Can The Big Egos Please Leave The Building

Most marketing agencies have a few big egos knocking around, often in the creative department.  Frequently the belief is that such individuals are required to come up with the Big Ideas that clients love so much - the brand propositions that everyone in a company can convene around and CEOs can sink the big bucks into.  Sometimes these individuals are able to get away with *ahem* unusual behaviour because it is excused as the flip side of their Big Thinking.  However, this breed may well be coming to the end of its life-cycle.  Why?  As marketing communications become more about pull than push, community over control, peer power not promotion, the personalities involved will reflect that.  Skillful community managers tend to be thoughtful folk - and good listeners to boot.  They are blessed with a natural curiosity about people and an ability to promote the views of others.  Or in other words, a mental make-up that is diametrically opposed to that of your typical Creative Director.  Take Craig Newmark for example, founder of craigslist and one of the world's most successful online community managers.  He has built a 'community service' that covers 570 cities in 50 countries and serves twenty billion page impressions a month.  However, despite being one of the web world's real superheroes, Newmark is best known for his modest profile, including a job title that remains, 'Customer Service Representative'.  Indeed, the idea of a Big Idea seems to be entirely irrelevant to Newmark who says his online empire was built with, 'no vision whatsoever', and that it's, 'all about listening and then listening some more'.  His focus was purely to build a, 'culture of trust'.  Which, of course, all makes a lot of sense.  It's perfectly evident that people would want to join a community based on Newmark's guiding principles of, 'giving people a break' and, 'treating others as you want to be treated'.  Compare this to communities driven by the brand-as-hero school:  my favourite example of which remains Wal-Mart's short-lived community site, The Hub.  The network launched with a range of fun tools for customers to play with, including an invite to create a list of the things they would like to buy at, er, Walmart.  It was the online equivalent of an ego-maniacal CD - 'Enough about me - how do you like my hair?'.  So next time you are with a Big Thinker who is being 'difficult', just relax and let them talk.  Take heart in the fact that the world has heard everything they have to say.  And is just about to switch them off.

Comments

[Aaron Savage]

This is definitely one of my favourites of your recent posts James. As you know I poked my tow into the offline/integrated world a few years ago and for the first time encountered exactly the kinds of egos you are talking about. It was a real education although not one I would choose to repeat.

I'm not going to bang on about how in one world the idea and the message leads everything and in the other world the customer is king because you already know that but I do want to make the point that a big mistake that a lot of offline/integrated agencies make is that any interactive or digital activity is quite often bolted on, rather than built in. So the offline creatives sit in their rooms full of soft crash balls and Jackson Pollock prints to engage in their ‘blue sky thinking’ and once they have come up with the 'big idea' then tell the digital crew to build a website or an email to reflect it. Wrong way round and I think one of the reasons why a lot of digital communications are pretty shoddy.

Its part and parcel of a bigger problem that the offline agencies are set up to be partners for clients and the online agencies are often times set up to be production suppliers for a client. One is strategic and the other one does as they are told. Nobody in digital has yet carved out that niche at the top table, and so the ego led approach continues from the established players. I know you gave that a go with Dug a few years ago and I think the market is more receptive to the idea of strategically led digital agencies now, which is obviously why I finally got Interactive Mix launched as a brand and company in its own right.

I agree though completely that the times they are a changing, and a metaphorical cyber punk is about to appear on primetime and start swearing a lot.

[James Cherkoff]

Hey there Aaron. Everything changes, yet everything remains the same in the marketing industry it appears. Digital agencies are still the poor cousins, and, while they are no doubt catching up, the offline guys still struggle to make the web work. It's mostly still about dosh. One grand fromage at a big ad network said to me recently: 'Clients won't write $50m cheques for their digital agencies'. Good luck with the IM. If anyone can, you can! ;-)

[Aaron Savage]

You are right that it is about dosh but I also think there are a few aspirational issues with digital agencies as well. There are exceptions like Glue but the majority are happy to remain the production work horses and just do what the top table tell them to.

I think your grande fromage is right and you can be sure that if I do find a client that is going to write me a cheque for $50M that I will probably keep that to myself.... obviously after the initial sonic boom has been heard from the Emirates Stadium all the way to Hyde Park. :-)

Thanks for the words of encouragement, its a touchy marketplace out there but we are getting along.

[eaon]

I've pondered this many times over the past few years but not been able to ariculate properly. You've done it now. Excellent thinking.

[James Cherkoff]

Thanks Eaon!