Still An Ad Man?

This was a question I received in a Christmas card form a long-lost advertising colleague back in New York. An innocent question, but the response is not so simple. Yeah, I’m still an “ad man” (sorry for the sexist characterization) but my job and the ad industry has changed dramatically since the last time this friend and I had worked together, that it's difficult for me to think about it in that context.

The increasingly accelerated pace of change.

Everyday I am struck by the sheer speed by which everything familiar, tested and true is falling to the wayside. It seems like this unprecedented period of financial turmoil, fear, and the very loathing of change itself, is testing and forcing venerable business models to reinvent to simply survive. As we say goodbye at this time of year to what's old and welcome in the new who can possibly imagine what’s in store for the rest of this year? Think about this week’s news, iTunes is forced to change its pricing model. AOL is bleeding to death for lack of relevance to an audience it once owned. Who will remember what a DVD is 10 years from now?

What we are witnessing is simply the complete upheaval and reinvention of every distribution system known to man. Whether it’s the distribution of content, entertainment, information or good ol’ durable products, we are seeing new, more efficient paths to the consumer being created everyday. Monopolies and middlemen watch out, this is your death knell. If your livelihood is like a barnacle that attaches itself to some greater product or service, I have some bad news for you, your days are numbered. The trick for all of us is to figure out what the new jobs and roles will be in this landscape. The scribes eventually had to find new occupations after Gutenberg introduced the printing press, so must we adapt and evolve if ad agencies are to have a purpose 20 years from now.

No doubt about it, We're changing, the ad business is changing and the world is changing, too. There are no brakes, not even a terrible economy.

Confusing Activity with Action--Seth Godin

Seth had a great point in his blog today regarding lots of activity, but are we we accomplishing anything in the process? This is true for marketing plans but a bigger concern for me is how this holds true with internal agency initiatives. Some days I feel like we have lots of plans but no orientation to real and meaningful action--getting things done.

Great, we have a new plan. But wait, where are the details? Who's leading, who's executing? What are we trying to accomplish beside win more business? Are we fulfilling a meaningful part of our stated mission? If not, why are we playing? What is the strategy, the deliverable, the timetable? Who's on the team, how will we choose them? What are the benchmarks for success?

I guess my point is, we can have plans ad nauseum, but they don't matter if they are not tied to clear action steps and accountability. Shocker here, people hide from vague and murky objectives. If you've ever run a volunteer organization the first thing you learn is that if you expect to get people to sign up and commit, then you better have a clearly defined task or goal, otherwise you're doing it yourself.

That never works.

Momentum

This is an illustration I use to demonstrate our social media marketing momentum at WG. The red circle represents those true believers, the KoolAid drinkers, who have spent the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book, Outliers, as necessary to become experts in social media. This group of 10 or so, knows social media so well, they can see beyond the purely sociological aspects of it and think very strategically--this group is supplying our forward positive energy.

The blue circle are true believers but are still trying to earn their stripes or 10,000 hours it takes to become experts. This group has positive energy and is incredibly important to the cause of changing our agency's business model. We nurture and support them as they grow.

The white circle represent folks who for one reason or another are not embracing social media as a creative or strategic tool. These people are very talented, hard-working individuals but they are being left behind. As a result, they have limited value to us and probably won't continue to work for us in the future when staffing needs change, which they invariably do. Sadly, it's their choice. They control their destiny but choose to cling to the past. They are becoming friction to the folks supplying the momentum.

Don't be friction, be momentum.

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

One of Sir Issac Newton's beauties. Amazing when you think about it, energy simply exists-not to be added to or subtracted from. Either you're channeling it positively or it is friction. Are you creating momentum for your agency or are you slowing it down? I've been thinking about this a lot lately as we try to move several new initiatives through our agency pipeline. Those who've drunk the Kool-Aid are creating positive energy are moving things forward and must be protected from the folks that either don't understand the mission, or worse, sadly don't care.

The truth here is you only have so much energy that exists naturally in the agency. So as a leader you have a choice. Good or bad. So many places I've previously worked were consumed with useless energy that centered around backbiting, politics, anger, frustration, anxiety and distrust. I believe that when an agency has a clear vision to execute against people will engage in the good energy.

Newton was pretty cool.

Outliers

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. I love this book. I am nearing the end and feeling very sad because I know this wonderful exercise of looking at the world differently is about to end. One of the more fascinating chapters explains what causes most airplane crashes. Apparently, "mitigated" language kills or at the very least causes some very bad accidents. Some cultures are so adept at communicating with nuanced speech (Koreans for example) that the listener must be fully concentrating to understand the true meaning...or gravity of the situation. In high-stress flight deck situations subtle suggestions like "maybe we should consider pulling up" can be missed resulting in fiery crashes.

Think about how many mistakes are made in ad agencies because employees are not crystal-clear about the deadlines, objectives or changes that need to be made. I was raised in the New York ad world where subtlety doesn't exist. You always know where you stand-sometimes uncomfortably. In Cincinnati, folks are very deferential and loath to challenge authority. I had to learn to listen very carefully but also push people to push back.

Communication is an art. Learn how to listen but also know when to say "pull up or we're toast!"

Look Before and After!

I attended an very interesting conference yesterday where I heard a piece of advice given from one executive to another about how to deal with this economy. Look before and after. This is what this advice means to me as a leader of an ad agency.

Look Before.

If you have a potential new client, take a look at the agency they are leaving. If that agency is very similar to yours it should cause you to ask some serious questions as to why they are leaving them. Bad clients run through agencies quickly because they are not looking for long-term partnerships. They might be motivated by potential costs savings, their need to blame an agency for their own dysfunction or they simply are unethical and have learned how to wave the magic carrot of $$$ to get free thinking, which is almost impossible for hungry agencies to resist. If their old agency looks, talks and smells like yours, chances are the potential client's motivations are not going to be a healthy addition to your new client roster. If fact it could cost you dearly because of the unknown costs of opportunity lost because you were busy being the next babysitter.

Look After.

Clients leave all the time for a myriad of reasons. Some you love and it hurts something awful to lose them. Others, can't wait to see them go. The key is to try to take the emotion out of it and take a hard look at they agency where they land. Without kicking yourself, try to understand if the new agency has a capability you don't, better or different creative style, or a new way to drive consumer insights into their work. If you're honest with yourself you could learn some things that might help moving forward.

Denial is a terrible thing and it can destroy profitable focused businesses. Remember to look before and after.

I'm a recovering blamer.

One thing I've learned lately is what my grandmother used to say to me all the time when I was a little kid, "It's nobody's fault but your own!" Of course back then I didn't listen to her because it was way too easy to blame someone or something else when things didn't go as planned.

It's that first self-deception we make when we are standing at the fork in the road. One way leads to truth, the other to blame. When we chose self-deception, however innocent, all that follows is the need justify the self-deception and that is where we get off track and lose personal accountability and perspective.

I just read the book, Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute. It's a quick read, but more importantly, it's easy to apply the key insight into everyday life. The book shows how "most personal and organizational problems result from a pervasive yet little-known problem called 'self-deception.' It undermines personal achievement and organizational performance."

So I will be more introspective, more honest with myself about the choices I make and why I make them, and less likely to blame others when things don't go my way.

Leadership is setting goals and objectives and understanding the results. You can't learn if you blame. Which leads me to realization that my grandmother was right after all and I can't believe I'm admitting that.