My smartadvertising

7-layer Ads

I once worked on a boutique hotel account. Every month or so wed send a PDF of a few different ads to the general manager that he could choose from. Then wed get him on a conference call to present and explain the ads.

Hed usually like our work but invariably during the call hed put us on hold. To go show the ads to the concierge. He trusted the concierges opinion. One time he took a poll of the entire front desk staff.

Weve all heard the canard that its really the clients wife or husband these days who makes the decisions on creative work. But the truth is whether a piece of advertising actually runs not is nearly always out of the hands of the people who create it.

Lets face it: when you work for an advertising agency creating ads youre spending someone elses money. And I dont believe clients have it easy when it comes to approving or killing work. They face any number of pressures from shareholders who love profits to pushy salespeople who love bullet points to their own bosses who love themselves. Plus in other cases it may be a focus group that decides ultimately what work lives or dies.

If an accounts approval process means that you have to present and represent work gradually up the chain from marketing managers to the CEO a strange phenomenon occurs: All of them have the power to say no but only the top person can say yes.

Plus technology hasnt made the approval process easier; technology has made it harder. Because you can send work to someone youve never met and never get a chance to see their visceral reaction to advertisingwhich every human being has. And that client can in turn show the work around to other people youll never meet. Hell it doesnt even have to be a spouse or child. Work can get killed by people youll never meet for reasons youll never know.

I dont think theres anything more frustrating for ad creatives than putting the fate of their work in someone elses hands. Even many ad agencies have layers of internal approvals that need to be met. Sometimes youre lucky to get a nugget of an idea through before some higherup decides to put their personal conceptual stamp on it.

Despite the supposed streamlining and downsizing of corporate America the advertising approval process remains more convoluted than ever. But at some point there needs to be less layers and more trusting of intuition. Because consumers tend to make their purchasing decisions emotionally much more than rationally. Im not suggesting that advertising be reckless or foolish merely that ideas often have a primal power to move peopleand we should pay attention when we see that power.

Id love to hear from some of the clientside people out there. Do you feel pressured by the ad agency to say yes? Did you ever regret saying yes or no to a piece of work? Are there times when youre just not sure?

I understand. Try getting 4 creative people to decide where to go for lunch. Trust me youll never get an approval. Ever.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Branding. Religion. Censorship. Office politics. Global politics. Sexual politics. And getting drunk during a job interview.
Since 2002 Danny G. a.k.a. Dan Goldgeier has been writing the most provocative advertising columns ever published. They’re all witty thoughtful and probing and a must read for those who want a perspective rarely seen in traditional industry publications.
An Atlantabased copywriter and ad school graduate Dan has worked at shops big and small. He reads incessantly about advertising and is a whiz at rock roll trivia. Learn more about him by visiting his copywriting website or AdColumnist.com the View From The Cheap Seats Archive website. You may also find articles by Danny G at TalentZoo.com.

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