Who gets to make ads for Government departments?
As an independent, New Zealand-owned advertising agency, until recently the answer was, “not us.”
Not because we’re not good enough, or too expensive, or because people think that we’re an actual goat farm.
But because we weren’t on The List.
The List’s proper name is the All of Government Creative Services Panel. It’s a roster of advertising and design agencies that Government departments have to stick to when choosing an agency to do everything from designing a logo to throwing a million-dollar dinner party for influencers.
Until recently, The List was fiendishly difficult to get onto. You couldn’t just apply when you wanted to; applications only opened every two years, and for some reason this recently stretched to three. The process favoured big agencies too. The effort, documentation, liability insurance and other compliance hoops turned off a lot of smaller agencies, ours included.
This year, that changed. MBIE, the ministry administering The List, set out to make the process easier and the list more inclusive.
Controversially, one of the ways it did that was by removing previous creative criteria and focussing instead on making sure the agencies applying were legitimate, financially stable and affordable.
As a result, some quite big agencies – some of whom had been on The List for ages – were kicked off. The industry body (we’re not a member; not many small agencies are) were predictably irked. Ad agencies, they said, should be chosen on creativity, not cost.
I agree. And that’s exactly what will happen when Government departments have a job that need doing. Choose two or three agencies on The List, knowing that their rates have been looked over by the folks at the ministry, then dig into their creative chops before making a choice.
The new list is long. 200+ agencies, ranging from multinationals to sole traders. I think that’s great. Government departments should get plenty of choice and that should include local agencies.
Especially local agencies with Goat in the name.