"The problem advertising agencies have got at the moment is that they keep getting asked to do things advertising agencies can't do."

Put that as a slide in your next presentation. That'll be a crowd pleaser.

Said by a good friend of mine this morning.

Comments

[Will]

They never told me fire eating was part of the planning job. Ah well...it's off to the circus for me.

[minxlj]

Ha, try working in a marketing and design company. Clients think that is a general term for providing the moon on a bloody stick every day. Ah well, it makes the job interesting!

[Tom]

I would suggest that the more specific you are in communicating what it is you can deliver, the easier it would be for clients commission it.

I can see how readers of this blog, and the wider associated community would see 'marketing' and 'design' sitting very snugly together. But for me, with my business school degree (shared by many FMCG executives - the sorts who I presume commission marketers and designers) I don't automatically equate the two.

In my experience, marketing and design companies don't necessarily make it easy to 'get' what their strengths are.

[John Dodds]

A very valid final point Tom, but marketing directors are also at fault in asking the wrong questions of the wrong agencies.

And as someone who went to business school and not art school, I'm really surprised that you don't equate design with marketing. First P of marketing - product. Very much tied up with design as well as functionality in my eyes.

[Tom]

I just break 'marketing' into more elements that just those that a design agency can deliver - like, for example, distribution.

[John Dodds]

Absolutely Tom, I'm always banging on about that. But I'd be tempted to say that the design input is increasingly important/effective in marketing and that advertising is increasingly less important/effective. Distribution probably trumps them both.

[Tom]

Into what constituent parts would you break product design ? ie.
- packaging
- function
- are we including branding (both overall graphic look and feel as well as intangible tone of voice)
- etc

[John Dodds]

I would say that I am thinking of product aesthetic and functionality as real differentiators in a crowded marketplace. I suppose that might be termed industrial design as distinct from packaging and direct branding elements even thought they are, of course, designed.

You make me realise there are a very wide range of businesses that could be labelled as part of the "design" sector. We should discuss this face to face some time.

[Tom]

We could have a fight about it, as well. I'm smaller than you, but my hands can move really, really quickly.

[John Dodds]

I'll use Ben as a shield!

[John Dodds]

We could have a pint.

[Tom]

Sorry - it was a mis-spelling. Pint, I meant PINT. Of course. what an excellent idea.

[Rob Mortimer]

Maybe you could make the move from insurance to lion taming progressively, for example, through banking?