what moves account men?
If a creative wants to change agencies it works thusly: they look across town at who’s producing the best creative work of the moment and wish they worked there. Then they look at their book and work out if their current misery could be ended by popping across to said hotshop. Then they realise they’re miles away from being able to do that, so they start to consider the next ones down; the Stokes and Villas of the industry. Maybe they’re a little better, maybe they were good a couple of years back and might scale the heights again, maybe they’ve just got a new CD in and it’s looking like a shot in the arm (not of morphine).
Anyway, what it comes down to is the work and whether what you could do somewhere else is better than what you can do where you are. This is because the work is all. Considerations such as the spread of their international network or their position in the Sunday Time Nice Places To Work survey are of minor interest because (unless you want to work in Singapore or free breakfast is really fucking important to you) work is what gets you all the things you want out of your job that I’m sure I don’t have to list.
The problem with this is that by definition there can only be so many good agencies, so there can only be so many good jobs available, so there must be quite a lot of disappointment.
But as far as I understand it, this difficulty does not apply so much for account guys (and people in all other non-creative departments for that matter). I’m not exactly sure what the criteria are for their career moves, but I’d imagine that ‘hottest creative agency in town’ isn’t always number one on their list.
So what is it? Biggest agency? Biggest network? FMCG brand to pad out the portfolio? Working for the current grande fromage in their discipline?
And on what basis are they hired? If they don’t use a portfolio is it all word of mouth? Do they say ‘I was the account guy on Gorilla/John Lewis/Nike’? And if not, is it still admirable to be the account guy on a successful abortion like Cillit Bang?
But loads of them must move. How does it happen, and why?
Money.
Title.
End of.
But how do you move to get more of those? How do you get the next job and on what basis do people hire?
I can’t believe there are suits or planners out there who don’t keep books. Do they get their jobs by sheer force of personality?
Where can i be a bigger cunt?
This raises an interesting question about pay scales.
Suits are not unknown to bullshit. Interviews are all about beating the CSD in submission with various success stories.
Creatives are expected to only care about the work. Money becomes a distant second on the list.
Ergo suits tend to move more and negotiate more money. Whereas creatives agonise over the work for the first ten years of their career and only reap the financial rewards (if at all) later.
Move from a dodgy agency to a good one = same money (or less), better title.
Move from a good agency to a dodgy one = more money AND a better title.
Trading cards to play – experience on specific types of business (cars, booze, san-pro etc), association with great ads / campaigns (fib about how influential you were in the deal), tell the agency you’ve got ‘such and such’ a client or piece of business ‘in your pocket’.
Play the game.
We know only two planners and two account men who keep portfolios of work they’ve been involved in.
That, right there, tells you what separates the ‘good’ ones (care about the work, want to do something famous) from the bad.
And the problem is this. Most agencies do not renumerate account people on the product. Most agencies instead renumerate account people based on the level of client satisfaction. So when review time comes round the account guy/girl knows what happens. The MD phones the client for feedback. If he gets a ‘Yeah s/he is great, they did everything we asked for this year, no complaints there, we’re very happy,’ then the account is safe. Congrats account person, you can be assured of your current position, if not even promotion and a little more cash. The agency bottom line is safe for another year.
Now, imagine if instead you said to account people: ‘At the end of this year we won’t phone the client. Instead we’ll judge you on whether internally people reckon you’ve pushed to sell great work and whether that work has achieved any success, either because the public love it, the awards juries adore it or it’s just been phenomenally effective. If it has, then you will reap the benefits. You get to go to Cannes with the creatives, you get a new title, more cash, an even better account next year, whatever appeals.
People work towards incentives. So make them the right incentives if you want better work.
But ultimately, agencies have to decide who evaluates their account people. The agency people who pay their salary, or the client people who pay the agency’s salary? What’s more important? A happy client? Or a happy agency?
Sadly you already know what most management teams in town would say…
Oddly enough, incentives don’t work. Not long-term anyway.
My las two agencies asked account handlers for their book. That separates them a bit.
Stops them just producing shit just so their CV says they work on a particular client.
Fair play to Mr G.
He left a good and well-paid(?) account job to join a production company as a runner.
I still cherish the moment I saw him lugging a case of soft drinks up the stairs at RSA.
Good account people are worth their weight in gold because there are so few of them. So they get head-hunted.
Approx 50%, have to rely on the account they are handling to win loads of awards, then they rightly say ‘oh l was the account person….’ and get the kudos for working on such a great ad campaign. Remember the account person is always mentioned in the credits.
The rest 49% go from agency to agency till they are found out to be useless, and then end up client side.
What drives them – as Mister Gash right points out money and title.
Nice to read such mature, thoughtful, intelligent comments from what I must assume are “creative” people.
I’ll keep it in my book.
Forgive me, but that’s a somewhat enigmatic comment.
Surely something must motivate you? Whether it’s a Cannes Lion, getting to work with a brilliant director you admire, an agency offering you a better account, the chance to work abroad, the chance to spend more time at home with the family and only work a 4 day week, getting your hands on the only decent brief in the agency or simply dirty cash, surely everyone works towards some incentive? Without a carrot it’s all just stick. If you’re working through nothing more than compulsion it’s probably time to get a new job, or (if you’re lucky enough to be able) retire.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be an incentive an agency can directly offer you, just an incentive you can see. Something better than what you have.
If you mean ‘everyone moves on eventually,’ well all agencies know that. It’s more about keeping the good people you have as long as you can.
I.e: Until they see a better incentive somewhere else.
Someone much smarter than me once told me: “Accounts aren’t lost because of bad work, they’re lost because of bad account management”.
A good suit who’s got a good relationship with a client can get the agency over the fall out from an iffy ad.
Agencies want to recruit suits who can establish / maintain these relationships. The suits who have these skills trade them like creatives trade their books.
That’s true. I guess formal incentives might be less effective but we’re all working towards something.
Happiness and fulfilment, anyone?
Yo DP.
“Soft Drinks Lugger”.
Almost certainly my finest hour.
tomorrow is april 1st.
i cannot WAIT to be tripped up by the hilarious insight of branded tom foolery.
First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women.
Thank you Tony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ7HZATMKBY
I used to be an account man and found the whole experience pretty horrendous (although this was partly because I had to deal with a marketing department who were probably the most despicable bunch of people I had ever come across). As an account man I wasn’t really motivated by good work as I never felt like the ads were really mine. You can tell your mates down the pub that you did so-and-so ad but you know it’s not really yours. If I’d stayed in it I think it would have come down to the money, but I left to become a creative instead.
Now my life fucking rocks and I haven’t referred to someone as a cunt since.
My missus is a suit – she almost always moves because a) she wants to work on a specific account or sector that the new place has, b) her current boss, client or structure sucks or c) she wants more money.
a) I can understand – given suits spend more time dedicated to roughly only 1-3 accounts (unlike me working on every account in the building) they may as well be interesting in what they’re working on.
b) Suits spend waaaaay more time dealing with the client than anyone else, so if they’re a shit, they can make life utter hell. Often the only way out is move accounts or agency. If the boss sucks, then – again – account or agency move is often the only way.
c) Money is a given, but this industry is so stonkingly God-awful at pay reviews and proper HR process etc, that it’s always easier to move jobs to get a higher pay (or job title for that matter).
I work in digital production, which is creative in itself; just not in the traditional sense, more being creative with tech & solutions etc. My moves have been either money-driven, shit-production & support (e.g. Project Director or MD) constantly putting me under unbearable pressure (80-hour weeks for 2 years can do that), or career-driven, i.e. getting a promotion through a move.
If this industry was half-way decent at HR (not just the Office Services bit, but proper reviews, objective-setting, training etc) I reckon there’d be a substantial drop in non-creatives moving around as there’s move investment in you from the place you’re at.
The very best account people are driven by the same thing that drives the very best creatives. There aren’t many about. Especially as the modern interpretation of account man seems to be smiley bag-man. Which is a shame. The best know the difference between giving a client what they want, and giving them what they need. And they have the nous to make that happen.
What reasons did account people give you Ben when they left Lunar?
Smiley bag-man. Brilliant.
Blah, various reasons, but I think some of them didn’t think it did exactly what it said on the tin.
Arseholes. This account man’s response. http://www.grumpybrit.com/?p=1091
Sorry for the link bait. No I’m not.
There has been only one thing that ever motivated me — to be the boss.
Never cared much for the reflected glory of someone else’s coat tails.
Whether creative, account side or any other job, for better or worse, I think doing it your own way is the greatest source of satisfaction.
Ben. You just got a comment from your blog hero.
I know. I’m genuinely stoked. Thanks for stopping by, Bob.
Everyone read Ad Contrarian. It’s miles better than my blog.
I reckon everyone, whatever their job, wants to feel that what they do makes a difference and that they can be proud of what they do. That may come from pride in the work, respect for your team, loyalty to your boss, affinity with the values of the place you work at. It doesn’t come from money. My dad told me, “If you do a job just for the money, you’ll end up hating the job. And then you’ll end up hating yourself.” And that goes for agencies as well as individuals.
I’ve always kept a book of my work. And been lucky enough to work on great ads, and great campaigns that definitely required good account handling. It’s definitely helped me in the recruitment process to have a portfolio of work. It shows where your priorities are – creating the most powerful ideas for clients (and thus agencies) – because if no-one is buying it then it ain’t an ad.
Two other points that the comments brought up that I’d like to chip in on on….I don’t agree with those that talk about a choice between happy agency or happy client. That’s bullshit of the highest order. Clients LOVE working with great agencies. They are tough, push back, argue….but everyone wins at the end. And it’s done respectfully. Happy agency AND happy client.
And finally – why do account guys move..? I agree with Bob. Good account guys want to make stuff happen. They want to grab a bunch of people…put them in a room and create something amazing that their Client will love. And as you progress your career as a suit, what motivates the best ones is that opportunity to say ‘everyone…in that room now….let’s solve this fucker…’.