Wise Guy

You may very well ask What do you know Who are you to lecture the young and vibrant with your talk of the last century of fullservice agencies of long lunches and longer afternoonsIt39s a fair point so from time to time I39m going to try to illustrate some lessons that I39ve learned over the years sprinkled with reallife examples Depending on the response to this post quotfrom time to timequotamp160might well turn into quotnever againquotamp160If you39re reading this and you think yes I have many examples of lessons I39ve learned and if you39re prepared to be quoted and to share them then let me know and I39ll try to feature themBuckle upLesson 1 You have to love quotthe workquotWhen I got my first proper job in an agency Davidson Pearce Norman Berryamp160 then the agency39s creative director and beating heart told me quotYou have to eat and breathe advertising You have to think about it the whole time You have to love adsquotamp160Norman may very well have been a tad obsessive but he had a point Back then we all from media research junior me through to CEO were all more than aware of and proud of the agency39s creative workBen Langdon hiring me decades later at Universal McCann said something similar When I asked him why he had hired me he said quotYou are interested in 39the work39amp160You care about itquotAt the time I really wasn39t in any way unusualI think today I would be Far fewer people certainly outside of creative departments care about the ads The centeramp160of gravity within the business has swung from creative to media amp160which and I39m a media guy is akin to removing its heart and replacing it with a machineIf we don39t care about the ads why should the publicLesson 2 Take responsibilityAt Davidson Pearce through a strange set of circumstances I found myself head media research person within a department of one getting the agency into a position from where it had a good chance to win The Observer accountI worked with Norman on the pitch persuaded him he had to break his rules about speculative creative and together we won the businessI then asked if I could double up which is how I came to be head of media research and account director I argued that if the agency had a category expert in house then that person should run any account within that category I was modest as you can tellIt seemed to me that I should take responsibility amp160which after all is what I had told the client in the pitchThe Observer advertising won a string of awards mainly for this filmI am proud of some things I39ve done but throughout my career I39ve also made any number of mistakes One of my TV buyers once forgot to buy a minor ITV region for a brand launch We miscalculated the savings to be made on a particular negotiation and overpromised to the client I more than once failed to check charts before a presentation And many many moreI39ve learned that if you make a mistake own up to it immediately Assuming it won39t be noticed or that someone else will cover it up only ends badlyAnd if you39ve never made a mistake then you39re either delusional or you39ve never done anything great eitherLesson 3 Clients are always right except when they39re notClients hire agencies to help them sell more stuff enhance their reputations persuade investors to back them and so onThey don39t or shouldn39t hire agencies to agree with themYet we so often do thisAt Leo Burnett one of the international account guys once announced he intended to start a new type of agency the Yes Agency Whatever the client wanted however foolish or mundane that would be what the agency would do Luckily he wasn39t serious about starting it he was deadly serious about the fear we all had that such an agency would succeedRichard Wheatly Leo Burnett39s chairman once fired Alka Seltzer when the client organized a focus group of his own staff to vote on whether or not our print ad featured a sufficient number of bubbles we felt it fairly represented reality the client wanted needed more bubblesAdmittedly this was the last of a very long line of strawsWhen it comes down to arguing not about the ad but about this or that number of bubbles it39s time to say goodnightLesson 4 It39s the client39s moneyAt the end of the day you can argue all you like but if the client wants to waste his money on this or that channel or medium then it39s his to wasteI worked on PampampG for many years including a spell in the US At my first meeting with the global team in Cincinnati the client said something like quotYou should always recommend what you think we should do but sometimes your predecessor didn39t know when to stop We39ll always listen to you but at the end we may decide to do something different quite possibly for reasons you39re not party toquotYou have to know when to stopYou may ask Why is media stuff different from bubbles One39s art one39s sophisticated guessing One matters one really doesn39tIf you39re working in advertising today you39re incredibly lucky Savor it love it care for itPass it onClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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