The death of Advertising Agencies - a little premature

In the Monday edition of the Financial Review, the death of the advertising agency was 'announced'. 'Ad revolution leaves agencies out in the cold'(unfortunately the article is only available to subscribers online)

I exaggerate a little.

The article does however point out that organisations are more and more turning to consultants who specialise in marketing to boost sales, rather than to traditional advertising agencies who - if anything - specialise in creative ideas, especially for television advertising.

However - as Matthew Melhuish of BMF Advertising points out - a good creative idea will always have value:

" There are still too many clients who see creativity as nice to have but not essential, They don't understand that the only way to engage busy, advertising-literate consumers and cut through the marketing clutter is to develop strong ideas"

While I agree - he does imply that marketing consultants don't have good creative ideas.

A view that I am sure some would challenge.

Most of Sydney comes from New Zealand (or Adelaide)

The advantage of using internet job ads like seek.com is that you get hundreds of applicants. The downside is you do get hundreds of applicants - that don't meet your criteria.

Last year I ended up interviewing about 16 people out of a total of 150 applicants. Only one of them was a perfect fit. It took me a day or two to come to this conclusion - meanwhile they accepted another job.

Just as I was about to give up - an email from a newly arrived New Zealander. Interview, tryout day, appoint without delay!

Reece has been with us a couple months now, and a well as being tempted by the bright lights of Sydney, he's settling in as a wonderful designer.

He reminds me of my move from Adelaide to Sydney about 20 something years ago.

Sydney is one of those places filled with people from elsewhere

The First Post

The first post is always the hardest.

...so better make it brief.

Running a small design business can sometimes be a lonely vocation. I hope this blog might start a little community of mutual support.

Look forward to our trials and tribulations.