Practice

The Forefront, etc.

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A follow-up on an earlier post asking why the NZIA doesn’t promote the services of architects in the popular media.

I corresponded briefly with Beverley McRae at the NZIA, who suggested that while it was the responsibility of individual practices to manage their own marketing, the Institute actually did “quite a lot” of advertising to the general public. I’d appreciate it if anyone who has seen some of this advertising could point it out to me. Ms McRae didn’t feel inclined to assist. She did, however, indicate that there was some new advertising in the pipeline to be launched “when we think the time is right” (I asked for a preview, but I think that might have been a rude question!).

I got the sense that the NZIA wasn’t particularly interested in dialogue (at least public dialogue) about this.

It still seems to me that there is a need to publicise the value that architects provide. For a person about to build a new house, who has never worked with an architect before, the question is not ‘which architect should I employ?’ but ‘should I employ an architect?’. For many, the question may not even occur—perhaps it would be a worthy goal to see that it does.

If you have a view, comment below or contact the NZIA directly.

[ crossposted to aaa.org.nz ]

The Forefront of Public Awareness

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Why doesn’t the NZIA advertise?

Individual practices aren’t likely to advertise themselves much. Every practice has a website (often overdesigned and flash-laden, but let’s not go there right now). A few larger practices run ads in Architecture NZ and the like, but not in popular media. There is probably a (quite justified) feeling that the best advertisement is getting your work published or winning awards.

We need to convince people of the value of architects. If we can’t articulate to a general audience why they should hire an architect, we shouldn’t be surprised if they don’t. The NZIA claim they are concerned with “ensuring that the value of good architecture and the range of skills that architects can provide are at the forefront of public awareness”. But how exactly are they doing this? Press releases to the Herald? Who is the public that the NZIA are trying to appeal to?

Those ads for design-build companies are cringeworthy, but they have a clear value-proposition: cheap, efficient, unthreatening, large houses, in which you get to choose how big the rooms are. What is the clear value-proposition for architects? The Australian Institute of Architects ran a print and tv advertising campaign which could serve as a good model. The campaign showed off award-winning work of different types and offered memorable soundbites.

Australian Institute of Architects, print ad, 2007

Australian Institute of Architects, print ad, 2007

Doesn’t this sound like the sort of thing our Institute should be doing?

UPDATE: bit late to enter this, but I look forward to seeing what it turns up.

[ crossposted to aaa.org.nz ]