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 , 2 commentsCreative 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
Technorati Tags:
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
Technorati Tags:
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
Jobs for advertising professionals at YouTube - the third top brand in the world February 28, 2007
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising, Client servicing job, Copywriter job, Jobs in advertising, Marketing, YouTube , 1 comment so farYouTube, the video-sharing site named by TIME magazine as ‘Invention of the Year‘ for 2006 and ranked by brandchannel.com as third in the world’s top brands, is looking for advertising professionals.
With a recruitment ad like the one below, it’s hard not to get interested.
The vacancies currently open at YouTube include those for content editor, product manager, senior account executive, senior flash developer, etc. So, if you would like to work for one of the world’s fastest rising brands, look for more info here:
http://www.pcrecruiter.net/pcrbin/regmenu.exe?uid=youtube.youtube
Though these jobs are not based in the UAE or the Arabian Gulf, this post is for people who admire successful brands, and of course, watch YouTube when no one’s watching (much to the annoyance of their IT manager who’s forever whining about the bandwidth slowdown on the office network).
Are you good at pulling rabbits out of the hat?
Technorati Tags: 
YouTube Jobs in Advertising, Advertising, Marketing, Creativity, Content Editor, Product Manager, Account Executive, Recruitment Ad
Perceptgulf’s vacancy ad for copywriter, art director and account manager November 16, 2006
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising, Advertising in Dubai, Art Director Job, Client servicing job, Copywriter job, Copywriting, Copywriting vacancy, Jobs in advertising, Marketing , 38 commentsThere was recently a flood of recruitment ads by advertising agencies in Dubai looking for copywriters and art directors. Perceptgulf’s ad made me smile a wicked smile.
I talked to Prashant Sankhe, the Creative Director at Percept Gulf who made this ad happen.
“I think nobody has portrayed the pencil like this before,” he said.
As you can see, this ad shows a pencil labelled with ad vacancies on its various parts. The lead tip invites English copywriters and proofreaders to apply, the sharpened end calls art directors and graphic designers, the middle part is labelled for production coordinators, and the punchline…
The eraser is labelled ‘client servicing’ - Arab and European - for account manager and account executive posts. Clever!
And he’s been asked more than once: “Why did you put the eraser like that?”
“That’s the interesting point,” is Prashant’s answer. You bet!
Perceptgulf is affiliated to Hakuhodo which is among the top ten advertising groups worldwide. You can mail your CVs to prashants@perceptgulffz.com for creative positions and to cheriank@perceptgulffz.com for client servicing positions - you erasers (sorry, couldn’t resist that.)
If you are a creative reading this - tell me why this ad makes you smile. And if you are a ’suit’ reading this - tell me why you don’t love me anymore (wicked me). The comments are open.
Technorati Tags:
Advertising, Marketing, Copywriting, Art Direction, Client Servicing, Copywriter, Creative Director, Jobs in Dubai, Advertising Jobs in Dubai, Copywriter Job, Art Director Job, Percept Gulf
