A clear brief, freedom of creativity, better budgets and quicker approvals – this is what advertising agencies seek from brands.

While brands tend to ask for viral content on social media with topical posts reaching headlines, there’s a gap between both the agency and brand side when it comes to fostering trust. 

Research carried out by Aprais suggests that 68% of agencies that had been awarded for effectiveness were scored above average by their clients. While 67% of clients that had been awarded for effectiveness were scored above average by their agency partners.

Social Samosa previously attempted to gauge what hinders creativity amongst agencies and what exactly they seek from brands. 

Now experts from the brand side speak their truth as we explore the challenges clients face when it comes to social media creatives, giving timely approvals and the larger problem behind their hesitancy in taking risks.

Cohesive brand narratives

Poulomi Roy, Chief Marketing Officer, RSH Global finds that often, agencies and clients are working backwards and retrofitting considering there are too many media vehicles, media costs and formats. 

“The pop culture of what’s trending is holding back a lot of creative minds to be original. Mind you that I am referring to creative meant for communication of a brand. There is a lot of shaky, bold, tongue-in-cheek content that’s more on satire, parody scripts written for brands because it’s the flavour, maybe for a month.”

Sharing her concerns, Roy states that brands live longer and creative pursuits for brands need deeper understanding to manifest. 

“We need to have more persuading character for creative developed for a brand and brands need to be more patient,” she further elaborates.

Swati Rathi, Head of Marketing at Godrej Appliances highlights that sharp insights, a clear understanding of the space in which the brand operates, its users and target audience, and its role in the consumer’s life and placing the consumer at the center of the creative process are the key elements that contribute to the successful creation of social media creatives.

Furthermore, she mentions, “What one looks foremost in the agency is a passion for the brand – a sense of ownership on the agency side, which leads to sharper observations and insights– rich sharing and collaboration. Backed by a willingness to experiment, it eventually leads to strong creatives.”

Streamlining approvals 

One of the larger concerns agencies share when it comes to what hinders creativity is the restrictions on freedom of creativity and the longer approval timelines. 

Talking about the ways to streamline the tedious process, making it easier for both the brand and agency side, Swati Rathi of Godrej Appliances comments, “Often we see good ideas getting lost in execution, there is scope for enhanced clarity across the entire chain. Discussing the concept in detail – sharing the rough idea of the visual and copy with the key stakeholders helps to reduce iterations.”

When it comes to the topical creatives, being seeped into the brand and the consumer’s lives in general allows for faster ideation according to her, and for many topical events, it’s possible to prepare somewhat in advance. 

Adding to this, RSH Global’s Poulomi Roy remarks that brands require agencies to be highly aware, observant, and active listeners to facilitate timely approval, especially for topical social media creatives. 

The spontaneity of these situations necessitates a focus on adaptability and swift delivery, rendering traditional pre-planning less effective in such contexts.

While brands expect agencies to be active listeners when it comes to the trends taking over social media, Krishnarao Buddha, Senior Category Head at Parle Products Pvt Ltd. is of the opinion that brands should also be capable of reciprocating in terms of timelines. 

If they send something for approval, Buddha says that brands cannot delay it by saying, ‘Give me time, I will approve it tomorrow or the day after.‘  

“You need to be truly vigilant, agile, and extremely active. Your reciprocation must be equally swift. It’s a two-way process: the agency needs to be alert, agile, and promptly create and send posts. Simultaneously, the client needs to reciprocate and approve the post within minutes, not even hours. I’m talking about a span of five to ten minutes. That’s the kind of time-limiting factor,” elaborates Buddha.

The swift reactions are essential for there to be a possibility of creating a post that could go extremely viral or become a huge talking point.

Rikant Pittie, Co-founder, EaseMyTrip explains that resonating with the audiences is the key and this is extremely important for agencies to understand when it comes to curating content.

“I believe keeping clear communication about updates, glitches, or feedback helps build strong connections between the brand and the agency and ensures smooth working,” says Pittie.

In EaseMyTrip’s case, Pittie states that the brand specifically requests and discusses grace periods for last-minute changes or extended timelines with the team working on its campaigns. Taking prior approvals needs time since the Marketing Head, as well as the C-suite executives’ go-ahead, is a must before the brand launches any campaign.

What it means to take risks 

While social media savvy brands like Zomato churn out quick, entertaining content – courtesy of its in-house team – occasionally the brand has come under fire for insensitive content. Its attempt to highlight the work done by the platform to mitigate climate change ended up receiving backlash for being casteist.

While brands and agencies are actively working on campaigns on social media or otherwise, it is important to note the risks involved in going ahead with bold narratives.

When asked about the factors that brands take into account before moving forward with bold and risky creatives for social media, Sunder Balasubramanian, CMO, Myntra mentions that it’s not just about content and moment marketing, but encompasses everything the brand does. 

“Our starting point as a brand involves a clear understanding of the values we stand for,  backed by guidelines suggesting what actions align with our ethos and what to steer clear of.”

Balasubramanian divulges that these principles permeate every aspect of the brand’s operations, including real-time marketing, moment marketing, social media, and beyond. The consistent application of these larger brand guidelines has proven beneficial for the brand over the years as they have managed to make content that is engaging for its users at large while ensuring its topical relevance. 

During topical events like the Cricket World Cup 2023, it’s a norm for brands to keep their winning and losing posts ready. Myntra’s creative team this year, however, took a different approach. 

Its brand creative hoped for India’s win and chose to simply cheer for the team to win without creating a losing post. When team Australia won the finals, it released the winning post congratulating them on playing well.

Godrej Appliances’ Swati Rathi remarks, “One should do risky creatives only if they resonate strongly with the brand. Risky creatives, purely with the intent of grabbing eyeballs, is not necessarily a good strategy. We are always careful about respecting consumer sentiments.”

Crisis management 

In case a risky creative ends up receiving backlash, experts reveal the blame falls on both the brands and agencies. There are also a few steps that are taken to mitigate any further anomalies. 

EaseMyTrip’s Rikant Pittie shares, “Of course, the first thought and expectation is for the campaign to succeed. However, when it doesn’t fare well as was expected, we actually try to learn from its insights and get the review done by our users/followers only to know everything behind its unsuccessful output. We make efforts to fetch inputs on the possible loopholes so that we can make note of them. We even sit with the agency for a brainstorming session and identify the gaps.”

Krishnarao Buddha of Parle Products highlights that there are no specific rules or formulas to manage the backlash.

In cases of backlashes, there are various ways to manage brand reputation, and there’s no specific formula or rule to follow. 

“It’s often advised that, if you’ve heard criticism, it’s better to quietly remove the post. However, if the controversy has already gained significant traction, it’s advisable to address it with a post acknowledging any fault or oversight,” adds Buddha.

He cites the example of Tanishq’s religion-based issues that arose due to its advertising. The controversy stemmed from consumers’ interpretation of the ad, leading to substantial backlash and ultimately the withdrawal of the campaign, despite its genuine intent and good communication. 

Buddha remarks that sometimes, even with good intentions, consumers interpret communication differently.

“Therefore, it’s essential for brand managers to be highly vigilant and consider potential elements that might go awry in the future. They should craft content in a manner that ensures it’s perceived in the most positive light possible.”

Building a long-lasting client-agency relationship

According to a study, the average length of the client-agency relationship was 22 years, showing that creating a good relationship tends to result in loyalty of business. The industry average for the length of a client-agency relationship is just 3.2 years.

But today, brands seek different types of agencies for their varied needs which last a shorter period.

Rikant Pittie of EaseMyTrip shares that the connections today might not last long but certainly stay deep. Brands now choose agencies as per their experience, expertise, and capabilities to pull off a campaign that aligns with their objectives and vision. 

He goes on to point out the qualities that the brand particularly looks for in an agency.

●     The agency should be open to suggestions and feedback. It should also be flexible enough to make necessary adjustments as per the requirements and market trends. The creative strategy requires lots of redos and the agency shouldn’t be hellbent on working with their vision and should consider our side of the story.

●     It should maintain transparency throughout, in terms of any challenges or difficulties faced during the campaign conceptualisation or execution.

●   It should be willing to work as a team with us. The agency-brand relation is a two-way street, and we have to work in sync to achieve our goals. 

Today, views and followers can be easily purchased. But it’s the shares, engagement, and interaction of the content with the audience that matters the most.

Agencies expect clients to specify what they want in their briefs, and trust agencies by giving them the freedom to create content, take risks, and hand over quicker approvals. The challenge of creating viral and topical content relies on the need for trust between agencies and brands. A successful collaboration of campaigns that resonate with the audiences will come through as they heed each others’ guidelines.