A Peek Behind The Ad Agency Curtain

I Spent 30 years behind that curtain: the early years as an agency account manager and the last 15 years in executive positions. I worked in three cities including Chicago and New York. I know the ad agency business inside-out, and I've always loved it.

After all, what other business so fully engages both hemispheres of the brain? Advertising is not just about building a client's business and building brands, but coming at it from a creative angle. No matter how hectic a day can get, it's always fun and rewarding. Today, I'm the general manager of Jones Lundin Beals in New York, one of the oldest firms of its kind in the country. Among other things, we design agency searches. We manage the searches. And we provide counsel to our clients as they move through a search. (Contrary to what many agency types believe, we never have a vote. Never.)

The counsel's role is what I find most rewarding. Counsel from an ad agency insider is the most valuable and interesting service I can provide. Anyone can design an agency search process and compile a panel of agencies for a client to consider. But providing valuable insights—insights about how the ad agency business works, what motivates agency people, how to get the most out of an agency—is what a good consultant brings to the party.

I find it ironic, then, how many client marketers—even highly sophisticated ones—are not very savvy about what agencies actually do. Here's an example. I rarely, if ever, have been involved with an agency search when I didn't hear some version of the following from the client: "I don't care about hearing from the agency management team. The only people I care about are the team of people that will be working on my business day-to-day."

Sometimes they say that the agency management team doesn't even need to attend the meetings.

This view is dangerously mistaken.

I don't mean to suggest that getting to know your day-to-day team isn't important. But a client's obsession with getting to know the front-line people should not get in the way of establishing the same relationship with the agency's senior players. Why is that so critical? It's the agency management team that sets the tone for everyone under it. Management hires the people who work in the agency. It's the senior team that determines the vision and establishes the agency's standards—ones that may or may not be in sync with your own. And it's the senior level at which the money changes hands between client and agency. For all these reasons, clients should find out if they can fundamentally see eye-to-eye with an agency's management.

Here's a piece of wisdom from behind the agency curtain's deepest folds: The most important person for a prospective client to get to know during the course of a search process or pitch is the chief creative officer (aka the creative director or executive creative director), the helmsman of the creative department to whom nearly everyone reports.

A successful CCO owns the agency in a spiritual sense. The agency takes on his personality. He is more often than not the face of the agency and also its figurative soul who shapes many of its corporate and cultural values. The CCO also owns the agency in a very practical sense. For example, the manner in which the agency treats its clients can be traced back directly to the attitudes of, and example set by, the CCO.

Yet within the client-agency dynamic, the CCO's pivotal presence is not always apparent. That's especially true within large agencies, because the CCO is often operating in the background, calling the shots, deploying the talent, rewarding and punishing people ("your team") based on whether or not they are performing up to his or her personal standards. This may be why most clients, in my experience, fail to grasp the importance of the CCO. Sure, everyone knows he's important. It's a fancy title. But listen to me: At almost any good agency, nearly everyone to one degree or another is marching, directly or indirectly, to the tune of the CCO. Everyone. In agencies that pride themselves on their creative product, every piece of creative and a lot of the thinking that goes out the door (with precious few exceptions) must have the personal stamp of approval of the CCO.

Bear in mind: While you may not see the agency CCO on a regular basis, "your team" goes back to the agency every day and pretty much executes what the CCO allows it to execute (this is not necessarily a bad thing, by the way). Can you really afford, then, not to get to know the CCO of the agency you're considering? Do you really know Chiat\Day if you don't know Lee Clow? Can you get the best out of Crispin Porter if you aren't engaged with Alex Bogusky? I think you can guess the answer.

This counsel extends beyond the initial-meeting stage. It's critical that you establish an ongoing relationship and rapport with the CCO. You're going to need all that CCO passion, all that talent and all that wherewithal directed toward your business. How are you supposed to make that happen? Follow these three steps:

First: A CCO's greatest fear is public humiliation. And that means work that risks embarrassing him or exposing him to public ridicule. The CCO will never admit to that, but trust me. Be sensitive to this fear and you will win the CCO over to your side.

Second: You will have no greater ally or business partner than a talented CCO who trusts you and likes you. He will pull out all the stops on your behalf. And the personal brilliance that got him the corner office will be applied to your business.

Third: Understand the pressures that a CCO faces. The fortunes of the agency rest in large measure on his shoulders. Every client creative problem lands on his desk—24/7. If you let your CCO know that you understand and respect those pressures, he will always make time for you.

One of the best pieces of advice I give to my clients: Know the CCO and you will know the agency; establish a respectful partnership with the CCO and you will own the agency, too.



Brian Goodall is a 30-year ad agency veteran who has held a variety of senior-level positions. He has served as general manager of Jones Lundin Beals, New York, since 2004. Goodall can be reached at brian@jlbeals.com.