Ask anyone on the client or agency sides of the marketing table and they’ll tell you that the business has changed. Not just in the nothing-stays-the-same, wait-long-enough-and-it’ll come-around-again sense, but fundamentally changed. As in, a ‘new normal.’

Maybe it’s the economy…or competition (for both consumers, clients, marketing dollars, etc.)…or an evolved clientele…or the shifted media landscape…or ever-more sophisticated technologies and devices. Maybe it’s all of those things together. Or none of them.

All I know is that in 20 years of doing branding, advertising and marketing communications work, I’ve never lived through such a sustained period of weirdness — and not in a good way.

So what’s different? In a word, everything:

Agencies act like pigs, purporting to offer services they don’t, exaggerating client work, shifting resources with impunity, overbilling for services rendered and whoring themselves for industry accolades.

And not to be outdone, clients behave like reprobates, cutting patronage deals, soliciting quotes on projects that never materialize, slashing ‘partner’ margins to the bone and failing to pay on time, if at all.

“Wait a minute,” you’re saying, assuming you haven’t already slit your own throat. “All of that’s nothing new. It’s part of the business, and has been since the business began.”

To which I dejectedly respond “You’re right — but…”

The real change is in the frequency with which these amoral trespasses occur and the impunity with which both sides commit them. It’s appalling. Demoralizing. And enough to make even the most optimistic participants want to get the hell out of the industry altogether.

It’s also completely understandable. After all, to survive, you pretty much need to fight as dirty as the next guy. And ‘unilateral disarmament’ (i.e. one side letting down its guard and doing business like civilized humans) is tantamount to committing professional suicide; a sure-fire way for your agency or company to get hosed.

Sounds like a no-win situation — not to mention a pretty crappy work existence — but what’s a fella/gal to do? Well, for better or worse, we’ve decided to continue doing what we love in ways that make us not feel dirty, including:

  • Treating people with kindness and respect, whether they’re clients, subcontractors or the FedEx guy.
  • Saying what we mean and meaning what we say; no pandering, coddling or beating around the bush.
  • Being transparent about how and why we do what we do. That way, we never need to remember what we said to whom.
  • Pricing jobs fairly and honestly, believing that if we do a good job, clients will come back again and again.
  • Bringing in the best resources for the job at hand, not the ones that are most readily or cheaply available.
  • Delivering the highest quality creative product; tailored to the specific needs of our clients; no templates or shortcuts.
  • Paying our bills. It ain’t always easy, especially these days. And sometimes it takes longer than we might like. But it gets done. Period.

If we get burned (again) along the way, so be it. At least we’ll be able to look back on our time in this topsy-turvy industry and say we did right by our clients, our partners and our collective conscience.

We hope you’ll do the same.