Advertising account manager from the UK on why he loves us creative people so much March 7, 2007
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising, Advertising account manager, Advertising in Dubai, Advertising in the UAE, Client servicing, Client servicing job, Jobs in advertising , trackbackCreative people in advertising agencies usually share a love-hate relationship with their client servicing counterparts, also called account executives or simply ’suits’. I had blogged about this in my post titled ‘Advertising account executives I fall in love with‘ (yeah, if people can love chihuahuas… suits are people too).
Mark Hutchinson, a senior account manager from the UK with accounts like Procter and Gamble in his CV, has responded after reading that post, on behalf of the suits of the world. I thought it’d be interesting to post his perspective.
If you are a creative reading this, I’d love to know what you feel about the relationship we have with the suits and whether you agree with Mark (he’s mostly written the good stuff, anyway). If you are a suit reading this, now you know I don’t really hate the suits, specially now after reading that part about ‘grating’ of the soul (see below).
If you are an account director reading this, and wondering how this suit looks in a suit, let me know in the comments section. (Mark’s got a ’special’ someone in Dubai… he he.) Over to our guest, Mark:
In my experience, most of the time creatives and suits simply just don’t like each other.
A lot of suits simply don’t appreciate or value what creatives do and I’ve seen some of them even trying to design the work themselves, giving them a 5-year-old’s sketch version of what they want to see, not what the brief necessarily dictates.
Who are we to tell you guys what to write or design? I’m not a creative, what the hell would I know?
All I know is that I know good creative when I see it and there is nothing that makes me more enthusiastic, or more desperate to sell this idea to the client.
There is a flip side though, in that there are creatives who don’t respect what the suits have to do or who they have to deal with. It is often a pride swallowing role that often grates against the soul, no matter how high (or low) your personal levels of integrity are. Sometimes it’s forgotten that we are all on the same side. Thankfully I haven’t come across many of those in my career so far and those that I have, have often had more wrong with them than just getting on with people.
I have always had a great relationship with the creatives I work with, simply because I respect what they do and respect their views, even when they differ with mine. You guys are the ones that win the awards, not us.
Looking at the list of qualities, I’d consider all those points essential to a good account exec and certainly like to believe that I posses most of them.
As told to Farrukh Naeem by Mark Hutchinson
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Advertising, Client Servicing, Advertising Account Executive, Creativity, Creative, Copywriter, Art Director, Advertising in the UAE, Advertising in Dubai, Advertising in the UK, Mark Hutchinson, Creatives Vs. Suits
Comments»
outstanding
Hi Mohan, and welcome
Glad you liked the post.
Do keep visiting.
farrukh