If you haven’t seen the news that Jaguar recently shared a teaser of their re-brand then you must have been under a rock for the last week – but just in case here’s a summary:
Jaguar teased their re-brand and people do not like it – in fact, many seem to hate it, quite a lot!
There’s been lots of articles and opinions posted about why they did it, if they should have done it, how they have failed to build on their heritage foundations, and questions asking why there is absolutely no cars in the creative and just a bunch of weird looking people in odd clothing… so I’m not going to focus on any of that.
And in case you are interested – I don’t love it either!
But there is just one small point I’d like to make…a request if you will.
Don’t blame the branding (creative, digital marketing etc) agency.
Well not completely anyway – because you know what, it’s not them you should be blaming.
There’s been plenty of finger pointing and harsh comments thrown at Accenture Song (previously Accenture Interactive) for delivering such a “sh*t re-brand” (other’s words not mine!) - but you know what?
Not in all my years of working in this industry has a client ever given me the final decision, the job of signing off on their project. I mean don’t get me wrong there have been plenty of times I wish they would – but sadly it has never happened – NEVER!
Here’s the thing – the agency’s job is to pull the brief out of the client, ask questions, do the discovery/research and then deliver creative and messaging ideas back to the client for feedback (that’s the slightly simple version btw). The client then makes changes, there’s a bit (or a lot) of back and forth until the final creative/messaging is signed off on. By them – not the creative agency.
And that’s it.
So, although I’m not part of the AS team, and I have no idea what went on in the re-brand project – I am pretty damn sure the client had the final say and sign off. So, can we stop pointing the finger at the agency, especially as an industry – and before we post more accusations and negative opinions about them, we stop to consider where the blame really lies.
Because instead of criticising Accenture Song for the creative they delivered – there’s a more interesting question I’d really love to know the answer to…
