“Agency culture” is a term I hear all the time and when someone uses this phrase, I recognise the connotations of ‘drinking culture’ or ‘frat house mentality’. I can also see why this phrase may be misinterpreted by those looking for a job at an agency. Agency life is not for everyone, and is often made out to be something it’s not. Now I’m not saying it’s a bad life at all. I’ve worked at agencies for 9 years and I love it, but for some, the environment wouldn’t be conducive to a happy working life.
Here are the aspects of work I think of when someone mentions “agency culture”, and what – in my experience – they can mean in practice. (Spoiler: it’s not all espresso martinis and lunch at Gaucho.)
“Work hard, play hard”
Let’s get this one out of the way first as it’s definitely the most clichéd. And clichéd for a reason! This part is definitely true – but the expensive lunches, nights out, ‘media owner events’ can only happen once you’ve actually finished your work to an extent that you can justify leaving the office in the first place. This means you will often have to miss out on events that other teams (or other team members) are attending. You also have to be very disciplined to make sure you finish your (potentially not very interesting) report before you “play hard”. After playing hard, you will be expected to be back at your desk again bright and early, so you either need to develop a miracle hangover cure, or learn self restraint. ‘Future you’ will thank you for it.
Team inconsistencies
Part of the of the vibrancy of agency life comes from having lots of different client teams who all have their own culture. This is a fantastic way to cultivate a diverse workforce and the varying approaches to problem solving are awesome in their own right. The inconsistencies do, however, mean that there are different standards across teams for all sorts of things. For example, depending on who is leading a team, everyone might be allowed to go home an hour early if an afternoon meeting finishes earlier than expected. In other teams, this might be frowned upon. For people who fall into the latter group, they can sometimes feel short changed. This is something you will find in any company, but as client teams at agencies tend to be more fiercely defined than ‘normal’ teams at any other company, the inconsistencies are much more prevalent.
You work to the clients schedule
I’m not saying this isn’t the case in all sorts of businesses; that you’re having to work to someone else’s deadlines. I think what amplifies this in ‘agency land’ is that extra degree of separation between you and the project you’re working on. Often, when pushing back on deadlines, or attempting to re-shuffle priorities, your voice is carried back to the decision maker on the client side via a chain of people, so often you can’t effect as much change as directly as you might like. Again, depending on the client team you’re on, this could be a more or less significant issue, based on whether your client works to short lead times or not. The fact is, if they need something to go live at 9pm and it can’t be scheduled, you often have very little say in the matter. This can mean a lot of 10pm finishes and 6am starts. My advice is to find a good takeaway place near the office for these late nights.
The devil is in the detail
Working client side, your role will often involve managing agencies so you may have a 4/10 level of knowledge on your given subject. This is not a bad thing, as the fact is you are paying an agency for their expertise in the given area, so the client side team are unlikely to be 10/10 in terms of up to date knowledge. This means that working in an agency often requires you to delve into the minutiae of a topic – without an agency to defer to if you’re not sure. This involves crowdsourcing information, whether from other teams at the agency, from blogs or online learning resources, or by contacting the media owners directly. Media owners can take a while to respond though, and other client teams often won’t have experienced the same challenges. The watch out here is that you have to be able to research independently and work things out for yourself – you won’t just be able to delegate to someone else as you may well be the end of the chain when it comes to finding the answer to a question.
A competitive environment, driven by innovation
Agencies will often mention “media firsts”, which simply means achieving something no one else has managed to do before: a new format, or way of buying media etc. This is a fantastic aspect of agencies, as the often competitive nature between teams can really push the individual members to contribute their very best. This may not be the best environment for someone who is either not very competitive, or a sore loser. I, personally am very self motivated, so winning or losing in this kind of context doesn’t bother me; if you are motivated by awards and external recognition and you’re working in a team that can’t ‘innovate’ (often due to budget, client approach, lead times etc) this can be really frustrating.
The “Your country needs you” mentality
Whether it’s pitching, developing new tools, or just picking up the slack for another team, there are always loads of ‘extra-curricular’ opportunities hovering about. Grabbing these opportunities can help to diversify your skillset, and build relationships in the wider team. It does, however, mean that if you want to build a reputation you have to be the kind of person who puts their hand up and speaks out. Of course, you can be shy and work in an agency. If, however, you are to get the very best from the experience, you have to throw yourself in head first. You’re there to be heard, so make sure you’re saying something worth listening to.
The client is not necessarily always right (nor is anyone)
There will come a time where a senior client (or colleague) asks you to do something, and you know there is a better way to approach the task at hand. That’s fine – it’s your job to advise on these kinds of things. This does require a certain finesse though, and you will often find yourself in a kind of negotiation about the approach, methodology or logic of a given task or project. This is part and parcel of the job, but it means you can’t be squeamish about challenging other people on their views (as long as you’re doing it in a constructive way). You need to be able to articulate yourself and show conviction, so this is not the time to shy away from speaking out.
You only get out what you put in
Again; something that is the case for every job. Agencies, however, especially thrive on people who are proactive, self motivated and driven. This doesn’t mean we’re all a bunch of megalomaniacs; it just means we don’t need to be spoon-fed and if we need something, we’ll go and get it ourselves. This is something that I warn candidates about in every interview I attend whilst hiring, as I never want anyone to be under any illusion about what will be expected of them. You can just about manage to coast by if that’s your preference, but don’t turn up to your next appraisal expecting a promoton off the back of it, as the chances are there are plenty of other people who have been busy proving themselves while you’ve been kicking back.
All in all, I love working agency side. I love the challenge, the hugely diverse range of people you get the opportunity to work with, and the extent to which you are responsible for your own development. That said, it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking at a potential future in ‘agency land’, please don’t forget the “work hard” part of “work hard, play hard” – otherwise you might be coming back to Earth with a bit of a bump.
Pea Pea Sea Digital Consulting 