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<\/p>\nThere was a time when ad agencies were cool and clients were boring and that was all there was too it. Well, in case you haven\u2019t been inside an ad agency for a while (or you sit in one of the few offices left in North America with a door on it), things today are different. In many cases, even the complete opposite, as agency life continues to get weird and more clients take things in-house.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019ll leave it to others to ponder the mysterious origins of this baffling new trend that most people in the trenches have seen coming for quite some time. I\u2019ll also refrain from serving up a lame \u201cthere are pros and cons to each\u201d message, which applies to, um, nearly everything in the known universe. No, this article is meant for ad peeps who\u2019re simply wondering what life on the other side may be like. So if you\u2019re an agency creative who knows there must be an easier way to convert your brainwaves into cash, read on. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been two years since I made the jump. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n
From getting assignments and concepting to assigning teams and presenting your ideas, the basics of what you do right now are no different. You\u2019ll still be coming up with creative ways to get attention, communicate and solve business problems (i.e. sell more widgets) using various methods and media. Of course, some of the negatives are the same as well. Projects still die, budgets still get cut, direction can still change. But overall, I think you\u2019ll find the basics are unchanged, if not a bit simpler. In that sense, it\u2019s the ad biz in its purest form. <\/p>\n
This is the part most of you are afraid of. And true, there can be challenges. For one thing, you won\u2019t be completely surrounded by the breed of creatives you\u2019re used to\u2014the ones who keep their portfolios updated, know the difference between a concept and an execution and have the creative instincts and speed that agency survival demands. People who \u201cget it.\u201d You\u2019ll also encounter occasional resistance when you ask your client-side teammates to work in new (to them) ways. \u201cWho is this guy and who is he to tell me how to do things?\u201d Budgets probably won\u2019t be as high, especially if most of your agency life was spent creating full campaigns for large clients. You\u2019ll also be tasked with jobs that may have been beneath you or not worth your time before. (Assuming you were ever that precious about it. Or protected.) Not that you won\u2019t make the most of these jobs (as every good creative does), just be aware that agency-style cherry-picking probably won\u2019t happen here.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing award shows love even more than inviting people to exotic locales so they can sit inside and stare at ads, it\u2019s entry fees. They\u2019ll gladly take your money whether you initials are DDB or IBM. So relax. If the work is good, you\u2019ll win, just as before.<\/p>\n
This is the part you won\u2019t see coming and maybe didn\u2019t even realize you were missing. Probably because it just isn\u2019t a thing in the instant karma, who\u2019s-hot\/who\u2019s-not world of most agency Creative Departments. But now that you\u2019re in a different environment, you\u2019ll notice yourself using and honing skills agency life doesn\u2019t require. Like patience. Empathy. Listening. If you\u2019re a leader, you\u2019ll find you actually have time to be one in more than name only. To emulate the good ones you remember from days gone by. Or to become the one you always wanted but never had. To measure your worth by your team\u2019s accomplishments instead of merely your own. To let others learn by doing, instead of doing it all yourself out of fear for your own position. In short, you get to grow up.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons many agencies aren\u2019t fun places for creatives anymore is that most Creative Departments are spoiled by choice, with creatives falling all over themselves competing for projects like so many puffed-up suitors chasing after the same potential love interest. While it\u2019s always done in the name of healthy competition, the reality is more akin to unhealthy insecurity. Since client-side Creative Departments are smaller, taking talent for granted just doesn\u2019t happen. The attitude isn\u2019t \u201cYou\u2019re lucky to be here.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cWe\u2019re lucky to have you.\u201d Imagine that.<\/p>\n
Another nice thing about working for the client is that you\u2019re no longer worried about losing the client. Sure, you could still lose your job if the economy tanks or the company gets bought or whatever else is out of your control. But you don\u2019t have that agency paranoia anymore, or the bad vibes and unhealthy environment that comes with it. There are also no extra internal departments between the creatives and the project at hand. No varnish to scrape off the brief before you can see the raw wood underneath. I can\u2019t speak for everyone, but for me that\u2019s a much more satisfying way to work.<\/p>\n
As noted, Adland\u2019s latest identity crisis has been well-documented. For most creatives, too many layers and too many players have turned a formerly fun and satisfying way to make a decent living into a tedious, unproductive bore with zero job security that somehow still requires that you come in over the weekend. Good times. Faced with all of that, exploring new ways of working isn\u2019t just a no-brainer. It\u2019s exactly the kind of creative solution our freaky little ad minds are primed to seek out and latch onto. Besides, be they traditional or internal, having more agencies in the world simply means more places to ply your trade. In a era of industry-killing apps, this is a very good thing indeed.<\/p>\n
Obviously, there are some who\u2019ll never consider going \u201cclient-side\u201d or \u201cin-house\u201d no matter how things go. But I have a feeling this too will change, as the lines blur, the old labels become irrelevant and the people fixated on them suddenly find they\u2019re the only ones still using them. It reminds me of the once-distinct difference between Big Agency and Boutique Agency. Big meant bad, Boutique meant good. Until the day the Big Agencies caught on, poached all the boutique talent, bought up all the boutiques themselves and co-opted their approach and attitude so entirely that the old distinctions no longer applied. <\/p>\n
My advice? Keep an open mind and be glad you can now be as creative with your career as you are with your portfolio. The 80s, 90s and aughts are over. There\u2019s plenty of good work to be done over at the client\u2019s place. You might even get an office with a door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a time when ad agencies were cool and clients were boring and that was all there was too it. Well, in case you haven\u2019t been inside an ad agency for a while (or you sit in one of the few offices left in North America with a door on it), things today are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,296],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ad-people","8":"category-agency-business","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n