Adventures In Advertising: The Most Unhappy Office Holiday Party

Now that we are getting close to holiday party season. I thought I would tell two holiday party stories, both pretty weird.  This is the first of them.  It is the story of a holiday party no one wanted to go to and is 100% true. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season filled with love, friendship and happy parties, none like this one.

I have tried to stay to the facts with no exaggeration or creative license because it is amazing enough as it happened.  You can’t make this stuff up.

I joined the agency in the fall as a senior partner and I quickly learned that it was very dysfunctional – more than most.  This story is a good illustration of why.  By November, people were asking me if I could do anything to make the upcoming holiday party more spontaneous and fun.  People told me it was very dull, stiff, formatted and un-spontaneous.  The party was organized and run by the office manager, who was a lovely woman, but very anal – everything in the office, including this party, was scheduled and controlled.  (I wisely decided that since I had just joined the agency and it was my first party, I would not get involved.)

The biggest hint that this event would be laborious was the way the invitation was sent. It was a staff memo - formal and cold and very matter of fact.  The party was at a downtown, West Village restaurant that no one had ever heard of (before or since).  The agency was nice enough to pay for employees to get to the party, but only if they went in assigned groups.  The car pools had been set up by the office manager and only the designated employee could pay and be reimbursed.  The invitation stated that when we arrived at the venue, we should be sure to check in with a designated employee so that they would know that we were there (message: attendance is mandatory).  Nice way to create esprit de corps.

Sure enough, the week before the party, every employee was given a car pool assignment – there was no switching.  The first car was to leave at 5:15 for the long ride down to the venue.

Once there, each person was given chits for drinks (who ever heard of chits at a private party?). Of course, table seatings were assigned so that there was no spontaneity.  Senior management, including me, all sat together (heaven forbid that the senior executives should sit with and mix with other employees).  There was no music initially and nothing conducive to fun or a real party.  The smart people belted a couple of drinks down before dinner was served.

There were no speeches, no welcome, no thanks for a good year.  I was told by long term employees that this was usual.

It was the most dour and least festive group I ever saw. No one got dressed up because no one gave a damn.  Dinner was pre-set with a choice of meat or fish.  There were no options for other courses.  It took until about 6:25 for everyone to arrive.  Dinner was served promptly at 7.  Everyone got a glass of wine, but there were no refills.  The wine and food were actually good.

At 8:30pm the DJ arrived and set up.  He was allowed to start music at 9pm.  The music was actually good.  The DJ was allowed to dim the lights, but there was no disco ball or complicated lighting.  I actually did say something and the president of the agency told me that, “This is an ad agency, not a radio station.” Huh?  Shortly after the music started I looked around and the other senior executives were nowhere to be seen.  It was only about 9:30.

What a waste.  The worst part was that the management of the agency was so removed that they had no idea that there were any issues or that anything was wrong with the party.

I did not stay at the agency even a year, but I heard that the next year was even worse.  It was held at an expensive mid-town restaurant and there was no music at all.  Just a dull dinner. And I was told the food was terrible.

The irony of this is that one of the best holiday parties I ever attended was at a smallish agency where there was no formal party, but everyone brought food and drink; someone brought music tapes (remember them?) and we had lots of fun drinking and dancing.  It doesn’t have to be formal.

Have a terrific holiday season filled with fun and love!!!

Insulting Candidates Is Not In The Purview Of A Recruiter

Recently, a senior executive candidate told me about a recruiter who thought he/she was being helpful and, instead, was insulting.  The candidate had had the misfortune of choosing the wrong company several times in a row and had three or four one year jobs; all her companies were well known with good reputations; the candidate had no idea before joining these companies that she was not a “fit”.  The recruiter told her that she had ruined her career, which had otherwise been stellar.  What good can come out of insulting a candidate?  Did the recruiter think she was giving good advice or was the recruiter merely using her position to be a bully?

If a recruiter wants to give positive career advice, that is fine.  But it has to be advice that can be followed and that is actionable.  Telling someone that they have ruined their career is both untrue and unnecessary.

Over the years, I have had candidates tell me about being insulted, bullied and put down by recruiters.  That certainly runs contrary to my philosophy.  If, as a recruiter I don’t like someone, I am polite to thank them for their time.  I tell them I will call when I have something appropriate for them.  They go into my data base with appropriate comments.  Occasionally, I am actually able to place them.  The wonderful thing about LinkedIn is that it allows me to see how people develop and grow. 

Sometimes people who start out poorly end up doing fabulously. 

Years ago, I was flabbergasted when a candidate who had worked for only small companies, told me that a recruiter said to him, “Why should I help you?  You have third world credentials.”  The candidate was about 27 years old at the time.  Today he is an EVP of a major ad agency.  We are all not so lucky as to get jobs at the best places right out of college. There is no point to insulting someone.

Before I grew my beard fully, I had a fairly heavy beard.  By the end of the day, I had “five o’clock shadow”.  A recruiter told me that he would only represent me if I shaved twice a day.  Give me a break!

I once hired a recruiter who at the time I offered her a job, worked for another recruiter who was infamous for insulting candidates.  In an effort to get this candidate to turn me down and stay at her firm, the recruiter showed her colors by saying, “You’re too stupid to work for him”  The candidate joined me and became a very successful recruiter. There is just no need to insult people.

When people are actively looking for a job they are vulnerable. Doing anything other than being a good listener, asking probing questions and being polite is to take advantage of the candidate’s weakness.  Any recruiter who does that to you should be taken off your list.

Interviewing: Your Attitude Is What Will Get You Your Next Job Not Your Words

The best presenter I ever saw taught me something about selling. It wasn’t his words so much as his attitude.  When he spoke he was excited, exciting and fun.  He totally believed in what he was presenting.  He set up his presentation so that he gradually sucked his audience in to what he was saying.  But it wasn’t so much his words as much as his attitude. And his attitude was persuasive. 

And so it is with interviewing.

When you are on an interview, you must be relaxed, confident and excited.  If you communicate your excitement for the job, for your business and, most of all, for yourself, you can get the job.  If you are calm and communicate in monotones, you will not get the job.  Simple as that.

I had a conversation with a candidate recently that was disturbing.  He told me his age, mid-fifties  (He should never have told me his age; I could tell).  Unfortunately, he has had five jobs in the last eight years.  Every one of the companies either lost business or changed directions.  One of them was an in-house agency for a Fortune top fifty; the company decided to no longer support its in-house agency.  None of it was his fault.  But he said something to me which was quite revealing, “I am fifty-four, I have no longer have illusions that my next job will be the big one.  I am past that.  I just want to work for the next ten or twelve years, hopefully at the same company which does not lose business or decide to change directions.”  That statement certainly reflected how he feels about his career and his age.  It also communicated utter defeat. No one wants to hire a defeated executive.  The point is to think before you speak.

Over the years, I have had many executives, some of whom were many years younger than fifty-four, communicate their unhappiness, often not in words but in their attitude.  Being let go is always tough. My heart goes out to people who through no fault of their own end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

But if you let yourself get down, this attitude will be reflected in your interviewing. As the song says, it is vitally important to “pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.”  Successful people do that. In the case that I just mentioned, wouldn’t it have been better if the candidate had said to me, “I can’t believe that this has happened to me, but I had no way of knowing – none of those companies told me that they had problems while I was interviewing.  But now I know that I needed to ask about the state of their business before I accepted a job.  I am determined that this will not happen again and that the next job I get will be for keeps.”  Any positive statement he made would have reflected a better outlook.

Words don’t sell, attitudes do.  

The best job candidates exude enthusiasm for what they do and who they are.  I recently had a mid-level executive get an offer for a very senior job.  She exuded so much confidence and passion for herself during her interviewing that the company knew she could do the job and she beat out several better qualified candidates. The hiring manager told me that she had the best attitude of anyone they interviewed.  Positive attitude should be innate.  If you are confident and passionate, but it does not show, you need to learn how to tap into your inner resources to communicate those traits.

Many candidates become thoughtful and introspective when they interview.  But interviewing is not a time for you to be overly cautious.  Rather, it is a time for enthusiasm and positive energy. 

Creative Is Still King And It Is An Exciting Time For Advertising

Advertising is advertising. Digital, broadcast, out-of-home, it doesn’t matter. It makes no difference how the business has changed or moved or morphed, it is still one hundred percent about selling products or ideas.

It is a very exciting time in the business.

The reason is that communications are finally becoming totally integrated.  Great ideas can be executed in multiple media, including digital.

Throughout all that is going on in the business, clients are still looking for good work that moves product or thought.  Anyone who is in the business and does not understand or know this, should not be working in advertising.  Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at P&G, gave an important and insightful speech at the ANA recently.  In it, he talked about the new direction at Procter and Gamble.  To paraphrase him, he admitted that they (P&G) were spending too much time measuring and not enough time on the quality of the work.  Of course.  P&G has finally seen what all good advertising people have always known.  Creative is still king.  It is always about the work, not test scores.

Every person involved with the business – account, creative, strategy, media, events, CRM, content, social or promotion, etc. must understand that the work is why their company was hired.  No client has ever hired an advertising agency of any kind thinking they would be satisfied with ineffective work. I once had a not so successful and short-tenured agency president tell me that marketing was far more important than the work.  Wrong.  The work may come from great marketing (or vice versa), but one doesn’t exist without the other.  Great marketing backed by poor execution is doomed.  Great execution backed by poor marketing may succeed in spite of itself.  But when both are great it can be nirvana. The best part of the business is that now great work can be executed in multiple media.

Many agencies, in an effort to seem more contemporary, are calling themselves communication agencies or content shops or something besides advertising.  Doing that only obfuscates the truth.  The proof is that the successful digital agencies like R/GA and 360i are expanding their offerings into the territory that was once the province of the traditional agencies.  And the general agencies are morphing into integrated whole agencies.  There is even a rumor that Ogilvy1 and several other O&M agencies will be integrated into Ogilvy, which only makes sense.  

Perhaps this will signal to all agencies that it is time to end the silos, which only interfere with good work and with servicing clients.

It is and always will be about the work.