Was curious to hear more about how CPB fell from being the best shop in the world. I’ve read the trades and know about Bogusky coming and going, but would love to hear more from people who worked there.

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Let’s not forget that they made the rest of us look like the AARP when it came to working hard.

Their success was basically built on human sacrifice at the altar of Alex. He singlehandledly uprooted almost a thousand people to Boulder because he wanted to. The man genuinely doesn’t give af.

That sort of stuff just isn’t sustainable over the course of 20 years for anyone. But unlike Wieden and Goodby, he didn’t care about building an agency that would last beyond him. And all of the wonderful people under him also left to get big jobs throughout the industry.

Being that fearless (haha his follow up) is powerful when the work is good and clients have no idea what to do (digital marketing was the Wild West).

Now digital is basically two companies with standardized ad products. Add in the 2008 recession and the good times came to a total halt. Sprinkle a little MDC magic and you’ve got real zombie of an agency.

We’ll see what happens to droga. History is against them.

But yeah for cpb, if you want to understand it, it wasn’t just talent. It was talent and insane work hours beyond any other shop and giant balls.

None of the people I know who were there would go through it again.

likehelpful

Well put.

Exactly what D1 said. They fostered a 24/7, toxic workaholic culture. I’ve worked at other so-called “sweatshops” and it’s not even close. People would quit on the first day their moving bonus was repaid. But the work made it worth it for a while.

Then, they took on many bigger, tougher clients, MDC bought them, and Alex left, all at once, and since the clients were tougher and they were too big to lose them, the work slipped, pressure mounted, hours got even worse. And since a CPB book could get you hired anywhere, people fled. In droves. And they couldn’t attract talent because the ad world is small, word had spread.

But from what I’ve heard and read on Glassdoor, the mgmt style never changed, so up to last year, you’d have people working to 2 AM on Hanes banners.

The lesson is that the work quality can’t be the ONLY reason to work somewhere, because you can’t stay on top forever, especially if people aren’t happy. And don’t have SO much hubris to think you can take on any client and completely change them.

Also, you’ve got to delegate and foster talent. Alex’s style was “show me every option and I’ll make the call” which worked for him but doesn’t instill confidence in the managers below you or teach them how to lead, it just teaches them to churn and ask those below them for every option.

likehelpful

Correct, except those banners were for Fruit of the Loom haha.

likefunny

CP+B in its prime was hotter than Droga5

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The types of ideas that built creative shops in the 90s and 2000s were inherently disruptive and hard to measure. They benefited from the “press release” approach to ideation because earned media was easier to tap into to scale ideas.

What CPB faces and all the other great shops you mention is several factors that have to be navigated in addition to creative thinking -

First, there is just a shit ton more content out there from brands, from celebs, from “influencers/content creator”. All that noise makes it harder to break through.

Second, big data and media platforms have created an ecosystem of advertising deliverables to deliver on short term performance. It’s much harder to justify spending on long term brand or an experimental idea.

Third, most clients don’t value agency partnership. They’ve got a million different types of specialized services coming to them begging for their business and can ask more and more from agencies without a long term relationship. Shoot outs, projects with an AOR level of service, fee reductions, and in-housing. It used to be you could grow client business incrementally with novel solutions to their business problems they might not have thought to tap you for. Now there’s a bunch of partnership clutter to break through. Why does a client with a budget under 100M need 6 agencies? You don’t. And you’re missing out on economies of scale that would properly pay for a media and creative shop.

Look at the clients more than the shops. The agencies doing work that stands out all has a great client partner who knows how to partner. And something W+K seems to do consistently well to maintain their position is expect clients to work with them a certain way. The Dominos/CPB partnership is another example of that.

likehelpful

Oldest story in the book: clients get the work they deserve, every damn time.

Well then you know. It was Bogusky. He made it the way it was. It was nothing before he joined and quickly became nothing after he left. Have you heard him speak? He’s a mad genius.

likehelpful

CD3, that’s probably fair. But CPB did essentially own a decade outright which you can’t say about BFG or Cliff (and they also still exist... though we’ll see what happens when the covid dust settles). Probably deserve to be in a separate tier between those guys and Goodby/Fallon.

Everyone tried to replicate Bogusky’s thinking so the industry caught up to his digital-thinking, press-driven ideas. The whole industry just copies success.

He dropped out of advertising for 10 years and the industry passed him by. Then he came back and wanted to help CPB be the agency that it was and be the icon he used to be.

Unfortunately the industry doesn’t want larger than life characters (see the hate for Gary Vee) and making headlines isn’t as easy as it used to be. Things are probably a lot less fun now than they used to be.

Most big agencies lose their momentum eventually, they were just really ahead of the curve.

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They were ahead of the curve in terms of digital, experiential, and earned media.

They also had an unfair collection of top talent.

Eventually, that talent leaves and there is no one as good to replace them. And the rest of the industry catches up in terms of the type of work.

Bogusky is awesome, but one person can't carry a whole, giant agency.

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I’m from Miami so sad I missed it’s heyday but also wondering if that could happen to WK, Droga, etc? What would have prevented it?

Early aughts CPB is more like the 2017 Warriors. Not near the dynasty that W+K built, but arguably burned even hotter if for a shorter period of time.

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Genuine question (will sound snarky, but not intended to be): what was the last great thing CPB made? How long ago was that?

Your mileage may vary, but there was a lot of industry love for Domino’s Paving for Pizza.

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