Backing singers/starting an agency
Last week I watched the documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom:
It’s about all the great backing singers who supported the biggest acts of the last fifty years. Some were famous for taking on that role, while others were unknown despite being the real (but uncredited) singers on lots of big hits.
It was interesting for lots of reasons but for me the point that stood out concerned the balance between having a lot of talent and remaining in the background. There was a constant tussle for some of them about why they weren’t fronting the bands they were singing in. They were often better singers, but they had to stay at the back while someone with less ability got all the glory. Several tried to break out as a solo artist, but none seemed to make much of a success of it. (Obviously there’s more to being a star than just a good singing voice, and that’s what many of them discovered.)
That got me thinking about the mentality it takes to start your own agency. What mindset is required to give up the steady pay cheque and perhaps remortgage your home for a chance at running your own place?
When I was part of the team that started Lunar BBDO in 2005 we still had our salaries coming in from AMV, so the situation was never under the same risk as a real start up, but what I got was the invigoration and excitement of having the buck stop (to some degree) with me. Being somewhat in charge, deciding what accounts to take on, who to hire, what work to present etc. was really enjoyable, and if you haven’t experienced that I recommend moving things in that direction until you do.
But I never had the inclination to create a proper start up. I get the impression that those people are driven by something else, at the core of which must be the feeling that you can do it better that the rest. In many ways it’s the next logical step after proving yourself in some kind of high level position, but many people can simply keep going within their current agency or network. To feel like you need to step outside those strictures must take a different perspective entirely.
From the outside, the benefits appear to be: not having a boss; the possibility of making the kind of money you just can’t make as an employee; the chance to learn from a fascinating life experience; the opportunity to see if your suspicions about how the agency set up can be improved are correct; possible fame; freedom (of one kind); and a bigger sense of satisfaction in the successes that have been won with more risk and effort.
The downsides appear to be: lack of security; all-consuming hours (at the start, at least); and the ball-ache of running a company (regulations etc.).
So the good bits seem to outweigh the bad, but if that’s the case then why don’t more people do it? I suppose one significant stumbling block is having to find a bunch of people with whom you’d be happy to step off a cliff, and that’s not always easy.
Have you started an agency? Have I missed out the real reason you decided to go it alone? How has it worked out? Do you regret it? And if you haven’t done it, would you like to? What’s stopping you?
Someone once told me that starting your own agency was a really good way of getting rid of your money.
I never thought about it too much, the opportunity presented itself and I grabbed it.
It was always about the thought of creating something unique rather than the lure of future riches though.
Our agency (Simons Palmer DENTON etc) was part of what was known as the ‘Third Wave’, the most famous probably being Howell Henry etc.
There were quite a few high profile start-ups at the same time that never made it because they bit the dust or morphed into something else.
…Woolhams Moira etc, Elgie Stewart Smith, Emerson Pond Jones, Leagas Shaffron, and a few others that escape me.
The experiment didn’t pan out quite as well as it could have because I got the boot before the big payout.
Given that, I’m glad I did it. It was a great experience and one of the most exciting periods of my career (even when it went pear-shaped).
I’m always a little bit envious whenever I read about a new start-up in Campaign and I often contemplate the possibility of giving it another go.
If anyone wants some advice on how not to do it it please give me a call.
Huge fan of the SPDCJ Mark Denton. In fact I have a theory that UK advertising peaked with you guys. 1995 D&AD is arguably the best one.
you sure inspired me and thanks for that.
Starting my own agency for me was something I physically needed to do.
Like emigrating from Ireland (small island btw) and going to New York (even smaller island) and getting into advertising and needing to do famous work. I was simply driven to do it.
I was having the time of my life career-wise at DDB Chicago but it was getting repetitive and I was feeling bored.
Everything you said is true. Those are the reasons you start your own agency.
But, like having kids, it’s full of surprises. And it gives you a new perspective on things. Everything is new again.
The one thing that most surprised me most was the sheer energy required to do this. You have no idea unless you’ve done it. Looking back, working at a big agency was semi-retirement by comparison.
You really have to love advertising to do this. Luckily I do.
To do this you also need a great partner, and frankly, I wasn’t meeting that person for years. But I knew it the instant it happened. And that was the real catalyst for starting our agency.
I am more afraid of not maxing things out in this life than I am of suffering some financial setback.
I had three kids and a mortgage when we started The Escape Pod, but that didn’t really bother me. If risk bothers you, you probably shouldn’t start your own agency. Everything is a gamble though when you think about it.
The best thing about starting your own agency is that you really feel alive. It’s a great source of adrenaline. There is no worst thing. You are in charge of your life. There’s no more blaming the idiots above you. There’s no one above you. That’s the best bit. You’re free.
Brilliant answer, Vinny.
Especially loved this: ‘I am more afraid of not maxing things out in this life than I am of suffering some financial setback.’
….thanks for the kind words Vinny.
You’re dead right about partners. I think the reason I didn’t it give the agency world another shot is because I never met anyone else I wanted to go into business with.
Still, you never know….I might get a phone call when this post goes out.
This would not happen if I had my own agency (he says, with eternal optimism):
I’m currently working on a pitch where the agency has briefed 6 teams.
That gives my partner and I a 16.66% chance of our work winning internally.
Then it has to beat at least 2 of the other best agencies in America to have any chance of being made. I know that probably doesn’t equate to it having a 5.5% chance of actually getting made (I’m a writer not a mathematician) but it’s fucking long odds, whatever way you look at it.
But I reckon ours will definitely get bought and made though.
Really interesting piece, Ben and great replies.
Vinny really nails the ‘something else’ you were referring to when you say: “I get the impression that those people are driven by something else”.
The absence of fear exhibited by both Mark and Vinny is remarkable.
Having interviewed a few industry folk, it seems that start-ups are often imbued with an almost revolutionary zeal about doing everything differently before the magnetic pull of pragmatism yanks everyone back towards the tried and tested business model.
I watched ‘Twenty Feet…’ last night after reading this. Something that struck me immediately was all of the backing singers were doing it purely for the joy of singing. The pleasure it gives them and those who are listening. It was all about integrity and beauty. Sure, there were a few cautionary tales, especially where Phil Spector was concerned, but none of them seemed to be doing it for the money or for the fame.
Clunky analogy: most really great creatives don’t want to be the boss. They don’t really want to do a start up. Or be in the spotlight fronting a place. They just want to make good work and stay in the background.
I’m not sure many of the very best creatives set out wanting to start up agencies. It’s not really why you get into it. You either do it after many years of success, like Vinny, or when a can’t-say-no opportunity arises, as it did with Ben and Mark. You guys are Alexander O’Neal.
Most of the start-ups of the last 10 years weren’t started by the best creatives. (None of them are in the Abbott, Denton, Palmer league.) But you could argue that they might be the smartest. It’s certainly where the money is. These guys are Mick Jagger.
…cheers Adam. Sometimes I do wish i was a bit smarter though.
I had to start an agency, it just seemed so obvious that that’s what I had to do – to try to get away from and solve the problems I saw getting in the way of doing creative advertising at other places.
But also – all my own creative heroes started their own agencies – Bernbach Lois Ally Gargano Ogilvy Gossage Chiat Wieden Abbott Trott Denton – so it seemed like the obvious path to do it.
It’s the ultimate creative thing in the advertising industry – to create a place designed around the way you think advertising should be done, and what great advertising should be. To me, it’s doing advertising properly.
I worry about Adam’s comment – it worries me because I think great creatives should want to start an agency. They need to – or rather the advertising business needs them to.
It worries me if the current crop of creatives don’t want to or don’t feel able to. Why would that be? Is it the type of person that advertising is attracting to be creatives? Are they more middle class, play it safe employee culture types? Maybe that’s not fair? Is it people playing it safe because we have lived through recession? Does the business need more risk-takers?
I did it after just seven years in the business, not by any plan but just because I did it – maybe I was lucky in that I did it before I got too comfortable or felt too safe? Plus it was just before the recession (tell me about that timing!) so maybe before things got tighter and more worrying as an employee?
As for any regrets Ben? Not at all – in my experience starting up and running your own creative agency versus working at a creative agency is like the difference between watching a movie about an event versus actually living and experiencing that event.
It’s simultaneously rewarding, frightening, energising, empowering, worrying, exhausting, challenging, invigorating – all of those things and more. I would recommend it to anyone who is tempted by it.
Every day, you know you are living.
This seems like a good opportunity to ask Mark/Vinny/Vic a few questions.
1. What do you need to open up an agency? Money is the obvious one, but what else?
2. How many people do you ideally need and who do they consist of? (creatives, suits, finance, etc)
3. How do you attract clients? Do you have to be highly awarded and well known with at least X years of experience?
4. Any other important things to look out for but aren’t listed above.
Great question steakandcheese; I hope they answer.
1. What do you need to open up an agency? Money is the obvious one, but what else?
A client. Or two would be ideally. it’s not capital-intensive to open an agency but you do need to prove yourself. and you’ll go mad without something to do.
2. How many people do you ideally need and who do they consist of? (creatives, suits, finance, etc)
I’m not sure there is a number. but you do need to be able to cover the bases in terms of basic functions. but make sure you really get on with these first few people. you’ll be in a lifeboat with them, essentially.
3. How do you attract clients? Do you have to be highly awarded and well known with at least X years of experience?
again, there are no rules. knowing clients is a great way in the front door. having done something that clients want more of is also helpful. some of the most successful agencies were started by industry “nobodies”.
4. Any other important things to look out for but aren’t listed above.
Great people are hard to find. if you find one, hang on to them.
If I may take a shot at the topic, I think there is one thing missing from the discussion.
One of the most important ingredients necessary for a successful start-up is a set of principles upon which the agency is built.
The principles should apply to how you analyze advertising problems, and the criteria you use when creating solutions and making recommendations.
People who come out of creative departments to start agencies think that if you just do great work you will succeed. This may be true if you are truly gifted. Sadly, most of us aren’t and even those who are need to convince skeptical clients of their brilliance.
Consequently, these principles need to be more than just going on about “great creative” which, in the absence of evidence, is often viewed as just more agency bullshit. (One of the great shocks to the system of a creative who starts a shop is how many other muscles you need.)
Principles will help you define who you are, why you are different than the million other agencies, and will allow clients to understand how you will approach their problems.
Without guiding principles, agencies are in constant turmoil. Every problem is approached ad hoc.
Imagine you are a client and you are listening to your pitch. What are the 3 (5?,8?) principles that are going to make a client sit up and say, “Now THIS is different.”
Mr Steakandcheese, here’s the information you require (from my own unique experience).
1. You do need start up money. My Dad lent me the £20,000 that made up my share (actually I can’t remember if I ever paid him back?)
I didn’t need any balls to take the leap because it had all been predicted by my clairvoyant (Madame Clare of Catford) some 4 years earlier.
2. We opened with 5 partners a head of finance and a pa/receptionist. It became pretty clear early on that maybe 4 partners would have worked just as well.
We also found out early on that it might have been a good idea to have someone who was good at new business among our number.
3. When we were announced as the creative partners of a new agency on the front page of Campaign I remember someone from HHCL saying ‘what have they ever done?’
We had won a couple of awards but we’d only been working together for 3 and a bit years and 6 months before that Chris had been a dispatch rider delivering a package to a fledgeling hotshop called BBH.
4. The big mistake I made was thinking that if we did good work then everything would work out fine.
Bob (Hoffman) is right about the principles. All the partners had them, they just didn’t happen to be the same ones.
Clare never predicted my sacking but on reflection I was right, everything did work out fine.
I remember those principles. When we started Lunar we cobbled them together in a somewhat tentative manner over lunch at Roka.
As Lunar was an AMV-backed start-up we weren’t driven by solid principles of our own (probably a large factor in our downfall). Like Mark said, we all had principles but they were all different.
The new business genius/founding client is essential, IMHO. You soon discover how eye-bleedingly difficult it is to get on a pitch list, let alone be allowed to do some work for someone for money.
This may be a little different to Mark, Ben, Vinny and Bob.
For me, three things are critical.
New business, new business, and new business.
So the most important person in the agency (before anyone else) is the person who can do that.
At GGT it was Mike Greenlees, at WTCS it was Amanda Walsh.
That’s your CEO.
That makes the boat float.
You don’t need money, we put our houses up against a bank loan and didn’t take a salary for 6 months.
(At BST we were backed by a French agency and had salaries from day one, and I think that made us lazy.)
Creativity doesn’t pull in new business IMHO.
It doesn’t hurt, but since most people wouldn’t recognise it, it’s not important in winning business.
Creativity is because you want to do great work.
If you open your own place you’ve got no excuses, no one’s stopping you.
But surviving and growing is all about new business, and that’s not about awards.
My two-penneth:
1. What do you need to open up an agency? Money is the obvious one, but what else?
The answer is, very little. You need a bit of money to keep you going in the first instance, but the most important things are the right people (covered in the next question) and a client. I say this as someone who started without a client or promise of a client – start with a client already on board – it will make life a LOT easier.
2. How many people do you ideally need and who do they consist of? (creatives, suits, finance, etc)
There are two answers to this really – in reality you only need a handful of people – but they have to be the right people. You have to believe in each other, have enough mutual respect and friendship to see you through any though times that may lay ahead. Really these days an agency can operate brilliantly with just a handful of core people; a good creative or creatives, someone strategic, and someone client or business-side. You can easily farm-out studio and production work in the early days to people like Tag or Splash, and there are really good freelance TV producers out there when you need them. And you can get freelance finance people to help you with the fiddly bits.
The reason there’s second answer is that clients and intermediaries (you will discover how important these people are if you start your own agency) haven’t really got their heads around the above. They still think you need 50 people to handle a 5m account. In reality the core team in their big agency is probably no more than 5-7 people, but clients and intermediaries – at least the less enlightened ones, haven’t cottoned on to this.
My advice – start very lean and lie about how big you are 😉 and I agree with Mark – someone needs to be good at and enjoy new business/networking and the business of building relationships with clients.
3. How do you attract clients? Do you have to be highly awarded and well known with at least X years of experience?
The million dollar question. The best way to attract a client is through a recommendation. Don’t sell on price or speed, it won’t do you or the industry any favours in the long run. As per Bob’s post, you need a point of view and principles that potential clients and intermediaries can buy into. The hardest job is getting on the ‘long list’ in the first place – why should the client come to speak to you over the hundreds of other agencies that are out there? You need to have this straight in your minds from the off, and hammer it like hell. Remember, you can’t be right for every client, although most agencies are desperate for sniff of any client business. In my experience, clients don’t give a fuck about creative awards, save for a small handful of what I call ‘star fucker’ clients – these guys go to whoever is the current flavour of the month to make themselves feel better – best not to worry about them. What does influence clients is work they have seen or remembered. You have to remember, clients are like any other person buying something – they need to feel they can trust you, and they have to believe that you have the expertise and experience to solve their problems. Why should they buy into you versus the next guys?
4. Any other important things to look out for but aren’t listed above.
You have to see eye to eye on the important stuff with you partners. Get it all out on the table and agree it up front. This means two things – the principles upon which your agency is built (as Bob says) and secondly and equally as importantly, the aims and ambitions of your agency. You need to agree on why you are starting the agency, and what the short and long-term plan is. Are you setting up to sell-out in five years? (Seems to be a popular approach these days) Or are you trying to create the perfect place for you all to work for the long-term? Are you chasing growth at all costs, or do you have other priorities that you will sacrifice income for? Try to think about what you want, and don’t just emulate agencies that you see around you starting up. Over the last ten years I’ve seen a lot start-up, but they quickly go on to become the agency that they left in the first place. Maybe that’s okay if your first priority is growing and selling out to a network, but there are other ambitions that an agency can have.
Remember to enjoy the ride – the highs AND lows.
interesting to hear the different advice. some hard-won wisdom going for free here! thanks a lot.
Oh wow, thanks for all the answers from everyone. It certainly shows you the other side of the coin.
Great post, with some fantastic insights.
But…could someone post some examples of agency founding principles so we can see the difference between agencies?
…i guess not then.
@ L-Plate
The original BBH founding principles:
1. Create outstanding advertising
2. For like minded clients
3. Have fun and enjoy ourselves
Thank you Mr Gash.
Do you have anymore?
@L plate. founding principles can be quite obvious-sounding, as BBH’s were. but as long as the founders agree violently with them and share them, they work. our founding idea was to live and work in the messy present rather than the amazing and awesome digital future that everyone was raving on about back then. and to max out whatever media worked at the time. like i said, obvious sounding. winking smiley face. hope that helps.
I just bookmarked this latest episode.
Before I gleaned all the comments my first thoughts were believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot, if you ain’t got the do re mi.
@vinnywarren Thanks for that. I find the whole subject facinating. To me most founding principles do seem quite obvious, but at the same time the things that sets them apart is the tone of voice they are written in. Yet, there seems to be some people that say you have to say something different, when probably the point is you just need to say it differently.
Love the ‘messy present’…great turn of phrase…and case in point.
@ LPlate & Vinny
I only know the BBH principles because I was there not long after the start (I still have #25 tattooed on my arm…).
But two things. As Vinny said – the words were simple. But they did resonant at the time. The agency I was hired from had just formulated some lengthy treatise about Brand Equity ™ or some such nonsense. So to have something so clear and concise was a point of difference.
And – to Vinny’s point again – they were easy principles to sign up to. Everyone there wanted great ads. And no-one wanted to work with clients who didn’t want to buy brave ads. Simple enough really.
The ‘Enjoy ourselves’ was perhaps harder to hang onto. I remember Charlie Robertson (one of the best planners in the business. Ever.) being quizzed about having his feet on the desk and staring out of the window. “Rule Three!” came his response….