The Justification Business

TAC is on vacation. This post originally appeared on March 27, 2008.

Creating advertising today consists of two very different disciplines: Making ads, and making the justification for ads.

The way ad agencies work (especially, but not exclusively, the big ones) is that most of the effort is spent making the justification for the ads: research, planning, brand analysis, meetings, presentations, strategy sessions, briefs, conference calls, downloads, uploads, deep dives, low dives, off sites and insights followed by revised research, planning, brand analysis, meetings, presentations, strategy sessions, briefs, conference calls, downloads, uploads, deep dives, low dives, off sites and insights.

After months of this stuff, when all the knuckleheads are satisfied that justification has been achieved, as an offshoot of all this activity, sometimes an ad appears somewhere.

Justification has become the business. Ads have become the by-product.