How to lose a client 101. No hate to anselmo but this is a horrible suggestion.

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I believe this is more for the creatives not for the agency per se. Juan and Ricardo, two lauded creatives who worked under him, were presenting proactive ideas to Anselmo every Friday. That’s how those two got better. They were working really hard. And I took that advice when I heard it and it helped me become better too. #hiremegut

likesmarthelpfulfunny

I think this was just a really intense way to phrase what's ultimately a good trick to getting interesting work produced. If you have a good idea for how to activate around a particular audience or cultural moment don't wait for the brief or worry about the scope, throw it in a deck and present it (or tack it on to something else). There's a fair chance it won't ever see the light of day but you never know what will stick with the client or might be included in the scope next year. But regardless your team looks good for thinking ahead.

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Forget that. How do you pay for the hours it takes to do all this random work? Clearly you must have people sitting around unbillable

likesmart

Ideas may be cheap—you could argue, in fact zero value sans execution, but the people able to come up with them are anything but. But that’s not the biggest stumbling block to time-based-billing systems—instead it’s the fact that ideation isn’t a linear 9-to-midnight process; creatives and other humans have this irritating habit of background processing while on task which leads to coming up with ideas in the middle of nights, weekends, taking a dump (per another FB post), I’m sure giving birth. This drives procurement crazy, because how do you reasonably assign a unit value to something so random? My answer isn’t far from your own: you pay for the block of time that’s allocated to solve the problem, generally a period of a few weeks, and let nature take its course. But this is where CD 10 and I sharply part company: because that much time isn’t a “small fee” and the mission is both to ideate as well as pressure test by showing the idea has 360 legs. Coming out of that you wind up with a creative tool kit and you’re good to go. My advice: if you really want to get up to speed on this stuff, pick up a copy of Michael Farmer’s book, Madison Avenue Manslaughter. It’s painful in some ways, but better than pulling this shit out of your ads. I mean ass..

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I’m so tired of what’s clearly just more BS on the scramble for awards. This is how creatives burn out. Most or all of those ideas will not be bought, and a lot of late nights will have been wasted. Because you have to do this above and beyond your 40 billable hours you’re expected to do

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Agree. Even if there isn’t a brief, the client knows we are creating our own and it’s a real assignment.

He could have just said “sell your client on the thing they don’t know they want or need yet” but then he couldn’t write a bad LinkedIn manifesto and we’d have all missed out of that content and the friendships to be forged by this conversation

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Before I came to Wieden I was at an agency where I would spend 99% of my time working on ideas the client hadn't asked for nor had the money to pay for. But that was what the CCO wanted. It was a waste of time and the most frustrating time of my life. Here at Wieden is the complete opposite: you don't work on anything the client hasn't asked for or has the money to pay for. And that's why most people here are happy and most work they produce is great.

likesmarthelpful

I worked at a network agency where I suggested dedicating just 10% of everyone’s time on free-form ideation. By the reaction of the COO and MD you’d have thought I suggested bankrupting them. For them, creatives are only valuable when producing against a job code.

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That’s the thing. No one is going to pay because agencies expect you to find those ideas on your free time. That’s the sad reality. In France it’s a national sport. Some CDs won’t even talk to you if you don’t come up if new creative out of the briefs ideas every Friday

likesmart

Came from the CDs and I’m guessing because they had more time Friday afternoon 🤷‍♀️

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Who’s gonna pay for ALL those hours?

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Sometimes you invest in yourself.

I think you guys are missing the point. Pro actives ideas are usually the best. They are indeed what brings awards and make the year fun for creative. But at what cost? Agencies should allocate time for everyone to concept around them. The problem is that now it’s standard to expect from creatives that they work on those after work hours. And that’s the real problem

likeupliftingsmart

One thing I’ve seen is that this only works when the clients are supremely aware of who they are as a brand and can accept stuff out of the blue. Saying you should know the brand well enough not to wait for a brief is one thing, but also understand that the brief you’re waiting for is many times for the CLIENT. It makes them focus on a pathway to success. Otherwise, it’s anarchy and chaos. As well as a money pit

likeuplifting

The relationship that Anselmo has with his clients is different. That's the reason why this might be outlandish for other agencies.

likefunny

Y’all missed the point of this.

This is an "adbrag,” nothing more. A humblebrag that advertises himself (and his agency) to potential clients on LinkedIn looking to get more bang for their buck

likesmarthelpfulfunny

People in this industry such as this need to chill. Y’all doing too much

likehelpful

SC2 is right. That’s the fun shit

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I’m sure all the naysayers here know more than Anselmo, the guy behind some of the biggest, most famous and awarded campaigns in the last 10 years.

likesmartfunny

I think we can all agree GUT gets better clients who want better work. Sadly, too many of us are stuck working for clients who have other priorities.

Doesn’t mean we can’t try to teach them better ways... it’s just an uphill climb.

Anselmo is not wrong, but he’s not right either. If that works for him and his agency’s structure, that’s great. But this is ill advice for most everyone. I’ve worked at agencies where this “proactive” shit was a priority and it was disheartening to see all the work you put into an all nighter being met by the client with an “WTF is this?”. It made for very frustrating and burned out creatives, and pissed off clients who were convinced we were idiots who did not understand their needs.
I think there can be room for some spontaneous proactivity or anticipating a few things to show the client you’re thinking ahead, but honestly, some of my best creative opportunities have come from seemingly boring briefs that nobody wanted to work on. I personally LOVE showing how I can make something great out of an opportunity other creatives passed up, or couldn’t crack. I also love turning the clients into believers this way: Solving an actual problem they have, in a way they never imagined possible.

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Hello?

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Once came up with a proactive idea while I was taking a dump. It went on to win a lion after tons of people got behind it. Stop your complaining. If you’re passionate about what you do, you don’t need to wait for “work/billable hours” to think.

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Send your book and a stool sample to PDX

likefunny

I’ve worked with him before and the translation to this post is merely “let me do 'proactive' work so I can win awards because my day to day really sucks"

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Probably the most honest answer ever but you're there on the money

i really like the guy and his posts/pieces of wisdom but that one left me alienated

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Billing hours aside, working for a CD who has the courage and tenacity to bring a client that kind of work on a regular basis would be refreshing AF. My CDs are the polar opposite of Anselmo.

likeuplifting

In my experience, clients don’t have buckets of money laying around to produce proactive ideas. It’s better to take a brief everyone has agreed to, that has a budget, and go back to them with ideas that are on brief and (close to) within budget that they can’t say no to.

likefunny

I agree with Ramos. Good clients expect their agency to lead. A good agency leads by creating great work against briefs and also bringing great ideas that extend the brand. If an agency only does work it’s asked to do it is missing opportunities to build deeper trust. “Where do we go from here?”

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