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Thursday, October 20, 2011
Occupy Madison Avenue.
Yet again, this morning, Jennifer, a young account person who seems to be organizing OMA, handed me a flyer as I sped to work.
Contact: Fletcher Gensamer President & CEO Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications LLC fletcher@gensamer.biz 917-310-9820
Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications Storms Madison Avenue Then Takes Over Park Avenue Protest Too.
Based on a tip that the Occupy Wall Street Movement was planning a one day splinter march to “Occupy Madison Avenue” on November 4th, start-up marketing agency Gensamer & Company marched to spread the word on why independent, small agencies are better for clients than big agencies tied to global advertising networks.
Armed with strategic signage and a pocketful of business cards, Gensamer & Company Founder and President, Fletcher Gensamer saw a unique opportunity to gain the attention of clients who, more likely than not, have become disillusioned by the mediocre and uninspired creativity that is coming out of large “Madison Ave” agencies these days.
With a 4A’s study in hand showing how Starbucks baristas get better training than big agency account staff, this gave Gensamer the ammunition to call out the big boys of Madison Ave for failing to train their people properly.
According to Gensamer “I was lucky, when I started my career in advertising in 1993, you really got trained. You got taught how to answer the phone, how to write memos, do presentations, and how to work together as a team with creative folks to avoid endless “creative changes” through simplification and you learned how to build strong, meaningful relationships with clients. They took you on press runs and to lettershops and explained how everything all worked – including how to read bar codes and all the minute details to be on the lookout for. You learned the agency process starting at the lowest position, generally traffic, and moved your way up from there.”
“Today, it’s crazy-time on Madison Avenue.” Gensamer, an 18 year veteran of several large agencies including Wunderman twice, Grey Direct, and Bates Direct, witnessed it first hand recently and states that “there’s no more training anymore and its now a swim or sink mentality – especially in account management. Interns become full-fledged AE’s and I even encountered an Account Supervisor at my last big agency, who had been out of college less than three years and clearly hadn’t learned the ropes yet – including respect for others. It’s pure madness and it was shocking for me to see how things had changed – and not for the better.”
What makes it worse is that Clients are spending big bucks for a certain caliber of manager with real-world expertise. “Frankly, clients are getting completely ripped off. It used to be if a client was paying for an Account Supervisor, they’d got someone with 7-10 years of real-world account management expertise, who the client could completely trust and rely on to handle the day-to-day fire drills and other emergency situations that ultimately arise. Today, forget it.”
What agencies essentially did was fire all their experienced talent at all levels, and replace them with fresh “newbies” right out of school with no experience – or replaced workers with others at significantly lowered pay rates, pocketing the difference while charging their clients based on job titles, and not the actual experience of the person who has that title”. Meanwhile, employee morale and loyalty to agencies has completely vanished because of this bad tactic. Gensamer says “loyalty needs to work both ways and big agencies have trampled all over their workers.”
Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications is currently accepting RFP's for new clients, and will be happy to provide prospects with any further information that they may need. The agency is located at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 272, New York, NY 10016. Their website is www.gensamer.biz and they can be contacted at 1-917-310-9820.
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Press Release - For Immediate Release
Requested Run Dates: Now Or Next Available Issue
Contact: Fletcher Gensamer
President & CEO
Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications LLC
fletcher@gensamer.biz
917-310-9820
Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications Storms Madison Avenue Then Takes Over Park Avenue Protest Too.
Based on a tip that the Occupy Wall Street Movement was planning a one day splinter march to “Occupy Madison Avenue” on November 4th, start-up marketing agency Gensamer & Company marched to spread the word on why independent, small agencies are better for clients than big agencies tied to global advertising networks.
Armed with strategic signage and a pocketful of business cards, Gensamer & Company Founder and President, Fletcher Gensamer saw a unique opportunity to gain the attention of clients who, more likely than not, have become disillusioned by the mediocre and uninspired creativity that is coming out of large “Madison Ave” agencies these days.
With a 4A’s study in hand showing how Starbucks baristas get better training than big agency account staff, this gave Gensamer the ammunition to call out the big boys of Madison Ave for failing to train their people properly.
According to Gensamer “I was lucky, when I started my career in advertising in 1993, you really got trained. You got taught how to answer the phone, how to write memos, do presentations, and how to work together as a team with creative folks to avoid endless “creative changes” through simplification and you learned how to build strong, meaningful relationships with clients. They took you on press runs and to lettershops and explained how everything all worked – including how to read bar codes and all the minute details to be on the lookout for. You learned the agency process starting at the lowest position, generally traffic, and moved your way up from there.”
“Today, it’s crazy-time on Madison Avenue.” Gensamer, an 18 year veteran of several large agencies including Wunderman twice, Grey Direct, and Bates Direct, witnessed it first hand recently and states that “there’s no more training anymore and its now a swim or sink mentality – especially in account management. Interns become full-fledged AE’s and I even encountered an Account Supervisor at my last big agency, who had been out of college less than three years and clearly hadn’t learned the ropes yet – including respect for others. It’s pure madness and it was shocking for me to see how things had changed – and not for the better.”
What makes it worse is that Clients are spending big bucks for a certain caliber of manager with real-world expertise. “Frankly, clients are getting completely ripped off. It used to be if a client was paying for an Account Supervisor, they’d got someone with 7-10 years of real-world account management expertise, who the client could completely trust and rely on to handle the day-to-day fire drills and other emergency situations that ultimately arise. Today, forget it.”
What agencies essentially did was fire all their experienced talent at all levels, and replace them with fresh “newbies” right out of school with no experience – or replaced workers with others at significantly lowered pay rates, pocketing the difference while charging their clients based on job titles, and not the actual experience of the person who has that title”. Meanwhile, employee morale and loyalty to agencies has completely vanished because of this bad tactic. Gensamer says “loyalty needs to work both ways and big agencies have trampled all over their workers.”
Gensamer & Company Marketing Communications is currently accepting RFP's for new clients, and will be happy to provide prospects with any further information that they may need. The agency is located at 244 Madison Avenue, Suite 272, New York, NY 10016. Their website is www.gensamer.biz and they can be contacted at 1-917-310-9820.
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