Interpretation of campaign briefs between South African financial services and advertising agencies

Abstract

Financial services companies need to create awareness around their value offering of intangible services in the market and use advertising campaigns to achieve this awareness and subsequent sales. The study looks at the starting point in the creation of an advertising campaign i.e. the briefing process between the financial services company and the advertising agency. In this process people from different disciplines and different environments communicate and interact with one another, providing opportunities for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The brief is taken as the illustrative point in the interaction between the two parties and is posed as the epitome of all communication between these two. By evaluating the communication process the study looks at gaps and provides suggestions on how to best manage this interaction as concluded from insights provided by data acquired through a mixed method incorporating quantitative online surveys and qualitative one-on-one interviews with employees from both the financial services company and the advertising agency. The study furthermore looks at the briefing template as the formal document and "contract" between the financial service company and the advertising agency and proposes the structure and required content for such a brief. The potential pitfalls in each of the proposed sections of the briefing template are investigated in terms of the Service Quality Gap Model; thus leading to a recommended protocol a briefing template along with the management thereof by the financial services company which is the way forward as proposed in the study.