Everyone thinks that working in advertising is like being in
a fun factory. The reality is that its much more factory than fun, these days.
The outsized personalities and outsized profits of my early days in the
business have been homogenized, sanitized, processed and downsized over the years and even more
so by the current recession.
The day-to-day practice of advertising involves two
under-staffed and under siege bureaucracies slamming into each other as they create
and produce mountains of marketing communications materials in a myriad of
formats to satisfy the needs of regional, national or global brands Agencies
and clients are risk averse organizations focused on running high volume
production processes that are fast, cheap and efficient. Young, eager, smart
talent fuels this game where 85 percent of the time and effort is dedicated to
cranking out stuff and just 15 percent is spent on strategic, thinking, big
ideas and occasionally snappy, memorable or effective ads.
Driving the ad game are a set of personality types that
vaguely resemble those on Mad Men; characters who can be counted to think, act
and talk in predictable ways under almost any situation. Agencies have
traditionally attracted people with broad interests, short attention spans and little
ability or tolerance for corporate life. Iconoclasts, wise guys, alternative
thinkers, smart alecks, frat boys, hippies, geeks, neurotics and hot women have
traditionally populated agencies. The cast remains mostly the same though the
intensity, texture and range of behaviors have changed dramatically over the
years.
Here are 5 ad types you are sure to encounter whether you
are working in an agency or hiring one.
The Rainmaker
Rainmakers drive the ad business. They have or make the
contacts, instantly understand the clients’ business and are master
salespeople. Frequently their names are on the agency door. In the old days
they were white-shoe WASPs who hobnobbed with corporate titans at exclusive
clubs. They were members of a social class united by religion, education,
fraternities and often neighborhoods.
The democratization of the business changed a lot of that
but didn’t change the need for high-energy hustlers who were smart enough and
presentable enough to interact with and sell both squirrelly and conservative
corporate executives. Rainmakers innately understand that people buy people first;
then goods or services get transacted. They have big personalities and know how
to deftly wield them in almost any circumstance.
They have keen instincts and can carefully read and dissect
client personalities and organizational politics. Even in complex agency
searches, where intermediary consultants try their best to mask the
decision-making process, Rainmakers know who matters and whose vote counts most
and they know how to romance those individuals. Often this skill set comes with
experience, but sometimes it’s comes naturally to a younger entrepreneur.
As a type, Rainmakers are extroverts interested in a wide
range of things. They know a little something about everything, listen closely
but not too closely and have the ability to zero in on the key variable
quickly. They focus just enough to grasp the winning idea or the winning angle
and then cue their players accordingly. They are usually great at creating a
name, a theme, a catchy phrase or a slogan to concretize an idea. Many can
wickedly nickname somebody in ways that capture them precisely and stick. Some
appear to be distracted, aloof or merely glad-handers, but the best use that
stereotype to mask their wiles.
You know a Rainmaker because you sense that they know you
instantly and you trust them instantly. You can’t choose to become one; they
just are who they are. And they come in all stripes usually motivated by the intense
desire not to work for others or the equally intense desire to express a unique
point of view and demonstrate success on their own terms.
The Empty Suit
The Empty Suit is a rainmaker wannabe with moxie, flash and
presence but no substance. These guys fill out the ranks of agencies warming
chairs, attending endless meetings, wining and dining clients and generally taking
up time and space. Frequently relatives, frat brothers or long time friends of
agency leaders or client executives, these guys used to dominate the ranks of
Account departments but now can be found throughout the agency.
Empty Suits live in fantasyland. They imagine that they are
glamorous and effective executives when in fact they are filler; the hamburger
helper of agency life taking up time and space to meet client expectations or adding
a measure of style, grooming and/or good looks to round out the agency’s
offerings. Empty suits are usually the best looking people in agency. Well
coiffed, better dressed and much more presentable than the folks who actually
know something or do something.
Some Empty Suits are conscious of their posture and kind of
go through life shrugging their shoulders. Others (think of Pete Campbell on
Mad Men) are malevolent weasels. As a type, they are affable, polite to a fault,
up on the latest gossip, news, trivia or sports and eager to engage almost
anyone in meaningless chit-chat.
They can make terrific recommendations for dining,
entertainment, leisure and personal services and will frequently make the
arrangements or accompany a client to a restaurant, a golf outing, a ball game
or a salon. They look great in clothes and never refuse an opportunity to fill
out the agency or the client tables at charity affairs.
As co-workers, Empty Suits carefully guard their perceived prerogatives
and hoard their perks. They are prissy about their space. Many have a sense of
noblesse oblige; that they contribute to the agency’s image and positioning by
contributing good looks, breeding, legacies or a sense of decorum. They can be
counted on to dump their work off on others, ignore deadlines and timetables, never
know any important details or data, but they often claim credit for others’
work. They rarely stay late or put themselves out and never praise colleagues
in front of bosses or clients. They are the co-workers you love to hate.
The Magician
Magicians are the idea people who make the magic that
agencies sell. While over-represented among the ranks of art directors or
copywriters, Magicians work in every department often distinguishing themselves
as strategic planners, media negotiators or digital wonks. They provide the
spark behind every idea and campaign.
Some have native intuition. Others grind it out. But all
Magicians have an inherent and mysterious understanding of people and the
uncanny ability to find the right connection between goods, services or
concepts and their natural audiences. They understand the psychology, the
levers and the channels of communication and can magically marry them together
in ways mere mortals can’t. They don’t need speeches, threats or chemicals to
stimulate or accelerate productivity. They express themselves naturally in
creative concepts, in media plans, in web designs or UI schematics or even in
dense data tables.
Like crude oil, diamonds or truffles, Magicians have to be
found. They cannot be made. The trick, for agencies, is to find and keep enough
of them to achieve critical mass necessary to power or sustain critical
departments and then have the management legerdemain to leave them alone and nurture
their gifts. Many are good at rallying co-workers to the cause because
frequently everyone instantly gets their brilliant ideas and naturally grasps
why they are so brilliant.
Motivating and managing Magicians is especially difficult
since the majority of their great insights and ideas are shot down or modified
beyond recognition by clods or cowards. Theirs is a world of highest highs and
lowest lows often presented or obscured by oversized or persnickety personality
traits. Some are famously insecure or shy. Others never quite get the credit
they deserve. And a notable few are over-the-top prima donnas and divas. Many
agencies, formally or informally, assign senior account people to be their
advocates or protectors because they are the critical resource for agency
success.
The Expert
Experts are the tortoise to the Magician’s hare. Experts
have intense and deep knowledge of functional areas linked to carefully crafted
tool sets and processes to help them do their jobs. In many instances, they are
their tools. They assign the highest value and esteem to those who know what
they know and those who can manifest expertise on-demand.
Experts exist in media, direct, relationship, CRM and
database marketing, interactive, project management, traffic, production and
support departments. Experts demand that you follow their lead and follow their
process to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They jealously defend their turf
and under stress or tight timelines frequently require colleagues to kow-tow to
them.
Nerdy and temperamental by nature, Experts are defined by what
they know and what they’ve done. Few are bashful. An Expert will gladly tell
you his or her greatest hits and will regale you with tales of how they saved
the day. They take themselves very seriously and genuinely believe that no one
else can do what they do.
They seek and hoard access to information and parse it out
gingerly to those around them. They keep score. They remember every slight. And
they hold grudges. They are all about the details but can get distracted by
nuances or spun off course by their intrinsic interest in data and new information.
Intense and sometimes anti-social, they require careful
handling and frequent stroking. Quick to find fault with others and quick to bemoan
their lack of credit, they see themselves as prophets without honor in their
own land. Many have specialized degrees and are wannabe or has been consultants.
It’s a conceit that sets them apart and, in a weird way, motivates them. They
live to be underestimated.
Too often overlooked or undervalued as “below-the-line”
functionaries, experts usually understand much more about the client’s
business, organization, structure, procedures, IT architecture, digital landscape,
data channels and internal politics than the clients themselves. They are
natural spies and always develop expert allies buried deep in client
organizations.
They usually know what’s really going on before anyone else.
This enables them to develop useful intelligence and practical work-arounds to
satisfy demanding clients or impossible schedules. Experts insure that an
agency can get smart fast, trouble shoot problems on-demand, find critical
inflection points to add value to client relationships, smooth over ruffled
feathers or gain competitive advantage.
The Pleaser
Pleasers reflect the pre-feminist culturally-conditioned behavior
of women, who make up the vast majority of professionals in every advertising agency.
Nobody really knows why they have an insatiable need to be “good” girls by
earning the praise and approval of any nearby authority figure. But they do. By
manically internalizing the notion of customer satisfaction, Pleasers provide
the daily energy, attitude and lubrication that make ad agencies work.
Everyone loves pleasers. They are always friendly, polite
and on-call. They will drop everything and fly across the country in the middle
of the night to attend a frivolous meeting. They will put aside their own plans
to listen to a client talk endlessly about every real or imagined relationship
in their life. They will re-do copy or art nine times and make their team mates
nuts to satisfy a client’s whim. They will write decks, formulate reports,
format spreadsheets, predict internal politics and tell clients what to think as
they laugh at your jokes. They have your back. And they never say “no.”
Pleasers are the imaginary best friend you dreamt about and hoped for brought
to life.
Pleasers live to please. The take orders easily. They rarely
push back. They believe in the system; no questions asked. They find security and
validation in the routine of agency life and with every moment of pleasing
delivered.
Many also live to complain. The “ying” of their
never-say-die attitude is offset by the “yang” of their whining. It’s a unique
pathology with its own origins, history and psychological benefits. Pleasers
inherited the mantle of Sisyphus. And yet without Pleasers, there is only chaos
and conflict.
Pleasers provide the “give” in client-agency relationships.
They deliver on the fiction that clients know their own business and have
clearly defined marketing needs that can be distinctly communicated to agency
partners. Pleasers finesse prickly personalities, tense situations, business
crises and tactical conundrums with the hope that a friendly face and sweet
temperament can sort it all it. Ironically much of the day-to-day ad business
rests on this sexist premise.
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