There's magic in the air. The economy remains in the dumps, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, consumer spending is down, and business talk is all about tightening belts and seeing out the recession.
And yet, at the same time, hundreds of new advertising, media, digital, PR and branding accounts are appearing all over the place. Or are they? The advertising and communications industry exists to spread the message that all is well with clients. So one should not be surprised when it performs a little illusory work on its own behalf.
Looking through the tables on the following pages, and at the individual agency profiles earlier in this edition of AdFocus, it is impossible not to notice how many accounts have been won, and how few have been lost. It is not a statistical aberration unique to AdFocus. Or, indeed, to this industry. Everywhere you look, companies are anxious to spread the message that it's business as usual.
But it's not. Many agencies have been forced to reduce staff numbers to meet cost targets. Turnover and profits are under pressure. Many of the new accounts listed here are project-based rather than long-term. Clients also need to save cents. More campaigns are being taken direct from overseas and adapted/dubbed for SA use. Some local clients have even taken advertising inhouse.
So it's tough out there. Advertisers want more for less. No-one is immune. Ogilvy Johannesburg, despite a generally outstanding year, recently lost one of its biggest and longest-standing accounts, Old Mutual. Ditto Draftfcb Johannesburg and First National Bank. Net#work BBDO and Cell C have also parted - ironically, soon after the industry applauded their relationship. Still, as they say, you win some and you lose some. Draftfcb picked up Old Mutual and Ogilvy got Cell C. FNB went jointly to DDB SA and Metropolitan Republic.
So should advertising agencies be worried by the recessionary times? Should they draw in their horns and wait for the market to pick up?
Hell, no, says Kevin Roberts, head of the international Saatchi & Saatchi group. The industry exists for times like these, he told the FM earlier this year. "The role of agencies today is to provide a voice of optimism and to generate the one thing that will take us through this: ideas that will emotionally connect with consumers and rebuild consumer confidence.
"We are the only people that have ideas in our genes, that have the talent to develop those things. Our role is to see a future and to inspire clients. I'm trying to tell the advertising industry wherever I go that we were made for moments like this. We're in the ideas business, we're made for this opportunity."
But it's not enough simply to throw out ideas. Agencies must also deliver on them and prove their effectiveness. Michael Fassnacht, Draftfcb Worldwide's global chief strategy officer, has a view that creative directors around the world will consider heresy. "I don't care about creative awards. They're very nice but they are not important. What matters is moving our clients' goods, off the shelves and out of the showroom. That is what advertising is about, not self-glorification."
The increasing importance of the local Apex awards for effective advertising suggests agencies are also swinging round to this view, though they are light years away from considering creative awards "not important". Compare the Loeries festival weekend frenzy with the restrained Apex night out.
But as clients swing towards demanding proof of bottom-line success, so agencies will move with them. It's no coincidence that many of SA's top-rated ad agencies are successful both creatively and effectively.
Roberts suggests agencies should also use recession as an opportunity to expand and talent-scout. Like Fassnacht's view of creative awards, it's not an idea likely to win unanimous favour. In accountants' minds, more bodies mean more wages and therefore more immediate costs.
Roberts takes a different view. More bodies also means more talent. If there are outstanding skills available as a result of industry agency cutbacks, snap them up. "You can hire more talent because there's so much around in the marketplace without a home."
His message: If you can afford it (you can't afford not to), don't wait for the upturn before you act. Be ready and fighting-fit for when it arrives.
