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Are you serious? It’s the hardest job in advertising.
Who do you think advocates for you?
Gets you money from the c-level?
Vets the work while smiling through a thousand innocuous ideas first?
Argues for more time?
Sells the work one on one to nervous clients when you’re not watching?
Keeps the torch lit for the most cynical people around?
Wipes your nose after your work dies?
Wipes your bottom after you shit yourself in a meeting?
Rearranged teams cause some of the wittle bitty babies can’t work together?
Hired YOU?
I promise you your job is a hell of a lot more disposable than an ECD/CCO’s.
Get back to work.
Some ECDs are pretty great creatives with consistent track records of famous work, getting results and building trusted relationships with clients which help bring opportunities in the for people that work in experience design
you can actually just not have all of those levels bc they aren't necessary for efficient and effective decision making to happen (and are arguably hurdles for it)
I have some good ECDs who act as brand oracles, who have the important convos about direction w the cilent. I've had others who phone it in or just roll over.
I think of the ECD as an inherently political position so they are useful with particularly imperious clients. personally would rather have a relationship with a client that doesn't necessitate an ECD, (or a bloated account team of handlers)
In a nutshell:
Lead and develop a team of creatives and other agency folk to deliver against both client and agency objectives.
It is not an easy job and requires creative skills, a business mindset, sales ability, interpersonal dynamics and a whole host of other things. Most creative leaders in our business rose through the ranks because the are either incredibly adept at developing concepts and executing the work or they are skilled at navigating the politics of an agency and client relationships. The former typically makes for bad managers and the latter makes for terrible creative leaders.
https://m.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/creative-director/
Being billable is the biggest fallacy of how agencies are run, and run into the toilet. ECDs are the ones who manage where the creative product is headed. An agency’s output completely changes when the ecd does.
They don’t need to be on the tools to do this. They check in and handle big client dramas and steer the ship. So don’t get shitty that the captain isn’t shovelling coal in the hull with the rest of us. It just makes it seem like you have no idea how it works.
Update: our ECD got canned. Someone is yet to step in that role and provide real value for the company. Fingers crossed it’s not CD1.
hardly any of the things on that list are actionable or even billable things, which is extremely telling
From my earlier response I think/hope that it is apparent that I know how it works: there are very good reasons for ECDs to exist for many clients, and I enjoy working w ECDs who are honest about what they bring to the table.
I do agree that the importance of "being billable" is a general fallacy that leads to talented people being let go and companies hollowing out their own capabilities.
That said, there is a reason that all of the responses to CD1's list were Laughter, because it read exactly like the nightmare ECD no one wants to work under.
Everyone has a boss... depending on the agency structure, CD or GCD reports to ECD. ECD reports to CCO, CCO reports to CEO, CEO reports to shareholders. Circle of life.