Advertising Strategists and Consultants Have Opposite Jobs

Since the start of my career in advertising I’ve heard fears from fellow advertising strategists that consultants were going to take over our work. I had many conversations with colleagues about how we could “defend” our work (or even steal work from consultants). To me, these fears are unfounded. Firstly, even if consultancies take all the work that advertising strategists do, they’ll need to staff up to do that work and the most qualified people for them to hire will be…former advertising strategists. But as I began to work with consultants on shared brands, I realized that there’s no need to fear being replaced by consultants because at their cores, advertising strategists and consultants do opposite jobs.

After college I had a friend who went into consulting. I asked him what exactly he did and he said that basically, he looks at what the best players in his clients’ industries do and helps them emulate that so that they can be as efficient and profitable as possible. This is surely an oversimplification but as I’ve worked with more consultants, I’ve seen that this is more or less what they do. Their goal is to help brands achieve their maximum potential by implementing best practices from the most successful brands in the space. Consultants help brands do what others have done.

While this seems similar to what advertising strategists do, it’s actually the opposite. We develop strategy that engenders creative work and big ideas that are completely new and unique. We do that to help brands stand out and do better in the market than they otherwise would with average work, or even with what’s considered “best practice” for their industry. Advertising strategists help brands do what no one has done before.

Advertising strategy shouldn’t try to be like consulting. Consultants make money (and stand out from each other) by selling thinking and unique frameworks. And while an advertising agency can make money by using its strategy department to do the same, that shouldn’t be our goal. Our job as advertising strategists isn’t to sell our thinking or frameworks for their own sake, it’s to use strategy to give the creative work direction, focus, and inspiration. Doing this effectively will make the creative better, which will make the client’s brand more successful, which will in turn make our agencies more money through continued work with that client and new business.

As is probably obvious, I believe that advertising strategists play a critical role in a brand’s success. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think consultants are important too, but the job of a consultant and the job of an advertising strategist are fundamentally different. So let’s not worry about taking each other’s jobs and work together to build some great brands!