September 12, 2004

ad agencies: “their business models suck and they’re expensive for what you get.”

2 Comments

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My life has been com­ple­tely gover­ned by an e-mail exchange I had ear­lier in the year with Bob.
Bob is the Japa­nese brand direc­tor for a very large inter­na­tio­nal brand. A famous one. You’ve heard of it. Bob is a very smart and talen­ted guy.
At the time I was star­ting to really get into the whole Clue­train thing. I was loo­king at the adver­ti­sing industry as a whole, and not liking what I was seeing, frankly.
So I exchange a few e-mails on the sub­ject with Bob over in Tokyo. I remem­ber Bob wri­ting back something in par­ti­cu­lar about ad agen­cies– I don’t even have to look it up, I can easily recite it from memory:

“Their busi­ness models suck and they’re expen­sive for what you get.”

There’s the rub. Their busi­ness models do suck and they are indeed expen­sive for what you get. Bob is no fool.
So, my adver­ti­sing friends, here’s the new deal:
It’s not about stra­tegy.
It’s not about media.
It’s not about crea­tive.
It’s about having a busi­ness model that (a) doesn’t suck and (b) isn’t expen­sive for what you get.
I have a plan. Do you?

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2 Responses to “ad agencies: “their business models suck and they’re expensive for what you get.””

  1. hamish says:
    September 13, 2004 at 1:45 PM

    Yep. I charge ten per­cent less, and I suck ten per­cent har­der. That’ll work?
    Oh, Wait, Cor­po­ra­tions are fuc­king horri­ble and all wor­king toward the eli­mi­na­tion of the pro­fit mar­gin of the entire acti­vity of the human race, until even outsour­cing your sewage to Bur­kina Faso beco­mes too low mar­gin to be worth it. Mind you, then the CEO will be pla­ying golf with his trophy wife in a gated com­mu­nity on the moon, because it’ll be the only place left that isn’t scre­wed.
    But wait again! Hell is other peo­ple, and the other peo­ple for him will be the other CEO’s. Buy a teles­cope now, because I’d pay to watch how horri­ble that place would be…
    Gaaahhh.

  2. Larry Brown says:
    October 5, 2004 at 1:59 PM

    Hugh: should i sue you for rea­ding my mind and put­ting it online or do you want to talk me out of this legal action:631 – 764-6747?