Goldilocks says to choose just the right size agency…

With all of my awards show and hockey talk lately, I’ve heard from quite of few loyal readers, that I haven’t given enough attention to the nuts and bolts of the ad business as of late. This got me thinking of my current passion [read: not working inside an agency and the grind that comes with it.] And, my 30-year career has seen me inside an agency for 23 of those years, so maybe I know what I am talking about. Maybe…

I’ve done the drinking lunches (now a no-no – see bullet #5 below), been promoted through anger management, and worked on both coasts. Working at an agency is a roller coaster ride of epic proportions. An adrenaline rush that defies imagination. but sometimes, you need to step away because the burnout factor is just as intense.

Three-plus years ago, I had reached my limits at an ad agency. I went to work running a communications department at a top secret location in Hollywood. I still run it like an advertising agency, but all of the politics and manipulations have been replaced with colleague camaraderie and a different kind of marketing angst. It’s difficulty to articulate why working at an advertising agency is similar to being in the circus. Trust me, it is. Down to the carnies and the freak show stories you might see in The Elephant Man or an episode is Law and Order. This all led to rumored demise of the small- to mid-tier agency.

Looking in my rearview mirror, I have to tell you that the death of smaller agencies has been greatly exaggerated

Since the 1980’s, the anticipated shrinkage in numbers of the small-  (less than 25) to mid-tier ad agencies (less than 100 people or so) has not happened. If anything, there are more of them! While worldwide mega-agency groups (starting with Saatchi & Saatchi back then) have continued to grow, merge, morph, and control more media dollars, the small, independent shops stubbornly remain. There are several reasons why even worldwide brands, as well as local or regional brands, prefer working with small- to mid-tier shops.

1. Relationships matter – Most businesses are small themselves, and those large enough to seek the help of an ad agency, PR firm or web shop prefer to do so, in most cases, with similarly-sized companies. In RFPs, a common question is about the agency’s client roster and where the prospect’s account would fit in the pecking order. Mattering to an agency’s business translates to a certain amount of leverage, regardless of the added services or bench strength the larger agency promises it would give access to. All that added firepower that’s promised sounds good, but in reality, how much will actually be used on your business?
2. The age of specialization – Almost as common as in the field of medicine, many small shops have become known for their areas of expertise, whether based on creative, or digital media, by client, or channel experience and reputation. Very often advertisers want the particular ingredient for which the small shop excels. It’s not uncommon for marketing departments of larger advertisers to manage several “boutique” agencies to keep ideas fresh and flowing.
3. The digital age – The advent of personal computers and the Internet have been the great equalizer between large and small agencies. As long as a small shop stays current with technology, they can compete with agencies twice their size; provided the brain-power and desire is equal to the task. The search ability of the Internet, affordable survey programs, and niche market research available off the shelf, has also leveled the playing field of category knowledge and competitive intel.
4. An appreciation for experience – Make no mistake; the ad business is a young business. Always has been and always will be. That’s because historically, many consumer brands (which constitute the bulk of advertising dollars) are aimed at a young adult demographic. But as the population has aged, the number of active, senior-level ad execs has also increased. Many of these are found as the hands-on ownership or leadership in small agencies that they themselves have started. Clients, in turn, benefit enormously from direct access to their tried and true wisdom and insight.
5. The end of the three-martini lunch – The move toward a more accountable approach to client service began in the 90’s, as accounting systems and MBA’s began to take hold. The recent Great Recession cemented this new, more austere reality. Clients, on the whole, are simply more overhead sensitive nowadays. They know intuitively they will ultimately be paying for all of those assistant’s assistants, lavish offices, and entertainment. Small- to mid-tier agencies, on the other hand, run leaner operations out of necessity. And smart clients appreciate the obvious stewardship of money – their money.
6. Demand for better service – As the ad business has matured, the associated mystery and mystique has diminished to a certain extent. Clients are less inclined to suffer aloof, prima donna creative directors, disorganized media buyers or absent-minded account executives. They want and expect more service for their marketing dollar. They have seen “the man behind the curtain.” It’s been our experience that small- to mid-tier shops, even with smaller “bench depth,” deliver as good if not better service for most clients than shops that are much larger.

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First off, if you didn’t work with me in New York (yes, most of you are gone—yes, really gone), that headline will mean absolutely zippo to you. You’ll have to read the book that I hope to finish by 2018.

Okay, so for now there’s some grey area. Now onto the countdown, uh, story…

It is true…

…I once fired an official NHL hockey puck through a tempered glass window in a fit of work rage inspired by an editor of a trade magazine with bricks for brains. Those of you who do not appreciate the fine art displayed on ice nightly from October through May every year, might not comprehend that throwing a six-ounce vulcanized rubber disk, sized one-inch thick by three inches in diameter is no easy task. (Read about how hard it is from the nerds here.) I whipped it through the window hitting the smokers outside with shards of glass and a heavy dose of rage. I did it in one motion. This was one of those incidents you hear about where someone has a huge rush of adrenaline and lifts a Cadillac. This temporary strength came out of anger, and I’m usually not that angry a guy.

I am not naming the characters involved. My prerogative. Nor will I deny or confirm the many conjectures I know are coming. Sorry, but I’m taking the high road. In the book I’ll probably name names (and there are some decent names in this mix).

I was an up-and-coming Media Guy still doing public relations, dialing for product placements and column inches. I was a moderate-sized agency working a train wreck of an account and capitalizing on my newfound success getting magazine covers for a computer with a 25 megabyte hard drive. Yeah, I know you have a phone with 64 gigabytes — which is about 2600 times bigger than that dinosaur — but back in the late eighties that was big news. Yet I digress…

Sometimes pucks hit nothing. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press.

I was expecting a big product review to be dropping to further solidify my expected key to the executive washroom. (Yeah, back in the late eighties that was still a thing.) Imagine my surprise, when after holding for a full hour to verify facts, the writer of the big review decided that my client would not be in the review. You can also imagine the fever that built from there. Had this happened today I would have mentally blown an arctic breeze up my sphincter and cooled down. But I was younger and more inexperienced. (This is why you hire seasoned pros to run your advertising and marketing departments. Respond, don’t react.)

So I just seethed. This writer was know for taking gifts, cash, and girls for the right feature, but I was playing it straight. Taking my client out? Well, for me, that was the final straw. I slammed the phone down nearly breaking it. Not getting the reaction I desired from from mini-fit, I hurled the puck towards the window.

Seeing and hearing the glass shatter felt great, by the way. At the time I was doing it I had no idea this was a feat of Herculean strength. I might as well have been firing my Nerf basketball at the trashcan in the the corner of my office as I usually did. Even after I did it (and the faces of my colleagues revealed true horror) it didn’t seem like any big deal.

My department manager wisely decided that I should have the afternoon off. I was not clearly going to be of much help that day. He equipped my with a bottle of Jim Beam and sent me back to corporate housing for the night.

The next day I returned to the office, creeping around corners, hoping not to be noticed. Before I reached my boarded up office, the agency’s managing director called me in and the conversation when something like this:

MY BOSS’S BOSS [pouring himself a 9:05 A.M. cocktail]: I was looking for you yesterday because I heard what happened.

ME [gulping with obvious forehead perspiration]: It was unfortunate…

MY BOSS’S BOSS [interrupting]: …you know, I’ve been thinking…yesterday will be your last day in that department.

ME: [more sweating]

MY BOSS’S BOSS: We need passionate PR people like you here. Most of the staff on that floor would take the failure and move on with their day. Not you! You care! You cared enough to let the entire agency feel your rage. Your rage of failure. [hands me the 9:05 A.M. cocktail] I see big things for you. Cheers!

The culprit.

And with that cheers, I was promoted to Sr. Public Relations Manager above my old boss, reported to my new boss, i.e., my boss’s boss.

I should mention that a few weeks later I was out with my new boss on a daily basis at client luncheons drinking my liquid meals, three vodkas at a time in a ritual that demanded a strong liver and a gift of the gab. I had both. I lasted three years before going to Australia to work at the National Gallery…

More to come in the book.
Save up.
Buy it in 2018, or 2019, or 2020.

Final thought: Throwing that rubber disk is not something I’m particularly proud of (which is why I rarely bring it up). And even though it’s easy to get very emotionally attached to a project, issues should not be cause for losing your mind. It’s much easier to say now when I am pushing fifty. Back then, I had a mean slapshot.

And now for my next trick…

–>

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