It's no surprise that this year has been one that's tested companies all over the world, and for many, the difficulties become too much.
As they've shut doors & wondered about where their customers went, one other important question they may not be asking about is where their advertising agency was when things got rocky. You might not think that an ad agency has much impact on how a business runs, but if a company has hired an agency, then they've sought out help to get their name into the world.
What happens, though, when that world goes topsy-turvy?
No one could have foreseen just what 2020 was going to bring in terms of a business deathblow of sorts. In a relatively short amount of time, customers just up and disappeared. Businesses who depended on this constant flow of commerce were left scrambling to figure out a new plan. But why?It's no easy thing to ask why businesses get into a real mess, but it's these kinds of questions & their answers that ultimately allow business owners an opportunity to get things in place should the bottom fall out.
Can you really blame advertising agencies for a company's woes right now?That depends on who you ask and what exactly you mean regarding blame.
If you think about the basic idea of what advertising agencies do, they help Create your free group advertising & marketing plans for your company. In the process of designing these campaigns, they are also tasked with keeping budgets in check, maintaining & developing your brand, and not straying from the objectives you've laid out for your business.The role of the advertising agency, it seems, isn't so simple after all.
There is a major theme in their responsibilities, though, that is profoundly important to how you do business — they become an integral part of your team. They understand your industry & how you fit in it, all while seeing how best to get you & your products/services to stand out among the competition. Because of this investment in you, your ad agency becomes a «de facto» part of gang.Unfortunately, many ad agencies also tend to get tunnel vision when developing your plan & it remains the ONLY plan.
It's not necessarily a matter of a company diversifying its offerings to customers, but ad agencies need to offer more in the way of having options for weathering significant retail storms like the one currently being seen. Advice and options are pivotal when things aren't going well, and good advertising agencies understand this.
They also maintain contact with you. Nothing is more problematic during a rough patch than hearing from no one. Many ad agencies tend to put together a basic ad & marketing plan then are MIA. Rock-solid ad agencies don't leave you hanging. Companies need guidance, especially smaller ventures, and an invested agency will do its best to get you through rough times while actively working through prospective strategies with you.
Ultimately, the right advertising agency will be able to provide short-term & long-term resilience to a company by showing them how best to adapt to a changing business climate. This means analyzing data & seeing what new strategies will be most effective in reaching customers no matter what.It also means learning from missteps & having contingency plans in place should the need arise. The most successful businesses are PROACTIVE, not REACTIVE, and your chosen ad agency needs to understand the distinction.
No one thinks that the current kick in the teeth businesses are experiencing will go on forever, but it certainly feels like it's going to be a bit before things «normalize».Throughout out all of this, you need to assess the role your current advertising agency is playing & see if it might be time for a change.