Chris Bell is chief executive and managing partner of Face to Face
“So Chris,” ran the email, “tell us what really ‘grinds your gears’ when it comes to the industry’. Fingers poised and laptop open I was ready to leap into a rant about deadlines, a rant about budgets, a rant about undervalued work; frankly a rant about pretty much every single thing that had been playing faintly in the background of my 20 years in the industry.
However, I was rather alarmed to reach the conclusion that what really makes my temples twitch is less about these things (deadlines, budgets, work etc.) and more about people, or perhaps more accurately the attitudes adopted by at least some of the people in our industry.
Now I’ve worked in big networks, my own agency, worked with small clients, worked with the multinationals and exchanged gossip at industry soirees with the best of them, and I’ve come to the rather shocking conclusion that amongst all the joyous, delightful and brilliant attributes portrayed by the vast majority of people in our industry, there are a number of less palatable traits – I’ve picked out two here; evil twins if you will.
The first is what I call “the procrastination by process”.
Process, be it in the form of great briefs, beautifully refined brand mapping or insightful research is, when used correctly, a heaven sent tool that is invaluable in building and nurturing better and more effective work. However, my contention is that far too many people will use “process” as a procrastinating shield to prevent them from getting on and actually doing the work (usually on the agency side) or as a defensive shield used to negate the necessity of taking brave decisions (usually, though not exclusively, on the client side).
We’ve all experienced variations of this I’m sure; the creative team that refuse to engage with a brief until utter clarity is had as to whether the brand has 13.2 per cent market share or 13.4 per cent and then go on to ignore this “important clarification”, as well as pretty much everything else in the brief. This I find irritating but not infuriating. What I do find infuriating is when process (in this example the process of research) is used as a tool to avoid taking brave decisions. Please note, this isn’t about recklessness whims, it’s about using research to act as a guide to help us make better and more informed decisions. However, all too often research is used as a “laundry for ideas” with concepts being put on what amounts to the equivalent of a repeat boil wash cycle until all the colour and shape has been washed out of them and we’re left with grey lifeless attire that isn’t offensive to anyone but certainly doesn’t make the wearer stand out in the crowd.
The second I’ve called “phoney fist pump and passion”.
My second contention is that there are interlopers and fraudsters loitering around the agency water coolers of our region. Interlopers and fraudsters that frankly don’t care that much about the end product, about the work we all strive to make, about the standards we set and the principles we stand for.
Now of course they’re masters at disguising it – we work in advertising for heaven’s sake. Of course they can talk a decent game and are adroit at giving “the clenched fist and furrowed brow of determination”, know exactly when to sparingly insert the word “passionate” into the conversation, and will talk about virtually any subject matter with an intensity that brings a tear to the eye. But when it really comes down to fighting for the work they’re not in the ring exchanging blows but on the side-line peering through the ropes.
Their focus is more on saying the right thing for their careers and reputation than doing the right things for the brands they represent and, frankly, all the time that it’s our clients’ brand success that pays our salaries that’s despicable.
But I guess it kind of begs the question ‘so what?’ So what if not everyone in the industry is perfect? But surely this misses the point. The evil twins of procrastination and phoneism have a deeply profound effect. They devalue the currency in which the rest of us trade and in doing so make it exponentially harder to get great work out there – something that procrastinators and phoneys aside the rest of us are striving to do.