We have to be more than an advertising agency.

Rick Stanton - Managing Partner/Creative Director
Stanton & Everybody Advertising and Design

In a recent ADWEEK article, MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal described the advertising
As “An industry under siege.” He goes on to say this won’t change until mid-2010 at the earliest.
I’ve always subscribed to the idea of doing more no matter the economy. And that’s not limited to the expected services of an advertising agency.
To that point, the term advertising agency places a lot of limits on what clients expect to get and what we should expect to provide.
I have always wanted everyone at the shop to know as much as we could about a client’s business.
Unless you immerse yourself in their culture and their day-to-day battlefields it’s highly unlikely you will develop a true sense of their purpose and their brand truth. Just talking to the higher ups is a sure way to miss something important. We have offered to make tacos at a client’s restaurants. We’ve donned green aprons and worked in hardware stores.
We’ve bagged groceries and ate in the employee lunchroom. We secret shop like crazy.
And if the on-hold music is off brand we will report that as well.
Unless you allow yourself to understand the whole business you limit your value to your client. Being of added value to a client only occurs when you understand the whole business first hand, it’s not just about writing a brand strategy and doing some cool ads.
We want to be in a position to tell our clients where they are strong and where they are weak. Personally, I want to be viewed as someone smart and honest enough to have in the circle of power. That makes us more important as a partner and not a vendor.
Want to find ways to make hay during tough times and good times?
Do more and don’t worry about the money. Unless it’s a bad client, it usually leads to getting paid exactly what you are worth. That’s one of the benefits of being independent, small and good. But if you are one of the giant International holding companies that insist their “branches” return a net 20% profit or else, then worry. Your approach is broken anyway.

Read this article: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i9c779034c7476d104f2fcbb2df3ba23f