Is there a conflict in agency staffing strategies? Agencies need broadly educated people to create big ideas. And they need craft trained people to implement those ideas. What should they look for in entry level hiring? Here are some thoughts on this challenging question.

1. Should You Hire an Anthropologist?
by
Mike Carlton
School Days
One of my Mother’s favorite brothers was an engineer. And she really hoped I
would become an engineer, too. Like many kids, when I finished high school I
had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. So, it pleased my mother greatly
when I enrolled in the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware.
Now, I have never been very good at math. And it quickly became clear that
differential equations were going to be my downfall. At that time, anyone flunking
out of college had a good chance of being drafted into the Army and sent off to
Korea or Greenland for a few years.
The College of Arts and Science
With that specter looming, I quickly hustled myself across campus and talked my
way into a mid-semester transfer to the College of Arts and Science. Their
curriculum was pretty well fixed for the first few years with required courses like
history, literature, composition, psychology, geography, philosophy and at least
four semesters of a foreign language.
In those days Delaware did not have a separate business school but the College
of Arts and Sciences did offer some business courses at the Junior and Senior
level. I discovered that I really enjoyed marketing and even though I didn’t like
math, for reasons I did not understand at the time, I took a liking to statistics.
I ended up with a BS in Business with a leaning towards marketing. But in
retrospect, most of my time had been spent in liberal arts courses.
What to Do Next?
After doing my military time as an Army Officer I had to get serious about landing
a job. My Dad had been in the agency business and he had always enjoyed his
work. So, I decided to try that, but I wanted to do it without any help from Dad.
I quickly learned the meaning of rejection. After trooping with little success
through all the big agencies in New York, I was finally offered a job by a very
small agency in the Midwest. My first assignment was to clean up a big mess in
their magazine library. And for that I was paid minimum wage.
But I was employed. And off on the start of my career.
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2. Advertising School
One problem. I didn’t know anything about advertising. I had never taken a
course in advertising. Since I wanted to keep my job, I hurried over to the local
ad club and signed up for their evening classes in advertising and PR.
One important benefit that I didn’t expect was at the ad school I met the
wonderful young woman who became my wife.
Best investment I ever made!
Work Environment
Right from the start I was delighted by the people I worked with at the agency.
They were exceptionally bright, inquisitive people. Interaction with them was
stimulating, inspiring and often challenging. They were fast moving and fast
thinking. Everyone was always on their mental toes.
We worked hard. Nights and weekends were not unusual. It was an
environment in which each of us had to keep our brain working full time. It wasn’t
always easy. But the mental tiredness at the end of the day felt good.
These folks were fun to be with. They were genuinely nice, caring people, too.
I had stumbled into an ideal work situation. I couldn’t get over my good luck.
Diverse Educational Backgrounds
I soon learned that their interesting points of view sprang from their diverse
educational backgrounds. They came from all kinds of colleges and universities.
They had studied things like architecture, philosophy, religion, literature, political
science, music, history, theater, psychology, mathematics and sociology.
From their keen sense of the humanities, everything started with an almost
personal, and sometimes emotional, connection to the client’s customers. Our
team brought their understandings and empathy for the conditions of humankind
to all their thinking. And thus to our little agency’s solutions for our clients.
I was surrounded by true renaissance people.
As I recall, none of these folks had a degree in advertising. And I think maybe
only one, and possibly two, had studied journalism.
So to build and maintain our craft skills, our agency generally sent each of us
away to appropriate craft seminars a couple times a year.
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3. Fast-Forward to Today
I really enjoy working with young agency talent. For a number of years I have
been an instructor for open enrollment agency training seminars as well as in-
house sessions. One of the things we always ask the students to tell us about is
their educational background.
Interestingly, over the years we have seen a steady increase in the number of
young agency people with degrees in advertising, mass communications and
journalism and a corresponding decrease in those with liberal arts backgrounds.
Why?
If this is a trend, the obvious questions are; Why is this happening? And what
are the implications for the agency industry? As well as the implications for the
young talent entering the business? And their future careers?
What Agency Leaders Say
When we ask agency leaders about this the typical response is, “We need entry
level people who can hit the ground running. We can’t waste time while they
learn about the craft of advertising.” Or, “People with a liberal arts education just
take too long to come up to speed.”
What Young Agency Talent Says
When asked the same questions the typical response is, “I have big college
loans to pay off and I need a good job quickly. It is easier to get a job with an
advertising, journalism or mass communications degree than with one in liberal
arts.” Or, “With a liberal arts degree you need to go on to graduate school or
expect to have to spend a couple of years working at McDonald’s before you can
find a real job.”
Education vs. Training
Is this an indication that our industry has shifted the entry criteria for its young
people from education to training? Have we come to value doing over thinking?
At this point it might be helpful to step back and take a look at the meaning of the
words education and training. Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
“Education is any act or experience that has a formative effect
on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its
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4. technical sense education is the process by which society
transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from
one generation to another.”
“Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and
competencies as a result of teaching of vocational or practical
skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful
competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and
provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology.”
Interesting. The definition for education uses terms like “formative effect
on the mind” while the definition for training uses terms like “teaching of
vocational or practical skills.” Some substantial differences here.
Differences that can say a lot about our industry’s strategic direction and
business model. As well as its future relevance.
What Do Agencies Want? And Need?
This raises the questions of what is best for an agency. Should there be a
bias for broadly educated entry level people? Or should there be a bias
for specifically trained entry level people? Or should it be balanced
between the two? Or should all starting agency people be both broadly
educated and specifically trained? And is that possible? Or practical?
What We See
While this is just anecdotal, in our work with many agencies over many
years it is obvious that the more responsible the agency position the more
likely the person is to have a liberal arts education.
Conversely, the more junior the person’s position the more likely that
individual is to have a degree in the craft skills.
It seems that the craft trained folks start out faster but somehow are less
likely to progress to significantly greater responsibilities. While the folks
with liberal arts backgrounds start much more slowly but seem to be able
to eventually move to higher responsibilities.
You might want to check to see if this pattern exists in your agency.
The Tortoise and the Hare
Have we inadvertently created a tortoise and hare situation for our young agency
people? One that can potentially backfire in the long run?
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5. Unquestionably, young folks with craft skills can become useful more quickly
than those without them. But should we be asking ourselves how well prepared
craft biased folks are for the human sensitivities and mental gymnastics that will
ultimately be required if they are to make a career of the agency business?
And in an environment where elements of the craft technologies are changing
almost daily what will happen if their craft skills become outdated? Will feeding
an agency’s talent pool with a bias toward craft skills be the best way to generate
the big ideas that likely will be the ultimate measure of the agency’s success?
Agency Magic Dust
Agencies get hired for their big ideas. Ideas that can change the behaviors of the
marketer’s customers. Agencies are differentiated by the quality and
effectiveness of their big ideas. This is their core value. And this is their magic
dust. That is what marketers want. And they fire agencies that don’t give them
those big ideas.
Yet ironically, it is estimated that 80% of most agencies’ gross income comes
from implementation work, not from conceiving the big ideas themselves.
This is a strange business model. Being meagerly paid for the high value front-
end intellectual work, while relying on compensation from the low value back-end
implementation work. In effect selling the big ideas for the hourly billing the
implementation of them will generate.
With this reliance on implementation work, perhaps it is no wonder that agencies
are looking for entry people who already have craft skills. They can, in fact, hit
the ground running and immediately generate implementation income.
But, does this ignore where the big ideas will come from? Both now and into the
future?
Two Big Problems
Unfortunately, if that model is being used it carries with it two big problems:
1. First and most important is that implementation is a commodity. It
contains little exclusive intellectual content. Its value is not
protectable. And so like all commodities, low price inevitably
becomes its key selection criteria. With no bottom in sight.
This reality is played out every day as clients increasingly pressure
agencies to reduce their hourly rates. And most agencies are ill
prepared to play, much less win, the commodity pricing game.
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6. 2. Second, craft skills can be fleeting. Technology has profoundly
changed how communications programs are implemented. And
that rate of change is not only continuing it is accelerating.
Thus, the useful life of many craft skills is diminishing. An in-
demand craft skill today may become irrelevant in just a few years.
Thus, a lot of craft skills are rapidly deteriorating assets. Both for
agencies as well as the individuals that possess those skills.
Not a pretty picture for young folks entering the business today to know that
much of what they have been trained to do may well become unneeded in the
near future.
Is that the kind of career you would like to be embarking on?
The One Constant
Yet in all this technology driven turmoil there is one unchanging constant. It is
the unwavering beacon of hope and inspiration for all advertising and marketing
practitioners.
That constant is the human mind of the consumer!
Let me say that again;
The one constant is the human mind of the consumer!
For as far back in history as we can see the mind of the human has not changed
much. The fundamentals of life, food, health, shelter, family, love, reproduction,
companionship, parenting, emotion, acceptance, value, contribution are all rock
solid. The way we think, the way we process information, the way we make
decisions, are the same today as they were thousands of years ago.
This has not changed. Nor will it change. Ways of reaching and engaging the
consumer may come and go, but the consumer herself is an enduring anchor.
An anchor that smart agency people grab onto and embrace.
Helping marketers influence the day-to-day commercial behaviors of these
consumers is what advertising agencies and related business are all about.
A Growth Market
The need for people who are able to develop big ideas that will influence
consumer behaviors will grow. Because the consumer market (B to B as well as
B to C) will grow. And continue to grow around the world.
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7. And those folks who are good at creating big ideas will be constantly in demand
and able to command significant compensation. They will have the ingredients
for an enjoyable, rewarding lifetime career.
Conversely, the need for people to implement programs for marketers may very
well shrink. Certainly in the past decade the head count of agency people
charged with implementing work has been declining. And as new technologies
improve efficiency that trend is likely to continue.
And if what they do becomes increasingly commoditized, those individuals will
surely experience downward pressure on both their compensation and job
satisfaction. Not a happy prospect.
Simple Questions
So it comes down to this. What do you want your agency to be like in five years
or so? How much of your gross income do you want to come from big ideas?
And how much should come from implementation?
The answers you come up with should form the basis for your staffing strategy.
The kind of people needed to populate your agency. It is really just that simple.
Who knows, now may be precisely the right time to hire an anthropologist. Or a
mathematician, Or a sociologist.
They just may surprise you with the contribution they can make to your success.
Copyright 2010 Carlton Associates Incorporated
Quotes:
The only constant is the human mind of the consumer.
Have we inadvertently created a tortoise and hare situation for our young agency
people?
Illustration:
A graduating student
Subject:
Agency Whitepaper – Should You Hire an Anthropologist?
Lead in:
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8. Is there a conflict in agency staffing strategies? They need broadly educated
people to create big ideas. And they need craft trained people to implement
those ideas. What should they look for in entry level hiring?
Here are some thoughts on this challenging question.
I hope you enjoy the full text or the condensed video capsule.
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