Is Spec Work Evil?
Collaboration is essential in creating the best agency-client relationships. It helps the agency in forming a deep understanding of its goals and the brand. Now considering spec work in advertising, when the agency produces creative without insights of its audience and its brand’s challenges, the brand is used to determine whether the agency has the right team to solve problems and create effective communication with its audience (Oetting, 2015). Over time, spec work has been a point of dispute between agencies and clients. Beyond the increasing queries on whether or not the exercise is ethical or fair, spec advertising is a growing cost in business with lessening margins. The efforts made by most companies to use online design contests and crowdsourcing have caused the spec work to even get worse with time. Therefore, I think the spec process should be eliminated in the industry.
Spec work is more of a guessing game since it’s rare for spec ideas to be produced. Also, the spec process is artificially guarded with little collaboration and minimal information provided. Spec work can be compared to playing the lottery (Oetting, 2015). Understanding a brand requires ample time to assess its challenges and potential solutions, then one can risk investing heavily. Thus, when a firm fails to invest in the time to draw informed conclusions, chances of guessing at viable solutions become minimal. Unfortunately, most companies, through the agencies, are using the spec work without investing in a comprehensive understanding of their brand (Neff, 2012). Generally, clients know their brand and industry much better than a prospective agency can even with the agency investing much time towards the spec project.
According to Request for Proposal (RFP), spec work can be referred to as a waste of time. The reason for this is that the reader of a spec work may lack any context to what is being displayed to them. Also, most people who ask it in an RFP don’t have an understanding of the importance of developing creativity (Oetting, 2015). To them, spec work is like hiring an individual to provide office supplies. In the present day, spec work can be termed as a necessary evil. The actual creating of the spec is creative for the company and the agency. However, the lack of clarity openness on how it’s being used makes it a necessary evil. In creating the best work for the business, so much more than fantastic guesswork and research is needed. Thus, it takes what consumers presently feel for the brand, and the familiarity with what’s worked for the brand, and also avoiding significant hurdles known by individuals close or in the business. Spec work should be used to see taste cues and designs, and also assess the chemistry of the team presenting.
The debate about spec work can be compared to that about torture, as we argue whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (Oetting, 2015). However, we should view it in a more cruel way: Does it work? When someone is tortured and gives out the information needed, then torture’s work. ‘Spec works in the same way, thou it has a mission to win the account. Thus, the agency uses the guessing game to make whatever they think the client wants, whether it’s original, compelling, informed, or not. Therefore, we can conclude that spec work is a process done in isolation and doesn’t create the best agency-client relationships, such as collaboration.