May 28 2008
Can you teach the old guard new tricks?
In advertising it is very easy for you to get left behind. This is especially true when it comes to advertising in the interactive market. The more traditional agencies are now left in a catchup game to agencies like R/GA, Digitas, Big Spaceship, AKQA and the like. In many cases agencies like Ogilvy and others have resorted to layoffs to get rid of the more traditional ad people. Those "old guard" agencies are now struggling to re-organize to meet the demands that this digital marketplace requires.
The digital shift in these older agencies leaves lots of room for employees at some of these smaller digital shops to transition to somewhere that their talents can make more of a difference. Sure someone could just be another Producer at lets say Digitas or AKQA, but they could jump ship and get in on the ground level of the re-organization of these larger agencies and become a Senior or Executive level producer. While that person may have been struggling to get their voice heard at the digital agency, that same person could get in and make significant changes to the business model of these former traditional agencies. Instead of being just another one of the masses at the digital shop, they get to be one of the few.
While I am not an advocate of people leaving a job unless you are really unhappy, there does come a point when you have to ask yourself some hard questions. Questions come to mind like, "Can I go there and really make my mark?" "Does anyone here value my opinion as an expert or am I just one of many?"
I guess the same thing is true of any large shift for an industry. Look at the recording industry. They resisted change for so long and now that they are embracing the technology they are having to play catchup to the other players in the market. This can really be seen by taking a look at Napster. The RIAA resisted napster and resisted music without DRM. It has come full circle though and now Napster is back online with a library full of non-DRM'd music.
The ad industry is in that same sort of flux right now. The older more traditional agencies were slow to adopt the new technologies and clung to their existing business model and structure. Now they are shedding that weight and trying to scramble to embrace the new technologies/structure.
The real question is, "Can you teach the old guard new tricks?". Or is it too late?
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I feel big advertising agencies are more likely to hire someone at higher level from a pure digital agency other than someone at lower rank from the same company.
But like you said, big agencies are slow simply because they are big. They can’t take risks like smaller ones. We have guidelines to restrict us more than to guild us.