Ad Agency Weaknesses

Ad agencies have many weaknesses.  Three of which I want to point out are the lacking ability to formulate strong strategies, reason analytically, and fortify the appropriate psychological tactics.  Let’s explore these weaknesses so that you can put them into perspective.

Too often, ad agencies don’t apply the right marketing strategy.  The right strategy should be rooted deep so that it is parallel with the clients’ business level strategy, overall business plan, core competencies, and definitely any competitive advantages.  A strategy that successfully applies all these elements will yield the highest return for your advertising buck.  Instead, ad agencies create strategies based on only some of the above or even none of the above.  Ad agencies have a lot of overhead to cover so they usually don’t spend a lot of time formulating the absolute best marketing strategy for their clients. They’re mantra is “Time is Money.”

Nearly all agencies place more value on vanity.  They pride art more so than effective psychological messages.  Ad agencies have too many artsy people, who understand art but have little understanding of persuasion and communication.  Consequently, more time is spent on aesthetics than formulating the most effective message.

Ad agencies like to draw on experience and hunches that a particular psychological tactic will be effective in a particular scenario.  Often times they’re right.  These tactics have made advertising easy, because they’re so effective.  The problem is that the client is getting short changed.  If these tactics are employed upon the foundation of a well planned marketing campaign, the results are explosive!  However, time is money and ad agencies don’t want to dedicate that kind of time and resources.