Agency bigwigs get weepy at talent shortage
The best ideas are so obvious you wonder why nobody did it before.
Like these high impact images to promote ADMA’s message that the industry is “crying out” for new talent.
The featured weeping bigwigs include Wunderman’s Matt Batten:
And M&C Saatchi’s Dave Whittle:
And Leo Burnett’s Josh Grace:
And Mercer Bell’s Julie Dormand:
Plus Ogilvy’s Simon Bloomfield and Brenton Bleechmore:
The campaign, devised by Wunderman pair Amanda Glover and Ben Peppernell to launch ADMA’s Creative School and Suit School, was revealed at an event last night.
They were shot by photographer Steve Greenaway of Pomegranate, with additional work from a team of retouchers at Limehouse Creative.
The rest of the set can be viewed here.
And should any of them lose a pitch, Dr Mumbo now has the perfect picture to illustrate the news story with.
Love it!
Dawson, eat your heart out.
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awesome – i feel for you guys
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What exactly are they looking for? There are truck loads of juniors out there trying to break into the industry?
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cool campaign thought.
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*though
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The Simon and Brenton shot is the best. Followed closely by Dylan’s shot and Paul Clarke’s.
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New creatives and suits needs to be encouraged and mentored to become GREAT. I think these big agency bosses need to take responsibilty and be accountable for the talent out there.
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A quite masterful example of advertising proving its very point: literally, an ad campaign that relies on a visual pun rather than a genuine idea.
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I usually make it a rule not to be critical of other people’s work in this forum, but this one moved me in completely the wrong direction, so my apologies for what follows…
I’m sorry, call me cynical but is this the best that this collection of revered industry bigwigs could come up with?
Pictures of themselves “crying out” for new talent is self-indulgent at worst and self-defeating at best.
Do they really believe that young talent coming out of university or college is going to be inspired to choose a career in DM as a result of seeing these pictures?
I hope that the copy is more appealing?
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“And should any of them lose a pitch, Dr Mumbo now has the perfect picture to illustrate the news story with.”
LOL gold
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Paddy, They “choose” us. Its hardly a case of us Graduate’s choosing them
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Are these guys the tutors at The Suit School for the budding?
That’s a bit weird isn’t it, especially running with a rather weak ‘literal” response to the brief, which they presumably don’t encourage from their students. Mystifying!
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N, I’m sorry but what do you mean? I’m not familiar with the inner workings of ADMA but do you mean that you don’t get a choice as to your career path or which company you can work for? I thought slavery was abolished a couple of hundred years ago.
Or is this a course that is such in high demand that you guys are fighting each other to secure a place?
Or have I missed the point of the campaign completely?
Is there someone who can enlighten me please?
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Crying out for new talent? Gimme a break.
This is an industry constantly losing staff to client-side work because they immediately earn $40-$50k more, with better conditions and less stress. An industry where it’s easier to get a new job than to get a raise. Where suits earn far, far more than the people who do the actual work.
Offer decent conditions for the people who already work here. FIx your work practices and offer industry standard wages, and you’ll entice back the people who gave up and left.
Then you’ll have some talent in the industry.
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Hi Paddy,
The campaign was the idea of two former students – not the Creative Directors and Managing Directors who appeared in the shoot. However, by agreeing to take part, yes, you could argue they endorsed the concept – you’d need to ask them. For what it’s worth, I approved the idea because I think it’s a lovely, simple thought that does exactly what we requested – use the people who teach Suit School/Creative School because they want the graduates in their agencies to illustrate the point. I asked the creative team to find a truth about the courses that I hoped would speak clearly to students, rather than a concept that might impress their industry peers, and they gave me one.
To explain why I don’t agree with calling it self indulgent requires a bit of more context.
Creative School was 100% an industry initiative that ADMA have simply been fortunate enough to help coordinate over the years. That is, a group of CDs came up with the idea because they really did need a course which taught very specific direct marketing skills that other creative development programs do not address. That was true 7 years ago and it must still be true today – otherwise they would not continue to give up their free time and their talent to come and tutor, lecture and in many cases go on to provide support to students long after the course is over. We don’t say that our graduates are more likely to get a job, or that they’re better than the ones who come out of AWARD School, just that we try to teach them a different set of skills that the industry has told us they want. This is true of Suit School also.
As to whether it will inspire young creatives (and account managers), I guess we’ll see. But regardless, I’m grateful to those who gave us the idea in the first place and everyone who took part. For ADMA this is a whole new way of looking at some of the things we hope to help agencies with and having the direct support and participation of the industry to do it is something special. Couldn’t really do my job without it.
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Maybe I can add a perspective here…
When I wrote the original piece, my original intro was indeed along the lines of pointing out that this was a campaign whose execution was much stronger than the strategy.
But then it struck me that it was slightly silly point to make as I liked the images so much that I was going to use loads of them.
If a target audience was trade press then unusual images of key figures within the industry is a great PR strategy.
More typically, this sort of announcement is covered as an FYI, whereas as you’ll see, we gave it a good showing. I see it has been covered prominently elsewhere too.
Where I sit, whether one likes the strategy or not, this looks like an effective campaign.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
It is a crying shame that so few are enrolling but it also begs the question whether or not a career in the industry is all that appealing any more as there are far more appealing career paths elsewhere.
But if they were to chose to enrol and gain their qualification with ADMA, they would then have their pick of the many jobs for entry positions. As there are more jobs than applicants, they would in turn lock down a role relatively easily and join a flock
of relatively inexperienced colleagues in the agency who are promoted beyond their abilities far too quickly. If they were to look ahead of them they will see there are few senior people left ……..no mentors to lead and guide them as they were deleted a few years back when the GFC made money a bit tight.
So they too will find that if they work the slavish hours will also be promoted. But be careful. Look at the agency staff photo….how many others in the photo are over 30. A few years and two agencies later as their 29th birthday rolls around they feel kind of squeemish as the next flock of ADMA graduates start in their latest agency.
They overhear a discussion how they are so “like 2010!”. and each review makes them feel a little more nervous as they find they are the oldest on the team…at 30.
Their MD asks them if “they have a moment” and they are handed an envelope as they tell them perhaps they are “not the right cultural fit”.
Where did that career path go?
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The Gruen Transfer is the best thing to happen to agency graduate recruitment for the past decade.
ADMA should have used Russel and Todd for this campaign. (unless they priced themselves out of course…..)
Nick, I love it.
And I hope if Russell and Todd are reading this that they’ll take up the challenge – any time.
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@ADMAAwards & others, thank you for clarifying the context for me. GIven that, I would like to apologise for my comments unreservedly. As I have said before on this forum I am happy to say who I am & am equally as happy to be accountable for my comments. Sometimes not seing the full picture can be misleading – remember that great ad “skinhead” for either The Guardian or The Independent newspaper – again my apologies for not doing my research as iam writing this one the run.
I hope the campaign is an effective one.
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Feedback is always a good thing as long as the feedbacker has the spine to identify themselves. I respect and appreciate your approach and value the opportunity to respond.
Thank you for that.
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Love the photography style…
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