Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES HOW AN ADVERTISER PICKS AN AGENCY Max Factor's 73-point formula for separating the men from the boys Max Factor & Co., in its search for a new agency to take on the accounts to be vacated by Doyle Dane Bernbach July 1, has devised a 73-point questionnaire to screen applicant agencies. The philosophy behind the questionnaire was described to the Los Angeles Advertising Club last Monday by Nelson Gross, advertising director of Max Factor. It follows, condensed. Highlights of the questionnaire are covered in a separate box. The first phase of our job was to determine what to look for. We did this first in very broad terms, and, more by chance than design, we arrived at what could be called the four C's on which we wanted to evaluate agencies. Before discussing them briefly, let me just list them for you: Creativity, Conception, Character, Congeniality. Every agency claims creativity of the highest order. Yet a little analysis reveals that one agency bases that claim on a successful formula which it may have created originally but into which it now forces every client's advertising. A second agency may base its claim on radical, off-beat approaches creative as hell— but also experimental and sometimes cuter than they are effective. A third agency — and this one gets at least one point on my score card — bases its claim for creativity on soundly reasoned and constantly evaluated appeals to which it then adds "freshness of expression and appearance." Conception covers a highly important area. We want to understand an agency's philosophy of advertising to be sure it is one in which we believe. Perhaps no an swers, but only our study of their previous work, will reveal their true beliefs. However obtained, we must be satisfied that an agency's working philosophy of advertising is at once realistic, idealistic and above all is established and firmly held. Character is perhaps a little simpler, applying principally, as it does, to the people within the agency. It is our conviction that men of character can build only an agency with character and integrity. The important corollary to this is that such an agency can produce only advertising with character and integrity to parallel the products of Max Factor & Co., and any other kind of advertising would ultimately undermine all that our company has devoted fifty years to building. Congeniality is more important to us than a literal definition would imply. It does not mean mere conviviality or joviality, but instead a somewhat deeper kind of "Togetherness," if McCall's will pardon the use of the phrase. At Max Factor & Co. we want an agency to work with us, not for us. Doing so requires a congeniality in the sense of a mutuality of respect and objective, the kind of dual, two-way understanding essential to the best advertising. Having determined what to look for, the harder problem became how to find it. You cannot very well ask, "Do you have character?" and expect a sensible reply. But there are indirect ways to find out. And we have devised our own measuring tool which, coupled with personal meetings and discussions, will give us the answers. This measuring tool is a questionnaire, but that word inadequately describes it. The first thing we need is information. Without facts, facts and more facts we would be forced to rely (at least to some extent) on guesses, hunches, whims and personalities— and the selection of an agency is far too important to run the risk inherent in that kind of choice. Consequently, our questionnaire is long, detailed and comprehensive. When we constructed it, I honestly wondered if all the interested agencies would complete it. I know now that they will, because they have. For simplicity's sake, and because it may make it easier for any who wants to remember the categories, I can, with only a little forcing, label them as the four M's: Men, Management, Methods, Money. About the men (and women, of course) in each agency being considered, we want to know everything pertinent regarding all the important people in the company and regarding every person who will have direct contact with us and responsibility for all phases of our work. We want to know length of service, responsibilities and activities within the agency and prior background and experience. Some of the ques NELSON GROSS WHAT FACTOR WANTS TO KNOW Among other things, the Factor questionnaire reveals a special interest in broadcast media. Television, for example, is the only single medium to which the advertiser devotes an entire section of its 73-point survey. The tv questions: 1 Please submit the resumes of those people who would be most directly involved in tv production of the Factor business, together with their length of service with the organization and the amount of time you believe each would spend on Factor business. 2 Give examples of what you consider to be 'outstanding work that has been produced by people in your television department. 3 Give five examples to indicate how you test television copy and its effectiveness. 4 What do you consider some of the most outstanding television campaigns currently running? 5 Give us your philosophy of network programs versus tv spot, together with appropriate examples of experience you have had, successful or not. 6 Explain how your television department would or would not be involved m the purchase of television programming. The same for spot tv. 7. Name five tv commercial production companies with whom you have worked recently. 8 Who are the best tv production companies in the above mentioned? 9. Are there any other facts in the area of television you would like to add that might help us know more about your agency > The broadcast media are singled out in other sections of the questionnaire, too. For example, Factor asks: How much of your total billing is in broadcast media? Give us a resume of the television copywriters who would spend 50% or more of their time on the Factor account. What is your policy towards commissions on tv packages? In addition to the broadcast media questions, Factor poses a number of others which can be called provocative. Among them: Is the management of your agency comprised of non-creative advertising people, semi-creative or creative? What women do you have in executive capacities? Give us a fist of clients you have lost in the last five years. Do you believe that investment spending of a considerable period of time, in order to build the client, is good business or poor business for an agency? Have you ever traded a small account for a larger one? Outside of your own agency, name the five agencies in Los Angeles you feel are the best generally-qualified agencies. Assuming that everything your agency creates is the best effort that it can produce, do you allow clients to change your creative work in any way? If so, why and under what circumstances? Who decides what ideas and plans are to be presented to the client? What is your policy on agency personnel travel expenses when incurred in behalf of client activities? Do you charge for layouts, storyboard, merchandise material roughs, etc., which are not used by the client? Has the Frey report caused you to modify or change any of your present agency policies? May 12, 1958 '» Page 41 Broadcasting