Decisiones sobre la programación: diseños curriculares de corte discursivo

People working within agencies will offer a variety of skills and backgrounds.

Generally, teams will include a mix of those in client management and brand strategy, as well as designers and writers. Cross-discipline teams offer a great resource for brand creativity.

At the outset, it is better to involve everyone who is working on the project in an ideas generation session (or brainstorm) to answer the brand brief. This means that the response to the brief will benefit from having people who understand the client well (such as the project managers), who can provide creative insight from other account work, or can offer a perspective from a different channel, such as the web.

The client manager/new business manager

This is the person responsible for attracting new clients, including getting on ‘pitch lists’. Generally, they will be someone who has extensive agency experience, with a background in account management, sales or marketing.

The client manager will often be the initial ‘face’ of the agency to the external world.

The project manager

The project manager – or senior project manager – will hold the account together. They are the key person who will talk to the client and make sure that the project is delivered on time and to a specific brief. Of course, in the real world, projects often overrun and budgets can be over-exhausted. It is the project manager’s role to assess timings and keep control of the budget.

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Teamwork and Digital teams – those that create the brand online – will interpret the traditional brand to the online environment for websites, banners, online advertisements and other forms of digital media.

In some cases, the online development of the brand will drive the direction of the brand, as the digital space becomes more prominent, and thus more critical to many brands.

The production teams The production specialists are those that ensure that the brand is delivered in various formats to enable its presence in print, TV, digital spaces and other forms of media. These people are the production specialists or programmers. They work closely with the creative teams and project management to ensure that the brand is executed in the best way possible.

The strategists

Some branding and design agencies have a strategy team, often the ‘thinkers’ behind the projects, responsible for ensuring that the brand direction is in line with the company vision.

Strategy plays a critical role and heavily influences the creative output of the brand. It determines the positioning and direction of the brand – such as how it will be different from competitors.

The strategy team should work closely with the creative team.

The ‘creatives’

The creative team are often referred to as those who literally create the brand through words and images. In general terms, a creative team will include the designers and copywriters, but may also include specialist skills such as those of product or digital designers. They make the brand come to life by working with the strategy and project management team.

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Case study Interbrand

Interbrand is an international branding agency best known for its brand strategy and evaluation abilities. The company pioneered measuring techniques for branding in the 1980s during the era of some high-profile mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of brands that were formerly not recognised for their values.

It has also been an important leader in progressing the idea of branding from straight ‘identity’ work, such as logo and naming development, to making the value of brands a key part of business and an important business asset.

Each year, Interbrand releases its top 100 brand ranking list. Companies are measured according to the brand’s international presence, financial data and potential future earnings. Interbrand then quantifies a net value for the brand. Applying this kind of hard and factual criteria to brands has strengthened the role of brands within business.

Interbrand is one of the leading branding agencies and is globally recognised.

It is well known for its brand evaluation strength.

It recently updated Barclays Bank's retail brand, working on the positioning, visual identity, brand architecture and tone of voice (top).

It also refreshed the visual identity for Toyota in 2004 (left).

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The client/agency relationship The agency

playing fi eld Teamwork and

talent

Case study Saatchi & Saatchi

While advertising agencies differ from branding agencies, they have played an enormous role in the rise of brands since the 1980s – the boom days of the advertising sector. Perhaps the most well-known agency during this time was Saatchi & Saatchi.

Set up by two brothers, Maurice and Charles, the agency made its name with bold campaigns in the early 1980s. The agency’s fame was built on its advertising for the UK’s Conservative Party in the election that brought Margaret Thatcher to power. Saatchi & Saatchi dominated the advertising world for around two decades, until the brothers left in the mid 1990s. It is still a leading global agency.

Advertising agencies play a fundamental role in brand expression and also influence particular trends in brand language. For years, agencies have also touted the idea of ‘cross-platform’ campaigns – campaigns that work across the digital space and offline. Online media offers a strong growth area for traditional advertising agencies.

Saatchi & Saatchi was credited with winning the election campaign for the UK’s Conservative Party in 1979, with this ‘poster ad of the century’, as voted for by UK industry magazine Campaign.

Saatchi & Saatchi’s T-Mobile campaign of 2009 used the brand’s strapline ‘Life’s for sharing’, ‘flash mobs’

and social media to create

‘spontaneous’ performances.

The ad (top) was filmed in a London tube station in 2009.

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The key to a good relationship A long-term, happy relationship between client and agency is dependent upon transparency and excellent client communication. In many cases, a client will manage the brand while working with an agency that will be responsible for the ongoing development and application of that brand. This means that a company (the brand owner) will invest more than time and money in the client/agency relationship – much of the value is often through personal