Recession: bringing out the worst

Did you hear the one about the agency that wouldn't get out of bed for less than a R10 million account and is now offering services pro bono for up to a year in an attempt to steal clients from smaller agencies?

There's no doubt that the recession brings out the worst in some; these are desperate times indeed. But in a ‘village' like Cape Town, where most of the ad industry can be found drinking at Wakame and Wafu in Mouille Point on a Thursday night (their calamari with coriander soya sauce is to die for, doll), it's short term gain, this industry ain't big enough for such anti-competitive practices.

And this is not just one example from a small to medium sized agency whose client lists are being targeted by the bigger agency shops; we've been given several examples across different industry categories. For me, it comes down to the same problem: an inability by some of the larger shops and media owners to reengineer themselves fast enough to embrace a world where the R3 million TV ad is no longer king and clients require multi-pronged solutions and faster turnaround on ideas. It's easier to change direction in a fishing boat than a container ship.

New buzz words

And yes, the arguments are that larger shops have the international contacts to take a brand global, whereas smaller shops may not. But everyone had to start somewhere and there would be no growth or reengineering in an industry such as ours if innovation was squashed. Anyway, the new buzz words out there are collaboration and partnering... In Europe, certainly it's becoming common practice for digital shops to control the client brief, briefing in their creative to the ad agencies.

The message coming out of Cannes this year is one of integration. That's nothing new - from a media perspective certainly, our industry has been turned on its head in the past five years by digital integration. And it's besides the point that the worst-kept secret across any communications discipline is that profits aren't exactly flowing from the different digital media - a long-term view is needed here.

Digital integration is about building community, about direct, one-to-one communication with your clients, about customer loyalty... If you start with a profit motive first, you'll be bounced out of cyberspace. Try a little authenticity, give your brand a little reality; we all know that it's about emotional connections. And this applies to our industry across the board: it will come back to bite you on the bum if your client acquisition strategy includes playground bullying.