by Connie Burtcheard
Chief ADvisor

In a world where status quo will wreck an Advertising Agency, agencies should be challenging the accepted beliefs of the industry. Agencies have always thought outside the box—almost to the point of being a flaw. Instead of trying to be “out there” in the operations of your agency, keep this characteristic exclusive to your creative strategy and execution.

The operations of your agency should be inside the box. Now is not a time that you can be raising your rates, but it is a time that you can become more profitable. The most neglected part of an Advertising Agency is its workflow. To become more profitable, your workflow should be streamlined and foreseeable. How work gets completed in your agency must be identified, documented and followed.

In the past, it was acceptable to have silos in an agency. After all, creative’s are creative, and everyone else—well, isn’t. The current economic climate, coupled with the influx of new mediums, has made the consumer more attune to advertising messages. It is now easier for them to tune out or avoid advertising messages. This makes it is more difficult for traditional advertising approaches to reach today’s consumer.

Everyone in the agency has some responsibility in making certain that each job completed for the client is one that will break the barrier— the one that now exists between the advertisement and the consumer. This means that knowing what each person is responsible for, when they are to complete it and exactly where in the process a job is at all times, is crucial.

The successful Agency of tomorrow will resist the status quo and refuse to follow the bad habits of the industry’s past. It is cliché, but knowledge is power. Knowing the current status of all of your work and what still needs to be completed ensures your jobs are completed On Time – On Scope – and On Budget!