Are agencies playing it too safe?
September 29th, 2008by SiteLab
“A new study by Menlo Park, Calif.-based executive staffing firm Creative Group suggests that the sentiment is widespread. The survey is based on 250 telephone interviews–half of them with ad executives and half with marketing brass. Surprisingly, it was the marketing executives–whose products and services are at stake–and not the ad executives who said they needed to push for more risky marketing strategies. Sixty-five percent of survey respondents who are marketing executives and 45% of those who are advertising executives said their firms do not take enough creative risks with projects.”
As an agency it is our duty to push the envelope while maintaining fiscal responsibility, it is a very fine line that has be walked especially when taking on a creative risk, for one you can completely miss your intended demographic, especially if the risk is one towards being edgy and in your face. Yet, one can also look at the opposite spectrum and argue that boring and safe might also drive away your target.
The best advice an agency can offer is to collaborate more with the client and spell out their goals and figure out how they view themselves and see if their online advertising reflects that. In an economy like this, positive ROI is still the most important, but if a client is willing to push forward with a risky marketing strategy, then they must also be made aware of the possible negative reprucussions that could result if it completely bombs.
In the end as long as their is open communication and willing collaboration, agency clients should be getting the creative strategy that they want.
