By Nicholas Kugge

 

 

Isn’t it weird the advertising industry doesn’t know how to sell itself?

 

In this business we all need to demonstrate our creativity and identity. Recently, as I was looking at some

agencies’ websites, I was stuck at how similar they all looked. Every sites looks and sounds the same. It’s

a combination of “integrated ideas”, “disruptive strategies” and “key innovations” page after page. I

understand we should judge agencies on their work and that potential clients might not search for an

agency by googling “London top 10 agencies”. However, agencies should realize they need to

communicate about themselves not only to prospective clients but also to the public. And I believe there

are two reasons for that.

 

First, the majority of people have a negative perception of advertising. But they don’t really know what

advertising is – sorry Don I think it’s not quite like that anymore. Hence, instead of leaving people –

which are also our customers – make their own assumptions, why can’t we talk about the great things

advertising has done? There are some incredible ideas out there benefiting to the consumers. My point

is we can temper this “hostility” towards advertising and ultimately brands, leading to higher customer

trust and engagement.

 

The other reason to explain what advertising is really about is education. Advertising should not only be

a career you fall into by chance. Back in high school I do remember the doctors, the lawyers’

representatives; even the army recruiters came at the career fairs. But I don’t remember anyone from

the advertising industry. How come an industry which accounts for billions of pounds doesn’t have more

schools representative of what we really do? And maybe that’s one of the reasons why there is so much

s–t advertising. Before entering SCA, when I was still working in an agency I remember how difficult it

was to find a proper course. There are few of them but there are even fewer which seem relevant. There

should be more schools like SCA. And perhaps, the next step is not only to have junior creatives solve live

briefs but also have them interact with junior accounts, like in an agency.

 

Ironically, one of the reasons which convinced me to apply to the SCA was their website, which stood out

from regular schools and looked exactly like an agency website.