Encouraging Talent

Certain conversations stay with you down the years When I was in my early 20amp8217s I somehow managed to get myself an introduction to a wellknown advertising luminary of the time I was excited and nervous to meet him Iamp8217m going to keep his name to myself He sat me down in his office and asked me what he could do for meI said I wanted advice on getting started in an ad agencyHe told me not to go anywhere near agencies he was working for one of the largest they were doomed and wouldnamp8217t exist in a few yearsI thanked him for his time went home decided to think for myself and ignored himSome years later my parents were at a dinner party My mother was placed next to a wellknown ad sales director wellknown to me my mother had no idea who he was When it was established that this guy knew her son my mother asked for his view on my career such as it was at that time What can I say she was my motherHeamp8217s doing fine said the ad director but he needs to get out of the research and planning side Thereamp8217s no future in it He said this to my mother You can imagine the phone call early the following morningDecades later I was on a platform at a conference on a panel with several other media ad peopleWould we we were asked by the moderator encourage our children to go into a career in media agenciesAside from the fact that both my daughters are well established in their careers and neither are in an agency I said I would I was the only person on that panel who was positiveThere are a mass of reasons to avoid media agencies Lack of trust historic obsession with buying too close a relationship with certain vendors failure to stand up to their clientsamp8217 irrational views on certain media channels being disintermediated being threatened by specialist agencies not getting on the front foot with fraud And so onI do think that advertising per se faces an existential threat or rather if things continue it faces a paredback role in the face of shorttermism political interference and of course fraudPlus there are problems in agency revenues being hit by direct selling specifically by online channels in advertising still being seen as a cost rather than an investment and so onAdvertising can be a force for good in business aside from the fact that it can add value by transforming a product into a brand I believe that to do those things we need the best people in the industryWe shouldnamp8217t pull the drawbridge up behind us rather we should encourage advise and persuade the best to join stay in the industry We should celebrate our many successes and seek to elevate our industry amongst the broader business community by moving outside our own very little bubble We should be positive but in no way complacent looking to move forward and improve what we do and how we do itI would love to think that the young me of today would follow his instincts and like the real young me of so long ago ignore the doomsayer old gitsTo my fellow old gits of today I would only say play it forwardClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Encouraging Talent

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Brian Jacobs

Breaking Barriers: Nada Bradbury’s AD-ID Strategy for Advertising Effectiveness and Women in Tech - By E.B. Moss

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