Jul 29

Written by: Insights Account
7/29/2010 3:29 PM

By Dan Rosenthal

There's a peculiar RFP going around right now, for a major local advertiser.

Sadly, I've seen this request before. In what I suppose is an attempt by the marketer to "see how the agency thinks," the RFP supplies no boundaries.

None.

In fact, it asks the agency to decide what the client wants to accomplish.

This is such a dumb RFP I almost don't know where to start my rant. It goes from curse to curse, almost as if it is rewriting the plagues referred to during the Jewish holiday of Passover:

Oh Lord. Not only do you not have a marketing line item in your budget, Dayenu! (It would have been enough)

And not only do you not have a plan as to what you want to accomplish with it, Dayenu!

And not only do you not have client guidance as to timing, Dayenu!

And not only do you ask for speculative creative work to accomplish what you don't know you want, Dayenu!

And not only do you not offer experiential background and support, but;

You don't understand how to choose a fricking advertising agency.

What's even sadder is that some agencies will (gag me) respond, writhing around in a unilateral disaster that should never happen in real life. But agencies are desperate for clients, and even if they know better, they will blindly go where no agency should ever go.

The smarter a client is, the more they know that their intelligent input is critical to great marketing campaigns. Agencies construct around a framework, and when it's solidly built, the campaign can burst with creative energy.

Let's take our own Metro system as an example. It's a basically sound system, and one of the largest in the country, with a relatively good safety record, especially compared with that of driving a car.

But it's facing a major safety crisis in consumer confidence right now, substantial funding shortages, fare increases, and the daily escalator outages and delays that reinforce consumer resistance. It is, sadly, the system we love to hate.

What would you want to accomplish if you were, say, the marketing chief of Metro?
I can think of so many things – and I could almost rank them.

Let's say that first, Metro's marketing wants to reframe the system (in the customer's mind) from a pool of incompetent bunglers into an honest, consumer-friendly service team that's building the safest, fastest, and most reliable transportation system in the United States.

Then I would have to calculate how much budget that marketing chief could put behind this seemingly impossible effort. Well, I would think like a businessperson and assign about 5% of annual revenue from operations. I would then float these goals and budgets internally, against strategic planning and against the business plan as it is approved already, internally, and by the stakeholding bureaucracy.

Then I would share this information with the top three agencies in contention for my account. Because, you see, I have already filtered the respondants by discovering which could handle my business, with whom I feel good personal connections, and from whom I have seen great campaigns of a similar nature.

Instead of making these final three jump through hoops coming up with finished advertising campaigns, I would see how they partner with me in analyzing my problem, and see what ideas they come up with that could form a smart marketing campaign. I would respect an agency that said, "Gee, Dan, Metro cannot change that many minds with so few dollars in this short a time span." I would say, "Well, what can we do?" – and see which agency inspired me most in outlining a sensible marketing plan.

In the process, I would get a feel for the most important criterion of all in selecting my future agency: How I bond with the people I will be working with. In short, the chemistry.

But alas, the history of marketing prowess among Washington area advertisers is – and believe me, I know this history – sprouted from our retail, government, and real estate roots. It's years and years of seat-of-the pants retail promotional strategies that use "ready, fire, aim" as their motto. The thought of using marketing as it is defined in college has seldom (Geico is an exception, as is Mars and a few others) entered the Washington marketer playbook.

My best wishes (and prayers) to the agencies that respond.

 

Dan Rosenthal headed his own advertising agency in Washington for many years and was Creative Director at several others in Washington and in Baltimore.

 

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