From martinis with a twist to Twitter feeds, the ad industry of the present can learn a lot from the ad industry of the past. So as (what I think is) the best drama on television starts filming its third season this week for an August premier, here’s some insight into industry best practices we should should consider resucitating after 40 years.
Client relationships: There’s nothing like networking over a 2-martini lunch and while mixed drinks don’t mix much with good business today, client stewardship certainly does. In the hey day of the ad industry, they knew how to keep a client happy. The personal relationship was as important as the work that was produced. Forty years later, sometimes we get too bogged down in the work to come up for air and offer some good old-fashioned client service. There’s a lot we can learn from the Mad Men client service approach today.
AE as God: Account Executives played a much larger role 40 years ago than they do in the industry today. Now, in many agencies everything is so compartmentalized, you have a PR specialist who handles publicity on the account, a media buyer who purchased the ads and an art director who spearheads the creative. In the Mad Men era, the AE was so much more important because he knew his client inside and out. He managed the PR, negotiated the ad buys and worked hand in hand with creative to develop concepts. I think this (partially) accounts for a stronger sense of client loyalty than we see today.
The Pitch: Oh how I long to have worked in the days of “the pitch.” When an entire agency, or at the least a department, had one, singular collaborative focus - to pitch and win a hot new account. There were no strategic plans, marketing proposals or requests for qualifications. Agencies directed pitches worth of Academy Awards, with staff who would stay up all night tweaking concepts and polishing applications. And clients responded to agencies’ delivery of spec creative with letters of agreement! The days of spec creative, even in this poor economy, are essentially over. But agencies can still learn from the hunger and creativity behind the Mad Men’s new business pitches.
Photo by: Dyna Moe
