Talking Shop

Imagine the scenario... Your dinner party host has just set out their signature salmon mousse and the pleasant Teacher you've just met next to you says "So what is it you do for a living?".

You try by starting with a fumbled "Well I work in the area of brand communication". "Oh you work in an Ad agency?" comes the polite response. "Not exactly, it's broader than that, like experiences and ambient and er viral". "Viral you say, what's that?". Erm... er, well it's not just viral actually, it's more experential, ambient, buzz, er... Brand Engagement?!". A vacant look meets yours... "Yeah I work in an Ad agency".

"Oh right, what do you do there?". !

I feel desperately sorry for a client looking for an agency these days. Ad agencies promise to be experts in everything and no one else really knows how the hell to badge themselves.

Edward Bernays founded the term Public Relations in the 1920's something which still makes clear sense to everyone today - good work Eddie. More recently Ty Montague (JWT New York - Co-President Chief Creative Officer) said that new marketing practices are coming out of small agencies that as yet do not have a satisfactory name for what they do. In Campaign last week Carl Johnson of Anomaly said no one in their right mind would open an Ad Agency now, instead referring to their practice of developing intellectual property for brands.

So now there are specialisms within disciplines within services - Confused, you should be!

Add to this the job titles from agency to agency that seem to be made up from meeting to meeting; then not only do you not know what the agency does, you'll have even less an idea about what jobs the folks in agency actually do?

Here at Open, things are a little more simplified - we do ideas!

If you've any questions, please contact our Snr Creative Inspirations Innovator on the office number. Thanks