John Ounpuu is a co-founder of Vancouver digital shop Modern Craft and a veteran of Blast Radius, from which the former shop grew in 2014.
We mention him because he noted yesterday that there have been quite a few creative reviews of late and shared some of his theories on why that might be via our favorite source of self-indulgence, Twitter.
He was going to write an essay on the topic, but that’s what Medium is for. In short, Ounpuu thinks that all these reviews are more about clients struggling to compete than their agencies doing subpar work. (It’s probably both, just saying.)
Here’s the Storify version of his thoughts if you’re not into scrolling down.
In this age of disruption and rapid change, are creative agency reviews just proxies for a different problem? https://t.co/TuRtdwhT1d
— Modern Craft (@Modern_Craft) April 5, 2016
You’ve heard this story before.
But these days, dissatisfaction with creative agencies often stems from issues around adapting and evolving the marketing model.
— John Ounpuu (@jounpuu) April 5, 2016
Sometimes it’s the client. They know they need to change, don’t know how. No kidding: it’s complicated out there! https://t.co/AxLmBJa0cJ
— John Ounpuu (@jounpuu) April 5, 2016
The kicker:
Consider that it might be time to put the agency review on hold and update your strategy instead
— John Ounpuu (@jounpuu) April 5, 2016
So, clients know what they want (more money) but don’t quite know how to go about getting it. In lieu of actually changing the way they approach their entire marketing scheme, they choose instead to put a band-aid on that shit by picking a new agency partner.
He left out the controversial idea that many, if not most, agencies are interchangeable anyway…but you guys probably wouldn’t agree with that.
There *is* a strategy, right?😉
— John Ounpuu (@jounpuu) April 5, 2016