping scandals, since everyone is doing it, they feel they have to as well.

Apparently even the Chairman of DDB doesn't have to ability to stop his own agency from continuing this practice, even though he spoke out publicly against it.

Here's the truth. There are only two kinds of people who can put a stop to this. The first are agency principals like the partners here at HQvB. We put it in our charter as we started the agency. No dogwalkers. No phony ads. Ever. Sure everyone should do the occasional pro-bono for a real good cause. But for the sporting goods store down the street? No.

Our belief is that the best agencies in the world do their best work for their paying clients. Here in Canada often it's the opposite.

The other people who have the power, and perhaps more so, are clients. Agencies wouldn't exist without clients. In a service industry the customer is always right. And if the customers say "no more" than believe me, it will be heard.

We think clients should go a step further. We would suggest making your agency sign a contract that one of the criteria of you working with them is that they cannot do dogwalkers, upon punishment of being fired. To make it a bit easier, we've enclosed a downloadable contract right here. Ironically, we're giving it to you for free.

Funny enough, if you go back twenty years, award shows were filled with ads from paying clients. The work that won awards on any given year was the best work for paying clients.

As it should be.

We say stop the doping. Stop the dogwalkers. Let's all get back to doing our best work for our best clients - the ones that pay us.

Comments

[plar]

Sure, true dogwalker ads are bullshit, but:

It's unreasonable to claim
-that creatives working on dogwalkers are doing it at the expense of their real agency clients
-that dogwalkers are always done for free
-that all suppliers jack up prices on the next job to "make up for" the cost of the freebie they just did (bit of an accusation of fraud, that)
-that agencies who don't produce "breakthrough" work for clients haven't already done everything in their power to sell breakthrough work
-that there were no dogwalker ads 20 years ago.

It's hard to blow the whistle on something you'll never have all the facts on. All you can really do is say you won't participate, complain about it, and, if you really want to go down that road, try to nail agencies who do - do some detective work and publicize what you find. Not sure how popular that'll make you.

[Andy Shortt]

I don't think it's unreasonable at all. The partners and other people working here have all been part of the system for a long time. And we've seen it happen. We've been there when ad execs have said, "just get it done and put your energy towards ceative opportunities". I've personally told photographers, as have most creatives, that "we'll make it up on the next shoot". And dogwalkers are almost always done for free. That's the nature of them. The agency does the work for free, in return for an "award ad". That's the deal you make with the small company, shop or whatever.

There have always been dogwalkers, but it's really getting out of control now in Canada. Look at last year's Marketing Awards. There were two pole dancing classes clients, the fencing awards and a myriad of other what are called on the international level, "scam ads".

Andy