The Brandcast

With the success of recent advertisements created by viewers airing during the SuperBowl this year, several people –even a writer at the New York Times– have started asking the question: so why do we need advertising agencies anymore, anyway?

While it may be true that the role an advertising agency plays has changed, rather dramatically, over the last couple of decades, I don’t believe that advertising and marketing agencies have suddenly become irrelevant, thanks to college kids toting Mac Books. And I’m not saying that becuase, but rather, in spite of the fact that I’ve personally been supported by advertising agency dollars from age fetus to the present time.

“Car Crash”, a viewer generated Doritos commercial, developed by Dale Backus and Wes Phillips, in nearby Cary, NC, was great– and I don’t believe anyone would doubt its cleverness. But the whole structure of the Doritos competition was designed to encourage hundereds, if not thousands of applicants– and just like a season of American Idol will show you, in any random group of 10,000 people, you will, in fact, find a few shining stars. Not to mention, how many times can a competition like this, with little (if any) monetary reward, truly be successful? I suspect that creative people with production skills and time on their hands will continue to populate YouTube with funny clips to share with friends– but that they’ll soon grow tired of helping big companies get rich for free.

Brands and businesses are not built by clever TV spots alone. Much more goes on behind the scenes over here at my office, before anything glamorus even begins to emerge. That, my friends, is the main reason why advertising and marketing agiencies are not marked for extinction, but rather, will become even more necessary in the future. Because they do more than just advertise– they utilize research; public realtions skills; media management; procurement; fullfillment; strategy; production; metrics; retailer relationships; crisis communications; trend analysis– I could keep going for another 10 lines.

With the complexity of today’s marketplace, with the average consumer becomming more informed about their purchases, with the emergence of the internet taking over traditional communications– a brand absolutly must have an air-tight marketing strategy with a highly specific message aimed at a clearly defined target, otherwise, they will waste several years and millions of dollars fighting an insurgency of rival brands for controll over their market. Pardon the continung innuendo, but that is why long-running strategies, both militarily and in advertising, are both called campaigns. A TV spot is more like a single attack: and just one bomb is not going to win the brand war.