Ad world glitter not always gold

Good creative work is long lasting and impacts on the client's bottom line. The value of brand recall is difficult to gauge, however, like all work, these things need to have a price. If creative works for you - like any other business tool - you have to pay for it.

Advertising should be like a good marriage between client and agency: Any one who has been successfully married for a long time knows that ethics, trust and honesty are some of the key ingredients in making a relationship work. Also, in advertising there is a lot of money changing hands and as a client, one must feel confident that your agency has more than a purely financial interest. You must be able to trust in the agency's passion for your product.

The industry as a whole has developed a negative reputation for having questionable business ethics. Many agencies lack transparency and over charge for their creative output. At the same time, clients don't always understand what goes into the creative process and unfortunately seldom want to. In this way clients are pulling the wool over their own eyes and allowing themselves to be taken advantage of.

A lot of evils are hidden behind the "creative" cloak. The ultimate proof of the creative pudding is the business benefit to the client's brand. One should not hide behind this creative aura, as the problems lie in the business ethics not in the creative process

The industry also suffers from an over-inflated ego. Realistically speaking, we are not saving the world by any stretch of the imagination.

The real pity is that the ethical agencies seldom charge the full realistic cost of what it takes to come up with a really good creative concept. While more traditional jobs can justify on paper how time is spent on a project, it is difficult to measure the time spent on an idea, as it is very much an internal process.

There is a lot of mistrust regarding agencies and their costs among clients. Agencies seem to be perceived as being smooth operators out to make a quick buck.

Sadly, if you are an ethical person, who owns a leather jacket you almost too afraid to wear it lest you client thinks you make too much money. Clients cannot put their finger on creative so they assume that you are always out to take advantage of something they cannot grasp.

Clients should understand that there is a difference between being ethical and being cheap. Like any business, advertising agencies work to make money. However, an ethical agency will produce advertising that will benefit the client's brand and positively impact his bottom line. Furthermore, an ethical agency will not only ensure that its staff are well paid, but will also produce high quality work, even if it is more expensive than the next agency. The results will speak for themselves. To produce good work you need good people - and good people do not work for free.

Clients need to realise that they are not only paying for a good idea. They are also paying for a range of specialised services and the execution of effective marketing.

At this stage, however, nothing is being done to change these negative public perceptions, or to moderate this industry in any way. The ASA moderates content for anti-competitiveness and insensitivity. We feel that it is just as important to have a body to monitor ethical standards of behaviour in the industry, those that are seen and those that are unseen by the public.

Transformation of this industry, holding agencies accountable for ethical practices would be the ideal, but measuring it would be a challenge. If the business part of the industry is monitored and regulated for ethics and transparency, this will allow the creative process to flourish.

In the industry, above the line advertising (ATL) is seen as the funkier, more upmarket section of advertising. It is regarded as the area that requires the use of all sorts of elevated, specialised services. The lack of understanding and the mysticism that ATL is wrapped in is what ultimately adds to its status. Below the line advertising (BTL) is regarded as an "anyone can do this" area of the industry. It is a very neglected area of the marketing mix. Budgets are rather spent on ATL elements and whatever is left is relegated to BTL.

Both ATL and BTL are essential elements in the marketing mix and to have an effective outcome, both should be taken advantage of. Clients and agencies often believe that BTL is easy and don't like to pay for that service. However, in the hands of an accomplished agency BTL becomes more about strategy and how to get the best results out of your budget. This strategic marketing tool also comes at a price though, and cannot be ignored by clients. More importantly, it should not be considered as a job that can easily be done by the Marketing Director's sister-in-law, on a home PC.

What clients should realize is that all agencies, whether ATL or BTL, basically offer the same thing. What makes the difference is what sits behind the offering. Making your ad agency an integral part of your marketing team means having them on board as a risk partner from Day 1. If agencies were allowed a deeper understanding of clients' business and risks and were measured on their performance against set criteria, responsible and ethical advertising would follow.

The greatest loss to the industry is the loss of that idealism that we all had when we first started. That creative energy has been tainted by the status and aura that advertising has developed.

Spindoctors has effectively kept its share of idealism, but combined it with strategy and business sense. We are an ethical and inherently honest company. Sometimes to the point of being blunt. We are proud of our integrity and take our work immensely personally. When we do a campaign, we put our hearts and souls into it. And if something goes wrong (because everyone makes a mistake at some stage), we don't sleep until we fix it.