Last week, after a two hour wait in line to pick up my new iPhone (yes, I’m a geek), I went back in to Boston to attend the Ad Club‘s Edge: Branded in Boston conference. By the time I got there I had missed Mayor Menino speak about Boston’s Innovation Conference. That was disappointing, but I still saw some excellent – and not so much excellent – panels.
Of particular note in the not-so-excellent column was the first session I caught featuring reps from a couple of Boston’s biggest ad shops, sitting on stage with their large financial clients (the companies are large…not the clients themselves). I had an overall positive experience that day, so I’m not going to harp on the negative too much here, but let’s briefly review why this panel was brutal:
Did anyone learn anything here? How can we trust anything either of these parties say? Clients gush over the agency, agencies gush over the clients.
Financial clients. Behind car accounts, these are the cornerstone of the traditional agency model. And if not for some amazing fumbling by a large British oil company right now, they’d still be the target of some serious public ire. But there they are, sitting, smiling, pretending like they could do no wrong, as long as their trusty agency partner sits by their sides.
We got to watch a bunch of TV spots. And who doesn’t love TV spots? Especially when discussing this town’s ability to innovate. To be fair, they did show a few iPad screenshots. iPads are hip and innovative, right?
Ok, so I’ve gone on a bit longer than I hoped. And please don’t get me wrong: while I don’t work for a big shop, I can’t say I never will again (some of them know what’s up). But these guys were pretty rough to sit through.
In stark contrast was the small agency panel featuring founders from PJA, Pod Design, Small Army, and Beam: this one falls under the excellent category. The four guys up on stage were smart and – most importantly – candid about their shops, their clients, and their industry. My only disappointment was where the panel was scheduled: right after a brutally out of place session on socially responsible architectural design and right before a coffee break that those who hadn’t left yet couldn’t wait to take.
The juxtaposition between this and the big agency panel was made even more evident by a couple quotes I thought were quite poignant. First, David Batista of Beam pointed out that “it’s easy to please clients…what’s hard is to make something that humans actually want to use.” Can’t say that when your client is sitting right next to you. Secondly, Jeff Freedman of Small Army pointed out that “the traditional model is dead, traditional media is not.” And he’s right.
But what both of those quotes really bring to light is the fact that small shops get it: this isn’t about just trying harder at what has been done for years. This is about doing what’s been done for years in a different way.
Glad you liked the small agency panel. Thanks for the kind words. Bigger is not always better – especially in the ad biz. However, an entrepreneurial spirit will most often give you an advantage. Thanks again.