The Hong Kong 4As charter is an admirable, albeit delayed, effort
to improve the lot of member agencies as earnings are decimated by yet
another slump. The latest downturn, the second in under three years, has
amplified the fundamental shift in budgets from above to below-the-line,
a trend that started when the late 90s slump hit. Still, better late
than never.
But will the 4As succeed in achieving one commendable objective of its
new charter - that is to help member agencies acquire what the
association's chief Jeffrey Yu calls "recession-proof" skills? Yu
essentially means communication skills other than advertising, chiefly
the over-used but largely little-understood discipline of customer
relationship management.
Success on this front will depend on two things - the type and quality
of programmes the 4As is able to source and offer member agencies.
Secondly, but crucially, it will hinge on the willingness of agencies
themselves to make the transition. This is where the real battle
lies.
Clients are making the transition, albeit tentatively. Since the last
downturn, demand for a broader range of communication services - in
place of TV-centric campaigns - has been growing. Yet anecdotal evidence
suggests that some agencies are simply unwilling to change in line with
client demands. Hong Kong is rife with talk, which admittedly is
difficult to confirm, of ad agencies hijacking accounts won by their
direct siblings.
Given the way agencies are structured to bring home the bacon, it's
plausible that this tug-of-war does take place behind the scenes. After
all, a number of networks run separate profit and loss balance sheets
for their different units, and by large, ad agencies still earn their
living from implementation - on production, project management and media
- using strategy and creative ideas as free bait. In effect, ad agencies
have reduced themselves to nothing more than production houses. And
unless they see the real value of their ideas and strategy, they will
not have a future to speak of.
