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Agencies Great at Marketing Others Yet Horrible at Marketing Themselves

By Mark Sneider
Reardon Smith Whittaker US, GP (RSW/US)

While most advertising and public relations agencies are creative and excellent at developing strategic programs and media strategies for their clients, they don’t do a great job of marketing and selling themselves. Rightly, agencies spend the majority of their time focused on the well being of their clients, using their resources for their betterment. But rarely, if ever, do they dedicate the time and the same sense of objectivity to themselves.

Agencies do a great job of thinking about their clients’ brands in focused terms. They profess the need to find the unique selling proposition and support it with meaningful and compelling reasons to believe. Now, they need to do the same for themselves by thinking in brand-like terms. Each agency is, in essence, its own brand.

While it is clearly more difficult to position an agency than it is to position a consumer product, the challenges are the same. Agency principals need to be asking: What makes us different? Why does someone want to buy our services? How do we need to talk about our agency? Not asking these questions can turn an agency into a one-size fits all firm, which makes it extremely vulnerable long term.

Once the right communication strategy is pulled together, the key is carrying that message through all touch-points that clients and prospects come in contact with, including a Web site, agency collateral, letters, employee attitude, phone conversations, presentations and pitches.

For a long time I have carried around an article first published in Advertising Age on July 31, 1995 titled “Leo’s Valediction – a call for continued excellence.” The article re-prints portions of Leo Burnett’s speech to his agency in 1967, shortly before his departure from the firm. In the speech, he identifies all of the reasons why he would want his name taken off the door, many of which had to do with the agency not living by the principles he set forth and not reinforcing the equities he established.

I suspect that the troubles faced by Burnett over this past decade might have something to do with taking their eye off of the “red apple,” their signature trademark that you could see when entering their shop. The principle of creating and staying true to a position and backing up the position with supporting work is even more central today as it was in 1967. With so many agencies competing over so little space, applying basic marketing principles in an objective and thoughtful manner is as important as producing great work for clients.

I have had the good fortune of speaking with hundreds of agency principals over the past year and there are a few consistent themes that run through each of them, which suggests there is still work to be done:

A belief that cost of entry benefits are their underlying point of difference

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that the reason an agency principal thinks his/her agency is different is because “we have 20 years of experience, we represent the largest players in the industry, we are easy to work with, we always deliver on time…”

Never enough time to take the step back

Many feel there is no time to figure out what the agency is all about or the chance to market the business and develop new business leads.

Less than stellar performance among internal new business managers

New business managers either over-promise when they come in, don’t have direct experience in the advertising or public relations world, or they simply don’t have a well-planned methodology.

The common misperception is that “no one knows us better than us.” While this might be true, it doesn’t mean that a little outside perspective can’t be beneficial. The key is to make that outside perspective actionable and productive for the agency’s efforts. Simply hiring someone to identify problems or issues without piecing together the right plan, or implementing a plan that isn’t built from a foundation of strategy and marketing-centric principles, will do agency principals little good down the line.

In the end, think and act like a brand. Carry it as far as you can. Plan and act methodically. And keep focused on building a pipeline of new opportunities that can help strengthen your agency’s unique selling proposition.

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Mark Sneider is majority owner and managing director of Reardon Smith Whittaker US, GP (RSW/US), a lead generation and business development consultancy. RSW/US helps marketing service firms more effectively position themselves in the marketplace and helps identify and open up qualified leads for his agency clients to pursue.  RSW/US was founded in the UK 13 years ago and has operated in the United States since the start of 2005. RSW/US currently represents clients in the advertising, public relations and direct marketing sectors.

Mark is a 20 year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising and marketing service industry. Mark earned his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in marketing and economics. Mark obtained his undergraduate degree in marketing from Miami of Ohio.

Sneider started his career serving clients at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to attending Kellogg.  Prior to starting RSW/US, Mark was general manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in marketing for S.C. Johnson, Andrew Jergens, and O-Cedar Brands.