Multi-layered Approval Epidemic

While I will not be as outspoken as my friend Christopher Rowlison, I would like to comment on a statement made by folks at Crispin as to one of the public reasons they resigned the Miller business. Alex Bogusky said, " "Although we made every attempt to find common ground, the process of multilayered approvals of creative and strategy has made doing work we can be proud of increasingly difficult."

I applaud that statement. Alex, we have never met, but thank you so much for saying that. It seems the bigger and more influence a brand has, the more layers of crap we our ideas need to swim through. I call it the "sperm approval process". Hopefully if we throw enough good ideas, one will make through to see the light of day. It has become an epidemic in our marketing world and as an agency partner to larger brands. And clients wonder why our fees are what they are? We have to build in the factor of constant changes, approvals, tweaks, full re-writes when we are on press because so and so couldnt see it because they were at a meeting in Paraguay etc etc.

I love the times when a brand says - "We want our stuff to be more like them" Whoever the nemesis of that brand is, could be the "them". Well, of course we are not going to execute exactly like "them", but try to capture the essence of what they are speaking to. Case in point, Sears vs. Target. Someone at Sears says, we need to have more spirit, energy and passion in our marketing - make us more like Target. So, the agency goes off and slaves over new, great ideas that are full of energy and distinctly Sears - ground they can claim. They get presented and then the lowly, middle managers kill the ideas because they are afraid to present to the CMO or even the CEO. No wonder a brand like Sears is dying a slow, painful death.

A message to CEO's: Great ideas are being killed by your middle management because they are afraid to stick their head out of the foxhole. We implore you, create an environment that fosters (not punishes) creative, powerful thinking that could build your business. Streamline approvals, empower your people and most of all trust your agencies.