Are all ad agencies operating more chaotically due to economy worries among other things, or is it just the one I'm currently situated in? It's been getting better, but for a time I was working 50+ hour weeks, pitch after pitch, and even stayed up til 3am on one I didn't know I'd be helping with until that afternoon 🙃

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I worked 70-80 hour weeks for 6 months straight….looking for answers as well. I’m ready to quit if this the reality of advertising

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Really? I heard 50-60 is the norm for most shops m. 70+ consistently is boderline insane territory

Are you new here?

likefunnysmart

Thanks. Good/bad to know 👍

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Industry runs increasingly lean year after year as clients pay us less and less.

Also, as the industry pays less, it attracts a weaker talent pool and is being managed by mostly mediocre people.

likesmart

+ holdcos execs continue to pad their multi millions while hiring less people to do the same (or more) amounts of work.

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Unfortunately, your situation is more the norm than the exception. I think all the responses you are getting are converging around the same trends:
1. Clients have been, and are increasingly finding other ways and means to get their message and brands out into the market and culture, including influencer, UGC, etc. Many of these means do not require an agency, or require less of an agency.
2. In the age of personalization & context, the messaging & versioning numbers skyrocket. Many, many more messages & versions for the same, or less $$$.
3. Sadly, there is now an over supply of agencies, who are largely undifferentiated. Most of us are chasing smaller/shorter relationships and for less $$. I know this creates a “Hunger Games” pitch landscape, and I wish it was different, but it’s not.
4. AI is going ultimately make our landscape even tougher.

likesmart

I could write a long post, but I’ll keep it short. It’s becoming the norm. Traditional advertising is devalued, retainers moving to project based, causing staffing to be hard to predict and resource. It has become the norm.

likesmart

Agencies are operating chaotically? What are you talking about? We’re all in Cannes, sipping rose, and chilling on Yachts. Patting each other’s linen-covered asses as we laugh about how we got over on all the juries with our make believe work and fudged results.

funnylike

It is all chaos rn. It has been since COVID but it is particularly unhinged now.

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I talked to a recruiter at The Creative Circus around 2011 who recalled her first ad agency. The company had food and dry cleaning delivered and she thought it was great - until she didn’t have a day off for five months and realized the agency bosses weren’t nice; they didn’t want you to leave.

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I’ve worked in tech and that’s what people said about the complimentary meals, gym, etc. too. Can’t say I don’t think it’s alright though. Better to have incentives than assume company time trumps your personal life, without. But overall yeah, if you’re working more than your salary justifies, better to find another company to work for.

50 hours is a lot? Oh, sweetie. Get out now. I regularly do 70 - 90. Not saying it's great, but it's reality.

likesmart

I’ll be glad to help you for the $$$

likefunny

I wonder the same thing, OP. I feel I’ve recently had an overdose of dysfunction and disorganization. And I keep wondering how much of it is normal and how much of it circumstantial.

It’s not the speed and hours that I struggle with. It’s the lack of direction and organization that comes with it.
times.

likesmart

Anyone working inside a large holding co needs to seriously consider getting the fck out. Indy agencies is where it’s at. We are returning to the good ol days of this business. AI is not the enemy no matter what you want to say. Fees, fees and more fees and the never ending hamster wheel of holding consolidation is going to end. Profit will dry up. There is a ceiling here and clients are getting better results with smaller shops.

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I think 70-80 hour weeks has always been the norm for those who want to be in a creative field. As long as the pay matches the effort.

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