There is a unique kind of math when it comes to agency life, where one equals two and two equals six. This can be seen at events like a trade show where an agency has convinced its client that having six team members on site is better than having two. This show of strength is actually a sign of weakness.

The Six

Agencies have been convincing their clients since the start of time that having more team members on site is a sign of strength for the business. The agency loves the idea since it is likely three times the number of billable hours (AKA, revenue and profit) for them. The agency tells its client that the team can support the demand for time with media, while also coordinating meetings with editors. The larger team can work with existing customers to gain a better sense of what is important to them and also ways that the client can improve. Other team members can spend time conducting competitive reviews. All of these are examples of good and meaningful tasks to be done at a trade show, and all of this can be done with two experienced and savvy agency members, as opposed to six. The two on-site will know how to properly schedule and manage appointments for the client. The experienced team of two will know how to gain meaningful insights about competitors (HINT: they will know to spend time in the press room collecting competitors press kits featuring all things news and promoted). Your savvy and more affordable team of two will also have plenty of time to interact with customers. The team of two works from a position of strength based on their skills and experience. The team of six is required for the client’s ego and the agencies billable time.

The Know It All

It never fails that the team of six will be led by a mid-level agency person striving to prove their worth to the client, the team, and their manager. This person is often recognized on the show floor as the one that talks the most, listens the least, and often interrupts conversations by saying “I know him/her/that” – fill in the blank. The “Know It All” has a false sense of superiority that comes from early success in their careers. Typically, a move from coordinator to account executive to senior account executive to manager in around four to six years. Keep in mind this is a standard career progression track for the most average agency person. The “Know It All” is also very competitive, as in, “my agency is bigger, better, and smarter than your agency, service or business.” What this person fails to recognize is that collaboration is more powerful than puffery.

The Minions

The team of six is filled out with either high priced specialists, like the lead media buyer and creative director, or “minions”. “Minions” are the young and inexperienced people that make the “Know It All” feel important, are low cost and highly billable. They learn the art of looking busy at a trade show and make the client feel loved and well-served. “Minions” are the heart and soul of larger agencies. They are the means to an end at every billing meeting. They are the first to fire when things start to go south. They are alone during this time — just ask any agency person over 50… if you can still find them. That’s a post for another day.

Quality Over Quantity

While the team of six approach takes up a lot of space on the show floor, having skilled and experienced people from the agency working with you on the show floor is both more efficient and effective with time, money, and gaining results. A more experienced team will do much of the work before the event to assure they can manage variables while at the event. They will know the difference between time well-spent for the client (and themselves) and be comfortable in saying, “no” when necessary. The experienced few will listen, respond proportionately, and put the client and their business first. They will collaborate as a competitive advantage from a position of confidence and strength. The experienced few or the team of two are a sign of strength. The team of six is a sign of weakness.

I just saw a post celebrating the tenure of an agency media buyer. The post was generous, kind, but misleading when it claimed a mastery of data as the tool for her success as a media buyer. Let’s be honest, most media buying is simply beating the hell out of the media reps to gain some type of perceived advantage. Deny this fact all you want, but the truth is media buying has been a full contact sport and media rep’s tough competitors.? I should know, I was one of the jerks that found the battle exciting. This is a part of agency life.

One

I share three different experiences with media buying that I have learned to be the truth today. First, media buying is a blood sport for traditional agency buyers. The game is holding the media budget and the threat to spend more with a competing magazine or broadcast partner over the media reps head while brow beathing them for lower costs and value-added freebees. I was a prideful participant in these games, once beating the publisher into submission to insert a full twenty-six-page brochure inside the cover before the Table of Contents as a special advertisement. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. I created a huge stir in the industry. Good for me and bad for the publisher.

Two

Several years later, the tables turned when I began working with a publisher as an agency partner. I witnessed the cruel brow beating firsthand from the eyes of the media reps. It was rude and disrespectful. I found myself apologizing to all the media reps I previously beat up. There is no reason for the practice of wrestling with the media reps. Negotiation is still required because media reps have built pricing to shield themselves from the brow beating; specifically, they operate on 300 percent markups and more. There is plenty of room to find a fair price without throw haymakers.? (maybe use media reps less)

Three

The advent of online media buying is changing the game. Generally, there is no need to interact with media buyers, so there is no brow beating or disrespect or games being played. Well, there are a few games to play to make certain you are optimizing your media buy and this is where the mastery of data comes into play.

Media buying has been a sporting event for all involved. Not the nicest of sports when considering how the agency buyer and media reps work to manipulate one another. Today, the sport is online like a video game with real time adjustments. Maybe the new title for the media buyer should be media gamer. It seems more honest.

This is a piece of advice we were given and told to repeat as the stresses of agency life begin to build and overwhelm. Money good, client bad. It is something that has been repeated a thousand times in a variety of different ways in team meetings, billing meetings, partners meetings, and in private. As a former client, it was one of the first shocking insights I gained when beginning agency life. Embarrassingly, it is something I ignored for years until the agency brought in a consultant to teach the agency how to be better at living this mantra. Remember, agency life is both beautiful and ugly.

I was first introduced to this dirty little secret when I shared how personally connected I was to each of the brands and products we represented. Every new account would invite us to become a part of the team. We would receive logowear and products to use. We were invited to confidential meetings and socialized with our teammates. I would celebrate the victories and be moved by the losses. I would be frustrated by decisions being made that did not seem well-considered. I would tell everyone who asked and many that did not to buy and use “our brand and products.” I was a brand steward and ambassador.

The reality is we are the employees of the agency and the agency is first. The relationship with the client is meant to secure a revenue stream for the agency. If one client would move on, we were to pursue the brand and products they competed against. I have been told this is a tenet of agency life. You are our friends until you are not. Money good, client bad.

There are a few (very few) people that operate differently than this greed mantra suggests. There are people that are honestly connected to the brands and products they represent. I will suggest they are either new to agency life and take pride in working for these brands or they are long in tooth and know the real difference in the brands, products, and people that stand behind them. All agency’s will claim to be one with their brands. Do not be fooled. The people that are truly committed to brands and products will spend their own money on them, use them during their personal time, and continue to promote them long after the account has closed.

Having a passion for the brands and products you worked with as an agency is a true differentiator. You can often see it in the work. Clients can absolutely recognize this connection through working together. This personal connection with the client’s brand and products in one of the top considerations a business should look for when pursuing an agency, a real partner. These agencies are out there. They are hard to find as most will claim their connection and passion. It is the few that can authentically demonstrate it to you.

A story of four days to termination

Agency life is notoriously cutthroat. People are the primary assets of an agency. When something changes that affects the bottom line, people are the first cost to consider. People are expendable.

I witnessed one of the worst examples of this agency life trait with an experienced agency professional that was recruited and hired for a mid management position. This person accepted the position and declined two others being offered. An agreement was signed and the start date confirmed.

The new manager received a hero’s welcome by the entire agency. A large office was provided. Orientation was completed. Direct reports were assigned. Typical long, boring and highly billable meetings were scheduled and held. Then BOOM!

If you have ever been terminated, there is a real, physical, emotional reason they call it a firing. Like a bullet that travels faster than the speed of sound, you are hit with the unexpected. It takes your breath away and there is this reverberating sound of the question why?

In the case of the four days to termination, the answer was ‘last to hire, first to fire,’ a traditional, bullshit excuse from a spineless agency leader. This excuse is intended to suggest a client has left leaving the agency no choice but to fire people. No one in their right mind believes this, particularly after four days.

The truth is people are expendable in agency life.

Agency life is more than the hashtag we see on pithy social media posts. Agency life is both beautiful and ugly. This blog features an insider look from an outsiders perspective. We will be posting periodically when the ridiculous must be shared.

The inspiration for this blog comes from the truth that is often spoken off screen by different members of the agency world and not shared with the clients or anyone else outside the agency. There is a reason for this as you will see as you read this blog over time.

This is not an angry rant or place to get even for a real or perceive injustice. This blog is a place for the truth when and where the truth is missing or deserves to be shared. For example, our initial topics include the following:

People are expendable – a story of 4 days to termination

Client connection – the power of caring and having passion for the brand, products, and people that make up the client AND how this is a rare differentiator

Ageism – at first I watched it and then I experienced it again and again

Mid-management vulnerability – youth is less expensive

Brow beating – media buying at its worst

We are hoping this effort is fun, funny, and insightful. We will see.