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Agencies should take lessons on marketing
Dear editor,
Your interview with Sir Martin Sorrell (Campaign, 11 June) made very stimulating reading. How refreshing to hear a well-known money-man look beyond the financial drivers of value to acknowledge the role that motivated, inspired people and teams can play in driving business growth.
Agencies often pride themselves on the excellence they bring in helping marketers enhance their products. But few seem willing to invest in developing the marketing capabilities of their own people. Instead, they rely on their historical comfort blankets of awards and creativity when the industry as a whole is crying out for agency partners with a shared understanding and deep skills in the core drivers of marketing excellence.
While some of the big networks have initiatives in place to develop enhanced skills among their employees, these are light years behind the focused capability initiatives you’d find at multinational client organisations. Many of these have dedicated capability directors, marketing academies and development strategies that are pushing the boundaries of marketing skills development and raising the bar for the agency world.
As a result, it’s little wonder that the only way most agencies get good people is by taking them from their peers.
There’s an old adage: “The carpenter’s door is always wonky.” Agencies should wake up to the fact that marketing is not just something they offer to clients but something they need to excel at and invest in. Otherwise, they’re just not going to stay ahead of the game.
Mhairi McEwan
Co-founder and managing director
BRAND LEARNING
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/