The Business of Advertising

Risk is a significant part of advertising, and the range from playing it too safe to taking calculated risks to just winging it is wide. You have to go with what’s in your heart and soul. Advertising has become way too safe. It’s not as bold or as much fun as it used to be. That is not the fault only of those at the agency developing the advertising campaigns; it is also driven by people on the client side who don’t want to take a short term risk or assume their MBAs gives them a world of experience.

Evaluating risk is very difficult. To suggest and try change, you must be prepared to be rejected at times, because people really do not want to change. You have to study the palate from left to right, the individual rainbow of color you can choose from to describe life. Sometimes it’s best to take a wide swatch quickly, try something new and different, and see if it works. But, you also must have the ability and guts to admit it’s not working and make the necessary adjustments or kill the campaign or product.

Advertising will always be dependant on a brand’s budget to some degree. Having inadequate money to spend, puts undo pressure on the advertising. Whether you have the budget or not, the advertising must be truthful, relevant, eye catching, memorable and down right pleasing. It really has to break through the clutter. From an advertising agency and creative perspective, we must understand and empathize with how a client comes up with a budget. There has to be a return on their investment in the marketing and sales arenas. Sometimes we at the agencies run off too arrogantly and say, “This is great advertising, so produce it,” without understanding the repercussions nor the client companies’ cash flow requirements.

You can measure return on investment in a myriad of ways. It has to be trackable, accountable, and make a profit. Whatever the costs of an advertising campaign, you start with what your client’s expected returns or results are, then match the results in the marketplace from manufacturing to sales to distribution to product results, against those expectations.

Everything within a company has to work together, but I don’t know many companies that can be successful for any length of time without having great marketing and great advertising to go with that great sales and distribution force behind it. I do believe that marketing, sales, and advertising are the soul of the economy.