THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH IN THOSE DAYS. — GENESIS 6:4
I started in advertising in the 1980s, right around the time a large number of you were born. Quickly, I knew what was what, who was doing what, who was better than whom, who wasn’t as good as they thought, and most importantly, who wasn’t as good as me. I had a keen understanding of the agency pecking order, which, at the top, started with my discipline and went all the way down to the kind woman who greeted me every morning and made excuses for me when I was late for meetings. In other words, I was a Grade-A jerk. In fairness, I didn’t invent arrogance. Nor was I the first person to introduce it into the agency business. In those days, jerkiness was not only tolerated, it was venerated and, in my case, emulated.
As a junior pup, my role models had more hubris than a stack of Greek plays. In the late twentieth century, being an agency president meant you had full command of every discipline in your shop. People wanted to meet you and experience your magic. Your excesses were celebrated and the successes of an entire agency were often solely attributed to the person whose name was on the door. Hall-of-Famers like David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach and Jerry Della Femina in the real world, and Draper and Tate in TV land, strode among us like demi gods to be feared and admired. These high priests of advertising didn’t just have opinions, they made judgments. Just read Ogilvy on Advertising. There’s no equivocation, nuance or modesty, David would bring us the truth from on high, if only we had the good sense to listen.
So what happened? Where are the giants of today?
I believe that one of the reasons the legends knew everything was because they could know everything. Think about how few disciplines these giants needed to master: broadcast, print, out-of-home and, in a really progressive shop, direct mail. Compare that to disciplines even a modest shop like Riley Hayes practices everyday. In addition to the above, we are involved in dozens of new digital and social disciplines, each of which spawns new variants daily.
This technological Big Bang has made it impossible for any member of an agency to claim mastery over all the disciplines required to run a serious shop. Instead of everyone in the agency being dependent on one person, everyone is dependent on every other person.
This has radical implications for agency leadership, agency cultures and agency presidents in particular. Instead of omnipotent individuals commanding the followers to go this way and that, serious agencies are now run by teams; collections of multi-disciplinary leaders that collectively bring together enough expertise to run the agency effectively. They need to make decisions based on common vision and purpose, pooling their expertise for the greater good.
Class distinctions can no longer be tolerated. Digital, creative, media, project management, production and account service all must have an equal place at the table, because all are required to be great for the work to be great. So how do agencies and agency people matter more when everyone appears to matter the same? We need to start with an understanding that mattering more is not about a title, an attitude or the number of windows in their office.
Today, the people who matter more will have four qualities that will make them more valuable to their team and their clients (a term I call relevance). The first is authenticity: great agency people have a sane estimate of their abilities and humility about where they can contribute and where they can’t. Second, they need to be masters at their craft. While the agency person of today may not be able to do everything; they must do their thing very, very well. Thirdly, being empathetic is more valuable than ever. The ability to stand in the shoes of our customers, clients and coworkers is required if we hope to create great work in this collaborative world. Finally, if we want to be relevant, if we want to matter more, we need to put the qualities of authenticity, mastery and empathy into action. We need to be doers. The days of agency people lollygagging around the office, nursing beers and playing foosball are over.
Admittedly, by these standards the greats of the past wouldn’t be considered so great and young Tom Hayes would not have lasted long at the agency that bears his name. But the great thing about advertising is that it has never been about recreating the past and has always been about creating a better future. And in the future I see, we all can matter more.
IF I HAVE SEEN FURTHER, IT IS BY STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. — ISAAC NEWTON
Being an agency president myself, I am rather wistful about the notoriety, homage and power that agency presidents enjoyed in the past. It’s a bit like the English looking back on the good old days when they looked up to powerful kings and queens. But then I remind myself that I come from shanty Irish stock, lucky to be on this side of the sod and graced with the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people who, each in their own way, bring knowledge and talents to our work that go well beyond my own.
Comment