No Jekami at Social Tariff
ADC Chairman Andreas Prokesch on the current development of pitches
ADC Chairman Andreas Prokesch on the current development of pitchesThe advertising industry is sitting at the bottom of the economic trough. Agencies are fighting tooth and nail for communications budgets. The fact that pitch policy has suffered as a result has not escaped the attention of the industry association BSW. A pitch list is intended to put a stop to mass pitches. Andreas Prokesch, author of this letter and ADC board chairman, describes the situation using the example of the campaign for Zurich Zoo. Imagine: Some goat looks at you with its head bowed. It is joined by a headline that intelligently conveys a surprising message to you: "Where children and animals get closer."
To ensure that the advertising-relevant target group of dads, goddads and grannies really understands the message, the Consumer Promise is also put in the right perspective with photos. Happy father with happy child and other snapshots that are often described as emotional in federal diploma circles. Finally, the sponsors also find their place - Axpo and the Zürcher Kantonalbank. All of this can be seen on posters of the dimensions B4 and B12, which are currently hanging around Zurich and are intended to advertise the diminutive of Zooh!
Why did the poster catch my eye anyway? Because the zoo had previously invited ten advertising agencies to a competitive presentation. Because it thanked them with 1000 francs each. And because ten advertising agencies let them do it.
If the components described above had been put together by a desktopper, the poster would have been produced 20 times cheaper - although you could have saved yourself that, too, and commissioned the print shop directly. But that's not how things work in our industry. It goes like this: First the marketing management changes, then the budget, including the agency. In this case, it comes from the canton of Solothurn.
This may be surprising for purely geographical reasons, because long journeys devour more money than short ones, and because the zoo has to scrape together a good part of its funds from the public purse and large sponsors and small patrons of all kinds. As always, the purely creative aspects can also be debated. However, in my experience, the specific example would not provoke the slightest disagreement in either ADC or Effie judging.
However, I did become a bit suspicious. Namely, when the advertising industry came to the clearer and clearer realization that the new agency and the new marketing woman at Zurich Zoo are good old acquaintances and had already worked together in the past. Admittedly, it is not forbidden to maintain business relationships and to continue them under new auspices. But quiet doubts as to whether this competitive presentation had not already been decided before it took place are thereby strengthened rather than invalidated.
Questionable qualifications of marketing decision makers
For more than 20 years, I have not been very fond of competitive presentations. Because they usually cause an effort that you can only imagine if you've been through it a few times - on the contractor side, not on the client side.
In addition, there is a double risk: a) not winning the new customer - in the case of the zoo, this amounted to ten percent - and b) possibly losing an old customer because you have to neglect him temporarily. Then there is the money factor. Regardless of whether the presentation is won or lost: Existing customers always pay for the expense.
You might put up with all that, but not with all the frustration. Starting with helpless briefings and ending with the decision-makers, who you often don't know who they are and what qualifications they have in matters of communication.
At Zurich Zoo, they know: Dr. Alex Rübel, director of Zurich Zoo, was a Boy Scout leader, graduated in veterinary medicine and was allowed to go to Harvard for a short time after being elected zoo director. A course in "Advertising for Beginners" at the Migros Club School would certainly have helped him just as much. Because obviously neither he nor his marketing manager know how to organize a competitive presentation in a professional manner: In a multi-stage process with ongoing reduction of the participants - and not as a jekami at social tariff.
What I would also like to say, so as not to come across as a bad loser: I did not participate directly or indirectly in the competition for the budget of the Zurich Zoo, nor am I otherwise associated with the participating agencies.
To ensure that the advertising-relevant target group of dads, goddads and grannies really understands the message, the Consumer Promise is also put in the right perspective with photos. Happy father with happy child and other snapshots that are often described as emotional in federal diploma circles. Finally, the sponsors also find their place - Axpo and the Zürcher Kantonalbank. All of this can be seen on posters of the dimensions B4 and B12, which are currently hanging around Zurich and are intended to advertise the diminutive of Zooh!
Why did the poster catch my eye anyway? Because the zoo had previously invited ten advertising agencies to a competitive presentation. Because it thanked them with 1000 francs each. And because ten advertising agencies let them do it.
If the components described above had been put together by a desktopper, the poster would have been produced 20 times cheaper - although you could have saved yourself that, too, and commissioned the print shop directly. But that's not how things work in our industry. It goes like this: First the marketing management changes, then the budget, including the agency. In this case, it comes from the canton of Solothurn.
This may be surprising for purely geographical reasons, because long journeys devour more money than short ones, and because the zoo has to scrape together a good part of its funds from the public purse and large sponsors and small patrons of all kinds. As always, the purely creative aspects can also be debated. However, in my experience, the specific example would not provoke the slightest disagreement in either ADC or Effie judging.
However, I did become a bit suspicious. Namely, when the advertising industry came to the clearer and clearer realization that the new agency and the new marketing woman at Zurich Zoo are good old acquaintances and had already worked together in the past. Admittedly, it is not forbidden to maintain business relationships and to continue them under new auspices. But quiet doubts as to whether this competitive presentation had not already been decided before it took place are thereby strengthened rather than invalidated.
Questionable qualifications of marketing decision makers
For more than 20 years, I have not been very fond of competitive presentations. Because they usually cause an effort that you can only imagine if you've been through it a few times - on the contractor side, not on the client side.
In addition, there is a double risk: a) not winning the new customer - in the case of the zoo, this amounted to ten percent - and b) possibly losing an old customer because you have to neglect him temporarily. Then there is the money factor. Regardless of whether the presentation is won or lost: Existing customers always pay for the expense.
You might put up with all that, but not with all the frustration. Starting with helpless briefings and ending with the decision-makers, who you often don't know who they are and what qualifications they have in matters of communication.
At Zurich Zoo, they know: Dr. Alex Rübel, director of Zurich Zoo, was a Boy Scout leader, graduated in veterinary medicine and was allowed to go to Harvard for a short time after being elected zoo director. A course in "Advertising for Beginners" at the Migros Club School would certainly have helped him just as much. Because obviously neither he nor his marketing manager know how to organize a competitive presentation in a professional manner: In a multi-stage process with ongoing reduction of the participants - and not as a jekami at social tariff.
What I would also like to say, so as not to come across as a bad loser: I did not participate directly or indirectly in the competition for the budget of the Zurich Zoo, nor am I otherwise associated with the participating agencies.