Jon Bond: the Two Great Religions of Marketing
The battle lines have been drawn: Brand vs. Performance, rocket science vs. inspiration…even client vs. agency.
“Alignment of interests is the key to creating a single religion. It’s very achievable in an individual agency where the culture can be distinct from the outside world.”
By Jon Bond
There are two great religions of marketing. And there have only ever been two—the house of science and the temple of creativity. Each promises they hold the one true answer — the miracle solution to any marketing problem, no matter how impossible or dire it may appear to the nonbeliever. Which is right?
The battle lines have been drawn with no safe harbor. Brand vs. performance, media vs. creativity, rocket science vs. inspiration, predictability vs. surprise, even client vs. agency.
Some companies own firms with practitioners on either side. The best of both worlds, they say. But that doesn't mean that they can work together. Yes, they mouth the words and sign the peace treaty, but in the end, mutual respect and true collaboration cannot be legislated. We all know the holy grail is to have both, so that's the "strategy" most agencies will articulate. The problem is, as Peter Drucker once said, that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” And these two cultures are simply at odds with each other.
The only solution is a new religion founded on mutual respect, which is a culture unto itself. A higher steeple than that of the two great spires because it prays to a higher power: the god of self-awareness, of greater good, and the joy of being a part of something bigger than yourself (and your ego). It’s the place where two great religions fuse to become the one.
Just Rewards
One of the problems with merging the two belief systems is the reward structure. An agency can win a Cannes Lion for work that failed miserably in the marketplace, and still be rewarded with new clients and the creative team responsible gets a free trip to Cannes, lots of industry accolades, and a market value that probably just jumped $25,000. Until the reward structure is aligned against results, there will continue to be two contrasting cultures. Yes, we have the Effie Awards, which measure effectiveness, but those do not currently have a currency that rivals Cannes for creative people, and even for agencies, despite their public protestations, almost every agency would choose a Cannes Lion over an Effie Award.
Alignment of interests is the key to creating a single religion. That's all but impossible in the industry at large when trips to the south of France are compared with the Times Square Marriott, where the Effie Awards usually take place, but it’s very achievable in an individual agency where the culture can be distinct from the outside world. A culture that rewards results above all is very doable in a closed environment.
Winning for the Greater Good
Outside the agency, to win that battle, you have to reward work that produces results with something better than an Effie trophy. Personally, the best example of this approach I can remember was when the Magazine Publishers Association used to give $100,000 to the best magazine campaign of the year. Cannes is nice, but I'll take the 100 grand thank you very much.
Traditional "Performance" agencies like Merkle, Digitas, and WundermanThompson have forever been trying to win brand assignments, with little success. "Brand" agencies have had a bit more success integrating performance into their offerings, following the overarching brand guidelines set down by the agency but incorporating performance tactics and analysis. The reason has to do with the creative hierarchy. Performance-oriented creative types are happy to work for Wieden+Kennedy on Nike. But the folks doing the cool brand ads are reluctant to go to a performance agency because, frankly, it's not as fun, they don't think the work will be as good, and historically it’s been a poor career move.
“The place where brand and performance overlap is the offer. The 'branded offer' becomes a device to build the brand and drive actions. Something both religions can agree on.”
Change Approach. Change Minds.
One of the root causes of this dysfunctionality stems from the industry's most basic question: how does advertising work? When I was in school, we were taught the AIDA model: Attention / Interest / Desire / then finally Action. The idea behind this precursor to the now infamous purchase funnel was that by changing attitudes, behavioral changes will follow. This led to the idea of brand advertising being the stimulus to attitude shifts, creating an impassable line between brand and performance advertising.
Unfortunately, AIDA is wrong. Only by changing behaviors do we change attitudes. That's why the 12-step program works. Actions force your mind to accept new ideas by presenting a conflict in the mind which needs resolution; why did I take that action if I don't like the brand (cognitive dissonance).
It’s Not You. It’s Me.
The digital world, which is all about easy-to-measure actions, did not create a world where actions suddenly count, it merely made the dynamic transparent. Today, we can track the purchase journey through a series of actions and optimize each one.
The place where brand and performance overlap is the offer. “Download a free whitepaper” is a generic offer, but if you wrap the brand around it, the offer becomes: “Download a free white paper on how to increase your productivity with Microsoft Office, a brand all about productivity.” The 'branded offer' becomes a device to build the brand and drive actions. Something both religions can agree on. Now we can start to identify areas that both sides have in common as opposed to what separates them.
What Saves Your Brand the Most?
One thing I always like to do is to identify the actions which each category relies on, such as the test drive, and then overlay the brand on top of these tactics to create proprietary offers. One of the most effective strategies you can deploy is making the offer itself famous. “15 minutes can save you 15% on your car insurance," for example. We all know that's Geico. A famous offer means that the prospect doesn’t even have to have seen the ad in a while to still know the offer. It works 24-7, whereas an unbranded offer only works when you are seeing the ad because it is generic and imminently forgettable. And yeah, Geico has won more awards than just about any brand, so everyone is happy. Including (and especially) the client.
December 1, 2020
