There is a place for dinosaurs

Dear editor, While we encourage healthy criticism, banter just for the sake of it is injurious to the industry. Big agencies tend to bully independent networks, we know that, but if the argument is baseless we will have serious doubts about the merit of the content.

With regards to Private View (Campaign, August 23) and the critique of our agency’s Egypt Tourism campaign, this particular campaign has delivered positive results for Egypt Tourism. Inbound numbers are steady and often exceeding targets and you will understand how important tourism is to the economy of Egypt. It contributes at least 10 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.

There is a place for dinosaurs – history books. We have plenty of them in our industry; good old folks who are completely out of sync with current trends or realities. It is sad dinosaurs disappeared but then that’s the law of nature – survival of the fittest. In today’s competitive ideas market, it is blasphemous to say ‘this idea belongs to online’, ‘that idea belongs to billboards’. Today’s fluid world of marketing demands media neutral thinking, direct connection with the audience, instant brand triggers. There is no room to hide behind a ‘I know better’ attitude.

An icon of advertising said: “Our job is to sell our clients’ merchandise... not ourselves. Our job is to kill the cleverness that makes us shine instead of the product. Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message.” It seems that we, at Entourage, are true followers of this ideology. The same applies to the expert whose comment was “I hate selfies” is adorable on a five-year-old. Personal preferences are good for birthday parties, not when the national income of a country (tourism, for Egypt) is in question.

But then, how would dinosaurs know.