Small Agencies Make Pretty Good Dates

We Might Even Get Your Ready for the Prom Queen You Seek

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 10.15.09 @ 10:00 AM


Bart Cleveland

You know you're probably doing the right thing when you continually lose your people to our industry's powerhouse agencies. It may sound like a negative, but if agencies such as Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Mother, and Chiat Day hire your employees, they obviously think you're doing something right. Leonard Monahan was such an agency in the '80s and '90s. David Lubars, Kara Goodrich, David Baldwin and Ernie Schenck all grew up there and then went on to be leaders in our industry. Where was Leonard Monahan? Providence, Rhode Island. That's right, the hub of advertising, dynamic Rhode Island.

I'm in the midst of recruiting due to recently (and proudly) losing a couple of people to an industry leader. As expected, the work we have done and our success in the national shows have garnered me conversations with some very bright and newly graduated ad makers. It is obvious that they like what they see in us, but I can tell by our conversation that in their minds we are definitely not the prom queen of ad agencies. As I told a young friend who is helping me find the right match, many have said they would be happy to go to the prom with us if the prom queen turns them down.

Now this is no pity party. I completely understand the hopes of youth, but I wonder if they realize how well our type of agency can dance? And isn't dancing what it's all about? Wouldn't you rather be dancing with a decent looking girl, than sitting at the end of a long row of metal folding chairs in the dark corner of the gym, watching your date dance with the football team's quarterback?

When you go to work for a small agency you get in the game. You are the go-to player. You are first on the list in the ad show credits. At a small agency, you quickly get assigned the best opportunities. Those opportunities could literally catapult you to a higher rung at the large one in a shorter amount of time than if you had been there all along.

I think doing work on high-profile brands is an important step in a young person's career. So important that one of the selling points of my agency is that we mentor our employees to fulfill his or her career goals, even if the goal is to move on to a larger agency. Even someone that has only been in the industry a short time will testify that this is an uncommon perk.

Few entry-level people see the advantage over the risk. Granted, going to an agency in Rhode Island or some other off-the-grid place may seem like career suicide. But ask Alex Bogusky, David Lubars, and Kara Goodrich if working at a small agency was not where their creative metal was pounded and sharpened. And I dare say, it is probably where their fondest memories of the joys of this business were experienced.

So if you're young and you're in no mood to sit at the prom, investigate small agencies that are dedicated to excellence. I promise you that if dating the prom queen is your hope, you have a much better chance of getting her attention if you're on the dance floor.

11 Comments

By jay_miletsky | totowa, NJ October 16, 2009 09:57:22 am:

Great post, and one that not only needs to be made to new grads, but to brands who mistakenly believe that smaller agencies can't retain the best talent. I personally have been very outspoken on this point (http://bit.ly/D4Sks), and I will continue to defend the validity of smaller agencies.

As a small agency owner, I know the drill: we're going to be a stepping stone for new grads in preparation for something a bit more romantic. We'll usually get about a year out of them. It comes with the territory. My own agency is in NJ, just a few miles outside Manhattan. We're a fun, energetic agency, but I know that an Applebee's across the street and a deli about a mile away can't compete with everything the city has to offer when it comes to overall environment. Clearly, new grads don't spend their college years dreaming of working in Totowa, NJ - I'm not that delusional. The city is where the action is - where 20 somethings will find the more exciting social life, after-hour get-togethers, and the constant motion that all of the movies and TV shows promise - to a point.

What the movies and TV shows forget to disclose is that they focus on the few individuals who have the exciting jobs, and not the armies of cubical drones crunching market research numbers.
Larger, cosmopolitan agencies may work on the sexier brands, but recent grads largely end up being just a cog in a machine, working on projects that barely give them any creative or strategic outlets. Smaller agencies, in contrast, try and draw the best from all of their employees, allowing everybody the opportunity to speak their mind and be part of an overall team effort. Job responsibilities tend to be wider, so work can be fun instead of drudgery. The question each individual grad needs to ask themselves is: would you rather be an unknown number working with a large brand, or an active, creative participant working on a smaller brand?

Unfortunately, it's not one of those questions that anybody will be able to answer without experiencing both sides of the coin. So while I feel a sense of pride each time a new grad leaves us to go work at a larger, city agency, I feel a larger sense of vindication when they call a few months later asking if they have their old job back.

Jason Miletsky
CEO, PFS Marketwyse

Author, "Perspectives on Marketing" and "Perspectives on Branding"

http://www.pfsmarketwyse.com

http://twitter.com/jaymiletsky

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By pocketman | Minneapolis, MN October 16, 2009 10:00:03 am:

I agree with what you're saying 100%. But you're coming off as desperate. That's unattractive. Whether you're talking about dates or agencies.

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By awhetzel63 | New York, NY October 16, 2009 10:12:35 am:

The other reason may be things like:
"We Might Even Get Your Ready for the Prom Queen You Seek".

"Your" should be "You" I believe. Attention to details folks.

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By bribri2783 | Albuquerque, NM October 16, 2009 10:18:05 am:

As a media rep who has had the pleasure in the past of handling not only Bart's agency but some of his very talented competition here in Albuquerque, I can honestly assure any potential applicant out there that you could do much MUCH worse. 300 sunny days a year and some of the best snowboarding in the country....take that, lower Manhattan.

Semi-gratuitous ass-kissing aside, it's easy to read this pub and assume that the entire business is made up of intergalactic holding companies and squillion-dollar megabudgets. But ask any small-agency creative and they'll tell you as they've told me: No one on Earth is more receptive to crazy, cool, off-the-wall creative than a small to mid-size local client who wants to stand out from the pack.

@brianmcmath

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By Caroline | Charleston, SC October 16, 2009 11:31:33 am:

How about the other way around? I'm at Rawle Murdy, an agency in Charleston, SC, and came from a top entertainment agency in LA. We have people who came from Arnold, DDB, Leo Burnett, Grey, Ogilvy, etc. While the bigger agencies often have bigger budgets and glitzier clients, there are still those people who dare to leave their plush corner offices for smaller, more hands-on firms, which are often times full of a lot more challenges and the need for smarter thinking.

Probably the fact that we're in Charleston a few miles from the beach doesn't hurt either.

But how do you explain the reverse? Are people just over the corporate crap that comes with the big dogs? Do they want a better quality of life?

Bottom line is that smart, creative, strategic ideas don't come from companies. They come from people. And those people could be anywhere.

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By cjrullman | Birmingham, AL October 16, 2009 12:31:22 pm:

I read this yesterday and didn't have a chance to comment, so I'm back! I found this to be a really refreshing article. Loved your analogies.

It's interesting, because I work at a small agency for my first agency experience and the thought hasn't yet crossed my mind of working for the big guys. I don't wanna date the quarterback. I have a blossoming small agency as my prom date, and I don't think about working for a big name place because I know the potential that this small agency has. I don't work hard here just so I can work somewhere else, I work hard because THIS small agency is not going to be so small one day. That's the attitude I think all of us should have. We are not second tier, people. We don't need the prom queen to dance well.

Thanks for this, Bart.

-cj

www.scoutbrand.com

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By Bcleveland | Albuquerque, NM October 16, 2009 02:57:21 pm:

Hey, thanks for the good comments. Pocketman, I didn't intend to sound desperate. I'm far from it. We're getting great candidates for our positions. Just going through the process made me wonder if enough entry level people are considering the small agency route to success.

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By tomwilson | los angeles, CA October 16, 2009 04:19:37 pm:

Bart,

I think the reason a lot of young creatives don't go to shops off the grid is mainly two fold:
a) if they get laid off or the shop closes, it's not like they can walk down the street to another shop, they would have to move
b) A better paycheck. Big shops often times pay bigger entry salaries. Mainly because they are in bigger cities, but most young creatives are short sighted and have bills to pay the second they get out of school. To them, starting at 45K right out of school is a lot better than 30K.

I think there's been a bit of a philosophical shift with the young creatives over the past six or seven years. I think back in the day, a lot of us coming out wanted to do great kick ass work no matter what the cost to our wallets or personal lives. I don't see that a lot anymore. I think the younger generation still wants to do great work, but would rather get paid better and have a life outside of work instead. While this view is more pragmatic, I'm also saddened by it. When you're a young creative, it should be about wanting to do what's never been done before, not doing what it takes to be out the door by 5:30.

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By mountainadman | Englewood, CO October 16, 2009 05:20:37 pm:

L&M in Providence. Great agency, good guys. Friday's they'd be sailing or golfing on the Narragansett. Not bad over sitting in Manhattan trying to get on some smelly train to the Hamptons. Who wants that headache.

The reason the big agencies pick these folks off and bring them to their "big" agency is they have tons of hours more experience than the functional/task my job only team in "big agency" land.

Read the Outliners. A hockey player needs 10,000 of ice time to become a true pro. These small agency guys/gals do everything and they grow faster, they don't waste their lives doing power points or schlepping media like some big 10 kid who's daddy got them the job at Starcom. Life in a cube sucks in the big shops. Stick to the office in small agency land. Less red tape and no powerpoint hell.

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By ronandoyle | Boston, MA October 20, 2009 09:20:47 pm:

I think that Mark Fenske said it best in his 14 Anti-Laws of Advertising:

There's not that much difference between a creative person at Weiden + Kennedy and one at Ayer. (or, in today's agency world... Crispin and Zimmerman). Many people assume that a creative at one of the great agencies is an entirely different species from the people who work at the big flat-footed dinosaur agencies. I've been in both places. There's not that much difference in the way people think. The real difference is that at the people at the dinosaur agencies put their great thoughts aside because they don't have the support for them, or the culture to grow them or the opportunity to fight for them or the clients to buy them. They have no ground for their idea to grow in.

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By arielpeeri47 | Albuquerque, NM October 22, 2009 10:53:06 am:

What is the point of this post? I have met some very interesting minds driving a 1980 Subaru as well as some well defined narrow minds driving a Porsche. It is a pity you think that the good brains are going towards the well known, big size agencies, and that you are left with a few mediocre applications.

I have had some of the greatest talents on earth working for me in my studio in NYC, and could not care less who else worked for the glamorous agencies. Get over your desperate thinking.
Ariel Peeri

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