Last Friday the creative ‘new kids on the block’ agency Creative Orchestra flash mobbed Brand Republic, posting replies to news articles, forums and blogs, including Dave Trott’s, each plugging their new agency. Some may criticise them for blatant self promotion but isn’t that just good marketing? Make a noise and get noticed and be prepared to risk upsetting a few people. Probably not a conventional way agencies market themselves but then CO has an average age of 24, so unexpected and technology based thinking is more normal in this age group.
Recently I was dipping into the IPA website and came across the 2008 Agency Census which puts the average age of employees in creative agencies as 34.4 years, which surprised me, though I can think of several agency creative departments who are probably nearer 44.4. For an industry that outsiders perceive as very youthful, this isn’t. Ok, it isn’t old either but you know what I mean.
At a number of recent awards I’ve been to I’ve noted that the vast majority of people picking up the gongs were probably at least 34.4 and well above. What’s happened to the young ones?
I’ve always hired on talent never age. We can all think of many great creatives who have picked up just as many golds in their mature years as in their youth. Wasn’t Picasso producing just as great work in his later years as his early ones? But I know many older teams job hunting who on the mention of age doors close.
Some have accused our industry of ageism, the assumption being that just older people are victimised. Older creatives do suffer from being expensive. Others because of their lack of punch, having become so conditioned by years of submission and the need to pay the mortgage and school fees they stop pushing. It’s not a criticism but a reality.
But young talent is also victimised. Fresh, broad thinking, challenging, not as disciplined, less predictable and less willing to do what the client wants – not every agency wants a team of mavericks in house shaking up the place. But that’s exactly what I love about them.
If we are honest, there are many agencies that have become just production factories selling time not talent to feed shareholders. For young creatives to discover that all that image of adland being one big creative trip was sales talk as they sit down with a brief to sell discount sofas or car insurance. Not exactly the dream job some young creatives had in mind. Worse, there probably isn’t a job at the end of it. I have heard some terrible stories of abuse.
If feedback from the many interviews of young creatives I’ve done recently, a lot of highly talented creatives grads aren’t finding even a slight glimmer of a job, and there’s a hell of a lot of them going about the circuit. That’s a lot of great talent going to waste. We’ve had over 200 queuing for interviews and the emails come hourly as word spreads. The average junior is taking up to 2 years to get a job, some longer.
There’s little real structure training within agencies to incubate their talent (account handlers get a better deal) so most go from one unpaid placement to another. Some of the stories I’ve heard are depressing. Juniors left in small offices, with no real contact with experienced creatives, given bad briefs and just used to do the crap briefs. It hardly shows respect for talent and shows any willingness to invest in what we should be selling. If you do respect talent you don’t make them work in the post room, sweep floors or fetch your dry cleaning – this isn’t the Victorian times.
Employment wise, the word is that juniors are out, a safe pair of hands are in, reducing the opportunities even further. Understandable if you want to lock down the hatches and weather the recession, but the last time we did this as an industry we had a massive talent vacuum a few years later.
Having conducted a survey around 100 clients (mainly for the book on Ethical Marketing) some of the feedback may come as no surprise to some. What many clients I spoke to want to buy from agencies is talent. They see agencies as having that creative magic they can’t do themselves. Yet many felt they were getting poor value from agencies due to too much of their fees going on anything but the creative bit.
Worse, some complained their agencies didn’t let them meet creative at all. Why? There’s no logical reason why clients shouldn’t meet creatives, most are highly intelligent and nice people. Can you imagine a magic show performed via a third party? In my experience when a client gets involved they tend to buy the work and the creatives get a better understanding of why the client has to say no sometimes. It works for Mother, and they have one of the most impressive growth rates in the industry (and awards to go with it).
This week two of Creative Orchestra’s first clients spent the day working with the teams. Both clients (one a charity, the other a TV channel) got more and the creatives got more. I believe that as an industry we need to take away all barriers between creative departments and clients. We need to engage and interact. Clients pay for the talent so let them experience it. Far from taking away the mystery they come to appreciate just how talented creatives are.
The recession will change things, some for the better, some for the worse. Most of all it will challenge conventional thinking. There are no rules anymore, because there are no guarantees, no predictable outcomes. Playing safe is playing dead. My view is it’s a great time to stick your neck out and push. To write new rules and discover new possibilities. Most of all, it’s a time to invest in talent.
