The January 15, 2010  issue of The Week published an excerpt from a book titled, The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande. He is a surgeon by trade and found that in his profession human error would be avoided by a simple solution: checklists. He ends the article by saying medicine isn’t the only field where checklists will help but that: “There may be no field or profession where checklists wouldn’t be tremendously beneficial.”

We at Jones&Bonevac feel the same way, particularly about how checklists can improve marketing efficiency. If you read the article, you’ll notice Dr. Gawande describes the process of building a skyscraper. The 32-story office and apartment complex he visited was being raised by the hands and minds of 250 individuals working at the site. Each person was responsible for tasks that determined whether or not the building would stand or fall. Building a successful marketing campaign is no different than building a skyscraper. Each person, whether on the client side or on the agency side needs to be sure to perform their task the right way at the right time in order for the project to succeed.

With a checklist, one can only imagine how much more efficiently and effectively a marketing communications plan would come together. So much time and effort would be saved, so many dollars and resources would not be wasted, if only marketing and advertising employed the use of  a simple checklist.

Dr. Gawande states a theory in his book. He says: “Under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success.” If you know anything about marketing and advertising you will agree it is absolutely a complex process.

Now put your pen to paper and draw a small box in the upper left hand corner and write next to it, email info@jonesandbonevac to learn how to further improve marketing efficiency.

The following post is in response to the AdAge article titled, “Planning Your Next Move in Ad Land: The Challenges and Pitfalls Ahead for the Industry 2010.”

The most successful agencies in the next decade will not be averse to procurement executives. They will neither think “dreaded procurement,” nor dread the questions posed by procurement. They are, at their essence, questions about value and differentiation. Is the agency service valuable? Is it different from the shop next door? If the answers are yes, there is little to dread. If no, then they have only themselves to blame.

Procurement is getting smarter the more they get involved. At the moment, many of their executives don’t understand our industry. That is changing rapidly. Even if they dial down the pressure (which is not likely) the rules governing agency revenues and profits will never change.

Create business value, in a way that is different from your competition. If you do, the field is yours . . .

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