Friday, 4 September 2009

Agencies Are From Mars, Clients Are From Venus

With apologies to John Gray Ph.D.
In the mid-nineties, the publishing industry enjoyed something of a boon, as desperate couples turned to bookshops for the answers to their dysfunctional relationships.
The book that kicked all this off was John Gray’s bestseller ‘Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus’.

Now I’m not here to advocate for generalised gender observations, but the overall approach Gray took was a valid one.
You see, Gray understood that we all need each other.
We may share common goals and aspirations, but we start from different places and go about accomplishing them in different ways.
In that sense, it’s a lot like the relationships between agencies and clients.
We may want the same thing, but start from different perspectives and we’ll go about it differently.
We agency people need to look beyond the brief.
Clients need more understanding.
What are the hard business issues behind the brief?
You’ll get to a much more balanced relationship
Also an occasional hug wouldn’t kill you, would it?