Don't Go Aflac Hunting

By John Malmo

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-898881.mp3

Don't Go Aflac Hunting, by John Malmo.

Memphis, TN – We're coming up on an important advertising milestone in America. In a matter of weeks, the agency that created the Aflac duck will be replaced. A New York agency named the Kaplan Thaler Group introduced the now famous Aflac duck ten years ago. The campaign has turned Aflac from an obscure, also-ran contender to number two in its category.

The Aflac duck is clearly the most powerful new advertising icon introduced in that period.

The relationship between an advertiser and its agency is kind of weird. While both client and agency are on the same team, it also can be an adversarial relationship. In 99 out of 100 cases, the day an advertising agency acquires a new account is the day that it begins to lose it. As much as I admire what Kaplan Thaler did for Aflac, it might be best for the client to hire someone new.

Maybe the present agency has grown stale and can't take the duck to the next level. It was only about a year or two ago that a new Aflac marketing director tried to drop the duck. Aflac dropped him.

Never let new personnel justify themselves by getting rid of everything they had no hand in. Surely, at Aflac, that duck is safe.

John Malmo is a Memphis marketing consultant with more than fifty years experience. He is former chairman of Archer Malmo Advertising and specializes today in helping small businesses grow. To reach Mr. Malmo - or to buy a copy of his book When on the Mountain There is no Tiger, Monkey Is King- go to http://www.johnmalmo.com.