How to lure digital talent to your agency

An article over at Creativity Online popped into my eye recently. It featured the current problem of agencies to attract “digitally-inclined” talent:

• “[…] the idea that an elevator pitch to a Google bigwig may wind up being the next Gmail is likely a stronger lure than stowing a Gold Lion in his suitcase on the hung over flight home from Cannes (assuming his agency sends his ilk to Cannes).”

I was facing a similar situation when I swapped my fancy agency job for a funky startup career. But what can agencies do about it? Some part of agency work is still very appealing. Other things aren’t. Like working for clients with the big wallet but without the big picture (which is most of the time not even their fault). Intrinsically not very rewarding, I can tell yer.

But here some of the things that agencies could cultivate on from my POV:

1.) Working on various projects and clients
Differentiating work can be very rewarding as it makes you twist your brain into another direction. And helps to avoid myopia (thanks, Ted ) Here it is really about the breadth of agency projects versus the depth of startup life. You decide…

2.) Working in various discipines
See 1.) Sounds like job rotation to you? Could be. I personally like the opportunity to look into other disciplines. I was an account manager back then. But it would have been totally cool to hop onto strategic planning or data consulting a bit. I admit that you can do that with every organization. Think the big G’s 20%. And we do it as well.

3.) Working in various locations
Ok… this may work only for bigger (network) agencies. But when I joined Wunderman, I was flattered by the fact that they had offices in Lisbon, Barcelona and elsewhere in the world. Maybe something to throw in for the pitch?

4.) Flatten your hierarchy (please)
This is a tough one. Because the bigger an organization gets, the more structure in probably needs (and the more politics are involved). But especially flagship agencies with big wallet clients have sturdy hierarchies in place. Plus you also need a client that is able to benefit from your effort! Often enough, clients are slaves to their own hierarchical system (stigmatized by the department code on their business card: the longer and more cyptic, the worse).

5.) Forget what you read above…
…and leave top-notch talents to the small uprising startups, damnit! Having that said: WE ARE HIRING!!! So if you are one of those promising “digitally-inclined” talents (rocket scientists welcome!), come talk to me first before joining an agency. It will be worth it!

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Dieser Eintrag wurde am 12.7.2008 um 14:14 verfasst und befindet sich in Marketainment. Sie können alle Antworten zu diesem Eintrag über den Feed RSS 2.0 mitverfolgen. Hinterlassen Sie eine Antwort oder einen Trackback-Link zu Ihrer eigenen Homepage.