Man About Town

Changing Minds in America" is the theme of next week's Account Planning Group Conference in Washington, D.C. This year's co-chairs, Arnold's Graceann Bennett and Brand Architecture's Gay Holmes Condos, have set out to change some minds in the planning community, and I was asked to tackle new business. I figured they didn't just want my opinions, so I conducted a review of leading new-business search firms to get the real skinny. I polled the consultants listed on the 4A's search list. (If you didn't get my e-mail, you either don't have an address or it's incorrectly listed.) The results are in. And the good news is … there's bad news all around. Let me give it to you straight: I have found the enemy, and the enemy is … us. Remember Event Horizon? The sci-fi thriller in which it's not an alien but the spaceship itself that's killing the crew? That's our problem. It's not only the economy that's wrecking our world. We seem to be doing a pretty good job ourselves, too. Consultant Jack McBride scored big-time with his hair-raisingly candid responses. My favorite? "Agencies need to get serious and upgrade the size and caliber of their staffs, even if this means cutting into their profit goals. Advertisers won't take them seriously ever again if they don't. The demands of Wall Street are ruining the agency business." There's more. Here's a cheery comment from Virginia-based Peter Coughter: "[Agencies] need to convince the business world that they are relevant. It isn't news, but agencies are becoming increasingly devalued in the eyes of the people who run companies in America." Doesn't that warm your heart?All joking aside, the search community has some sobering perspectives, and it would do us a world of good to pay attention. (Those of you who think they have hidden agendas? Get off it. It's been my belief for years that we don't have any better advocates. Do they get paid for what they do? Duh. Do you?) Take Select Resources' Catherine Bension, who takes a whole lotta guesswork out of the pitch process. I know firsthand that she truly wants agencies to do well and spells out just how they can put their best foot forward. Problem is, folks refuse to play by the freaking rules. Can't people read? Ask Michelle Conrad, who has to wade through the responses. She's even had to "school" me a few times. Before you complain about what meanies these guys are, imagine their offices when news gets out that they're running a pitch. I've been to see Leslie Winthrop at AAR at such a time, and it's out of control. All you people sending what look like otto mans via FedEx? What's up with that? It speaks to the point many of my respondents made about agencies talking too much about themselves. In their materials, credentials presentations, the final pitch. A cacophony of Me! Me! Me! And that ain't good. I have a few surprises in store for my audience next week as well. (Just to be safe, I'll be behind a chain-link fence, like a country band at a honky-tonk.) What can they expect? Well, my final question to the search consultants was, "Fill in the blank: The future of account planning in the U.S. is _____. (Take as much space as you need.)" You have no idea how many left that blank. Great, I thought. What the hell does that mean? According to Hasan + Co.'s Hasan Ramusevic (and others), most clients don't know what account planning is. Similarly, ADvice & ADvisors notes that "agencies assume clients know more about planning than they do, so the more sophisticated planning agencies concentrate on the newest, cleverest tools at their disposal and the less sophisticated talk about doing collages. The clients think the collages are more insightful than the latest ethnographic technique ('cause they don't understand it) and are overly impressed by the wrong agency." I've got tons more to share. But let me end optimistically. Most consultants included simple, smart advice for what agencies can do right now. When crafting case histories, for example, Jane Bedford reminds us that "the most important thing is that an agency be candid, be humble, give their client most of the credit and state results that are connected to the strategy. Also, truly get to know who that individual [prospect] is across the table." The Rojek Cutcher Group and Dick Roth both ring the gong that the most important thing an agency can do is concentrate on existing clients and "continue to do what agencies do best." For a full review, e-mail me at ntyree@adweek.com and I'll send you a post-conference analysis. That is, if I live to tell the tale. Meanwhile, I'll comfort myself with Roth's reminder that "like Ed McCabe said, 'You're nobody till somebody hates you.' "

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Man About Town

Neilan Tyree

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Neilan Tyree