What I See: 5 Observations of An Agency Outsider

When an outsider steps into a new place - be it a bar or a boardroom - heads turn.? People are generally curious - Who are you? Why are you here? Where did you come from? Are you here to help or harm me? - all questions that I’ve received in some form in the last six months. As my post in February suggests, I’m the outsider that’s stepped inside the world of advertising and like most industries (and I’ve been in many), it has its own nuances, rhythms and familiar faces. My face is not familiar and as such, my perspective is different (at least partially because I’m Black, but that’s a topic for another drop).? To that end, I'll be writing an ongoing series about my observations and insights on the interesting intersection of experience, different perspectives and the business of advertising.

Observation 1: It’s Mislabeled.

This space is woefully mislabeled. At its most basic, it is advertising. At its most sophisticated, it's about connecting with humanity. After all, this industry touches each of our lives daily, whether we recognize it or not. In fact, the less we recognize it, the more effective it is. The more effective, the more we act on its messages and the more impact it has. The point ultimately is to change human behavior - to get you to buy something, do something, feel something - but to do so in a way that doesn’t feel intrusive, annoying, nor manipulative. It needs to be both unignorable and unrecognizable. This takes loads of creativity and tons of strategy.

Observation 2: It’s Strategic.?

It’s pretty tough to get unignorable messaging that is also unrecognizable without having creativity and intelligence. I fully expected creativity in the artistic sense, as I grew up with my grandfather who was a brilliant abstract artist where I witnessed creativity at work on a canvas and throughout his home. He could bring ideas to life that only he could imagine, but I never saw his creativity applied to business problems. At its finest, this industry properly identifies business and social problems and applies my grandfather's artistic creativity to solving them. Where scientific fields apply science to problems, we apply creativity rooted in strategic insight. Interestingly, my hiring is an example of this creativity. Placing an industry outsider in a client-facing leadership role to engage with prospects and clients around their business problems is a creative, if not wild, solution. My role is literally to help identify business problems that we can help creatively solve. To do this – trust and courage are required.

Observation 3: It’s Courageous.

Our best work - work that impacts people, moves culture and compels minds to act - requires great relationships with courageous people. Business leaders (and political leaders for that matter) who aren’t willing to be courageous and act boldly don’t materially change circumstances, nor do they positively affect minds and hearts. Even leaders we don’t especially like (lots of examples here in the past few years) who have acted boldly, prove this point.? Courage and boldness leave a lasting impact. Since I’ve joined, I’ve consistently found that our most courageous clients are the ones with the best business results. Those who have a great relationship with our agency, even better results. Great relationships + courage + creative intelligence + trust = culture changing creative work that matters in the world (and oh, grows business results to boot). All these components matter, but interestingly though, trust is the one that is not the result of courage. Trust is often the child of familiarity.

Observation 4: It’s White.?

Let me start by saying, this wasn’t exactly news to me and frankly it’s not unique to where I work nor this industry.? In many ways, it’s one of the factors that compelled me to join.? After all, the images we see and the cultures represented in our work matter because they help to shape society. Instead of criticizing from the sideline, I decided to join the fray.? That said, the trust and familiarity dynamic is real.? Many times familiarity, and the trust it imbues, manifests itself along racial and socioeconomic lines because it’s easier to trust what’s familiar - people in your network, the graduates from schools like yours, attendees of programs you attended and so on.? Oftentimes, those most familiar to decision-makers are white.? The TV series Mad Men was set in the 1960’s, but the familiarity connoted in its fictional workplace applies today in many actual ones. This isn’t new. Having worked in half a dozen industries, this isn’t the only one that skews heavily white in its workforce and perspective due in part to easy access to “familiar”, “trusted”, “safe” talent.? It’s also not the first time I’ve been the proverbial “lonely only” Black leader in a company or the boardroom (note: I’m not the only one - mad respect to all the BIPOC leaders in our industry - but there’s only a few of us). What’s different is this industry is one where racial bias has catastrophic business and cultural effects. As noted earlier, this industry’s function is to connect with humanity and helps shape society’s views, and it’s immeasurably more difficult to do either well, equitably, and accurately if you have a very limited slice of humanity in the room designing the images and crafting the messages to which we’re exposed. For a host of reasons (worth unpacking in another drop), this industry is awakening to the realities that the humanity we are looking to communicate with and the society we influence doesn’t match that of the virtual offices we staff. This awakening is affecting our clients as well, as they see business imperatives due to culture and demographic shifts. The stakes are incredibly high for society and this industry and our clients have a big responsibility, like it or not. We can do better (all of us). We must do more (all of us). To that end, I am encouraged by where I work (tons of committed allies that I deeply appreciate) and see the commitment and progress across our organization and the industry (we’re much more Blackish now than Mad Men).? We’re not where we want to be, but we are working hard to become a truly anti-racist company, and many other men and women in this industry and beyond are too - and that’s good for us all.??

Observation 5: It’s Good.

One of the most surprising and encouraging revelations to me is our desire to fundamentally operate at a human level on all things - our work, our client relationships, and our engagement with each other as colleagues. Literally, as much as anything, I’ve witnessed a genuine focus on humanity within our agency. From the talent search process (which is often hella long), to the talent evaluation/interview process (hella long again - takes alot of time to really get to know people), to the client selection process, to the very work we do for clients, humanity is at the center of everything. Honestly, I’ve never heard the word human used more in six months than here, and that includes my Primates & Anthropology course sophomore year in college. In my view, when you put people, notably other people, at the center of the process – everything gets better. In fact, it gets really good.

Clearly, a few months doesn’t provide a complete picture of an industry nor an agency.? But, it does provide one hell of a first impression. If you’re still reading, you now understand mine. The creative agency I’m learning and helping to lead, is one that is making major moves. The industry is as well (although, my admittedly biased perception is that 72andSunny is moving much faster).? I’m looking forward to sharing deeper thoughts on these and other related topics in due time.? Stay tuned for the next drop.