It’s mindboggling sometimes to think about how much has changed in the advertising industry. And while I’m sure every generation has said the same thing, the simple fact is that they were wrong and we are right. No generation of creatives, account people and clients have had to manage as much disruption as we have in terms of media, demographics, economics… my god, the list is endless.
In fact it’s so insane that I have been on something of a crusade to find the truisms that our era has NOT rendered obsolete. The ones we can still rely upon – at least until someone invents something new this afternoon. And thankfully, many of them still are true. Like the one about focusing on what the customer needs over what you want to sell them. And a couple of others too.
Read MoreThere are literally thousands of books that will tell you how to manage a brand. And there are at least that many that will tell you how to run a company. Put those together and you might have the number that will tell you how to take care of the people you’re leading to do both of those things.
I know this because in addition to making advertising and teaching it, I review books on it at The Agency Review. And every time I think I’ve read all that there are, the mailman shows up with a dumpster full of new ones and drops them on my desk.
But there’s one important part of being successful – especially in the marketing space – that these books are frustratingly silent on and it’s this: How to client.
Read MoreTell me if this sounds familiar:
The client alerts the agency to a project. The client is too busy to work on the brief, so after a phone call or hastily written email, the account person writes a brief, which is sent to the client who, because they’re so damned busy (and also because frankly, articulating their needs is not their forté) may or may not really review it before signing off on it.
Then the account person throws the brief – I mean presents it – to the creative team, who may or may not pay attention to it, and they start creating work.
And then they share the work with the account person who, nine times out of ten, will drive the presentation.
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