The marketing world has been shaken by a controversial debate with one question at the epicentre: Do marketing agencies place too much emphasis on creativity and not enough on achieving return on investment? According to 78% of CEOs, they don't...

This comes as an aftermath from a report published by Fournaise Marketing Group stating that a majority of Chief Executives feel marketing agencies are too “inward looking”. The report went onto explain this was because there was little or no evidence to support agency claims that creativity in their marketing strategies guaranteed an improvement in ROI.

Since the report was published on July 11th there has been a backlash response from marketing agencies and other influential bodies in the industry slamming the claims. Their group disapproval is proof that not only marketing agencies but also CEOs believe that creativity and ROI is not an either or decision.

Truly creative and original concepts have little or no backing research to support the strategy pitch due to the experimental nature of the ideas. It is this detail that rings alarm bells for CEOs who are used to being reassured their investment will be well spent with a presentation of hard data and evidence to ensure an airtight profitable strategy.

Throwing punches

The debate reached melting point when chief of the IPA Ian Priest came back to fight the agencies’ corner against the claims saying he was concerned by the ‘disappointing’ report by Fournaise.

In an article published by Marketing Week Priest preached the invaluable contribution of creativity to the industry. Presenting a few of the over 1,000 case studies in the Chimes databank that prove marketing agencies have both creativity and the ability to show return on investment. The evidence re-enforced that ‘many commercial leaders are “firm advocates” of the creative end of commerce” and the blame was not to be placed on a focus on creativity but perhaps to look beyond agency and CEO opinions.

A question of finance

One argument that has been pushed to the side in this debate is that of financing. The hardened economy has tightened many CEOs purse strings resulting in smaller budgets for agencies to work with. Larger agencies, used to working with a broad budget, will now be asked to provide the same results they have shown in previous decades with substantially less financing. It is this change in financing that is pushing CEOs to favour safe ROI proven strategies and distrust creative innovation.

There are solutions to the issue of financing, such as hiring smaller, local agencies that are arguably more experienced in working with a modest budget. Smaller agencies not only have the talent and creativity but also the value for money on advertising investment. The risk factor is marginally reduced as less money is spent on costs and fees incurred from using larger agencies.
 

Weigh in

Where do you stand on the row between the comparative value of creativity vs safe ROI strategy? Tweet @wefindgood or leave us a comment below.

To find out more about how FindGood can help you to select a marketing agency in the UK get in contact.