What Kind of Leaders Do Creative Agencies Need Today?

Their influence continues to be felt today amp160Ari Weiss the newlyappointed Chief Creative Officer of DDB North America recently declared his creative heritage quotI am a huge advertising nerd And you can39t be a huge advertising nerd without worshipingamp160Bill Bernbach He was the original creative renegadequotWe should not forget though that these storied creative leaders spent much of their careers working in relatively comfortable circumstances Media choices were simpler Mass advertising was still a relative noveltyamp160and consumers could be entertained by clever TV and print ads that actually drove product sales Agency remuneration was adforad three times as high as today permitting creative departments to be flush with brighteyed talented people who were fired up about their career prospects amp160Ad agencies were respected partners who enjoyed very long relationships with their clients Procurement departments hardly existed and they certainly had no voice in marketing decisionsHow different it is now Ad agencies grind out high volumes of digital and social executions relying on the exceptional productivity of their stretched and underpaid creative people amp160Fee levels are in decline despite the continuous growth of scopes of work amp160Relationships last only 23 years before CMOs call for agency reviews amp160Agencies compete with consulting firms internal ad agencies feecutting competitors and holding companies for pieces of client scopes of work amp160Benchmarkers and feecutting procurement teams are omnipresent amp160Analytics the new advertising capability calls for an investment in skills that is almost unaffordableThe homilies of the legacy creative geniuses seem irrelevant at this pointDespite all the inspiration from the industry39s creative past agency creativity is currently declining amp160How could it be otherwise amp160Agency offices are economically unhealthy the effort to deliver growing margins in the face of declining fees and growing workloads has led to downsizing and disinvestmentThe longterm viability of ad agencies is now in the uncertain hands of the professional managerial executives who fall in the overhead cost category amp160They are not in glamorous jobs but they are now allimportantThese senior agency managers amp160CEOs regional executives office heads and CFOs have to reinstate control over agency operations and economics to protect and nourish agency creative capabilitiesThe future heroes in the industry will be those managerial executives who succeed amp160They will be recognized and acknowledged for their accomplishments much as was Alfred P Sloan President Chairman and CEO who saved General Motors from itself after its explosive growth from the 1920s through the 1950s amp160Sloan was rightly proud of his managerial accomplishments he is the only executive from the automotive industry who is idealized for what he accomplished on behalf of his company and shareholdersBill Bernbach and the other creative greats still shine a beacon for today39s agencies but it will take the unglamorous efforts of managerialminded agency executives to preserve and strengthen their legacyCartoon Credit Frank Cotham The New Yorker Collection The Cartoon Bank With permission The opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers Click the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this article are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

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What Kind of Leaders Do Creative Agencies Need Today?

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Michael Farmer

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