Have You Ever Left the Country of Advertising? - Uwe Hook - MediaBizBloggers

Did you know: Only 37% of Americans have a passport? And 15% never left the state they were born in?

In the age of globalization, that's a huge problem

When you never leave your country or state, you see everything through a narrow prism. Considering other points of view becomes challenging, accepting them almost impossible.

We have to make hundreds of thousands decisions each and every day. Apply meaning to things we experience. Sure, humans are decision and meaning machines. But if your database is limited and narrow, your decisions will reflect this. Suddenly, the Indian education machine feels threatening, the emerging China economy is experienced as end of days of the US empire, and immigrants looking to make a living in the US should be kept away with a big fence.

Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it

I would be foolish not to understand how afraid people are of the future. To get my first job in advertising, I had to compete with 2,000 other applicants. All Germans, with comparable background and education. My kid will have to compete with the whole world. Most likely, she will have to try to get a job that doesn't exist yet.

I've had the privilege to fly out to Dubai this week to meet with a client, and then head out to Mumbai to speak at a digital conference. When you have coffee with people from Syria, UAE and Libya, discuss their hopes and dreams, you get that invigorating feeling that we're all in this together. Our job is to face the future and work together, understand each other and collaborate to create a better world.

Who are we to bemoan the decline of US dominance when millions and millions of people are moving from poverty to a middle-class lifestyle? It raises the game. And, we have to be prepared, improve our education system (better: revamp it), work better, focus more on collaboration and creativity.

Enough of the Hyde Park speech, Uwe. Let's talk about advertising.

Boutique agencies are fabulous. (Well, I hope so, BatesHook is one.) They are specialized, focused and often deliver amazing results. There are great media agencies, creative agencies, social marketing agencies, data analytics agencies, SEO agencies, SEM agencies – I'm getting dizzy. They know their field, their specialty. More often than not, that's about it.

They're like the guy who never left the state he was born in. The only thing they know is their specialty. Let's say it's Social Marketing:

TV? Come on, that's so dated.

DSP? I've never seen it work.

Creative types? Overpriced show-offs.

Radio? You're kidding, right?

When you want to be successful in advertising, when you want to deliver impactful results for clients: you need to travel out of your state. You need to leave your comfort zone and try to understand others. You need to see things from their point of view.

I started as a Creative Director, moved on to Account Management, Project Leader, Media, Direct Marketing, Social Marketing and Social Business. Every move to a new state was a culture shock. And showed me over and over again that I knew nothing. You don't have to follow my career path, you don't need to reside in every state. But you need to visit all these other states once in a while. Hang with the creatives, have lunch with TV buyers, understand the concerns of Direct Marketers.

Once you visited all the states, why not get your passport and travel the world outside of advertising? Explore the world of R&D, the world of anthropology, the world of user experience. The continent of economy and behavioral economics. Psychology. Physiology. Neuroscience. You will return to your home country with an expanded mind and vision of the world. And, if advertising is your passion, you will say: "It's good to be home."

Uwe Hook is the CEO and Co-Founder of BatesHook, Inc. (www.bateshook.com) and a veteran of the advertising and marketing industry with the goal of building connections between people and brands. Uwe can be reached at uwe@bateshook.com.

Read all Uwe's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Subversions.

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