Half a Century: Lessons Learned

I remember sitting in a 197039s meeting once at an ad agency discussing a cosmetic product I think it was a nail polish remover with the client when one of my creative colleagues Jane Barry was her name an outstanding writer said she had noticed that the product was particularly good at cleaning intricate pieces of jewellery She went on to suggest a new brand marketed on this basisTo this day I recall my reaction was something like quotAre we allowed to suggest things like that I thought we did adsquotThe point is of course that we are quotallowedquot to suggest anything that might improve the client39s businessI once won a piece of business for my agency and finished up account directing a multiawardwinning TV commercial I was the head of media research at the time The client was a newspaper I knew about them and I was lucky to work for an agency that didn39t see job titles as restrictionsDon39t feel restrained just because you39re a media guy or a market researcher Good ideas can and do come from anywhereWhen I started working internationally I got invited to all sorts of grownup internal agency meetings One held in the US was to discuss the agency39s evolution from ad agency to a total comms business producing work for all channels advertising and nonadvertising based around quotthe big ideaquotIt struck me in this meeting that rather than listening to pearls of wisdom passed down from our US lords and masters all of which were of course adbased we would be better off hearing from some of our smaller offices who had had to diversify to survive ad budgets being what they wereSo I said so no doubt rather too loudly and too oftenNever limit yourself when it comes to learning lessons The smallest office can teach the largest a lot the most junior executive can bring you insights that you on your lofty perch will never normally get to hear unless you occasionally descend and walk the floorsAnd always speak up If you39re considered sufficiently knowledgeable to be in an important meeting then your views and opinions are worth as much as the next guy39s Someone thought you should be there be confident in your own abilitiesThe same principle applies to public gatherings It39s never easy to stand up and ask a question but assuming you want to know something just get up and do it Make yourself be noticedAfter all standing out building awareness and reach are principles we preach to our clients Apply them to your own personal brandI was once faced with a situation when a TV buyer literally forgot to buy a campaign on one small region of the UK Clearly it was a dreadful mistake the buyer spotted it but only after a few days had gone by when the audience and ad data was released He was distraughtI was the guy in charge I called the client myself and admitted the mistake It would have been easy to have blamed the TV station the systems any number of external factors It was I thought better to come clean take responsibility and admit we had screwed upThe call wasn39t easy but the client having rightly yelled at me worked with us to resolve the issue We survived with I think a stronger relationship than if we had not been honest and subsequently been found outFar better to be honest and transparent If you find that you can39t make money on a client39s business steel yourself sit down and have the tough conversation Take the client through the numbers be clear and together work to solve the issueI know some feel this is naamp239ve that procurement won39t wear it and that it39s better to make the money up somehow without the client knowing Believe me I am more than familiar with these argumentsI once had to give evidence under oath at a US Securities and Exchange Commission enquiry into alleged agency malfeasance and I was a lot more comfortable knowing I had done the honest thing throughout as opposed to having to remember what I had said to who whenBe enquiring never stop learning remember good ideas come from anywhere and do the right thing however hard it might be at the timeAnd have fun I did I amClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Half a Century: Lessons Learned

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Brian Jacobs

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Half a Century: Lessons Learned

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