Governor Christie’s Ad Scandal:

A Call For Agencies  to Stop Treating Their Creative Products Like Widgets

Early US presidential election front-runners have always been vulnerable to sometimes partisan investigations attempting to discredit them. One of several recent attempts probably did more harm to the advertising industry than it did to its intended victim, Governor Christie.

As widely reported by the press this month, the Federal government is launching an investigation into whether the Governor misused Sandy relief funds by awarding a tourism assignment to ad agency MWW, whose project ‘bid’ of $4.7 million was $2.2 million more than the losing agency, Sigma Group.

Controversial 'Stronger Than the Storm' Ad

The focus of the controversy has been about the appearance of the Governor and his family in the ‘Stronger Than The Storm’  TV ads, which were funded by Sandy relief funds, and ran during Christie’s re-election bid. And while questioning the motives of the governor makes for good headlines, everyone in the ad industry should instead be paying more attention to the underlying monetary argument.

The hair on the back of every ad agency executive should be standing on end in reaction to the quote by Shannon Morris, the president of the losing agency, Sigma Group who said, ‘We were scratching our heads as to why they would give this bid to an agency at double the price’.  Likewise, agencies should have the same reaction about the description of the winning bid as ‘labor costs and mark-up’.

Talent or Widget?

But, unfortunately, more and more, agencies are accepting their role as manufacturers of commodities, treating their talent like ‘widgets’. The reality is that not all agencies bring equal value to their clients. As my mother used to say, ‘You get what you pay for’. Indeed, the world’s most valuable brand, Apple, would likely not be in that position without the help of their ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Yet, agencies that continually tout their brand building ability, also continually devalue their own brands in their day-to-day behaviors.  In fear of losing business, agencies have allowed clients’ purchasing departments to base fee negotiations solely on labor rates and hours, with complete disregard for the incremental value that their agency brand brings to the party. And yet, when forced to deal with resulting fee cuts, these same agencies must settle for mediocre talent.  This in turn leads to mediocre client performance, eventual loss of the account, and finally, irreparable damage to their brand that limits their ability to attract new clients.

So the real advertising conversation about ‘Stronger than the Storm’ should focus on the business motivation behind the ad campaign, and the potential economic value that the ads created for the State of New Jersey.

Mitigating The $1 Billion Problem

A Rutgers University Study estimated that, due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, close to $1billion in New Jersey Shore summer tourism revenue was at risk in 2013. The intent of the ad campaign was to help mitigate this potential loss.  Thus, one could argue that the $2.2 million premium was paid to insure the highest return possible.  In that light, if MWW brought a stronger campaign to the table than Sigma Group, the $2.2 million incremental investment for a potential $1 billion return, seems like it was a good bet.

Regardless of your political leanings, an objective evaluation of the campaign suggest that  the campaign idea, and some of its creative components helped to drive incremental ROI.

The campaign achieved a strong 70% awareness, and high recall.  No doubt, the inclusion of Governor Christie in these ads, as well as the slick, ear-worm, pop-anthem theme song raised the profile of the entire campaign.  This, in turn helped earn strong media coverage, multiplying ROI against paid media expenditures.  And, the core creative idea, 'Stronger than the Storm' was one that could live beyond traditional advertising, as it was easily extended to include multi-media platforms, events and partnerships. And perhaps more importantly, it has the potential to serve as a rallying cry and behavioral motivator for residents of New Jersey.

Yet, when interviewed, Ms. Morris has offered little insight into the superior value that her agency could have created for New Jersey, had they been awarded the business. Instead, she continues to focus on how cheap her agency’s price was.  And this leaves me scratching my head...apparently, she must have access to cheaper widgets.

authors note: this post is intended to put politics and the potential conflicts of interest on this matter aside, and focus on the advertising and business issues at hand.  For the record, I am a registered Democrat and fan of Hillary Clinton.

To learn more about Cindy and Brand Traction, please visit the brand traction website at www.brandtraction.net