In search of the perfect advertising sweetheart
People who work in advertising are romantics at heart. They believe in the corporate equivalent of love at first sight, cherishing the notion that with the right idea, a seductive campaign, an irresistible turn of phrase, they can win over prospective clients.
It just does not work that way in many cases, says AAR, a London consultancy with an informed opinion on the subject. For decades, it has been arranging confidential meetings between companies and agencies, making it a leading matchmaker in the UK marketing services community.
When clients select agencies, they are usually looking for a partner, AAR officials say. Advertisers look for an agency that they can trust. They look for an agency with which they like to spend time. They look for an agency with which they can grow. If it sounds like dating, you get the point.
“Agencies think it's all about the work, but for clients it's increasingly about the relationship,” says Martin Jones, AAR director of advertising. “The relationship is about people working with people. A relationship can be servile. It can be egalitarian. It can be anything you want it to be.”
AAR's history sheds light on the advertiser-agency relationship. It began in 1975 when a London advertising account handler named Lyndy Payne noticed that there was no way for advertisers considering a change of agencies to make discrete inquiries. She started her own introduction service, enlisted the carmaker BMW as a client and was off to the races, eventually selling the firm to its management, led by Mr Jones, a former J Walter Thompson executive.
AAR helps more than 200 clients including British Telecom, Diageo and Abbey National select firms providing a full-range of marketing services ranging from advertising to design and public relations, says Nadia Martins, head of business development. It specialises in the UK but also works with affiliated consultancies in Europe and the US.
AAR's approach resembles that of an estate agent or a dating service. First, it asks a company to submit a brief, spelling out its requirements. In the case of advertisers, the consultancy pares down the field and invites its clients to view videos of prospective agency candidates.
These videos are made for AAR by advertising agencies. The idea is that they will present themselves as they are, not as they would like to appear for a particular client. Mr Jones says the average advertiser receives 100 to 150 pitches a week from marketing services agencies and usually disposes of them in the rubbish.
The video sessions are followed by what AAR calls “the chemistry meeting” discreet gatherings of advertisers and officials of agencies that are still in the running. These are more than simply social events; they are competitions. In one case, an advertiser took prospective agencies out on his yacht into a particularly rough patch of sea to see how they would perform under pressure.
Advertisers use these events to get a sense of personal dynamics at a particular marketing services firm. No one wants to hire an agency and find out a few months later that the creative director was unhappy and has just left for greener pastures. Before they commit to an agency, advertisers prefer to buy drinks and watch how members of an agency interact in uninhibited circumstances.
Underlying this emphasis on body language is the belief that the talent level in the advertising agency world is high. Kerry Glazer, AAR managing director, said it is difficult for prospective clients to distinguish between the skills of the 30 leading advertising agencies in the UK.
“The UK market is very over-supplied,” she says. “Truthfully, there is a cigarette paper between the abilities of the top agencies.”
Nonetheless, the stakes are high for advertisers when they are deciding between agencies. Like attorneys or accountants, advertising agencies are brought inside corporate bureaucracies and get a peek under the covers. Chief marketing officers have to do more than find a good agency they have to make a choice that can be defended at the highest levels. “Increasingly, what we are finding is that when marketing executives are looking at agencies, they are thinking about how it will play with the chief executive,” Mr Jones says. “They are protecting themselves.”
These are corporate relationships. Love doesn't always conquer all.
广告业“首席红娘”
从事广告工作的人骨子里都是浪漫主义者。他们相信，与公司打交道，也会有“一见钟情”的故事发生，认为只要有正确的创作理念，诱人的宣传， 令人心动的广告词，就能赢得客户。
但伦敦咨询公司AAR则对这个问题有独到的见解。该公司表示，在很多情况下，事情并非如此。数十年来，该公司一直在为广告客户和广告代理商安排私下会晤，成为英国营销服务业的“首席红娘”。
AAR公司的高级职员说，当客户选择广告代理商时，他们通常寻找的是合作伙伴。他们找的是一家他们能够信任的代理商，他们愿与之为伴的代理商，他们能与其共同发展成长的代理商。如果你觉得这听起来像在找伴侣，那你就算领悟到其中真谛了。
AAR公司的广告总监马丁?琼斯(Martin Jones)说：“广告代理商认为，能否赢得客户关键在于工作，但对于客户而言，他们越来越看重与广告代理商的关系。两者可以是主仆关系，也可以是平等关系，你希望是什么关系，就能成为什么关系。”
AAR 公司的历史让其洞察客户和广告代理商之间的关系。1975年，在伦敦，一位名叫琳迪?佩恩(Lyndy Payne)的广告帐户经营者发现，当客户想更换广告代理商时，没有地方可以悄悄打听。于是，她做起了自己的中介服务，首先争取到宝马汽车公司成为她的客户。最终，她把企业卖给由琼斯先生带领的管理层。琼斯先生曾是北美最大广告公司智威汤逊( J.Walter Thompson)的高管。
AAR公司负责业务拓展的纳迪亚?马丁斯(Nadia Martins)说，该公司帮助英国电信(British Telecom)、全球饮品公司Diageo以及英国艾比国民银行(Abbey National)等200多家客户挑选广告代理商。这些广告代理商提供从广告、设计到公共关系的全套营销服务。AAR公司的业务主要在英国，但也与欧洲和美国的附属咨询公司合作。
AAR公司的做法与地产代理和婚介公司的做法很类似。首先，它要广告客户提交一张清单，详细说明其要求。根据这些要求，AAR公司筛选广告代理商，然后邀请广告客户来看有关候选广告代理商的短片。
这些短片由广告代理商自己制作，供AAR公司使用。AAR公司希望广告代理商在这些短片中展现真实的自己，不要投客户所好。琼斯先生说，广告客户平均每周从营销服务公司收到100至150份自荐，通常这些都当作垃圾处理掉。
看完短片后是AAR公司所称的“化学会”。参加聚会的是广告客户和仍在候选名单上的广告代理商的高级职员。这样的聚会不只是社交活动，更是竞争。有一次，一位广告客户邀请各家候选广告代理商的高级职员乘坐他的游艇到波涛汹涌的海上驰骋，为的就是观察他们在压力之下的表现。
广告客户利用这些活动了解营销服务公司内部的人际动态。没有客户希望在聘用某家广告代理商的几个月后才发现，那位创意总监并不开心，刚刚跳槽了。因此，在广告客户与广告代理商签约前，客户宁愿掏腰包请广告代理商的职员喝两杯，借此观察该公司的员工在无拘无束的情况下是如何交流的。
广告客户如此注重肢体语言，是因为他们相信广告业内的专业水平都很高。AAR公司的总经理克里?格雷泽(Kerry Glazer)说，对于广告客户而言，很难分辨出英国头30家广告代理商的专业水准孰高孰低。
格雷泽女士说：“英国的广告市场供大于求。坦率地讲，顶尖广告代理商之间专业水平的差异，如同一张卷烟纸。”
但客户在选择广告代理商的时候，他们面临的风险还是很高。广告代理商和律师、会计师一样，一旦被客户聘用，就有机会了解公司的内部情况。因此，公司的营销主管要做的，不仅仅是找一家具有较高专业水准的广告代理商，他们的选择还要经得起公司最高层的质问。琼斯先生说：“我们越来越感到，当营销主管选择广告代理商时，他们揣摩公司首席执行官会怎么想。他们这么做是在保护自己。”
这就是公司关系。爱，并不总能战胜一切。
