10 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Career
The last ten years have felt like someone put the entire advertising industry into a washing machine.
The old rules have gone, and so have many of the old agencies. Raymond Rubicam and J. Walter Thompson had been alive and kicking for over a century before VML, a relative newcomer, sent them both to their graves in the space of three years.
Earlier this month, The Mill and MPC passed away (RIP).
Awards went from rewarding sales to rewarding purpose, and are now are now incorporating carbon reporting into their assessments of how good your TV commercial might be.
And while we were getting used to Google and Facebook eating our lunch, TikTok showed up out of nowhere and started eating their lunch.
Of course, there have been many more changes, but listing them all isn’t going to help anyone.
You already know what’s happened because it’s happened to you, because of you or in spite of you.
I’m not suggesting for a minute that the current circumstances are easy, or that they’re going to get any easier, but most of you still want or need to work within those circumstances, so let’s see if there’s a way to turn the heat down from a rolling boil to a manageable simmer.
What you really need is a guide to navigating the new reality, ideally in the form of ten neat little suggestions that will allow you to make the most of where we are today, while preparing yourself for tomorrow.
- First and most important is to understand and accept that great stuff is possible everywhere. Look at last year’s Gold winners at Cannes: Klick Health Toronto, Serviceplan Germany, Area 23… I’m not even mentioning them as new agencies that have challenged the status quo. I’m mentioning them as agencies that won with pharma work. Pharma: a forgotten, derided corner of the industry that’s now close to the top of the awards tree. Open your mind and the prizes and raises may follow.
- Specialise. Every agency wants to be all things to all people for fear of losing any tiny crumbs of business. If you join them you’ll disappear into the fog. Instead, find your niche, be the best, and show the jacks-of-all-trades how it’s done.
- You are your brand. You always have been. But if you can’t even advertise yourself, why would I trust you to advertise a multi-million pound company? What does that mean? Work it out. If you can’t, or don’t want to, how can you blame the industry for not needing or wanting you?
- People hate ads more than ever. Next time you’re spamming the ‘skip ad’ button like a woodpecker on a quadruple espresso, ask yourself if people are doing the same to your ad, then work out what you would create to prevent that from happening.
- Look after number one. That doesn’t mean screw everyone over to benefit yourself, but it does mean you should keep your eyes open. Corporations are going through churn. Be nimble, flexible and ready to react before the layoffs come for you.
- In a digital world, be more human. You can’t avoid AI, social, streamers and all that jazz, but understand that people need warmth, craft and humanity, so learn how to provide it, then insist on it.
- If it feels like a chore, make it feel like fun. Every brief could either seem like one more depressing encroachment on your work/life balance, or an opportunity to delve into a fascinating new corner of life. You choose.
- Be the change you want to see in the world, or at least in the mirror. If the agency you want to work at doesn’t exist, create it. If that seems intimidatingly hard, does ten years doing a job you hate (with a P45 chaser) sound any easier?
- Your job title is not your job. Contribute wherever you can. If you can’t see how to do that, learn.
- Finally, you might want to leave. If you don’t like the business, or you think it’s heading in the wrong direction, no one is making you stay. Build a parachute and wait for the right moment to pull the rip cord.
Over the last few months I’ve spoken to some very good, very experienced creatives who have suddenly found themselves unemployed and gasping for air in the washing machine’s spin cycle.
Are they victims of ageism or is the industry simply moving beyond their excellence to a not-so-brave new world?
Impossible to say, but here’s the good news: there will always be a need for great ideas, great copy and great art direction.
The bad news? There are no more Economist briefs – relatively easy opportunities to fill your shelf with Lions and Pencils.
That means you need to familiarise yourself with post copy, Discord, Roblox, Drake vs Kendrick, and the ‘omnichannel’ intersections where all those things meet.
Because if you don’t, someone else will.
And if you find a situation that works, don’t get comfortable. The washing machine is still churning away, and it won’t be stopping anytime soon.