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Keep strategists and PMs, obvs.
hot take, we’re approaching the point where strategists and account people will need to converge. PMing is about foresight and AM is mostly order-taking, and the former is generally much more
- helpful
- invariably tied to personality and work style
As a strategist who’s stretched very very very thin (8-10 accounts), there’s really no time for actual immersion and deep focus on singular projects/audiences, i.e. the supposed reason my role exists in the first place. the work would improve a LOT if i could shed half my client volume and assume some account responsibilities on the other half, and i know plenty of sharp account people who are just as media/audience/marketing-savvy as strategists AND have deep client intuition but don’t use it because they have to pass off that work to strats.
many others are also in the same place
Feel like it's super account dependent. Some clients require so much touch you'd never get time to work on any briefs (or worse, you'd start believing the client's briefs...)
If you axe the strategists, then your rounds of work will do double-duty as a strategic explorations. All with time-consuming, full-quality mockups per exploration.
From one freelance creative’s perspective:
Account people say YES to the client.
(Of course we can deliver that for you — and more!)
PM’s say NO to the client.
(Not on that timeframe, not with all of those deliverables, and not for that budget.)
Strategists say MAYBE to the client.
(Maybe we should consider that Gen Z values experiences more than brands.)
Production is intrinsic. Account team is a necessary evil.
Strategy. Thanks for the preamble in the presentation deck. We’ll call you when we need another amuse-bouche.
Literally though 😂
Pro
Hell. All three are the same in some shops…
But dump strategy.
Pro
What is “a weekend”?
You need all to do great work. I’m a strategist who started my career as a pm and account person. When these roles play against each other you’re not putting out the best work.
Keep Strategists and PMs. Account Managers are redundant in the 21st century. If you are going to keep Account Managers, make them learn Strategy or PM skills.
Strat could become account and keep pm. Lose the account on people. If the rest of us have to know 100 disciplines…they’re behind. Creatives have to be strategic, digitally savvy, social savvy, out of the box, finger on the pulse, client exciting and oh yea know 100 programs and do new business on top of the ACTUAL work for your brands lol
The best people in these roles are competent in the other two. If we’re having to get rid of one, lose the PM titles and merge the responsibilities with AM. But keep the best people from PM and train them to be AM.
Strat & Account
I don’t get why PMs and Account are two separate disciplines/departments. Don’t think it’s too much to ask for to manage a client and keep things running on schedule/budget.
Keep in mind that no two PM and/or Producer roles are identical. Depending on the list of responsibilities, managing the client on top of internal teams would stretch them way too thin.
I’ve previously engaged in combo client-facing PM roles for smaller agencies and clients, but most of my experience has involved large clients that need extensive handling.
In some shops, AM and PM is one person.
Get rid of PM. Shift their responsibilities to lower level account folks so they actually learn the process and then know to be order takers when they move up in their career because they can say. No or better yet, know what questions to ask before they commit to anything.
This is it. The first agency I was at had lower AMs handle PM roles and I am so grateful for that experience.
Account and strategy stay.
Account and PM tasks take similar brain types. The first half of my career PM tasks were just handled by lower level AMs.
Strategy brains are a different category although good AMs can also speak the strat language.
Okay 🤷♀️
PMs can go
Why are producers always left out. Without us y’all would be lost.
Producers of the 80s and 90s and the pm’s of today