Us versus Them
Putting Pete Campbell in Perspective
Explaining what I do to my parents has never been easy for me. A huge debate among my family members started after they watched Mad Men. With over ten years of digital agency experience, I’m hardly a traditional advertising type, but I’d rather be put in the context of Mad Men than that of the Pitch. My father was trying to understand my role – and asked if I was Pete Campbell or Peggy. I wanted to be all “I’m Don Draper bitch”, but really, he has more sex in a single episode than I do in all of my dreams combined and then multiplied, and as much as I partake in the dark arts of brown liquor, a single drink at work catapults me past Ballmer Peak territory.
Peggy? Fine. I mean, I get that – she has a vagina I presume, and upon last inspection, so do I. We are both career driven, so I can understand the comparison if only because there are so few motivated female figures in that show. Joan just screams sex and well, I just scream about it. But Pete Campbell? That is when I realized just how strong my dislike for the account layer can be, and mostly because I see it as just that, a layer, that sits above something fundamental, something that requires protection from the elements before they wear it down and rust it out. Burn out, it exists, and for a reason.
An account layer automatically creates a dynamic that is very much us versus them. Client advocacy is one of the major responsibilities of an account person; to represent the needs of the client, in the interest of the account. Predictability is the hallmark of a great account person - they know the client so well they can anticipate their needs or worse, their wants, before the client even realizes they exist. By taking on this function, they are often taking this type of work off the plate of a producer, who can now focus on, well, producing good work and not holding the hand of the client. Depending on how an agency works with a client, shoehorning an account layer might not make sense – are you taking the doctor/patient role where one has expertise or are you adopting the fast food service model where everything begs the ultimate add on P.O.S question - “would you like fries with that?”.
In theory, this is all great. But in practice it hardly ever goes that way. The old saying that “the customer is always right” soon becomes that the account person is always right. It draws a line in the sand between Us and Them. Typically Them would be seen as the client, long before partnering with a client ever became a palatable idea never mind a possible one ( thank you perhaps goes to the adoption of some Agile processes) , and now Them has found itself well within the sacred confines of Us territory. Suddenly, Us becomes production and Them becomes accounts. Us is most noticeable when decisions are made without the team, decisions the team have every right and expertise to be involved, causing everyone to take a trip down B.O.H.I.C.A lane - the work becomes prescribed and the weekends promised. Us becomes the wtf faction and Them become the yes brigade.
Us – well we never signed up to be thoughtless production monkeys. Some people thrive on repetition and production line style, yet they feel a bit out of place in a digital agency environment where change is inevitable - look at any psd naming scheme for proof. Regardless of discipline, we are multi-faceted – both creative and strategic. Job titles with either of these adjectives are a waste of space on a business card. We should all be inherently strategic and creative, for who would want to work with someone that isn’t when its the very foundation of the business? We can see the big picture and god help us, we can even think blue sky. The moment that you take that away from us, where you relegate us to the monotony of cookie cutting , that is when you make the divide between Us and Them greater and perhaps, unbridgeable.
Part of the issue here is trust. Trust – such a funny thing. Typically, it is developed one of two ways: it is transferred or it is earned. We transfer trust all the time – it happens when a co-worker vouches for someone –“Oh they are great, I really loved working with him/her”, or even distrust –“He/She has no idea what they are doing”. A recommendation is simply just a transfer of trust between two people. Earning trust takes more time and can happen in many different ways. Developing trust in this type of position is even harder, because you have a person who often is representing the views of many. Most people don’t care as much about someone else speaking on their behalf as they do that someone might misspeak.
In the appeasement economy, a no can significantly raise the value of a yes. Trust can be quickly gained just by demonstrating the ability to say no. No one wants to work with a bobble head of a ”yes man”, especially when that person throws them around like homemade confetti at the wedding that no one thinks will last, yet didn’t have the balls to contest when presented with the opportunity.
Want to gain trust? Try saying no. Want to earn respect? Know when to say it.
Trust is gained by being honest. It is gained by not only understanding another’s role but by respecting it. Don’t barter with other people’s expertise. Don’t ask for a quote for time if you have a number in your head already. Moreover, don’t ask, then question, then go back and change it to suit your own needs. At a previous job, we used to fill out quotes in an excel sheet, much like line items. When I found out the account person was changing my numbers after the fact, I thought I’d turn the volume up on the sass knob and see if I got caught. My phone rang.
Account Person:“Stacey, this pricing sheet is now broken. I can’t get your numbers”.
Me: “What does it say in my line/cell?”
Account Person:“ It says FU. Capital F. Capital U”.
Silence. Another awkward pause. Then click. I had altered the cell formula so that any modifications would result in an automatic calculation, just not the one they were expecting.
An account layer is not a layer. It is a part of the team. They are either in or they are out. Balancing multiple accounts is not easy and I respect those that do it well. Those that do it well, understand that they can’t expect to possess a high level view yet speak the details without royally screwing over someone on their team. It requires involvement. They understand that an account person is not there to tell you what to do or how to do it, they are there to contribute as part of the team in whatever way they can, just like everyone else. And where some people focus on design, or experience, or development, an account person focuses on the client.
Teams start to harbor resentment for the account layer when it is separate and therefore distant from the project process, because it naturally creates this divide between owner and owned. No one wants to be owned, they want to be respected. No one wants to hear you say “my team”, they want to hear you say “we” or “us”.
Us versus Them is really no different than We versus I. Both Jonathan Toews and Lebron James are championship winning athletes. Both had to give a post-win press conference. Lebron said we 0 times, and I 18 times, whereas Toews said we 14 times and I not once. Which one do you want on your team?
