Does your ad agency's strategic planning process add real value?

After more than a decade of going to agency planning meetings and waiting endlessly for creative briefs, I've come to the conclusion that ad agency planning processes do more harm than good. Why? Because the process is more about "crafting a document" than it is about solving problems or identifying opportunities.

Why not just sit down with your agency and spell out what the issue is. INstead of going through a long, drawn-out process, why not ask them to come back with solutions, simply spelled out? In the midst of World War 2, Winston Churchill asked his admiral of the navy to, on one side of one sheet of paper, give him the state of the Royal Navy and outline his plan for winning the war.

If you can't spell things on one piece of paper, you probably don't have a good handle on what you need to do, was the thought. And we here at HQvB agree. We're hired to look at things differently. we're hired to proactively identify opportunities, and come to our clients with insightful solutions.

We're not hired to make documents, meetings and reports.

Apparently, we're not the only ones that think so. Here's what Nancy Vonk, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Toronto and winner of the Grand Prix at CAnnes last year had to say about this recently in Creativity:

"The starting point for any project should be media-neutral and ideally begins as soon as the client's problem or opportunity presents itself. Screw the 'brief.' I see that piece of paper, weeks or even months in the making, as a giant speed bump between the agency and a great idea. Just tell us the problem and let us have at it. The 'duh' here is that agencies have to stop behaving like ad agencies. We can be seen as our client's best possible problem solvers for any creative solution they may need. And that can include ideas for anything from new products to how to improve working conditions for farm workers who grow the cotton for the fashion brand's clothing. Then there's the need to be proactive. Most clients have opportunities and problems that haven't even occurred to them but could be brought forward by the agency, always with a solution attached."

When you look at it this way, you begin to wonder what value those armies of account people creating documents and meetings at your agency are really offering your company. Heck, even senior execs at those agencies don't think they're offering much value.

What Nancy thinks is the way to go is hard for agencies to accomplish, as most of them, including her own, work on an outdated model of selling units of time. Which is why so many people get involved in any given project. And why it takes so long to draft those documents she talks about. It's how the agency makes money. It's how they feed their machine.

At HQvB, we've traded in this old notion for a model based around the valuation of our solutions. It allows us to focus on what we, and Nancy, think is the important part of the business, solving problems in creative ways.

Comments

[Cyma Saeed]

Fantastic, value adding comment. I belive every account exec should have had thorough orientation of different departments of the agency and at least a month's orientation with the client, with a desk in their office. That is the only way they can be in the position to ad value and not just volume.

[Mike Covert]

Having worked account and creative sides in agency life for many years, I too have felt restricted and subject to the speed bump to what agencies are supposed to do best. Couple of thoughts:

In my experience, it doesn't have to take months or a lot of personal to get a solid foundation for creative solutions. The purpose of a brief is to assemble valuable research and insight that helps define the problem in a comprehensive way. It sets up reference points for the creative solutions to stay on track. Without it, I find the goals of a program can get lost in the focus for great creative. If the right hands (i.e. not every account person on the floor) would spend more time contributing to the creative and less time revising nuances of the brief, I think everyone would be happier. Except those agencies selling time and justifying retainer personnel.

I also find, depending on the client, an extensive briefing process can be a security blanket. The perceived rigor helps sell the idea - in some cases, they are convinced the right idea is there before you ever get to present the concept. If the briefing process is done right, it is valuable to that end. It's a road map for strategic integrity. It just doesn't have to be the all-too-often time suck, for which clients also contribute their fair share.

Thanks for the post.