WOM, the clients, and the future…
By Tim DenyerWe’ve looked at what we’ve done in the past for our clients, and what we love about our current clients, but what does the future hold? I’ve been having a little wonder…
* * * * *
There are two or three exits from Piccadilly Circus which people can use to get to and from the office.
[pic courtesy of Wikipedia]
Having walked to the tube with various colleagues it is fair to say there is a healthy split between the people who go down each route.
That’s fair and natural enough I suppose.
However, what is unhealthy, is people’s support and passion for their route.
‘This way is definitely quickest’, ‘Why do you go that way, look at the amount of people’, ‘Don’t go that way it must stink down there’ etc…They care about this. Deeply.
When I ask each person why they choose their particular route however, their answer is pretty universal: ‘Ummm, I’ve always gone this way‘.
At a recent IAB event a bunch of us agency folk and media owners were talking about the #fail culture that exists within social media and word of mouth. People are very quick to criticise other people’s approaches or feel like the industry is not delivering what it should.
As with the analogy above, they have chosen their route and their approach and won’t let any others in.
They deride those that go a different way even if they aren’t willing to try something else.
For me, this stems from the fact that too many individuals and agencies have an irrational support for the way they do things. More often than not this is for selfish reasons. They desperately want to prove to clients that they can do this type of work and, more worryingly, that they don’t want the budget to go to another agency.
Not enough people have walked enough routes. There is not enough evidence of people actually having done something. People are talking a lot but doing very little.
As we move forward, this needs to change.
From an agency perspective this is poisonous. Client budget spend in our area is, on the whole, minuscule in comparison to other disciplines. So for people not to evolve what they are doing, or not to offer support for other people or not learn from others mistakes is self-defeating.
At 1000heads we of course have an approach. This is always evolving though. It isn’t rigid. We aren’t blindly stubborn. We learn and borrow from others mistakes or successes. Having been doing word of mouth for 10 years we know a lot of stuff that works and doesn’t work in particular areas so we apply that to our work for our clients.
So I guess this is a call to arms moving forward.
When an agency wows you by talking a good game, find out what they have done in practice.
When a colleague tells you that they have tried it but it didn’t work, find out why it didn’t work.
When the client gives you a brief you know is wrong, tell them why it is wrong and how you can make it right.
No matter how much you need the work be honest and fair with your pricing.
When you know the brief is more suited to someone else, recommend them.
If we start doing this today, tomorrow those that should benefit, will.
And that makes for a rosy future.
