You have probably heard “Trust me when I’m saying this won’t work” or “Back in the Eighties when I started out in advertising…” echo in your ear. There are indeed a lot of old people in the communications industry. There is one key problem with relying on old thinking: today’s world of communications requires a lot of new thinking – just to stay in business. To prove my point: David Ogilvy might have been a star 60 years ago, but his agency the way it was set up in 1950 wouldn’t survive for two seconds in 2010. One day your knowledge will be outdated and irrelevant, if it isn’t already.
Remain dissatisfied.
Comments
5 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Age is mental, not physical. There are a lot of old 30-year olds, as well as young 50+. It is a matter of attitude.
There are always exceptions. Unfortunately, age in the advertising business seems highly correlated with the attitude I’m pointing at. The inability to adapt to new circumstances, new knowledge and letting go of one’s status and position is probably also the reason why many agencies die with their owners and why people start new ones.
“confusing experience with truth” brilliant. key, as always, is to stay humble. even when you’re on top. it sems to be hard to listen when you´re over 55.
O: Hmm, isn’t it people in their early twenties – or even the teenagers – who are the biggest knows-it-all? Who’ve seen through the system, who knows what the problems are, who are the ones that really know how to handle everything?
I’m not there yet, and I hope I’ll never be the kind of guy who says ”been there, tried that”, no matter what business I’m in then. But I do believe that if I go there, it’ll be partly because I’m been told to shut up a few times too many, and is tired to listen to ”revolutionizing ideas” I’ve heard for a decade already.
My plan, however, is to become one of these cool guys, just saying, ”great, go ahead, try it out. You can always correct any mistakes on a second try …”
The practice of advertising as we know it has gone full circle countless times between the 50’s and present. To think that there was a time bromides were the only way print ads could be submitted for media exposure.Today, even the compact disc is on the verge of extinction, giving way to more futuristic stuff like blu-ray
Quite interesting stuff….and I should point out that the fact that Ogilvy & Mather remains one of the world’s leading agency networks is exactly the point….O & M, like many of the other leading multinational agency groups has not remained static in terms of ideology, approach, technology, processes e.t.c. These agencies have constantly re-invented themselves and evolved with the times. Any agency/practitioner that’s not receptive to change will have a hard time surviving
Tomi Ogunlesi, Strategy Planner, Bates Cosse, An affiliate of the Bates Worldwide Network, Lagos, Nigeria