A last goodbye

Well… this is it. It’s official. I leave the media agencies world, probably for good, to pursue a new challenge. I spent most of my agency career at Mediabrands and a year with Mediacom. It’s a tough world where I had highs and lows. After 10 years in this peculiar profession, I have a series of thoughts I wanted to share. The media agencies do not always have a very positive reputation. I must say that, as an insider, I disagree: the huge majority of the people I worked with have work ethics, are able to go the extra mile and always try to offer a good service. In my agency years, I saw people blossom, former students becoming key people and head of their departments. I also saw people burning out, because of the constant pressure. You have to be strong, assertive, resilient and confident to make a career in the agency world.

Many advertisers still see the media agencies as commodities and compare offers based on the sole pricing criteria. Fortunately, there are exceptions. Some clients trusted us for our strategic capabilities and working for them was exciting and full of learnings, for the teams at agency side but also at client side. In my experience, developing a solid, constructive, long term relation between advertiser and agencies (media and creative) makes life easier for everyone. Constant pitches around remuneration are toxic and nobody wants to know that the only way they have been chosen is the fact they were the cheapest. By the way, the last years, pitches took, in my humble opinion, a wrong turn. A pitch process in Belgium today is, too often, a cold multi-round process where a heavy load of intelligence is hijacked. Pitches are exhausting and take too much time that could be used for added value for existing customers and end, often, in a choice based on pure financials. Nevertheless, I always enjoyed the pitch exercises, especially when strategy was a real part of the scoring. I also enjoyed the informal moments with advertisers and prospects, often insightful.

Of course, they are also flaws in the agency world. Some are induced by advertisers, some are the result of the pressure, some are caused by a tendency to think too short term. It remains a shareholder driven business. I noticed a lack of consistency in the brand positioning of many agencies, jumping from one brand signature to another over the years. I remember the difficulty to present the credentials when the signature of Initiative Media was “Fast, Brave, Decisive and Simple” (Fortunately, it has been abandoned for something much better). Media agencies manage to transform, adapt quickly to the digital transformation and attract the best digital profiles. Nonetheless, even in the digital microcosmos, it doesn’t seem to be recognized. Many believe that the main media agencies still function like they did 10 years ago. Aside from that, the synergy between crea and media doesn’t always happen as it should, but when it does, it’s powerful!

A real blessing was to work along with brilliant minds, with an impressive mastery of media landscapes, strategy, planning, research, ad tech, performance marketing, SoMe, SEO, SEA, content. The depth of talents, hard and soft skills in agencies is amazing. I’m leaving the agency business with huge respect for my former colleagues and competitors. We all had to face a gigantic amount of change, reinvent ourselves many times, go through numerous pitches, lose some dear and happy clients due to international decisions, learn the specificities of dozens of sectors and categories. It has been quite an adventure. At the end of the road, I can say that it wasn’t that difficult thanks to all the people I worked with. They showed patience and comprehension for my weirdness, my ugly slides and my many moods. One more proof that agency people are empathic and flexible.

I could (but I won’t) write an entire book about the many great people (and a few a-holes) I met professionally in the last ten years: On the client side, at Mediabrands, at Mediacom, at JWT, in saleshouses, in creative agencies, but also among the competitors and the many students I had the privilege to mentor. I met incredibly smart and dedicated people, had tons of fun, some clashes, many reasons to smile, exhilarating moments, exhaustments, bear walks and Jacuzzis (private joke, sorry)

Even if I entered the agency world in my late thirties, I realize I entered this noble profession as a white belt. The learning curve was steep and I leave with a good brown belt. I met a few genuine black belts in my career and I still look up to them.

I wanted to thank individually all the people who really matter in my journey but I couldn’t settle for a short list. I know my dearest colleagues and former colleagues know how much they have my respect and my affection.

Dear agency world, it’s the last goodbye, I swear