This week, LinkedIn helpfully reminded that it’s been a whole 12 months since I bid farewell to my previous agency, making the well travelled move to the ‘dark’ side.
Like so many agency-lifers, I’d long put off the idea of getting a ‘grown up’ job of working 9–5 in a stuffy ‘blue chip’ office environment. Some kind of rudimentary workplace dress code stifling my unique (some say unconventional) style. Convincing myself I’d miss the chameleonic variety of working on a brief for baby food one day, before switching to commercial vehicles the next.
Well friends, hand on heart, I can honestly say I hold not a single regret. It has been the most interesting and challenging 12 months of my career, and very much for good reasons.
And a no more perfect occasion to reinvigorate my Medium musings by sharing 3 big lessons I’ve learnt on my journey. I’m sure this has been done before, but these are personal reflections I’d like to think apply to agency and client-side folk alike.
1. Stakeholder management is an art form.
I’ve made no secret of this amongst my team — it’s the single biggest shock to the system I’ve experienced. Going from organisations typically consisting of no more than 300 people, to one of nearly 6,000 inevitably means the landscape of who you need to engage with or involve in your work is vastly different.
It’s something ‘we clients’ talk a lot about, and it’s only when you experience it first hand you realise quite what a challenge it is. No matter how strong an idea, it has to meet the varied requirements of many people and teams. All who have a stake invested in its success. Navigating it, getting buy in from the right people, framing things in just the right way — it’s all been a huge learning curve (and one I’m very much still on), but an absolute necessity to success.
2. Agencies don’t hold the monopoly on a culture of creativity.
One thing that made my leap much easier is the reassurance of an open, progressive and (most importantly, for me) creative culture in a business. Lots has been written about business’ struggle to adopt in-housing of creative talent being down to the creatives in question unconvinced they’d not end up being somehow corporate cowtoed or creatively restricted.
This couldn’t be further from my experience. And it’s all down to the culture that’s allowed to flourish top to bottom. Not just in brand and marketing, or even our own in-house creative studio. So many people I meet around our business in less ‘conventionally creative’ roles still have an appreciation for, and natural adoption to, creative thinking. It makes such a difference to the general vibe.
3. You have no idea how hard your client fights for good ideas.
Finally, a bit of a rally cry on behalf of my new client-side brethren everywhere. Having sat at my agency, eagerly awaiting feedback calls or yays/nays to a campaign idea, there is often a perception that your idea is slowly being picked apart piece by piece, with little regard or emotional attachment.
In reality, the truth is far different. Relating to my first point on stakeholders, your client is so often breaking their necks to preserve the integrity and essence of an idea they bought into as if it were their own. Being challenged from all corners to justify the spend, thinking — or even choice of imagery. Invariably, such challenges come from a constructive, well meaning place, but it makes them no less exhaustive to those fighting to preserve them. So don’t get exasperated when that feedback arrives; chances are, your client has been fighting your corner throughout — so congratulate rather than commiserate, and celebrate your creative kinship.
So all in all, a year in to this change in career journey, I feel very lucky that I’ve joined a team and a business that has made the transition so easy. I’m sure it’s not always the case, and I can only speak to my own experience.
But it’s taught me not to view one side of the fence as ‘better’ than the other. And how, with the right culture, they’re not quite so different as we might think.
