Advertising needs to stop behaving like it’s still the hottest job in town
From 70 hour weeks to active ageism born out of a reluctance to pay a proper wage, there’s no denying advertising is rapidly losing its sheen. John Halpin argues it’s time workers realised their worth.
If you’ve been around advertising for the best part of a decade, you’ve probably noticed it’s losing some of its lustre. I’m not talking about the value of Cannes Lions or questions about media transparency. I’m talking about where your career is heading.
For the first part of that decade, it was ‘work hard/ play hard’ with your colleagues. The job was its own reward (because the money wasn’t), and you were progressing up the ranks. More recently, you’ve developed valuable expertise and a reputation for winning and keeping business.
You’re regularly recognised for your leadership, and although you’re humble about it, you know your relationships are the main reason those clients have stuck with the agency. There’s a lot more work, a lot less play; and yet the pay is still lagging behind where you think it should be.
Good Article. Much better than that ‘we’re where it’s at’ digital nonsense.
You covered it all here John. I think graduates today are much more savvy about the end game, longevity and work / life choices. They are not going to fall for the partly shinny toy anymore when there are other great choices that didn’t compare 10-20 years ago . Funnily on seek recently jobs in advertising, arts and media were down 20% for march, added to the steady decline in recent 12 months.
But I fear that we’ll have to ‘wear we’re where it’s at’ for quite some time to come.
Yeah I’m all worn out.
The sub-heading hits the nail on the head. There is a lot of talk about ageism in advertising. I have doubts that ageism is a large scale problem. Its an issue, but not the biggie.
I suspect the real reason there are few people over forty in the game is that people over forty have weird notions about actually getting paid.
Maybe that’s why those Union ads are cutting through – the people making them are in the same boat.
….But… But what about the office ping pong table?!!!
I wish I even got to use that ping pong table, in my 7 years in the industry a lot of those ‘small office perks’ were all for show. John is right about ageism as well, I never saw anyone over 40 in the digital space, unless they were in the board of directors.
I feel like I could have written this (not as well of course) after recently moving from a WPP business to a smaller start up after a little under a decade in the game.
Move it or lose it agencies.
Lose what exactly? As long as lots of new people line up to fill the slots, they lose nothing. They pay as much as they need to maintain the skill levels and the staff turnover that are needed to service the customers. If customers start demanding and paying for higher standards, pay will come up.
Fine article, very much to the point. I believe that advertising is still the hottest job in town, though perhaps we sense the heat differently.
There has been a number of influences on the big changes which have taken place in advertising, one has been the fall of television revenue, which has been less to do with the impact of digital, and more to do with unpreparedness of the television industry, and it’s subsequent chaotic response to it.
Advertising is a wonderful occupation, it is, if not the hottest, certainly one of the most interesting and sociable jobs on offer, and like the production of good television, it requires so much more than it is receiving from the current model.
Both industries need to take a very good look at themselves and re group; ageism, corner cutting, bullshit and bean counting are all problems, but a general fear of failure is also choking the system. Take risks, step outside the circle, push the boundaries, be a little reckless, stop chasing ratings and start creating them, will all help.
Rome may not be burning, but the fourth estate is in ruins, there is little integrity, less truth, less accountability, less experience and a frightening demand for instant answers and instant success.
This is how it seems to me, but then again, I am just a heterosexual overweight old white male, so what the hell would I know.
After a near decade in agency land I made the move to “the dark side” of sales. Best decision I made and I just wished I made it earlier.
There is no incentive to work for a media agency. They sell you the dream, you get sucked in. A few months later you’re pumping out 12 hour days at the promise of greener pastures. A couple years pass and you realize you’re severely underpaid and there is actually no reward for all those extra hours you have given your media agency and the only thing you look forward to is the quarterly staff party so you can drink yourself into oblivion to numb the pain.
I couldn’t agree more, I recently made the move to client side after 3 years at one of the big agencies and the difference is obvious – 50% more pay and 50% less hours worked per week.
The advertising cool aid ship sailed a long time ago. Walk into any technology office and that is where you will now find them all eating free breakfast, drinking from the bar and playing arcafe games
My reading tells me the history of mankind for the past 1,000’s of years has been focused on trade and fighting for/controlling resources. I will bet on history repeating itself and the trade of goods and services continuing, therefore requiring Marketing and Advertising to evolve. Industry structure? Why do other professional services like Law firms, Accounting firms, Architecture firms and Consultancy firms all have fixed rate cards and staff ‘Senior Partner’ models when Advertising does not?
I think this model will become the Advertising HR trend as more Consultancy firms move into traditional Advertising space and take the industry top strategic client dollars. We can already see Consultancy firms re-skinning themselves buying up the sharper agencies.
Existing global agency networks are consolidating internally to reduce operating costs and increase efficiencies. At the same time there is a grouping of non-networked agencies to remain competitive and create the geographical footprint needed to serve globalisation directly. This leaves the low execution dollars to the ocean bottom creative and production consolidator feeders, running 24/7 global horizon real time factories.
I see the decision being where do you want to play in this industry fragmentation, the renumeration will be as different as the business operating model, and what you bring as a valuable resource.
I used to make TVCs on 35mm. Now I’m asked to make viral shite for the web for $50. So long ad dreams, whatever.
Very well written article. Dropped truth bombs all around.
I was so glad to have made the switch after 8 years in the industry to my client’s side no less. My clients treated us like humans then but the agency didn’t. It’s all bottom line. When I switched to join my clients, I never knew that there is actually a life outside advertising. That I can see the sun going down, that I can have dinner with my parents, that there is such a thing called “bonus”, that people ask you things respectfully, that there’s a mentor ship program that won’t ask you to sign a bond and the list goes on. Wow, I sounded bitter. Maybe true but the skills that I’ve learnt and the people that I’ve met? Irreplaceable.
I thoroughly enjoyed this article and coming from both a client and agency side, there is definitely a lot of hesitations around joining or staying within a pure advertising role.
Besides the late hours, no work life balance and cost cutting mechanisms that you are constantly working towards, sometimes you do work on some interesting work. However, I think there is a middle ground between both worlds and it could be via exploring start up-s to tech companies who value their employees as more then just a number.
Paycheck? Really? Not even Paycheque! How about respecting our culture? Use appropriate descriptors and spelling please!
Point taken Uncle Sam. Pleased someone’s checking.
Thanks for all your responses.
I wanted to put this out there because it’s my belief that the next generation of leadership in Advertising needs to be having more discussion and debate about their future. It’s a tricky subject to raise when you’re deep in the industry, but at the same time if you don’t raise it nothing changes.
I think the fact that most of the comments here are from people who’ve left the ad industry is a reflection of the challenge having this conversation poses for people concerned about their agency career.
As a result of the response it’s had, we’ve decided to do something about it. We’re hosting some drinks for people to come along and discuss the future of the industry and their careers on May 30th at Cake Wines Cellar Door. $15 gets you a glass of wine and entry.
Details are here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/unthinkable-drinks-tickets-45926886554
Thanks for all your responses.
I wanted to put this topic out there because it’s my belief that the next generation of leadership in Advertising needs to be having more discussion and debate about their future. It’s a tricky subject to raise when you’re deep in the industry, but at the same time if you don’t raise it nothing changes.
I think the fact that most of the comments here are from people who’ve left the ad industry is a reflection of the challenge having this conversation poses for people concerned about their agency career.
As a result of the response it’s had, we’ve decided to do something about it. We’re hosting some drinks for people to come along and discuss the future of the industry and their careers on May 30th at Cake Wines Cellar Door. $15 gets you a glass of wine and entry.
You can find the details on our website or LinkedIn pages.
Ticket bought!
Hey mate, would certainly love to come to something like this. Clearly a little slow here, but what is the URL for the website I can visit to purchase tickets.
Pretty sure that’s not a real Oscar Wilde quote. Can you give a reference?
A bit late to the party with this comment… but just wanted to add that I read this article back when it was first published and it helped to motivate me to not settle for being unhappy in an agency role. I eventually found a great in-house marketing role, and I’m so glad I took the plunge – literally everything is better (money, perks, work, people, training & development, purpose) and staff are treated like real people and valued as long term investments for the business.