In Guyana, we tend to call the agencies with a couple of staff running around, ‘big’ agencies. Which is probably a fair assumption to the untrained eye.
But my friends, we need to measure advertising agencies by its ‘correct units’. In the creative world, it’s ideas, client responsiveness and sales outcomes that matter most.
Not the number of ‘bodies’ that are on the payroll. And most certainly not the number of years an agency has been in existence. It should be about what they are producing TODAY? Is it any good? Are their campaigns increasing the sales of their clients’ products? Are they doing so without compromising the integrity of brands? That level of reasoning.
Now, now! I know local advertising agencies do not have it easy. You struggle in a world where most clients do not value creativity and, where good, trained staff in this particular segment is hard to find.
But those are the challenges we happen to face in Guyana. What’s important is, we must not allow it to change us. We must change it!
Transform the industry man. Bring back the spark and integrity of our advertising profession. Do good work and compel your clients to go with it. Pretty soon, they are bound to get used to higher standards. Just stick with it.
::sharon
voiceovergy.com 
I do agree that Agencies need to constantly check themselves and their work to ensure that they are keeping a certain standard always. Did we not have an Advertising Association? What ever happened to that anyway?
Ha! Terry… you’ve hit a nerve. Everytime I’ve asked that question, every single time, someone always throws their head back and laugh.
Then, they would say something like, ” We had an Advertising Association once. But all the members (ad agencies) ended up fighting amongst themselves over accounts (clients) and never really cared about what the association was supposed to be about. Then it just fell apart. I was trying to get it back together….”
Then, their speech would end there. Right there, where it really matters.
Of course, I tried to do my bit. I proposed that a few owners of ad agencies get together and have a simple meeting for starters. Kick up an agenda and start the show. But a few calls quickly proved that everyone’s way too busy for standards. How foolish was I to think that anyone cared.
Guess the rants and raves may just have to happen on VOICEOVER for now. Or atleast, until the folks in the industry become treatened by CSME brand growth and demand for quality advertising, like I predicted will come.
Too late shall be our crime, as usual! Left in the dust of the rest of the world, coughing.
Hey Sharon, on the subject of small, seems like you are being attacked again. This time on Guyana 360.
http://guyana360.blogspot.com/2006/10/slowly-but-surely.html
What have you to say to that?
Dread! Not again… (puff)
Well… all I can say is, if I really wanted to promote my business using unconventional methods, there are far smarter, more direct ways of doing it.
What’s the benefit in me beating around the bush pretending to want ‘change in the world’? I could very well just short cut, designing myself the most kick-a*s ‘Prospect Influence Campaign’, right? Further implementing it in a medium my prospects will actually see, without having to sit up on their computers searching for it.
A reasonable accusation Guyana 360… but not very sensible. An Agency’s self-promotion strategy is always most effective when it is centered around ‘what they have done (their portfolio) and how well, what they have done, solved the client’s problem.
You think we could channel some of that judgmental energy into examining the issues for a change?
I don’t know why, us Guyanese, always manage to direct our focus in the most unproductive place of the lot. Resist that burning urge to be part of the national problem when you could be part of the solution instead.