Do you have a licence for that idea, sir?

An opinion piece in the influential marketing publication AdAge has put the cat amongst the pigeons somewhat this week.  In it, strategist Jaci Russo has debated the idea of requiring advertising agency professionals to take tests and be licensed in order to, essentially, 'practise advertising'.

Of course, we can sympathise with the problem that clients have, when coming to an agency or a marketing professional for help with, say, SEO or web design.  If they were appointing a lawyer or an accountant, they would know those individuals were experts in their field - at least, competent enough to pass an exam.

However, we can't really see how this works in the marketing business.  The ability to pass a test, often years ago, is no guarantee of continued quality.  Indeed, the digital marketing business moves so fast right now that any test sat even just a couple of years ago would look impossibly outdated already.  That's not to say marketing qualifications aren't helpful - understanding the basic principles of the industry is invaluable - but not to the extent of making a defined set of exams a legal requirement.

Besides, if you want to know how professional an agency or individual is, what better way than to look at their recent work?  Ask to see examples, case studies, and better yet actual data from past campaigns - that's the key to finding good advisors, rather than those with a couple of letters at the end of their name.