Share
The parallels between these concepts are too close for comfort. Fast fashion prioritises speed, cost-cutting and profit for the person at the top, while disregarding ethical behaviour. Fast fashion digital marketing agencies follow suit.
These agencies have sleek sales teams promising the world. But behind the scenes like the sweatshops – it’s ugly. The lack of transparency and unclear supply chain in both industries affect the quality of the end results. It perpetuates a cycle of low standards, ethical disregard and damages the industry.
What is ‘fast fashion’ digital marketing?
Like actual fast fashion, this approach is about rapid production and short-term gain, instead of a quality, ethical approach and sustainability. Instead of bulk-produced clothing, bulk clients sign up on huge retainers. The agency skips understanding the client, their uniqueness, the customer journey and business goals.
The results? Generic campaigns with little regard for the client’s return on investment (ROI). Instead of harmonious organic and strategic content, the client is given purposeless material that fails to attract the right audience or engage them at all stages of the funnel. This haphazard approach prevents any long-term analysis and adaptation and yet the client is paying and locked into a contract.
On the other hand, the wellbeing of the staff pressured to produce quick results with little guidance is disregarded. And, if offshored? Often workers earn barely a liveable wage.
Specific tactics include backend website pages stuffed with irrelevant keywords. Offshoring of data and other contractual obligations without transparency. The bait and switch from a senior account manager to a junior or an intern. Clients are often denied access to their real-time data dashboard – imperative to their brand.
The long-term effects
It is boringly predictable how many clients get burned by this approach. They lose time and money, and leave the agency to look for one who operates with integrity, but they do so with zero trust.
On the agency side, charging costly retainers without delivering results and losing clients is a recipe for disaster. With brand reputation damage, good luck filling the funnel for ongoing work. Interns and juniors, expected to handle senior-level work without proper education, experience or support, feel like failures and leave the industry.
The practice of offshoring without transparent communication from the start about the involvement of an international team raises significant ethical and quality issues. Clients should be informed about who is working on their account when they sign up, rather than finding out months into the arrangement, or worse by accident. If this is the agreed set-up and offshored rates are lower, the portion of savings should benefit the client rather than allowing the agency to take the full serving of cream off the top.
If marketing professionals continue to onboard clients for the sake of onboarding and prioritise profit, without using the most basic fundamentals of marketing to understand their client’s needs, the industry will continue to die a death of a thousand cuts.
Common mistakes in ‘fast fashion’ paid advertising campaigns
While paid advertising isn’t an exact science, there are common mistakes which can almost guarantee poor outcomes. A rushed, volume-driven approach without considering all touch points, strategic planning and execution with no full-funnel strategy leads to lacklustre results.
There is always room for human error and simple mistakes in set-up and budget mismanagement can result in overspending on ineffective ads. Inadequate research leads to incorrect targeting, SEO without analysing search intent and failure to turn off offers and paid ads. This wastes resources and time for all involved, undermines ROI and damages trust and the relationship.
Questions brand managers should ask their potential agency
Asking for a case study is common, but let’s be real – no potential agency will share anything but their best case study. Instead, clients should ask:
- Can I see the organisational structure?
- Who’s leading my account, who reports to them, and where are they based?
- Will they be with me for the duration of my contract?
- How much do you invest in learning and development each year?
- What is the process if things don’t go to plan?
- Will I have unlimited access to data? Will you educate me on how to use it?
Be sure to get comparable proposals. If an agency is promising to quadruple the results and 24-hour access to support, ask how they plan to achieve this. And, what the course of action is if or when they don’t.
A simple check on the company’s LinkedIn page will show if more than 50 percent of the team is offshore, as well as the ratio of junior to senior staff.
Things to look for when hiring an agency
A transparent digital marketing agency will not be afraid to deliver honest news, even if it’s not in their best interests. If a brand isn’t suitable for paid advertising, the agency shouldn’t sign them up for it. Instead, they should communicate a plan for them to scale and come back when ready.
Agencies should give clients access to their data dashboard and educate them to read and interpret it to make smart decisions. There is no point in an agency providing data, if it’s not being used strategically. That’s a red flag. In today’s agency era, clients deserve to work in true partnership.
Best-in-class agencies don’t rely on KPI measurement or a slick sales team. This prevents pressure to sign up clients without making sure they can deliver what they promise. All clients should be met and briefed by a senior account manager, who will be with them from day one and beyond.
Short-term profitability focus creates a long-term profitability bloodbath. Instead, articulate what the client is seeing, wins, and lessons and actions for the future. Will this lead to the highest profit margin possible? No. Will there still be profit? Yes.
Strategies to convert despite consumer spending pressures
Instead of signing up as many brands as possible and planning to profit from their fees when they choose to exit early because of dissatisfaction, there are ways to convert despite economic challenges, that don’t include digital pollution.
Understanding the client’s target market, their business and goals sounds simple, but it is increasingly overlooked. Identify organic search opportunities and create relevant content across multiple channels. This supported by paid ads, helps meet consumers at each stage of the decision-making process.
Use market trends to guide marketing efforts in line with consumer behaviours. Results show people are still buying but they are taking longer to make the decision and saving up for key sales events. Paid advertising should take all this into consideration and use it to the client’s advantage.
Pivot from fast fashion to the long game
Minimising digital pollution and finding the right fit between client and agency should feel like a well-tailored jacket. Anything less just won’t feel right, or go the distance.
Ethical fashion and ethical marketing are two sides of the same coin. A numbers game approach ultimately leads to brand dilution, distrust… and landfill.
Cherie Clonan is the proud Autistic CEO of The Digital Picnic digital marketing agency, specialising in paid advertising. She champions neuro inclusion by employing a largely neurodivergent workforce. While financial gains are not her primary motivation, Clonan has grown her agency from $4000 to $4 million in just four years. She credits this success to her unique approach as a creatively-oriented Autistic CEO, servant leader with a lifelong interest in people.
Also, read about inclusive digital design for a more accessible future for all.
Imagery attributed to The Digital Picnic.
