Casey Jones spent two years as Dell’s vp of marketing. In that time he was successful in pioneering a first-of-its-kind agency, Enfatico, which had it prevailed would have been a landmark for the industry. Earlier this year Enfatico was absorbed by Y&R, but not before Dell and Jones parted ways. Now, in an interview with AdAge, the maligned marketer says it was a lack of communication that led to Enfatico’s lackluster performance.
“‘A lack of commitment to tight and coherent input to the agency was a major contributing factor to the struggles between Dell and WPP,’ he said, adding that that some of his marketing peers at Dell assumed having a single agency partner made it less important to provide formal instruction to the agency.”
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The quote appeared in a story regarding a poll Jones’ new marketing consultancy Jones & Bonevac commissioned. One could say that Jones was trying to vindicate himself by surveying
“more than 250 senior executives at a variety of top marketing agencies. Agency executives reported that at least 30% of their staffs’ time is ineffective or wasted due to poor communication from their clients. For large marketers, that could mean millions of dollars in needless agency fees and misguided ad campaigns.”
Vindication? Certainly, granted you trust this,
“The study was fielded by Emeryville, Calif.-based Greenberg Brand Strategy, and included feedback from shop such as JWT, Razorfish, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Martin Agency, MediaVest, BBDO, Publicis, Deutsch, Carat, Interbrand and Wunderman. More than half (54%) of respondents said fewer than 40% of client briefs give them clear indication of what’s expected from their agencies. Of that number, 30% said only 1% to 10% of briefs provide clear performance expectations.”
Check out the rest of the story, here.
Note: I thought the beauty of advertising was that clients usually don’t really know what they want and it’s your job to tell them. And then they tell you, no that’s not what we want try again. And then you make something else, and something else. By design, this business is about wasting everyone’s time. Sometimes.