Posh parties. Black-tie award shows. First-class flights and three-martini lunches. As ad budgets shrink, brands move capabilities in-house, and more people realize that the emperor has no clothes, advertising agencies face a painful reality: The gravy train is over. To survive in a post-COVID world, ad agencies will need to grow up, become more accountable, and do more with less.
“We got too fancy,” says agency founder Anselmo Ramos in the Digiday story, “‘We secretly knew that was bullshit’: Agencies face a painful pivot to reality.“
Fancy is right. It took a global pandemic, but at long last, the COVID-19 crisis has forced ad agencies to look hard at their extravagant spending on lavish lifestyles and frivolous perks.
Now, “It’s either adapt or die,” said Ramos.
Hopefully that means putting a focus back on results. As regular Cranky readers know, I hate most advertising. Too many ads seem — to me, at least — so transparently made to win awards and sell the agency’s creativity over clients’ products and services.
If the COVID crisis means a return to sobriety for ad makers, then at least some good will have come from it.
“We secretly knew that was bullshit”
Ad agency executives and industry consultants agree — the status quo is unsustainable and a reckoning is long overdue.
From the article:
“The margins just aren’t there to support our self-indulgent award shows, office ‘concierges’ and three-martini lunches,” said Rebecca Armstrong, CEO of North. “OK, we’re not drinking that much at lunch anymore, but the things that have always irked clients about us are under threat and rightly so. We’ve been flaunting our pampered business lives under the pretense that it’s all needed to fire up the best creative. And we secretly knew that was bullshit.”
Now, as 40 percent of marketers expect layoffs due to the coronavirus and S4 Capital CEO Martin Sorrell has predicted a “Darwinian cull” of the industry, it’s time for people in the ad world to step off their Razr scooters, stop pretending they’re rock stars or auteurs, and get back to the work of producing smart, strategic creative that respects consumers and improves the client’s bottom line.
Their agencies and jobs may depend on it.
Give Digiday a click to see the full article.
Do you work in advertising? What changes are you seeing in your company and the industry at large? Share below.
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The train stopped a long, long time ago. Some people just never got off. As we enter the era of only making what is guaranteed to work, lower your expectations for anything truly breakthrough or unique. And for most of the suits, that’ll be just fine.
That’s right, Chris. Originality in advertising has always been overrated. As famed former ad critic Bob Garfield said in his book, “And Now a Few Words from Me”:
“Advertising is there to communicate. Nobody is hired to do something novel. Novelty, as often as not, is camouflage for the inability to solve the problem at hand . . . The Energizer Bunny wasn’t brilliant because it was original. It was brilliant because it was right.”
I wish more ad people understood that.
Thanks for reading.
Yes, yes, and yes. “To survive in a post-COVID world, ad agencies will need to grow up, become more accountable, and do more with less.” And I would like to add another ad strategy that sickens me…the “shame-the-inadequate-sick-mom” genre.
This category is typified by several ads, off the top of my head–the Lilly Emgality Ad in which a 9-year-old (or so) asks her migraine-suffering mom if she can play pirates, and the mom jumps up with joy at that opportunity. A lot of us wrote to Lilly about this one, and it disappeared, but was replaced by another very similar version, where the 30-something mom is traipsing through fantasyland, holding up her daughter’s long gown train.
Similarly, in the Latuda Bipolar Depression ad, Cute Little Girl ever so empathically talks about how her mom is always sad– and tries–but can’t always do things with her. And she turns sadly, paint brushes and paper in hand, and walks away.
The Botox Migraine Ad has a little twist on their targeting of women, and portrays them as being “baad mothers” — not even a thinly veiled euphemism for suggesting that you’re really badass if you’re a tough mother(f*cker implied). And if you’re a woman, you earn that badge if you can power through 15 or more migraines a month, each one lasting 4 hours, and still shuttle the little ones off to nursery school, work all day, take a boxing lesson after work, and then do the grocery shopping…kids in tow.
First, children need age-appropriate playmates. Their mothers work all day and are worn out…and besides that are no longer close to the ground–which makes running and jumping around more difficult. We are not age-appropriate playmates.
Second, women who suffer from migraines or bipolar disorder do not need to be portrayed as “less than” if their debilitating medical condition makes it impossible for them to “play” with their children. Advertisers are trying to paint a picture of women “needing” to take these drugs–not for relief from pain or depression–but so they don’t give the appearance of neglecting their children.
Enough. Enough of this. No more mom shaming. In a time when we are finally calling “foul,” Mom’s Lives Matter Too.
Bravo, Holly! You make great points and you are not alone. The Emgality and Latuda ads you mentioned have drawn fire from all corners of the Internet, and it’s all well deserved.
My theory? These ads were conceptualized and created by people who don’t know their audience. They have only a superficial understanding of motherhood and migraines, and they therefore lack the empathy needed to make effective ads.
So they settle on trite ideas such as the mom playing pirates with her daughter, oblivious to the fact that what they’ve created is not cute or fun or heartwarming, but unrealistic and off-putting.
Oh, I’m sure these creatives had a lot of fun storyboarding the ideas and shooting the spots, but that’s not the point of the job. The point is to connect with consumers effectively and show that you know how to help them.
That’s what a lot of ads today simply fail to do.
Thanks for writing and sharing your thoughts!