It’s easy for some agency departments to take all the plaudits, like the flash bastards in a football team. It’s usually the mercurial forwards of the creative team with their quicksilver talents, prolific goalscoring and hedonistic lifestyles. Or on occasion it might be the beard stroking Andrea Pirlos of the strategy team who ping in a perfect free kick from 40 yards.
That’s the stuff that grabs attention, but it’s not worth much on its own because there needs to be a disciplined team around them. As Alex Ferguson said, “once you bid farewell to discipline you say goodbye to success.”
It’s the same in agencies, where a whole range of different skills need to be applied with dedication to produce effective campaigns. But they won’t grab the headlines, apart from that time Dave from client services pulled his jumper over his head and slid across the floor on his knees at a client meeting.
What’s more, not everyone can or should do all of these roles – different skillsets and personalities are needed. In our darker moments we’ve been tempted to let our strategy director run studio scheduling for a week, but on balance having a job at the end of it has always been preferable. Ultimately, this is about dependability.
If an agency says it’s going to do something then it should do everything in its powers to make that happen. Moreover, it should have the right people in the right roles to make sure that process is as smooth as possible. This strong account management is the key link that takes a campaign from being a great idea to getting great commercial results and winning awards.