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The best one I ever had was smart as a whip, well informed, had an opinion and spoke her mind, and respected everyone she worked with. Within reason, she pushed back on ridiculous client requests and made sure the agency got paid for the work we did.
If you want to make a good impression, keep your opinions to yourself for the first two weeks, ask a lot of questions and execute your tasks to the absolute best of your ability.
Everything mentioned above + remember, you work for the agency, not the client. Act accordingly
Think about client feedback and what it means before throwing it over the fence to creatives and production. Have an opinion on it and look at it from both the agency and client sides.
Believe in your creative team and trust them. An AE is usually considered the client's advocate, and you do have to be that, but if the creative team doesn't see you as an ally, you'll have a bad experience, fast.
I like to recommend approaching your first 90 days like a sprint and providing value everywhere you go. For some AEs that's organization and clarity, for some it's asking smart questions, for some it's finding a way and a place to speak positivity over a creative team that's been weary in the past. You've got to identify the unique ways you can contribute. And asking here on Fishbowl is great, but ask the same thing of your supervisor in a 1 on 1, and grab the CD or ACD after a meeting and ask the same thing. It lets them know your objective which is almost as important as achieving it.
Learn how to push for and sell great work. Your creatives will love you and (eventually) so will your clients.
also! Make friends with everyone-receptionist, jr people, sr people. It will make things easier for you. And take notes always! Seems very obvious but it makes a huge difference !
Fight for great work, be organized and escalate to your account director when clients are being unreasonable.
Don’t be reactive. Think comments through. Dissect them. Some issues you can stop at the pass before you throw the entire team into a frenzy. Some problems may be over your pay scale. Learn to recognize the difference. Sell and defend the creative work. Don’t make people have to ask you twice for things. Do everything with a smile. Remember, it’s just advertising. Find the humor in what we do even if it is absurd humor
Be comfortable with curveballs.
Anticipate things coming out of left field.
Have a good eye for good creative.
Know when to swing for the fences.
Don’t get caught in a pickle.
You’re attitude and desire as exhibited by this post is everything!!!! Keep up the positive attitude and can do spirit. That goes a long long long way. That attitude can be a spark in the culture of your team!
Contribute solutions to problems when you approach your manager with them. Be super eager to do whatever needs to get done and avoid falling into any complaining or bad attitudes you may notice at the agency. Agreed that it will go a long way to ask your manager what they need from you and what their metric of success is!
Take into consideration everyone’s point of view before making any decisions or speaking (clients, managers, creatives, strategy, etc and those who might be more junior than you). It might be a lot of work at first but it will eventually become more instinctual. Writing down your thoughts before saying them always helps too. Also, be prepared for anything, physically and mentally,always. 👊🏻
Never. EVER promise the clients anything creative and production related without checking with your CD and producer first
Always ask “why” to client requests and agree to get back to them after aligning with your team. Never answer yes immediately. Clients will respect you and your team will love you for it. In other words, don’t be a YES account person to clients. People will label you as an order taker
Stay out of the creative unless you have something truly insightful to say, show support, help sell it through. Schedule meetings ahead of time.
Before anyone will listen to your creative or strategic inputs (and eventually they should and will) make sure you’re absolutely crushing the mundane, uninteresting parts of the job. Keep timelines flawless, get finances tight, contact reports on point. Once you’re doing those really well you give yourself the opportunity to start delivering on the more intellectual parts of the job (and opening the door to career advancement.)