What makes a good agency?

Today I woke up and realised I've been in advertising, or whatever you want to call it now (I think advertising is still best, digital, content whatever, it's still giving people an impression of something so they want to buy it/do it/stop doing it), for 12 years. Jesus Christ. I'm old, with some level of experience.

I've made some big decisions along the way. One was not wanting to work in London, another was choosing small and quality of life and being a proper Dad to my little boy. over big, famous and endless hours. It's just about possible that, after for, or with very different agencies, I might have some decent thoughts about what makes a good and what doesn't. Then again, who cares what a planner working in Sheffield thinks? Just in case.........

Don't hire advertising people

What we do has to find a way to be at least as interesting as the culture it tries to pull attention from. That means you need people who are interested in that culture rather than just ads. There's a common breed called Homo Advertisingus who only reads D&AD, APG papers etc, who's only source of inspiration is, well advertising. Guess what? Try and make advertising and that's exactly what you get. Something that looks like something else, or is designed to impress a Tony Davidson a Stef Calcraft or a John Steele. If you want interesting work, hire interesting people, they may know nothing about advertising and maybe that's a good thing. And agencies that encourage and give people to do and look at interesting stuff is a good idea too.

Don't expect people to fit in

There's Homo Advertisingus, but there's also sub-species. Far too many agencies have a fixed idea of the kind of person they want to hire. They have to fit in with the culture. Now an organisation's culture is critical, but if everyone thinks and acts the same way there's no point. If you surround yourself with people like you. you'll only ever get one opinion or one answer. You want your staff to be challenged, to be exposed to all sorts of stuff. The Disruption Agency for example is remarkably conservative about who it hires and how they want their staff to behave.

But do have a culture

People want to feel like they're working towards some kind of collective purpose. That's not the business plan, that's not profit. A strong sense of what the place is about helps. Mother wants to create work that's culturally famous, BBH is brainy etc.

Have a leader

I've worked in places with strong inspirational leaders and places with managers. Agency's seem to do better with a figurehead. Not a dictator, someone you want to work until midnight for, someone who can pick you up when you're having a bad day.

Don't focus on money

There are not many agency people who really care about money. They want to live well, but it's not their reason for being there. They want to love what they do and create great work (if they don't you have a problem). Focus on the work, make it brilliant and the money follows. But hire someone to worry about the money. That's the problem with massive agency networks, it all becomes about quarterly targets.

Don't worry about people's ages

You need kids to shake up the old timers. You need old timers to calm the kids down. The tension works well. It shouldn't matter how old someone is if they're still interested.

So challenge your people

Don't flog them to death, but do encourage them to keep moving forward. There's nothing more rewarding than mastery of your given job and nothing more dangerous. Help people have the courage to venture our of their comfort zone, of they feel they're moving forward, they'll stay longer

But appreciate the support staff

There's always some who are more reliable than amazing. You need them too

Don't pretend to be professional

Agencies waste of time convincing clients we're just like them. We're not. We're creative people. They're not. That's why they hire us. There isn't a linear process, we just do stuff until something emerges, then pretend it was otherwise.

Don't pretend to be something you're not

Some agencies are genuinely cool, some are very hardworking, some are fun, some are very brainy. Most think about what agency they would like to be and pretend they are. It never works. Establish what you're culture and strengths are and focus on those.

Be good, not different

Most agencies do exactly the same thing, it's just that some do it better. Focus on being really good rather than really different. No one cares about your proprietary process, they do care if your work makes them tingle.

That's my idea of what an agency should focus on. You probably have another.

Comments

[New Balance 574]

All the splendor 1 in the world is not worth a good friend .