Parity…Believe It Or Not, That’s The Mantra Of Most Agencies.

I am the sports fan on our team. And as such I listen to a lot of sports talk radio.  You may not always agree with what they say, but one thing they mostly have in common is that they are very well-informed. I also consider myself pretty well informed about the goings on in the sports that I follow.

One of the things I have noticed in following sports is that the concept of a sports ‘dynasty’ has pretty much vanished from the vernacular of people who talk about sports and also from fans like me who follow sports. The reasons for this aren’t really clear, but in a lot of sports, the dynasty idea has been displaced by the reality of parity.

The concept of a level playing field has advantages and disadvantages in sports. One of the advantages is that it tends to put more bums in seats in more stadiums across the country. You never know: if people think their team has a shot at the playoffs, they will be more likely to get behind the effort and support them with attendance at the game and spending in the stores. On the other hand, it’s somewhat appealing to have a team that dominates the others in the league or at least their divisions, because it creates interest with people not yet converted to fandom.

There are a number of other pros and cons to the parity v. dynasty argument. But this is a blog about communications and you’re probably wondering what all of the aforementioned has to do with that.

Parity In The Agency/Marcom World Runs Rampant 

In the communications business as a whole, there exists a great deal of parity. One big agency is pretty much the same as the next. They have posh offices in trendy locations. They have many layers of account management and creative people with all kinds of titles attached to their names. They can haul out lots of ‘success stories’ and usually rely on canned mantras and dazzling dog and pony shows to impress potential clients.

With all this parity, we can understand why any marketer would have a hard time trying to differentiate one agency from another. Because if you look closely enough, you can easily see that a lot of these large firms work very hard at trying to maintain it. They don’t do this consciously, but they are always aware that there is another company or two just like them that they may, at any time. be pitching against. The ‘flash’ also helps them appear worthy of exorbitant rates and dropping that flash might just put them out of the running.

No One Will Ever Confuse Us With A Typical Agency

At Ink Tank, we’ve taken a different approach to the parity game. We refuse to play it.

We don’t worship at the altar of the same old, same old. Our principals have way too much experience for that. Our Beaches location would rank as pretty cool, but not posh. And we don’t think that being part of a multi-agency new business pitch is really our cup of tea, either. We bring our dogs to the office and leave the ponies at the farm.

Ink Tank is small, a tight-knit team of highly experienced professionals, under one roof, with complementary skill sets and mindsets that allow us to work on virtually any type of project in any medium – quickly, effectively and with great flair. We work on challenging projects – large and small – and deliver measurable results at sane prices, without all the traditional layers that eat up big chunks of time and budgets that we feel could be put to much better use.

We also have a lot of fun doing what we do, which is helping clients meet communications challenges and build their business without breaking the bank to do it. Our considerable experience has taught us that most clients are interested in the shortest distance from challenge to conquered challenge – more substance than show. And that is our specialty.

Parity…in pro sports the jury is still out on its real benefits. But in the communications business, parity is what keeps many companies overly management heavy, which in turn causes clients to pay more than they should for the services they are getting.

If this has made you think twice about anything regarding your communications challenges, give us a call and let’s talk. No dogs, no ponies, no obligation.