One neck to choke and why that matters...

When I left 奥美 in 2009, I kept hearing from clients that the ad world had become too vertical. While at 阳狮广告 in the media world we had Starcom and then we had MediaVest Worldwide Inc. as well as 实力传播 . Back then, one day my friend and mentor Julian Porras was telling us about "agency of the Future" and the concept that became 阳狮锐奇 (that we jokingly called - Viva Que???). Later at IPG Mediabrands while working at UMWW-NYC and being able to interface with McCann Worldgroup we were stronger, but all along each one had a huge group of "additional" brands to serve clients.

One client asked me why it was that she needed to schedule 4 meetings for a campaign - as one was with creative (McCann) the other with media (UMWW) the other with the Digital team (Reprise) and then to boot the programmatic team was yet another company...all part of IPG. This is not isolated to IPG and I am thankful for all the great folks I was given the opportunity to work with, but that made me realize that a client has to schedule time with each "additional" brand of specialized services in the portfolio. This is replicated in every agency, and so the real full service players are now boutiques, start up shops and this shows the trouble in the ad industry.

In my last role I saw how there was a literal match between the creative service agency and the media agency that made for less than consistent results and more importantly, that there was no harmony.

Harmony is a word that is rare in advertising. Yet when we look at a work life balance, that is the key - harmony. So I went searching. In my escapades in Tuscany (and having left Omnicom Media Group in mid-May I realized I needed to rest. Its not about the vertical experience, its about the total experience - the harmony, as that translates into life, and living.

So I began to knock on doors and I want to thank all that took time to chat, smile and give a hug, and more importantly, those that let me be. I needed the time to consider and realize, I want harmony. Is it a pipe dream? I hope not, as its the challenge of the road we choose to travel. I am choosing harmony.

Hence one neck to choke - if we are in it, we are in it to make it happen, and so I belive that the full service advertising model is the right one, yes specialized services have their place, but for a client, sitting and looking at live commerce as well as a television execution in the same meeting, is not just rewarding but shows how it all works - together, yes, in harmony.

Thank you for reading - I wish everyone realizes that work/life balance is about balance in all aspects of life. Have an awesome day!!