Clients and procurement are exploiting the passion ad agencies have to create work for less than it is worth, says ECD
Clients and procurement departments are taking advantage of the passion agencies have to create advertising for less than its value, a senior creative said in a video hangout with Mumbrella’s Australia site today.
Richard Morgan, the executive creative director of 303Lowe, called on clients to consider that “cheaper is not always better.”
In response to a question from Mumbrella reporter Miranda Ward on the challenges ad agencies now face, Morgan said that one of the major pressures facing the business overall is the squeeze on margins – the “race to the bottom”.
He said: “At the end of the day you need the revenue in the door to be able to get the agency on the front foot, get good people, and service clients the way they should be. So with all of those things, there’s a trickle-down effect.”
“It’s a huge issue. I would encourage clients out there watching to consider that cheaper is not always better. You do at the end of the day get what you pay for.”
“I think advertising is a business that people are very passionate about. A CFO a while ago said that advertising is a business where people – especially creatives – are so passionate about it that they pour their heart and soul into something for less than what it might be worth financially – just because they care.”
“I think unscrupulous people – clients and procurement agents – can possibly take advantage of that. So it’s up to us as an industry to reaffirm our worth and really partner with clients and show them the value of a good relationship,” he said.
“The 80s are gone. Yes, there was probably too much fat around the edges, but the pendulum has swung too far the other way now, it’s too fragmented and there are too many cost pressures.”
Morgan’s comment come 11 minutes into the video in which he and M&C Saatchi group strategy director Ross Berthinussen discuss the latest creative work from Australia.
Morgan joined 303Lowe Sydney in January 2013 after a brief stint at DDB Sydney. Previous to DDB Sydney he was a creative director with Holler and has also worked for BMF. He’s also worked overseas for the likes of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London.
The work discussed in the hangout is as follows:
The Meat & Livestock Association’s Australia Day lamb campaign from The Monkeys
The Meat & Livestock Association’s beef campaign from BMF
Honda’s HR-V Lucid Dreaming campaign from Leo Burnett Melbourne
Woolworths ‘Cheap Cheap’ Samantha Jade campaign from Leo Burnett Sydney
Brilliantly stated.
ReplyFrom someone who knows what’s happening today and what could happen tomorrow.
Mike F
Someone give that man a medal!
ReplyMaybe clients aren’t that stupid.
ReplyMaybe they know that big agency heads are staffing their creative departments with low cost juniors and no cost ‘passionate’ interns who are passed off as headcount but provide no real value.
Maybe the endless awards dinners and ‘jollies’ to cannes doesn’t jive with an underpaid industry.
Maybe clients suspect that the award winning ads for no name clients are done on the back of their big budget production.
When playing the ‘exploitation’ crying game, one doesn’t have to look very far.
Morgan seems like one of the good guys although he’s delusional. This whole devaluation of creative work is the sole responsibility of the creative head honchos who continue to silently give the nod to scam….clients think, if they do these award winning works for free i.e.. they are so desperate, then they might as well do ours for next to nothing as well. Serves us right for being such poor businessmen.
Meanwhile I see these creative heads holding court in front of unspoiled kids at portfolio night telling them how it’s done…what values they are teaching these juniors?
Reminds of some idiot in HK who green lighted a campaign for a hemmoroid cream some years back and is now complaining that no one respects his work anymore.
ReplyHappens in most industries.
ReplyHow can anyone cry ‘exploitation’ when they are giving it away for free?
ReplyScams started off as a pimple on the arse of the industry and has now festered into a cancer.
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