Don’t call us an Advertising Agency Anymore.

Rick Stanton, Creative Director / Managing Partner, Stanton & Everybody Advertising + Design

My last blogging effort mentioned that the term “advertising agency” was limiting.
The more I thought about that idea, the more freaked out I got about how the shop and I are defined by that very word set.
I’m constantly beating on clients to challenge the values and true meanings of their brands and what they really stand for and here mine sits, glued to the toilet seat of brand development and separation.
Maybe we should hire someone.
In looking at this situation, we came to the realization that advertising and associated creative and media are the last steps in an important process.
That process includes secondary and primary research, competitive set analysis and a lot of internal auditing that gets everyone involved on the same brand page.
This leads to brand beliefs, a key foundation of company meaning and a sustaining source of energy for the brand and all the people in the organization. This includes values, culture, identity, and economic and societal environments.
These elements become the promise and the expectation of the brand. Why do you exist?
Who are you? What’s your archetype? Why are you relevant?
This understanding leads to the story. How do we make visible the beliefs, purpose and actions of the brand?
Then we begin the second phase of the process by creating a brand architecture that touches every aspect of a client’s business, not just marketing. We expect clients to be on message for anything and everything including emails. The point guard in this development is the brand strategy.
It doesn’t have to be the length of the communist manifesto and it doesn’t have to be expensive, as some would have you believe. It needs to be honest and alive.
This umbrella architecture includes internalized positioning as well. Everyone inside of a company has to understand the importance and buy off on the importance of the brand’s unique qualities. Companies need zealots not employees. And they can’t and won’t buy in unless they are told “the story” and make it their own.
The emotional bridge is the heart of a brand and it brings meaning to people’s lives.
We disrupt and challenge, we provide objectivity and honesty and then we help clients discover, define and express all the aspects of their brand and we haven’t even written a creative brief yet, much less any ads.
But this does all lead to some pretty damn good work that moves market share.
And we have the case studies to prove it if you’d like to see them let me know.
We call it market driving not market driven messages.
Not all clients want all this pre-ad work done. Those are usually the ones who just want an advertising agency. And please, don’t call us an advertising agency anymore.