Anthony Del Monte

A recent episode of "Mad Men" highlighted something all of us in the agency world already knew to be true -- small agencies are often brought to the pitch table by large clients because of their outstanding creative prowess, but are rarely awarded the account. The big-client relationships go instead to the larger agencies because of their perceived ability to marshal resources (read: manpower), when there's a need for multiple services.  

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We can change the world. It sounds crazy, but it's true. In fact, if our ultimate goal is to create breakthrough brands, we have no choice but to make lives better.

At this point, I think we can all agree that advertising is going through a revolution. Search, social, mobile and ad avoidance technologies have disrupted this industry. The notion of building a brand through interruptive messaging is antiquated. Consumers have too much information at their fingertips. Traditional tools for influence no longer work as well as they once did.

This industry is filled with some of the smartest and most creative people in the world. The brands that are producing incredible results are simply taking that expertise and pointing it inward at their own behavior rather than outward at messaging. Great brands are created by starting with a platform that improves people's lives.

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In April 1998, Andy Grove, then president and CEO of Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, introduced the idea of the strategic inflection point. He described this, in "Only the Paranoid Survive," as "a time in the life of the business when its fundamentals are about to change. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient."

This is the point at which many agencies now find themselves -- though often they seem to be in denial. They moan and groan about the cost of participating in RFP-based new-business pitches, but aren't positioning themselves to adapt to clients' changing expectations, so they can compete for the new business.

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I was at a luncheon recently and my client (who is a young GenXer, smart, and very modern is her business and personal lifestyle), told me that she was appalled at how most of the guests were looking at their small screens rather than at the speaker during a talk that must have taken many hours and care to prepare.

It's an all-too-familiar sight at conferences and presentations. What's going on? Have we lost our sense of decency and proclaimed rudeness as the rule for an audience? Are we suddenly in an era of exceedingly boring speakers, and resorting to multi-tasking -- returning e-mails to be productive while tuned out? Is there a national epidemic of Attention Deficit Disorder? Or are we audience members actually listening, and commenting on the content of the presentations on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, etc. Maybe it just looks rude?

I have heard suggestions that presenters ask the audience to turn off their phones during the presentation. Some companies make employees and guests check mobile devices, as they would a coat, before entering an auditorium. But we are living in a world where people expect access to their mobile devices at all times. That makes all of this sound like an attempt to change human behavior and ignore new communicating habits.

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This the final extension. Due to many requests, the deadline has been extended to May 15. We will not be accepting any entries after this date For more information about registered for the awards, or for the conference in Portland on July 24th and 25th, at which Dan Wieden will serve as keynote speaker, go here.

Advertising Age's 2013 Small Agency Awards is open. Now in its fifth year, the Small Agency Awards recognize the power of being small and independent.

More and more marketers recognize small agencies are not only nimble but often highly creative and innovative. And we think so, too.

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"You know, when I first got here, I didn't think Y&L was a very nice place."

Hearing this reflection from one of our account guys a few years ago was like a punch in the gut. I had never realized that new people felt that way. My impression was that from the beginning of someone's career with us, the agency had a close-knit, almost familial feel. Except for the few who didn't work out, people seemed to enjoy working here and stayed a long time.

Fortunately, the next part of the account guy's comment affirmed at least part of that view. "Now I do feel like part of the group," he said. "I don't know when it changed -- but it did."

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The deadline has been extended to May 8.

For more information about registered for the awards, or for the conference in Portland on July 24th and 25th, at which Dan Wieden will serve as keynote speaker, go here.

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There's no better time to leave a job than when you love it the most.

I began my career at Carrot Creative almost two years ago, as their first Executive Creative Director. I watched the agency more than double in size, gain dream clients, and (most recently) win a Shorty Award as best mid-size social agency.

I'd like to take credit for making all of this happen, but I was part of a growing team that featured some of the most talented people I've ever worked with.

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Someone recently asked me, "What's the coolest thing about being named small agency of the year by Ad Age?"

The answer was, "Being named Small Agency of the year by Ad Age." I mean, c'mon.

Winning that honor three years from start-up, against the agencies we did, was honestly kind of mind-blowing. When they called our name at the ceremony in Minneapolis last year, I was like a geek at a party where the pretty girl says something to you and you look behind you to see if Jose Molla from La Comunidad (who I pegged as the winner that night) is standing there and she's actually talking to him.

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It wasn't an easy decision. Like most of the creative people at the agencies where I've worked, I had always arrogantly believed that going to New Jersey was akin to going to the minor leagues.

But after more than 30 years as an art director, copywriter, creative director and proud New York City advertising snob at such agencies as Della Femina Travisano & Partners, Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer Euro RSCG, Ogilvy, and my own shop extrovertic, I was ready to try working west of the Hudson, closer to my home in Mendham, N.J.

I started researching agencies in my area. Most of the bigger ones were pharma, but I had spent the last four years as a pharma Executive Creative Director, and I wanted to get back to my roots of working across all categories and channels.

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Legendary adman Dan Wieden has joined the lineup for Ad Age's Small Agency Conference and Awards, being held in Wieden & Kennedy's hometown of Portland, Ore., on July 24-25.

For Mr. Wieden, Portland has been home for decades. He was a young copywriter when he met art director David Kennedy there in 1980. Their first client? Nike. The then-small agency grew Nike into one of the world's most admired brands, coming up with the "Just Do It" slogan and maintaining one of the strongest ongoing relationships in adland till this day. After Mr. Kennedy retired in the mid-90s, Mr. Wieden grew the agency globally into a micronetwork with hubs in Delhi, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London and Sao Paolo.

While he's grown Wieden & Kennedy into one of the most respected agencies the world over -- and it's now a large agency by any measure -- Mr. Wieden's values continue to be rooted firmly in the power of being independent. When Ad Age named the shop its Agency of the Year in 2011, Mr. Wieden famously remarked: "We'll blow this thing up before we sell."

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The office I share with my partners, Matt and Nick, is no bigger than your typical county jail cell. To make up for the fact that the office has no window to the outside world, its walls have been painted bright orange. Not surprisingly, Sherwin-Williams #6893 is not a suitable substitute for the sun.

In accordance with feng shui, we've turned our desks to face out toward center, allowing us to stare at each other all day long. Our knees bump up against the bottom of the collapsible metal IKEA desks we occupy. Random pages spit out of the copier onto the floor, where they remain unclaimed. Diet Coke cans and orange rinds pile up in wastebaskets, waiting for the Garbage Fairy (who apparently comes only on Saturdays) to remove them. And it's always too hot in here.

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I don't know how many examples it takes to define a trend, but two recent Ad Age stories about public-relations firms point to a notable shift in the advertising landscape.

"Edelman Moves Into Paid Space" announces that the public-relations firm will focus on the integration of paid media with social-media programs.

Another headline reads,"Weber Shandwick Sets Up New Unit To Capitalize on Content Marketing Craze." This new unit, the article explains, will market native advertising and digital-media buying.

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The call for entries for Advertising Age's 2013 Small Agency Awards is open. Now in its fifth year, the Small Agency Awards recognize the power of being small and independent.

More and more marketers recognize small agencies are not nimble but often highly creative and innovative. And we think so, too.

Last year's Small Agency of the Year was Baldwin&, while the Campaign of the Year winner was Mono. More about them and all the great shops who took home honors last year can be found here.

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Coca-Cola recently learned that social-media buzz doesn't correlate with its short-term product sales. The findings -- which tracked online conversations, but not sharing or video views -- have stirred debate in the advertising industry, but nobody is asking a crucial question: Why should the rest of us care what Coca-Cola learned?

Soda simultaneously creates the most and least involved consumer purchases. Many people will buy it mindlessly, with virtually no thought to brand selection. It's inexpensive and inconsequential. But then soda-heads will go to the grave unbelievably loyal to either Coke or Pepsi.

In other words, your brand most likely has nothing in common with Coca-Cola. Your product is likely more expensive, and typically your customers think long and hard before purchasing from you. They consult friends and family for advice and conduct research online; they aren't influenced by irrational brand loyalties.

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My wife and I have just returned from a ski trip to Aspen. That, in itself, is probably not worth writing about in a national magazine. Except for the fact that we haven't skied in over 15 years. We were anxious about this adventure. Would the sport come back to us quickly, like riding a bike? Would we get injured?

I am pleased to report that we both came back to Philly injury-free. And that was after skiing on some slopes that we probably shouldn't have been on. It wasn't always pretty, but I felt I had to push myself out of my comfort zone and do it. I know this is the only way I can grow and get better at something.

It's also true for running a successful ad agency. Agency leaders have to push their shops to places they've never been. That's how the business can grow and evolve. It's easy to get caught up in managing the staff and client relationships, but that can leave little time to think, plan and pull triggers on bold ideas. Or create a corporate environment where everyone is encouraged to value a sense of adventure.

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Here's a humbling exercise for today:

1. Unschedule your next meeting (you know you want to, anyway).

2. Leave your office building and find your way to a populated area.

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Another social app is calling for your attention. This time it's Vine, a video-sharing app that's a lot like Instagram melded with Twitter, but with video. The Vine app is not the point of this piece -- not in particular, anyway.

The point is your time, which is not unlimited. In reality, there's likely a pre-determined amount of social media that will fit in between the other aspects of your life. Some people will fall on the heavy side of this scale, while others will fall on the lighter side. Regardless of the amount of time you allow for social tools and sharing, though, there is a "budget" for said time.

My girlfriend often teases me about the processes tied to social sharing, and the time commitment that it requires: "So you're going to photograph this old van in Camera+, add filters, then import the shot into Instagram, write a comment, add a location from FourSquare, add hashtags, and then tweet about it?? That's five minutes of your life that you just devoted to a beat-up 1970's van."

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We all know the stereotype. Agency leaders focus on the big-picture stuff: strategy, financial planning, negotiations, salesmanship, creative decisions and really important lunches. Who can fault them if they're not on top of all the day-to-day details?

While the myth may be that presidents and CEOs operate at the highest level, that's not what I've observed. Good leaders still get immersed in the details, the nitty-gritty of running the business. They may not all pay attention to the same details, and to the same degree, but they have got their hands in the dirt with everyone else.

That also means, that just like the rest of us, they have got their own obsessions and pet peeves. It can't be helped. For some it may be office decor, down to what's on the walls and floor. Others may obsess about meeting etiquette, or hospitality, or exactly how the phone is answered.

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