Agency Culture

Big topic. What is it? How do you create it?

I’ve said many times that dogs at work, flexible hours, open space and Beer Fridays do not constitute Agency Culture.

And, by the way, they’re not entitlements either.

I’ve worked in places that had real, true Agency Culture. The kind of place where everything clicks, we look forward to going to work, we enjoy our colleagues, and great creative is nurtured.

I’ve also worked in places that tried to create Agency Culture through zany meetings, meaningless accolades (usually for the same suck-ups – oops usual suspects), birthdays complete with festive cake, and yes, Beer Fridays.

We all have a job to do. And it should be in a place where you actually like the people you work with – and respect them.

I think a great Agency Culture comes from a place of mutual respect. From the top – down.

The rest just happens.

Cloud vs Client Server…Or Relying On Your ISP

I have worked in agencies and in-house marketing departments at a time when things weren’t going well. Unimaginable, I know.

Nobody knew where anything was. Projects late or over budget, or more commonly – both. The blame game. Endless complaining to partners, VPs, each other.

So we looked for ways to fix the problem. That’s where I came in. Figure it out. Find a solution. Implement it. Take the blame – thankyouverymuch.

Then
In the early days, we didn’t have the Cloud, but we did have an intranet. So we usually built a system for opening jobs, preparing budgets and schedules, and shared access – usually using FileMaker Pro, FoxPro, or some database program that someone customized. A proprietary system. Oy.

Later came the designed-for-agencies software like Advantage, Creative Manager Pro and others.

Then came Cloud offerings. Then came apps. The evolution of Agency Management Tools in a nutshell.

Now
Advantage and CMP (now Workamajig) now offer Cloud Versions of their software. Nice because you don’t need to invest in hardware or software upgrades (well, Windows 95® won’t do) and you can access it from anywhere your privileges allow.

Then there’s BaseCamp, which many think is an agency management solution. Nope. It’s a collaborative tool. And yes, you can buy all kinds of apps that will link. And if you want to manage your agency in bits and pieces, Be My Guest. Good luck with that.

Cloud is great.

But a couple weeks ago, my internet service provider, CenturyLink, had a 22-state outage. That meant, had I needed to access my agency data, I was S.O.L. The very nice person I spoke to at CenturyLink Customer Service said they were ‘working on the problem’ and ‘didn’t have an ETA on repair’. When I say she was nice, I mean it. Super friendly and super busy. Props for Good Customer Service.

By the way I live in Nevada. My daughter, in Medford, Oregon works in a supermarket. Their entire POS system was down during the outage. Imagine not being able to use your debit card for milk, eggs and Cherios®.

Most of us seldom lose internet service. But when we do, everything comes to a grinding halt. And it wreaks havoc. Everyone pops up – Hey, can you get on the internet? Try a different browser. Click, Click, Click.

I know this is how we do business now, but do give thoughtful consideration when investing in, and relying upon Cloud solutions to run your agency. Well, heck, this goes for any business.

Your source, whether it’s enterprise or an app, may rarely be down, but everything else in-between is vulnerable.

We are living and dying by the data we can gather and share immediately. When going to the Cloud, consider your provider, speed, and security.

No, this isn't an episode of Doomsday Preppers.

Now, where’s my typewriter and carbon paper.

Mentorship in Advertising

Yesterday’s post was about the lack of the 50+ perspective and the glaring absence of 50+ staff in advertising agencies.

For those who don’t know, we’re talking Baby Boomers.

My way-back-when-colleague, Jeff commented “…the notion of mentorship, seems to have evaporated in this worship of youth culture.”

Damn! I forgot completely about mentorship.

That’s because I have seen it so rarely in the past 20 years. Is anyone mentoring these days?

In a Google search with the words Advertising and Mentorship, I turned up one – only one – agency on the first page.

Barkley ding! ding! ding! you get the prize. And the word is in the page address: http://barkleyus.com/mentorships. However, at first read, it does look like an internship…

For me, mentorship is different from internship, though. Mentorship goes well beyond Summer Break. It lasts throughout your career, then you, kiddo, get to pass it along.

So for those who hire recent grads, please don’t stick them in a cube and give them crap to file, or do data entry. Guide them.

Partner them with someone who knows the ins-and-outs of advertising and agency life. By the way, this goes without saying, but put them with someone who isn’t jaded and just doing time.

And for God’s sake, DO NOT PUT THEM ON SOME STUPID SOCIAL MEDIA ASSIGNMENT BECAUSE THEY ARE UNDER 25.

Rookies need to understand the business of advertising. Client relationships – which requires finesse, like not saying yes; getting shit done – not passing off something half-done because it is late; creative – because there is logic behind it; strategy – because there is reason behind it; getting coffee – no it isn’t a one-hour, off-site venture; partying – there’s a right time and wrong time to partake. Paying attention to budgets and timelines. Culture in the context of camaraderie.

And please, foosball tables, dogs-at-work, and Beer Fridays do not constitute culture. That’s just slop shots, poo in the hall and a Saturday of Regret.

So this is about mentorship. If you’ve only worked in advertising for, say, three to five years, you may have won all sorts of accolades for your digital stuff. Did anyone mentor you, or did you follow the hype about The Next Big Thing?

Mentorship is about thoughtful consideration of your work; how you approached your strategy, how you executed your creative – through the eyes of someone who has made the mistakes and celebrated the successes. Those folks, who have been in the trenches for the better part of a quarter-of-a-century – or more – will share amazing things with you.

This world has gone digital, and in that wake has drunk the Kool-Aid of youth.

And I’ll bet Gen X and Y don’t know anything about Kool-Aid other than a euphemism.

Youth In Advertising

I’m over 50. Well over 50. Not yet 60. There I said it. Three ways.

Before Hard Rock Las Vegas existed there was a beach with bikinis.​

I read Bob Hoffman’s Ad Contrarian blog. If you are under 50, you should too. You will learn valuable information. Do it because I said so.

If you’re marketing to more than the R(x)ehab demographic, maybe you should consider making the message more relevant by targeting the correct demographic. Do you know how to do that other than using a focus group?

We, the people over 50, would like to see just a little more representation. We do buy more than Aleve®, Depends®, and Viagra®.

When I read Bob’s post about the misconception that “people over 50 want to be like young people”, it got me thinking.

What’s the percentage of staff over 50 in any given agency?

I harken back to the last agency I worked in and I think out of about 250, there were just a few – very few workers over 50 – who were not partners.

Where do those of us, who at 49, go when the big five-o is looming? I know that one won’t be a coordinator forever. I know the pay is pretty shitty in many of the positions. Do we find something more meaningful that pays better? Like landscaping?

Maybe that’s the nature of agencies. Interns become coordinators, coordinators become account managers, account managers become something else that is utterly strategically important, then they become VP of Operations. Eventually they own the place. But that is few, far between, and for the suck-ups.

The talented leave and open their own agencies. They assure themselves relevance, well past 50. Or they become consultants. Guilty.

So it comes down to this. Perhaps those kids don’t realize that anyone exists but them. Their parents did train them to think that way, after all. Everyone’s special.

So they market to their peeps. God forbid they’d ever think their parents did anything like buy a car, take a vacation or buy pickles.

Thinking back, rarely did we have a creative review where those of us over 50 were invited to lend a little critique, insight.

Maybe it’s time to seek out your over-50 colleagues and get their take on what they buy, how much they spend on themselves and their adult children.

What brand conversation engages them? (That one’s for Bob)

And by the way, there are awesome, talented people over 50 who would love to work for your agency and are out of work. Hire that person. They get it, and will work harder and more efficiently than anyone you’ve hired out of college. They onboard quickly because they have experience you don't yet have.

And yes, those folks know how to use a Mac and an iPhone. Think about it. Steve Jobs would be 58. I'll bet you’d hire him.

​Now I gotta go. Have to iron my bikini.

Print vs Digital or Everything That's Old is New

​Here’s a history lesson. Yes, and it's about me. Then you’ll learn all about how print is useful in the digital world.

​That's me. Circa 1972, wearing Seafarers - the real kind - with buttons. And my first car, a '63 VW safari top. 

I started my ‘career’ in advertising as a paste-up artist. Even more exciting than that, I was creating technical manuals at the in-house department of a high-tech company. When high-tech was called electronics. The company also had one of the largest in-house print shops on the West coast. It was also the ‘70’s and I wore Seafarers (by the way, they’re coming back, say hello to high-waist jeans).

Lesson: Don’t throw out those jeans. Put them in the attic for 40 years.

So that job gave me a background on production. From writing, designing, illustrating; to shooting, stripping and plating film; and on to printing and bindery. Great boot camp for a newbie.

All of that is relevant today. All that stuff we actually did on a board is now done on your little ol’ Mac – but you know that.  So all those tools in your workspace relate right back to the good old days. Cut and paste.

Lesson: If you don’t understand the process from start-to-finish, you’ll have no idea that what you do or don’t do affects the next person (or three steps from now) until they complain. Then you get do to whatever you did – over again. Understand process.

So, I caught this piece in the Denver Business Journal that print is making a Big Comeback. It’s a friendly, albeit fluffy read. But it makes the point that direct mail is relevant and it ties in with digital. The writer’s connection to digital is a stretch, but I’ll make a more direct connection. Read on.

In my glorious past, I transitioned from paste-up on a board to using a Mac, the internet was invented, and I witnessed the change to where driving eyeballs to a website was the New Goal; and even got to see the first iteration of watching real-time as a user navigated a site. Then that became illegal and it evolved to Big Data – which seems to have some sketchy components.

Anyway, we had this odd transitional period – from getting junk mail to your home and telling them about cool stuff, to sending people to your website so they could experience it – we had to tell them you had a website. This is the digital connection.

You didn’t know that the world didn’t automatically GO TO THE INTERWEBS?

No they didn’t. This was pre-dot-com.

So whether business or consumer, we did a lot of direct mail – ink on paper delivered to you via USPS – and then directed the eager public to websites to tell them all about awesome stuff to buy. And we started tracking them. Early Big Data.

On to digital. Faster. Cheaper. Prolific.

These days my email in-box is full of all kinds of stuff I don’t read. As of this morning, I have 198 unread emails in my TRASH. I received two items via direct mail – the print kind – today. Two-for-one buffet at my local casino, and 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond. Easy.

Get it? I know what those two pieces said. I haven’t a clue what’s on those emails.

Lesson: We’re on digital overload. For me personally, I look through my mail. Even the stuff addressed to resident. There isn’t that much, really. And I don’t have to click, scroll and read. Thank you.

Maybe it’s time to try out print. I personally love print. If you’re a designer, and you understand print – paper, ink, foil, die cutting, folding, bindery – and finally hold that finished product in your hands, you understand. Tactile. Thoughtful.

Even a postcard can be (and should be) done well.​

Quit filling up everyone’s email with crap. Getting something wonderful in the mail is so rare these days. And did you ever think that going to direct mail you would be cutting through the clutter?

Now go forth and design something for print.

Final lesson: Be sure to follow USPS guidelines. Never assume anything when dealing with a quasi-governmental agency.

Good Friends Old Agencies

It’s Sunday. Mother’s Day. All that stuff is good. But what makes this special is that my dear friend from Portland is visiting me.

Julie is here. We worked together for a few years way back when at Gerber Advertising in Portland, Oregon.

​I was up there on the left, just above the arched window. Five years with a view of The Portland Outdoor Store neon cowboy.

She is the funniest person I know. And is the only woman I know who could make a longshoreman blush with her very creative use of profanity. Always elegantly executed. You wouldn’t know what just hit you.

We conceded that Gerber had one of the best groups of people we have ever worked with. You know, those times when the chemistry what just - there? 

Julie and I reminisced about the funny things that happened. The arguments between creative and account; Brian and his tricks; personal ups and downs; and how we got through life while keeping up with a job that was fun and stressful at the same time. And the phone books. The Best Story Ever.

Back then, we’d get new phonebooks every year. Big, thick Yellow Pages. So Ma Bell delivered a couple hundred to our agency. Being in Oregon, it was time to recycle.

There was a copywriter who rarely showed up to work. He was Important. I guess. So Brian and colleague Jerry decided to take care of recycling. They sent an email to the agency, from this Important Copywriter’s email account saying that his son was doing a recycling drive at school and to put all the old phone books in his office. In the Important Copywriter’s office.

Now, we were in an old, historic building. Everyone had an office. Little spaces with windows facing the hall. The absent writer had an office about six by eight feet. One can only imagine…

Phonebooks stacked floor to ceiling, only enough room to open the door. The light was turned out and the door shut.

A few days later, the Important Copywriter showed up. He saw the Wall of Yellow. I don’t think he saw the humor. I don’t think he ever returned.

Gerber is gone now, but the stories live on.

So anyway, Julie’s here. We’re going to a casino so she can play craps, and we’re going to have awesome carnita tacos tonight that my lovely daughter-in-law Barbara is making.

Nice. Mother’s Day and Friends.

"Handles Rejection"

There’s an ad on Craigslist for an in-house graphic designer. Among all the regular skills/qualifications on the list, “Handles Rejection” is listed.

It’s the last thing on the list, by the way.

Oh, yeah, also on the list of duties:

Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; following manufacturer's instructions; troubleshooting malfunctions; calling for repairs; maintaining equipment inventories; evaluating new equipment.

What the heck happened at this place with the previous designer?

What kind of workplace is this?

I was a graphic designer waaaay back when. But Handling Rejection wasn’t what we called it. Usually it was more like – My eye is drawn to...there, come back with something else; do this or that; I want the product featured (yes!); add a starburst with the price (yay!); or the ever popular...make the logo bigger.

Any graphic designer with five minutes experience knows that they will have to swallow their creative pride once in a while to make something...better. Or just make the client happy. We've all been there. And that's not rejection.​

Since I was in the graphic designer mode back in the dark ages, I had to do equipment maintenance. I had to clean and change chemicals in the processor...For the type...That we got from the typesetting machine...And for processing stats...

Oh, you guys have it so easy these days…

Back to the point. The point being that someone in this company felt they had to include ‘Handle Rejection’. Why did they use those words?​ 

Sometimes the job postings are the most telling about company ‘culture’.