If you love your marketing agency, ignore this story
“Elephant in the room” is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed.
This is the story about one old and very sad elephant. (Image via pixabay.com.) Before I tell you the story, I should tell you how I got to know him so well. It’s simple: I’ve been bumping into him over the last decade. A lot. Where about? On just about every project the marketing agency I consult for was brought into, following immediately the departure of the last agency of record. So, here we go:
What’s the elephant in the room for most marketing agencies?
Sales leads.
Marketing is not about winning awards for beauty or cleverness. Its measurement of success is sales. Yet most agencies don’t even bring this up.
Marketing focused on pleasing the opinions of peers, not generating sales leads, creates a cliff of values between clients and agencies that is impossible to bridge.
How is the marketing agency I consult for different?
They’re openly and intensely focused on crafting great creative for one and one reason only:
generating sales leads for clients.
Marketing is a commercial art. To be great, marketing has to be both commercial and art.
If it doesn’t get results, it’s not great marketing. Period.