Lean Advertising: It just had to happen

You now find 'lean' in various disciplines, such as car production and even apparently in Government. Lean Advertising is also on the agenda of the upcoming course 'Essential Strategic Planning Skills for Client Service and Creative' to be held on 18 July in Johannesburg.

A wonderful example of lean (as a philosophy) comes from the healthcare industry (Toussaint and Gerard*). Let's say a patient goes to see the doctor with a pounding headache. He/she will probably have blood and urine tests relating to diabetes, infection or thyroid malfunction. Next up is a CT scan. A sinus X-ray might be ordered along with an eye exam or even a painful spinal tap. I'm not exaggerating. The final diagnosis: you have a migraine (like most people in advertising). When patients were asked what happened - they said nothing of value occurred - they still left with a headache. With a 'lean' philosophy, the doctor could have prescribed sumatriptan which works in 70% of cases of migraines, avoiding the bulk of resources used. And the majority of patients could have received value - no more headache.

'Lean' doesn't mean 'mean' - it means 'the essentials' without the 'waste'

'Lean' as a discipline has become somewhat complicated, but at the end of the day it is simply the elimination of waste. Taking a brief from a client verbatim, without really finding out what the problem is (until you present the first round of work) is wasteful, if not downright demoralising.

The most crucial step in reducing waste (which in advertising is mostly time), is to clearly define what the client's problem is. Without a clear articulation of the problem, you're heading towards wasteful resources (the antithesis of lean). Why has lean become more important in advertising? Well, if time is money, and most of the expenses of an agency is people's time, then with rampant inflation the prognosis for a profitable agency is a lean philosophy. Quality work takes time you say. I agree. So does building a good car.

Toyota got it right, so what's stopping us? But each Toyota is the same you might argue - not every car that comes off the assembly line is unique. But even if each car was unique, in shape colour and features, Toyota would still shine, producing cars of better quality at a comparable price. Because they've learnt to be lean.

Where 'lean' means 'more'

Lean does not mean telling the creatives to hurry up. On the contrary, a lean agency would organise itself so that creative have more time to spend on work. That means ensuring that you discover the brief (and don't just take it), delve deeper into the problem with the client and then make sure you articulate the problem and that the client agrees with your interpretation. Then we have the diary issue. I honestly don't know how to solve it, but from the time the brief is taken until creative is briefed, is a waste of resources. The goal should be to make this hiatus as short as possible. An ad agency is like a restaurant. If all the orders come flooding in at one time, the kitchen can't cope and the food takes hours and comes out awful. And that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. If agencies want to get (and keep) fat accounts, they need to get lean.

For more on the upcoming course, visit the website here.

*Reference: J Toussaint, R Gerard. On the Mend. Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry. Lean Enterprise Institute.