Advertising chaos

And so, I declare the age of monopoly in the ad business in the UAE officially over.

The great thing about choice is there are a few 'hot' agencies with great talent, innovation and the hunger to please. Talent is coming from outside in search of gold paved roads, and from within, as every Tom, Mohammed and Hari splinters from existing agencies to set up his or her own ad shop.

Witness if you will, the growing trend of (specifically) graphic designers leaving ad agencies in droves to set up their own businesses. (A warning to these gifted individuals: creative alone doesn't an ad agency make-bring in the strategists, excellent client servicing, and knockout business development people, and then you're in).

Then there is the murky side of the coin. The phenomenon that occurs when the hundreds of agencies that sprouted over night (of which roughly about 80% have no clue what they're doing) fiercely try to undercut each other, and everyone else, based on nothing more than price.

The new scenario throws the whole advertising business in a state of havoc, because it becomes hard to pin down price versus quality. For most clients who really don't know much about the business it can be downright treacherous. They are simply incapable of pegging the value of good advertising (and the damage of bad). For a branding job request for quotation, the costs they get may range from Dh 1000 all the way to Dh 1,000,000. Kid you not. I have seen it happen.

So then the poor marketing manager has a magazine to bring out, or an ad campaign to run and he gets a ridiculous range of prices. Who do you think he is tempted to try out? He makes his finance people happy about the incredible savings achieved, and the advertising agency of value is rejected because their cost is compared to the rogue agency with the dirt cheap prices. And then business (sales) takes a nose dive.

But miracles do happen, even in the ad business. A friend of mine who owns an ad agency summarized it well. He said often the small-sometimes unprepared-agency picks up the business, and then the client goes through a cycle of bad advertising and then realizes that he or she made a mistake and then tries to upgrade to a higher quality agency. He decides thereafter to be wary of 'cheap' advertising options, because it also means that there was little time invested by quality people to make it sound not just in creative, but in strategy and business alignment.

When that wonderful correction happens its great news; good people feel vindicated. But in reality, that cyclical process takes time, and it is often hampered when the client's company has a staff turnover and a hotshot new marketing person comes in to show how they're going to save the company money.

So, it is a quandary-and we're right in the middle of it, and for I don't know for how long. Think of it like the stock market. A lot of foolish people rushing in, a crash-- and then a gradual correction take place. Let's hope we won't wait too long for that to happen.