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Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe during the holiday season. I wanted to take a moment to highlight a role that I’m hiring for - Sr. Learning & Talent Development Partner. If you’re interested, I’ve added to the Fishbowl jobs board - https://joinfishbowl.com/job_rpc2p5vsvq. Feel free to reach out directly if you’d like to chat. :)
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I've done both agency and client sides.
Understand that in the final analysis, agencies generally live in a world of "ideas" and clients
generally live in a world of "operations". This reality sets up the difference in the work experience - even if you are a creative on the client side.
On the agency side a person will learn more & faster early on. You also learn across so many categories. On the client side, marketing communications & production is not the “center of gravity”. In house agencies or design units will talk about leading with ideas, and to some extent they do, but it’s usually in service of a particular brand or group of brands. Agencies literally compete on ideas, so it is different in terms of always being driven to reach for that next star.
Usually the larger business units on the client side are product/operations/finance led, so your longer term promotions will be capped.
Net - on the agency side, even as an Art Director, you have been closer to the center of what they do. On the client side, you are working in support of what they do.
The plus of the client side? You usually won't have fight to get "in the loop" on briefs & getting to the decision maker. WLB is generally better on the client side, and you may make more $$ on the client side, unless you get to the top of an agency.
The client side is not as "fun", because they live in more of a "what did we get sold/produced/ shipped today" mentality, and planning for how all this is going to happen over the next 3-6 months. Being into culture & trends is usually not their focus. At an in-house agency, it is, but it's different than an outside agency.
Of course, all of the above can vary by client and individual.
Either side has advantages & disadvantages, based on how an individual is wired.
OK - making the move:
To be perfectly candid, one of the best ways is to move to a client that you are working on while on the agency side. The reason is because that client knows you in a way that is beyond your resume/reel/book/website, etc.
As an Art Director, a couple of other approaches are to:
1. Focus on client side categories that you have worked on (once again you are able to credibly discuss the business/consumer/creative dynamics of the category & the competitors).
2. Beyond existing in-house agencies, look at emerging in-house operations at clients. There are lots of these out there. Could you even help start one for a client?
3. Look at clients known for prioritizing great design values across the board. It is places like these where your added value as an Art Director will be most easily sensed.
4. Be aware that clients can change their mind.
While in-house creative operations are generally continuing to grow, Keurig Dr. Pepper just announced the closure of their entire unit - and it was highly regarded.
Hope this is helpful in getting you started.
You are the GOAT. Thank you for the great advice 🫡 I'm sure everyone else appreciated it as well.
I think individually it's worth recognizing whether you are okay being in-house where creative is not at the core. Maybe's it's a good break from the agency world where you get squeezed till the very last drop. Anyway, THANK YOU!
I love the not needing a job number! Timesheets are 40 hours! It’s worth the switch! Faith means you don’t need to understand to do it or use it!