The Percentage Of Bald Readers Of The Latter Rag...

The percentage of bald readers of the latter rag may not only be somewhat small, but also genuinely uncaring. Not to go overboard on this teaching-of-grandmothers cameo, our manufacturer obviously goes to an ad agency, where they know exactly how to market the product.

Furthermore, they have the personnel who can expertly select the appropriate media for the job, and also the people capable of writing, designing and illustrating his online advertising in a convincing way. To understand this more fully, we must take a look at the structure of an agency. In configuration it's like a pyramid.

At the very bottom is the creative team: the writers, the visualisers, the designers and, allowably, the finished artists. If there were any justice in this world - which there patently isn't - this crew would be top dogs. After all, it's their ideas, their words and pictures which keep the rest of the pyramid gainfully employed.

They aren't. So that's an end to it. Now travel a short way up the pyramid and you arrive at the account executives. These are the people who service clients day to day. Their function is to take briefs from clients.

(Notice the allusion to law, and thus the assumed respectability.) To the copywriter, a brief is an instruction on which products the client wishes to push, when and how. More properly, the brief is an interpretation of a given market in relation to the product, plus every usable detail about the features and benefits of that product. The account executive fetches this back to the agency, transmits the facts to the creative team chosen for the task and awaits their solution. Once this is provided, he returns to the client and presents the proposals.

Now you may be forgiven for thinking that the run-of-the-mill account executive is little more than a messenger, fetching and carrying between client and agency. In all certainty, you are right - but never, ever say so. Before we go one whit further, allow me to say that I have nothing against account executives - they have a rotten enough job without me making things worse by rubbing it in. I'll even go one step better and interpret some of the problems they face.

For some unfathomable reason, agencies always talk about clients instead of using the earthier appellation of customers. Ask me why and I shall look blank - which I don't find difficult. One answer might be that the customer is always right and, as far as agencies are concerned, the client is always wrong.