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| 08.10.04 | |
| more Spanish stories? |
"The advertisers are the people losing
out"
Leading Spanish ad industry professional
Marçal Moliné says the outlook is bleak.
| More and more top-grade professionals are leaving
agencies as a result of the economic 'crisis' caused by advertisers. As a a result,
advertising know-how is failing to be passed on. No, not the opinion of From Europe With Love, but that of Spanish creative Marçal Moliné. At the end of 2001, Moliné published a landmark series of articles about how advertising needed to reinvent itself. Now he revisits the theme, talking to some of the country's top advertising agency heads in the process. His conclusion? Something is sorely wrong with Spanish advertising. The following is a translated extract of the first of five articles to be published in the leading Spanish advertising magazine, Anuncios. |
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It's not me who's saying it. Félix Vicente, of McCann Erickson, for example: "The frenetical, compulsive pressure of advertisers to cut the amount they are paying their agency and the resultant - and increasing - 'juniorisation' of the teams serving those clients". No, it's not me who's saying it "Clients ask for senior staff but they only pay enough for juniors", says Luis López de Ochoa, of Lowe. Then there's David Fernaández, of Revolution: "In all honesty, the real problem is that this business is losing its professionals. The real loser is the client, who sits there and watches a procession of young boys enter the room, without getting the feeling that his communications are in the hands of experienced professionals". As Agustín Vaquero, of TBWA, says: "the fact that, for money reasons, we are obliged to take on younger people doesn't mean that you don't need to have experience in agencies". You see, it's not me who's saying it. José Luis Esteo, as president of the 'Club de Creativos, for instance: "Clients are currently throwing stones at their own windows by cutting back excessively on their agency's remuneration. Advertisers are obviously going to have to reflect on their position". I think, with this continual cutback on cost, they are putting the quality of work in danger. Evidently, that quality comes from talent and that talent - like it or not - has to be paid for. Every day, we see how agencies are earning less money or none at all, with lots of staff being shown the door. No, it's not me who's saying it. Prestigious advertising professionals are saying it, agency managers of all types and sizes. I'm writing this not just to put on record what I, myself, say. Why? Because what I say is merely an opinion and why should we content ourselves with conjecture when we can count on so much direct, informed testimony. The subject is so important, the situation so extreme, that we should put a freeze on subjective interpretation and pull together evidence of the utmost reliability. Most of the quotes outlined above come from an issue of Anuncios, in March 2004, which has proven to be transcendental. It's impressive. I could never have imagined such a manifestation of honesty nor one so generalised and committed as that given in that copy of Anuncios, explaining the limitations affecting the industry, without mincing their words, concealing anything and accepting the challenge of confessing to their source of business, the advertisers, the difficulty they are experiencing in delivering the quality their work must have. Compared to that, and however trivial it might seem, I would like to add my opinions to the knowledge and courageousness of those who are making this last, desperate call to advertisers! |
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