Believe

When I got shoved out of the plane at 40,000 feet without a parachute at a failing agency, no words could describe the feeling. Robin Williams came close, “It’s like riding a psychotic horse toward a burning barn.” But, you know what? A net appeared. The phone started ringing and work started coming in. Now, this ain’t Nike calling looking for a new campaign, but people are calling. Its the kind of work that pays the bills and doesn’t beat you up too bad, and I’m okay with that right now because I get to do it on my terms.

The net was big and wide and long, and had lots of bounce, and it was amazing when I hit because I didn’t feel a thing except relief. And just when I think that the net won’t hold me, the phone rings again. And this is the best part—every time it rings, its because the person on the other end believes in me. They are calling because they want creative that actually does something besides filling an empty space. They want it to work.

I have had two agency owners tell me that the advertising agency is dead. I couldn’t tell if they meant their agency or the business in general. One of them said this as he was getting into his Range Rover.  It reminds me of the Paul Delaroche quote, “painting is dead,” 150 years ago. Rothko, Johns, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, to name a few, did just fine. Hell, even Thomas Kinkade does a good business. The agency isn’t dead, only the bad ones are dead. The good ones are doing just fine. CP+B billed $1 billion dollars last year. Fallon billed $900 million. Wray Ward, a small shop out of Charlotte did $78 million.

Is it getting tougher? Absolutely. The days of biting a bullet to cut off someone’s leg are over in the ad business. No more bad medicine. There are good doctors and bad doctors, good plumbers and bad plumbers, good advertising and bad advertising. No matter the industry, the bad ones don’t last very long. Accountability is changing the landscape. Advertising Voodoo doesn’t work any more. The hacks have made it tough on all of us.

The agencies that are doing it right and holding themselves accountable for everything they do are going to be fine. It’s the agencies that are selling SEO and Google Ad Words like an elixir that don’t have a chance. We always tell our clients to set themselves apart. Why is your beer better than their beer? Yet, these agencies are selling something that the good ones include as a line item on an invoice for building a website. Worse yet, what happens when the PPC numbers don’t equate to increased sales? It is these clients that bought the tonic, that are left with nothing but a bitter taste and a lack of faith.

I saw a girl’s sign-off on her blog that said, “Don’t tell my mom that I’m in advertising, I told her that I play the piano in a whorehouse.” Why would anyone have to be ashamed to be in this business, unless you are selling snake oil?