How Ad Agencies Advertise Themselves

They Use Websites to Showcase Size, Clients and Creativity

Apr 12, 2009 Carroll Trosclair

The Internet is a logical place for ad agencies to promote their services globally, but sometimes the graphics detract from the writing, philosophy and communications.

Since mass media is inappropriate for them and business magazines cannot show their television commercials, most full service advertising agencies now use websites to impress prospects and clients with their size, resources, client lists and especially their creativity. Creativity is almost an industry obsession.

The relatively new ability to show video well on the Internet has made websites a tempting medium for projecting all types of agency creativity. The websites lack the audience targeting features that most advertisers now seek, but they make up for it in message flexibility and sometimes in low costs.

Potential clients are naturally drawn to the websites of prospective agencies because this is where agencies have freedom to show their creativity without any client restrictions. What they sometimes overlook is that the site might have been created outside the agency by an expensive website specialist firm.

Sophisticated Graphics

Some agencies try to impress with hi-tech graphics that can obscure the writing and philosophy they want to communicate. They open with such time-consuming animations as:

  • A timeline of overlapping and mostly unreadable client names.
  • A mostly black revolving earth that resembles a land mine.
  • Unidentified alien creatures moving about the screen.
  • Photos of new agency officials accompanied by silhouettes of floating fish, a plane going backward and other creatures.

Chicago's Leo Burnett agency opens with a voiceover saying "big ideas come out of big black pencils." It is accompanied by a graphic showing a huge black pencil surrounded by floating apples. Apples, the site later explains, have traditionally been placed in the agency reception area. Later, multiple pencils sketch the face of a man, presumably Leo Burnett.

BBDO Shows 287 Locations

BBDO opens with a clearer message, that it is big: A world map shows the location of its 287 offices in 79 countries. Most agency websites feature client lists and work. Some provide insights into their philosophy and their creative thinking: Samples:

BBH: "When the world zigs, zag." It adds: "Our objective is effectiveness. Our strategy is creativity."

Publicis Global: "We develop holistic and culturally relevant communications solutions."

Wieden+Kennedy describes itself as "an independent creatively led advertising agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their consumers."

BBDO Atlanta

BBDO Atlanta says: "We believe in the power of creative. It’s embedded in our DNA, intrinsic to our culture and what separates us from other agencies. It’s what we do and we’re passionate about doing it."

Ogilvy & Mather opens with a David Ogilby quote: "Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell." The site then describes O&M as "an agency defined by its devotion to brands. We believe in brands. In their power. Their value. Their increasingly important place in consumers' lives. More than just a goodwill entry on a corporate balance sheet, a brand is the single most important asset any company has."

The Leo Burnett site eventually has its big pencil write: "Our purpose is to be the world’s best creator of ideas that truly move people. …We strive to put a meaningful human purpose at the center of our clients’ brands."

Grey CEO Jim Heekin

Grey Advertising features Chairman and CEO Jim Heekin walking through an empty office building (its future home) talking about "ideas that accelerate brand potential."

The Omnicom Group is perhaps the most business oriented, opening with this description: "Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) is a strategic holding company that manages a portfolio of global market leaders. Our companies operate in the disciplines of advertising, marketing services, specialty communications, interactive/digital media and media buying services."

Sources: Agency websites

The copyright of the article How Ad Agencies Advertise Themselves in Advertising is owned by Carroll Trosclair. Permission to republish How Ad Agencies Advertise Themselves in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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