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Hi AMs, Cramer (experiential marketing agency) is hiring for Account Directors and Account Managers. In office 3 days a week. Links below to the job openings!
Account Director (Hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3044834981 Account Supervisor (Hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2998231407 Account Manager (hybrid) https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3047386705
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Keep fighting the good fight. You’re doing the right thing by wanting to lead and drive.
Literally part of our job is making educated guesses when things are ambiguous. I do it all the time. My clients are not great at briefing, as account leads we finally made them brief us on original campaigns but smaller adapt work is still pretty much “we need to have a campaign for product X”. So what I found helps me, me & my team writes those smaller tactical briefs without really involving strategists to keep it moving.
@OP - Yes, I have experienced this and it’s very frustrating. There has to be a little bit of comfort with some degree of ambiguity in the type of work we do. Often we “seek clarity” to the point that we’re affectively asking the client to baseline create the work for us. Many of them won’t know what they want until you put something in front of them to react to.
Like that idea, thanks!
What has ever happened to LEADING your client. Why am I constantly having to argue with internal people to get them to do that? Outside of goals and target audience…if I can’t get more and the client is paying for planning…START PLANNING. That is literally why they are hiring us because they don’t know what to do.
Okay, good to know. Your post on here/comments seemed to be very finger-pointy, which as you know then, is the worst kind of manager.
If your team is still lost, I’d recommend getting your hands dirty on a framework to present to the client. It will be a good learning experience for your strategist on learning to operate in ambiguity, which is definitely a part of what we do in agency.
Of course it is always implied that account management just isn’t pushing back enough…I am not a freaking miracle worker people. I don’t have the power to fix the client if internally they are a hot mess express.
If it was creative pushing back I'd empathize a lot more, but strategy? Part of the job is assessing what information we have and what we don't. If it truly doesn't exist then put a plan together to figure what we need out.
When I deal with these types of personalities I put them on a call with the client where I push for what they want, and am on their team. Then they get the opportunity to ask directly for what they need. Sometimes it helps coming directly from strategy, but mostly just shows you tried and they also had the chance to try ha.
Yep sounds like a flag to the strategy head/leadership team. Either they escalate to the most senior client on roadblocks or the strategy lead whips their team into shape.
That's really frustrating and not good practice for any industry. If you wait for perfect information, you'll be waiting forever.
Also, I have done what you are suggesting with getting them on a call…but maybe I am just tired of that song and dance because it always gets the same results…no more info lol. Maybe I am burned out…screw this job 😂
You should bring this up in the next meeting. Encourage people to take some intiative
I wonder if this is a byproduct of a manager or top Dawg senior level professional who does not want to risk going back on things or ruining the budget. Sounds like a bad case of perfectionism either way
At the agency or client?
Charge for strategy, it’s gets your clients and team a brief. If your strategy team won’t do it push for a freelance strategist and tell your boss if you don’t get this person you’ll lose the account, get it in an email. Fight! If you don’t your client will fire the agency and your team will be without a client.
I tell my PM not to invite strategy to meetings because it isn’t a strategic ask and I get a fight there too.
Do you have a planning brief? If so, take all the questions you’re getting push back on from your team, add them into the planning brief and answer them with either “Assumption: blah blah” or “To be addressed at a later stage.” Ask the client to sign off if you think they will (without getting precious over it) then give it back to everyone who is pushing back. You will have addressed/documented their concerns, but in a way that forces them to do the work of planning/creating. You’re just doing a little hand-holding (which sucks for it’s own reasons, but that’s why we get paid).
I definitely deal with this all the time - from strategy and creative. I second the point above about creating a client input brief, listing the questions and assumptions you’re making , having everyone internally sign off and sending that to the client. Maybe it would make your strategy lead feel more heard if they do a proactive pitch of areas they see where strategy could help more and the chance to present that to client? While allowing you to make sure the tactical creative tasks are being done in parallel and strategy isn’t derailing. So there’s 2 tracks of work at the same time - 1 strategic, 1 tactical. It’s an investment of course so need leadership to buy in