Accountability and metrics are the calls-to-action today between advertisers and agencies. And while this is not a bad thing, it troubles me that there is little attention paid to those qualities on humanistic scales for which there are no measurements: loyalty, commitment, respect, dignity…and the absence of ruthlessness and insensitivity. These are qualities we expect to give to meaningful and valued partnerships while enduring together the long, hard treks over hills and into valleys.

            We have not yet made a deep enough bow towards acknowledging that advertisers and agencies are interdependent and highly reliant on one another for achieving enduring Brand health and wealth. Every time an agency is fired, every time an advertiser feels it is not receiving value for their investment, and every time an advertiser and agency split asunder before taking all the steps they can towards partnership retention, then some ‘thing’ more intangible than metrics and profits, yet equally yoked, is at stake: that fragile space in which human values and creativity are cradled.

            And, most importantly, we have not made the case with clarity and truth marching hand-in-hand that there are reasons why great advertisers have great agencies that create great work. Let us as an industry be brave and bold and seek to codify these reasons so that we can teach and inform one another on those “best practices” that serve not only the real and necessary practicalities of business, but the very human ones as well that live in that space of what is and what is to come.

              No, we have not done enough to convince advertisers and agencies that it is worth their dedicated time, effort, and a sometimes-uncomfortable process of deep listening and absolute candor to look at what is weak and what is strong. To do the hard work of resolving partnership differences (and indifferences) in order to stem the tide of business and partnership erosion -- that of the Brand and the people who serve it -- this is the anthem we must sing.     

       There is important work to be done for important reasons.

“Anthem” is updated thinking on an article published in MorganAnderson’s  ‘anecdotes … from the field’ series in November 2005 titled We Haven’t Done Enough. It was subsequently published in Adweek January 2006.

Lee Anne Morgan & Partners is a client and agency advocacy advisor. Services and solutions for issues and concepts raised in this article are available for review in Capabilities (Agencies) and (Marketers) of this Web site.
 

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© Lee Anne Morgan 2007