Only brands who advertise do advertise. Yes, advertising is one of the most crucial elements for any business. In fact every business needs some kind of advertisement. “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”, this famous saying by ad legend Steuart Britt has now become more relevant for modern businesses. It is true that a credible advertisements can create magic for any business but hiring a wrong agency might end up in disaster. This blog is for clients who are planning to hire advertising agency for the first time. In this blog we have tried to make our readers aware of the basics of advertising.
Study the agency and its people
Meetings and fact findings are important. Know more about the agency and their people. Remember, advertising is a collaborative endeavor which demands the client and agency to work at sync. This is the reason why you need to know each other well before getting on the floor. Though every agency works tirelessly to serve their clients in best possible manner but in that due process they start excelling in different aspects of creation and ideation. As creative agencies influence businesses, similarly it is the type of clients or trade an agency deals with; also influence the agencies to some extent.
Find your advertisement objective
Advertisements are created for definite objectives. Both budget and creatives differ in accordance to this objective. For example, the concept or the creative will vary for an awareness campaign and a recall campaign. Similarly, creatives will differ for product launch or rebranding. As a client it is your primary responsibility to figure out the objective. Some of the common objectives are brand awareness, social branding, new product launch, store launch, rebranding, recall advertisement, logo change and etc.
Prioritize briefing sessions
These are the most important part of creating a successful advertisement. As agencies we always remain curious and inquisitive to know more about products, services to be advertised. Undeniably, as a client you are the parent of your products or services. But you must always remember that an agency is the paediatrician, the more you exchange information with your agency the more they can come up with brilliant concepts. Sharing relevant information can also help them draw useful insights about target consumers. Based on these information, some of our ideation sessions extends up to 5 to 7 hours.
Creative presentation matters
In my professional experience I have observed clients are deliberately not informed by some agencies about creative presentation. Few agencies often deliver a verbal brief before ratifying the agreement. As a client you should always ask for proper presentation before hiring a creative agency. Moreover, this presentation will also give you an insinuation of the efforts the agency has put on your commercial. Based on this presentation, the creative agency will deliver you a storyboard or animatics. Storyboard is the first visual presentation of the proposed commercial. This could either be drawing layouts or a digital presentation with relevant audio and sound details. Adwartising is lucky to work with clients who are more like our family. Agreements, disagreements at brainstorming sessions often
Delegate and not dictate
As a client you are the captain of the campaign and therefore delegate creative freedom to the hired agency. If you let them have creative freedom, they can come up with magical ideas. You may reject or accept if it fits the logic and your purse. Most worst advertisements ever made in history are the ones featuring family members of the clients. Advertisement is neither an art nor a science. But the best advertisements are the ones which perfectly blends them together. Featuring you or your family member will be justified only if it fits the creative based on your primary objectives of the commercial. Unnecessarily adding star value through an advertisement might overwhelm your brand name.
At Adwartising, we believe best ads are not dependent on the volume of your budget. Rather it is the outcome of research, idea, effort and proper allocation of resources. Needless to say, great ads can be made even in shoe string budget.
Hope this article helps you in finding the best advertising agency for your brand.
