The purpose of any sectoral organization should be to defend the interests of that sector and the entities that are part of it. As Groucho Marx never said, “these are my principles; if you don’t like them, I have others”. In fact, it is quite common for the future of these types of associations to have a different agenda and for this to be that of a specific segment of the industry they claim to represent. As far as communication agencies are concerned, it does not seem that, in the last decades, there has been any comprehensive representation, but only partial. Perhaps it is because there are no common interests, or perhaps it is because what is urgent for some of us is secondary for others.
Almost two decades ago I was working for the employers of a sector that, today, no longer exists. The sector no longer exists and, therefore, neither does the employers’ association. It brought together the big names of a market that, at the beginning of the century, generated profits in the millions. There were also companies of all sizes and shapes. Some of them engaged in unethical behavior, it is true. However, their purpose was not to correct them, but to achieve a regulation that would take into account their experience and defend their interests.
The reality was that, in the medium term, the problem was in-house. Many of the associates could only see the others as competition, so they refused to share the slightest information. It was impossible, for years, to carry out an associative communication strategy. Worst of all, regulatory interests were not the same either, to the point that one associate even leaked the draft of a bill to the press in order to sabotage it.
What an industry association should advocate
When considering the creation of an industry association, it should be a primary condition to be clear about what you want to defend and what you hope to achieve. We might think that the world of communication agencies in Spain, so varied and eclectic in size, organization and specialization, it is difficult to reach a consensus on some basic aspects. However, I can think of some reasonable goals:
- Achieve fair procedures in the request for quotations, avoiding the client ghosting to which many potential clients subject agencies.
- Establish clear and fair competition announcements.
- Defend the role of agencies as creative service companies, so that creativity is not an exclusive concept that only belongs to agencies directly linked to advertising and marketing campaigns.
- Promote university training that reflects the real scope of everything that a communications agency entails and does. As far as we can see, public relations is still the poor sister of the career, especially for journalists.
- Protect the work of agencies from the special interests of other entities and even the media. Assuming that one is “the dark side” should be an anomaly, not a “what are you going to do”.
- Unite multinationals and SMEs in defense of the above.
Shall we continue?
Agencies are not our enemy
Well, what we see is more that some are keen to point out that the evils of the industry are inward looking. It’s great to create codes of ethics, procedure manuals and best practice guides. But if what we are saying is that the problem is that companies in the industry, especially small ones, are unethical, unprocedural and behave badly towards clients, we are pointing the finger at ourselves rather than defending ourselves. And to those who hire us, what they are told is that only those who are inside the association are clean and transparent. Well, look: no.
My experience tells me that the vast majority of companies in this environment know what they are doing. We have extraordinary professionals, really. If there are those who do not meet the minimum criteria, let those criteria prevent them from being part of a sectorial organization. Another thing is that it is interesting to tell potential clients that “whoever is on my side is on theirs”, unlike all the others.
Perhaps we need to differentiate the agendas of those who feel they are more of a multinational group, with very diverse interests, from those of us who are independent entities. What I think is that we need to start respecting each other and stop cracking the whip and focus on defending our professionalism and ability to be allies in the business objectives of those we work for.
