Unlicensed Drivers Trying to Drive a Ferrari
Pros
Nice office with all the amenities one comes to expect from a network agency; latest computers, softwares, kitchens, conference rooms, parking, state of the art coffee machines, balconies, pool table, close to great eateries, etc, etc. Eager staff at the entry levels and blue chip accounts...mainly, just two but blue chip nonetheless.
Cons
For all the amenities and state of the art tools, mid-level and upper management employees can't figure out how to run an account let alone an agency. They're passive, reactionary, and myopic when it comes to running an account, "we do it like this because the client asked for it...or...the client complained so now we do this." They look to the client for direction instead of leading the client --order takers instead of strategic partners. VPs run things inefficiently and are often MIA. A handful of staffers "in the clique" have the VPs believing they do a lot and know a lot about the accounts when they could ALL be easily replaced. That's what happens when you hire people with no college degree and quickly (out of fear and manipulation) are promoted. Some, with only 4 years ad agency experience, call themselves account sups and others dare to call themselves management sups. They're all nothing but glorified project managers. No wonder clients, and one in particular, read then the riot act every year and berate them in meetings. It's not that the client is mean. It's that the clients are fed up with their antics and speak out of frustration. They're over their heads (ALL OF THEM) mostly playing at Mad Men who couldn't understand BDIs, CDIs or ROIs if they even bothered to look them up. Some creatives ignorantly "think" no account person has ever written creative briefs when, in fact, any account person worth his salt do/should. That's how inexperienced these people are. They chase their tails trying to understand Total Market and STILL don't get it. Everything about how this agency is staffed is all wrong from the Puerto Ricans who have no understanding or EXPERIENCE WITH the largely Mexican Hispanic market to the Brazilians who are barley comprehensible in either English or Spanish running a Hispanic agency. Never mind all the Argentinian creatives they import directly from South America with NO CLUE about the, again, predominantly MEXICAN Hispanic market in the US. Not only do they have no clue about the US Hispanic market, their approach is outdated, stereotyped and disdainful. None of the upper-lever staff would even dare go east of the 405. They have no respect for this market so how well do their clients think they can market to them with these "professionals" at the helm?