How You Can Redefine Your Agency in a Single Moment

Game-Changers Just Don't Fall Out of the Sky

Posted by Phil Johnson on 11.03.09 @ 10:45 AM


Phil Johnson

After winning the Volkswagen business, Mike Sheldon, co-CEO of Deutsch, Los Angeles, called it "a game-changer for the agency." Who doesn't want that? At some level, we're all looking for a transformative account, creative recognition, key acquisition or maybe a promotion to president.

Game-changers are big. They are huge account wins, front-page headlines, top-10 agency lists, awards that make you an overnight sensation. Yesterday you were a well-respected regional agency. Today you landed a client that redefines the business. You need to hire a dozen new people, open a Beijing office, and return a call to Stuart Elliott at The New York Times.

I like the sound of the expression. I like the adrenalin that comes with the experience. But game-changers don't just materialize out of thin air. You can't will them to happen. I suspect they happen like a lot of events in life: You pick a destination and then work your butt off. There's risk too. Losing a key client can be a game-changer. Too much success too quickly has crushed plenty of good agencies. An exciting game-changer for one person can be a game-changing nightmare for someone else.

I've got to believe that most small and independent agencies aspire beyond the day-to-day status quo and pursue a goal that has the potential to redefine them. Maybe it's not publicly visible. A new management structure can be a game-changer. An idea can be a game-changer. Whatever it is, it's transformative and when it happens people yell out obscenities and often have a drink.

When I asked people at PJA what would constitute a game-changer, the answers leaned towards global-account wins, consumer-product launches, and high-profile media campaigns. Then again, one person got very specific and wanted more developers who knew PHP, CSS, Flash and Ruby.

I also asked one of my competitors and friends, Tom Simons, founder of Partners & Simons in Boston, to tell me about a game-changer for his agency. (A game-changer for me would be for Tom to retire.)

Tom told me that his agency's response to the demand for accountability had been a game-changer. They became concerned that there was too much soft talk about campaign measurement and that it was not usually connected to any impact that the CFO would notice. "We felt we needed to connect to client business outcomes that were generated by our work. If we could not point to a comparative, superior business outcome, we did not have a case history," Tom told me. That goal has defined the objective and focus for Tom's entire agency and has made a couple of CFOs happy.

I believe the magnitude of a game-changer exists in direct proportion to the scale of your ambitions and your appetite for risk. Unless you're willing to walk into the agency on occasion and make a decision that will change the course of your orbit, you can pretty much expect business to stay about the same as it always has.

If you truly want a game-changing experience for your agency, here are several ideas to consider:

Hire someone who has got a talent or knowledge that does not exist in the agency. If on occasion a single person can change the world, the right one can certainly transform an agency.

Without sounding callous, you have to ask whether there are people so entrenched in tradition that no game-changer could ever take place in their presence.

Identify the people who already drive change and, regardless of their level and seniority, promote them.

Add a new capability, or service, that forces the entire agency to learn something new and pursue a common goal.

More challenging than all of the above, consider changing yourself. Ask what you could do that you've never done before that could create the conditions for a game-changer to strike your agency like lightning.

When all else fails, get lucky. There's always the chance that you'll sit down in first class next to the CEO of a Fortune 100 company who will award you their account over complimentary cocktails. I've had that dream, and all I have to show for it is a pile of business cards.

If you've had a game-changer at your agency, take a minute and share your story.

~ ~ ~
You can follow Phil Johnson on Twitter: @philjohnson

13 Comments

By AnIntern | Richmond, VA November 3, 2009 01:23:29 pm:

Reminiscent of Donald Draper meeting Conrad Hilton over a drink and then winning the Hilton account? I think so. Does that make me a huge Ad-Nerd? Definitely.

Expand in Your Space.
http://www.redshiftagency.com/

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By YuriyBoykiv | Cliffside Park, NJ November 3, 2009 02:01:13 pm:

My game-changer would be meeting the writer of this article over the coctail and providing him with a few ideas. That would change a lot of things. Thanks for the inspiration. Cheers,

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By kevinlenard | Toronto, ON November 3, 2009 05:15:18 pm:

Excellent point, Phil, and I suspect you have a small enough ego to follow your own advice, but I'm equally certain most small to mid-sized shops are filled with folks that are absolutely convinced they're all 'game-changing' 'agents of change'! Similarly, this thinking stands in the way of promoting the fledgling game-changers in their ranks.

I also suspect that, as an industry, we've lost a lot of the cream off the top in terms of the type of people we attract to advertising and even marketing. As salary increases have fallen along with margins, the best and brightest amongst the rare strategic-creative thinkers have been drawn to fields like finance (where they dreamed up all the stuff that led to this current crisis!). For more on the dilemma:
http://advertisingbusinessmodelredefined.blogspot.com/2009/02/ad-agencies-simply-cant-afford-to-train.html

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By tommyzman | Oak Ridge, NJ November 4, 2009 09:12:51 am:

Phil, I ran a boutique firm just outside of Manhattan for close to two decades, and your article certainly does resonate with me.

While all you said is more than true, PATIENCE is a key factor in the cultivation of your game changing plan. Like in a garden, you work hard to make it nice - plant the seeds, turn the soil, give it nutrients, water it daily, and make sure it gets ample sunlight. Then one day it germinates and you watch it flower and grow as you continue to tend to it.

Okay, I'm big on analogies, but I really feel that beyond the vision, belief, and the risk taking, is the massive amount of required patience it takes to see your new venture through.

Very nice article and very inspiring.

Tommy Z • Publisher, PlanetZman
http://www.planetZman.com
http://www.twitter.com/planetzman

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By Mike | Gnadenhutten, OH November 4, 2009 09:18:32 am:

Great stuff again, Phil. Game-changers abound for good or ill. And they aren't just the advent of TV or the Internet. Landing or losing that client in a new channel, terrorists attacking an American city, key personnel defections or additions - these all change the nature of our games.

Changing the game from the inside is darn tough. As the I Ching tells us, "Change begins on the outside and works inward." Cooking up ways to artificially create those positive "outside" change events remains the trick.

Mike
mrlauber@tuscodisplay.com

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By tillypick | Manchester, MA November 4, 2009 09:39:00 am:

How about we start by turning the mirror on ourselves and honestly size up the issues in our business, the same way we ask our clients to do it? We all know there are many of them, and whichever way you turn to solve one, politics, jealousy, money or process stand in the way of us getting to the good stuff. Call me naive, if you will, but we need to get some integrity back and genuinely solve problems that add value for clients and their customers. Our collective compass is success defined by individual wealth, not collective and mutual value. We need a new compass to right the world we live in.

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By BlowCreative | bristol November 4, 2009 09:44:06 am:

many fear change but more push for it in our agency - those that push and take the calculated risk, more often than not, get rewarded. Those that take the risk and 'fail' also get rewarded with an experience that we all learn from (everything has a positive outcome).

We have moved into a number of key areas that have changed the complete dynamic of our agency over time and it keeps us all going and on our toes...

Great article, inspired me to put this direct question to the rest of the agency to see who really feels they are the game changers!!

Tony
www.linkedin.com/in/tonysteadman
twitter.com/BlowCreative
www.blowcreative.co.uk

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By Todd_Sebastian | Cincinnati November 4, 2009 09:57:54 am:

Another game changer: truly equipping account managers to exceed "service" and give clients what they really want: passionate leadership in the form of business-building ideas. Growing clients' business will lead, in turn, to the growth of agencies' business. "People are our most importand asset" is often said, but not always acted upon.

"TELL YOUR CLIENTS WHERE TO GO! TRAINING"
http://www.strongerLINK.com

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By boxingclever1 | St. Louis, MO November 4, 2009 11:04:33 am:

Our game changer was a complete accident. A growing church near St. Louis had a cause marketing idea that involved buying one less, useless holiday gift that was unnecessary, and donating it to a non-for-profit called Living Water. They build wells in impoverished areas of the world that have no clean drinking water. The budget wasn't very large, but they were nice people and the challenge was brought to us by a friend who we worked with at a past agency.

We built the site as more of a marketing tool, a mash-up of inexpensive technologies, a simple CMS and a robust assets page so anyone could share the message. We didn't think much of it when we were done, and when we checked analytics after only 5 months, we realized we had 1.5 million unique visits and had already helped raise upwards of 2 million dollars (it's raised over 5 mil by now). We also feel good knowing many villages and towns in Africa, South America and India have clean drinking water for the first time in history. The site is: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

A site we thought was going to be a favor, turned into a major case study, and a lot of online business has come as a result. A small game changer, but for an agency our size, it's resulted in a lot of credit and fun challenges from new clients.

Jim Harper
Dir. Bus. Development
Boxing Clever
http://www.boxing-clever.com/

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By jeremyvanek | Chicago, IL November 4, 2009 02:05:57 pm:

Best way I've found to stay hot on the heels of game-changers: try to do something that scares you every day.

Jeremy Van Ek
Edelman, SVP Global Client Finance
jeremy.vanek@edelman.com

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By Dave Hamilton | Toronto, ON November 4, 2009 02:08:09 pm:

Game Changing can be as simple as not censoring yourself at the next meeting. Internal, or with clients, too many of us let the fear of losing - the job, the business, the pitch - confine us to telling the safe instead of the truth, warts and all. Can you imagine tabling the idea of performance based compensation at your agency or network a a decade ago? But that's when we should have started the discussion. Can't stomach the idea of responding to your next RFP by challenging the validity of the brief? Get over it. Our business is at it's best when it plays at the edges, rather than the middle-ground.

Dave
http://bigorangeslide.com

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By Formula13 | Atlanta, GA November 4, 2009 02:31:52 pm:

Game changing stories are always inspiring. I have run into agencies looking for that game changer, but are continuing to do the same thing over and over. This only brings the same results. There are risks to be taken and brass rings to grab.

I say that agencies need to put their flag in the sand and stand for who they are. This business brings more rejection than acceptance, but stay true and reach high.

www.formula-13.com

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By nemozian | WASHINGTON, DC November 4, 2009 02:44:27 pm:

Interestingly enough one of our newest business collaborators is an innovative company called GameChangers you can find it on Amazon.com here. The founder, Mike Bonifer, also has a book out by the same title (in it he talks about his experiences as publicist for the movie Tron, as well as being the producer for the Toy Story website, as well as working with Tim Burton and Jeffrey Katzenberg). His work is phenomenal and he owns the "GameChanger" space as it pertains to the idea that the most successful brands in the networked world are "improvisations" - GameChangers are improvisers, period. The collaboration between Cnvrgnc and Gamechagers will gamechange the industry as to how brands grow and flourish in the 21st century. You can check out our interview of him here http://www.cnvrgnc.com/journal-old/2008/2/2/so-you-got-game-but-can-you-improvise.html Want to innovate your brand in ways you've never thought of. . .feel free to drop me a line.

Rasul Sha'ir
www.cnvrgnc.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rasulshair

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