DIARY: Rant
<p>You want to know what really pisses me off? It's clients who aren't </p><p>honest with their advertising agencies. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>I just found out yesterday that one of our clients is about to appoint </p><p>another ad agency. Did we hear that from the client? No way. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>So, here we are busy working our guts out on the client's business, </p><p>while the client is busy working behind our backs to move the account. </p><p>Is that kosher? Well, if a client wants to move its account it should </p><p>have the decency to tell its agency of its plan. As we all know, news </p><p>travels fast, particularly in the ad industry. Account moves rarely </p><p>remain a secret for long. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>I don't see why I had to find out about this from someone other than my </p><p>client. Surely it's not right. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This same situation happened to me a few years ago when we had an IT </p><p>client who moved its account. Again, I came by this information through </p><p>a contact of mine at the winning agency. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Before the account moved, we respectfully asked the client whether they </p><p>were happy with our work and whether they wanted us to employ more </p><p>people to service the account in the event that it would expand. The </p><p>client said 'yes' on both counts. Liar. I absolutely hate that. Just </p><p>imagine the consequences if we had employed more people. It's the agency </p><p>not the client that would have to pick up the tab in the event of a </p><p>retrenchment for a lack of business. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Don't clients realise that when they move their account it has a direct </p><p>and immediate impact on people's lives, not just the bottomline of their </p><p>supposed agency partners? The complaint often leveled against ad </p><p>agencies is that all they do is hire and fire staff. Well, now you know </p><p>who puts the agency between a rock and a hard place. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>When you have clients suddenly moving their accounts at little or no </p><p>notice, it is pretty hard to not retrench staff. Some things are simply </p><p>beyond our control. It's supposed to be a two-way relationship. Surely </p><p>honesty is the right thing? And situations like this are bound to </p><p>happen. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>How often? We can only guess, but it's the agencies that bear the </p><p>brunt. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Fortunately, our client is something of a midget in this market, so it's </p><p>unlikely to have much of an impact on us. It still pisses me off. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- Whoever you are, and whatever you want to get off your chest, send </p><p>your rants to rant@media.com.hk, and we'll print them anonymously. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>