Ad Insider - Oct07

"Hello... Is this the courier company?"

It is simple to be a brand advocate these days. Just indulge the whims and fancy of the clients, and the suits then assume their 'high-class messenger' positions. So what differentiates account servicing and account management?

I have a premonition that this article would land me in a huge boiling cauldron of soup. Why? Because what I'm about to stir up is a primordial broth that, since time immemorial, has been accepted as the taste of life for ‘suits'.

Let's see now.

Life insurance, check.

New resume, check.

Possible contacts in China, check.

Ok, I'm good to rant.

Most agencies claim to be "brand advocates for their clients and not just mere custodians in client servicing" Sounds good during conversations. Looks even better as a manifesto on the wall - at the reception area, no less.

Yet contrary to what they preach incessantly, only handfuls walk-the-talk. Many a time the suits are more worried about keeping their clients happy (and in turn keeping their precious jobs intact) than finding the right solutions to the communication problem at hand. Thus, many suits are merely reacting to the situation at hand, and being moulded into doing things right for their clients. This however, does not necessary equate to doing the right thing. True we are part of the 'service industry'. That's not to say we should pander to all our clients' little whims and whines.

We have to clearly define our core services here as account management personnel, reclaim our legitimacy as strategic advisors and to drive our clients' business forward. We must always find out what the client wants instead of playing soothsayers and predicting what the client needs. All these needed to get the brief right and inspire our creative counterparts to embark on distinctive creative solutions for our clients big or small.

Our job is simple really. All we have to do is sell great communication solutions to our clients. There, I've said it. The secret's finally out.

To sell that one brilliant campaign or a refreshing $200 BTL brochure, we have to sometimes make a stand rather than just giving in to what the client wants. This does not mean being petulant and telling your beloved client to 'effoff' if they do not like the work. It means doing breakthrough works that clients can be proud of as much as you do.

In my humblest opinion, one should also try to utilise your diverse experience for problem solving in disparate industries to your client's advantage. Your involvement from banking to retailing, from consumer perishables to housing, offers a good mix of marketing experience. Use that invaluable experience as your ammunition. Use it to ignite ideas from one domain to the next and apply its acquired knowledge, along with its own ingrained style and creative fair to any marketing communications situation.

I strongly believe it's time for us suits to start demonstrating this one big strength we have. We are more than just consultants. We are account management personnel.

So be a contributor and give your client what he really needs - Be a passionate brand advocate with the ability to turn his brand into a profit-making legacy and not just be a lowly service personnel who is only capable of dispatching messages to the agency.

Because for that clients can always turn to DHL.

Jason Tan

Associate Brand Director
Saatchi & Saatchi