Insider information

A journo recently asked me to comment on a few current issues for insider magazine. you might be interested, you might not:

As a smaller independent agency, what benefits can you offer clients over your larger multi-based competitors?

We argue that we although may have less bums on seats, our staff are of a high quality. Each hiring we make represents a large percentage increase in staffing levels, it's in our interests to get it right. Partner-level input on day-to-day business offers a continuity and consistency of personnel. We have a vested interest in our business and are not going anywhere. The constant staff merry-go-round that occurs at bigger agencies is one of the biggest bug-bears we hear about along with less senior people being installed on accounts the second the business is won and the agency figureheads have absconded to the wine bar. One of our buzz-words at Unsuitable and One Black Bear is agility. The nature of our business in the 21st century demands intelligent, measured actions and reactions to be made instantly. As a smaller concern we are not crippled by red tape and 'systems' that are too rigid to bend in the wind when required. The people who run the company are close at hand and can make the big decisions immediately in order to react at that point on any piece of business when, inevitably, the shit hits the fan. Finally, it goes without saying that being a smaller business, our fiscal footprint is more economical and we can obviously pass this on to our clients. As we say, small enough to care, agile enough to react, cost-effective enough to make budgets go further. Largely, it depends on the client. When you are talking about bigger companies where the marketing department has board directors and, sometimes, shareholders to appease, the instances of these concerns taking a chance on a smaller agency are rare. Appointing a name agency and having the reassurance of an established player on board is compelling for these companies. All we can do is make our case and people are starting to listen.

As the latent boom in the creative industries has experienced a deluge of start-ups over the past few years, and in view of the economic downturn, will these newer firms survive the crunch?

As in any industry during good trading conditions, you'll get a lot of start-ups overpromising and underdelivering looking for a quick and easy buck. The companies who genuinely offer a good product and service and have sensible and robust financial models will win through. The current downturn puts me in mind of the dot.com boom of the late nineties/early noughties. Start-up web businesses were instantly valued at millions of pounds with no real reasoning other than 'it's the internet, it's the future, it must be valuable'. When the bubble burst it acted as a filter for the businesses with an unsustainable model versus the agile, intelligently run concerns that survived. The Googles and the Amazons et al that had an eye on changing the world rather than simply their bank balance are now are not just masters of the internet but the entire global business landscape. The 'credit crunch' will ensure a similar filtration process will happen again but this time it affects us all, marketing or otherwise.

What do you think will be the creative sector's biggest challenge in the year ahead?

The impact of the digital sphere continues to spread. Agencies need to have a handle on this and ensure the creativity and strategy they provide takes full advantage of the masses of new avenues open to marketers. The emergence and development of the social web makes marketing so much more a two-way process. We need to educate our clients to be open. Take the criticism along with the praise. We might even learn something. Lord Bell recently said something along the lines of that if he was to start a company now he would concentrate on the internet exclusively. Now, i don't think the more archaic methods we're used to are dead just yet but, believe me, I take the point very seriously. We're finding that there is a lot of digital business out there. Clients are diverting more and more budget away from the blunt instruments of broadcast, press, outdoor and DM to more measurable online models. Agencies that embrace the digital realm, take their clients forward and truly innovate are going to be the ones that define the creative sector in our region and become the next generation. More power to them.