Greetings from LHCHQ, currently dispersed throughout the internet, though we do now have a Google Maps listing. We’re busy at work on lots of exciting things round these parts, amongst them a new website for our friends at Digital Asset, an interview with Snap’s VP of DE&I, and most importantly getting all our new dogs added to the website.
We’re also growing! Meet the latest and greatest member of the LHC team, intern Rudley Dorce in his own words:
“I’m a young millennial from Long Island getting into the marketing industry through LHC. A die hard fan of Manchester United, hip/hop, R&B and anything Apple. While working for LHC, I also do sanitation for the town of Hempstead in Long Island. Part time intern, full time opportunist.
On to the #content:
Everyone Hates Their Agency
Complaining about your ad agency is as common as pressing snooze on your alarm after a three day weekend — it’s just one of those things you do. (Our clients never do, obviously… this is just something we’ve heard rumors about). And it’s not too hard to figure out why: agencies are commonly too expensive, too needy, communicate poorly, don’t have enough time for you … basically we are like the West Elm Calebs of the business world, prone to serial ghosting and lack of commitment. And so, everyone complains about their agency, even the clients in Mad Men. Let’s try to unpack the why, even though the answers are a little less glamorous (and involve far fewer cigarettes and 3 martini lunches).
The main reason agencies and clients are often at loggerheads is because their incentives are misaligned. Marketing departments are tasked (and incentivized) with helping brands sell more stuff – a noble goal! Agencies, on the other hand, typically get paid by the hour, which means we are financially incentivized to take as much time as possible to do things, no matter if those hours ultimately result in more sold stuff or not. Not to mention, traditional agencies have tremendous overhead (high-priced executives, in-office baristas, rooms at the Hotel Martinez etc.). When incentives align, great creative from an agency really can help a brand sell more stuff. But too often agencies are more concerned with their own agenda — billing hours and getting invited onto the best yachts in Cannes — than the express business interests of their clients.
All this has combined to create an environment of mistrust, where even when agencies do great work, brands are loath to give them credit.
Adding to this misalignment between agencies and brands is a precipitous drop in the average CMO tenure. While a typical CEO stays at a company for over 6 years, the average CMO tenure is barely even half that — giving them precious little time and authority to make a business impact, and giving agencies precious little chance to to develop the sort of long-term relationships that lead to true value creation. After all, if you know you’re probably getting fired in 24 months, there’s little reason to invest time and effort in the long term future of the company.
All this being said, agencies do provide great value in the right context. We can provide valuable perspective, flexible resources, and the kind of creative thinking that’s impossible to do inside a brand where most marketers have 19 other responsibilities. The problems arise when there’s an absence of trust and an abundance of overhead, about the worst combination you could ever hope for. Well, maybe the second worst.
Klient Korner
BitDefender is a global cybersecurity company that helps business protect against hacking and all sorts of other nefarious acts. We help them create lots of different content assets, but we were especially proud of a recent series of blog posts, infographics, and white papers we built out to help small business understand threat of the holidays, one of the busiest hacking periods of the year.
Things are happening
The haters are wrong about digital advertising.
Ad Age ranks the top 5 celebrity brand collabs of February.
Belgium becomes the latest country to follow in LHC’s footsteps in adopting a 4-day work week.
Queen Elizabeth reportedly releases fragrance for dogs that “smells of coastal walks”.
And in weekly Lighthouse news: Olivia Rodrigo.
What We're Listening To
We can’t stop listening to this incredibly weird but also incredibly catchy backpack rap classic that randomly exists in the middle of a 1994 episode of the Fantastic Four animated series. Some minor internet sleuthing also indicates that 90210’s Brian Austin Greene is involved? In any case, listen to it yourself and try to admit that it doesn’t kinda slap.