Thursday, September 12, 2013

All hands on deck.

As those few who regularly read Ad Aged know, I began my career as a copywriter in the in-house advertising agency at Bloomingdale's.

That meant I produced, every week, week in and week out, a couple of dozen ads. More if you count resizes. Annually, I produced on the order of 1,000 ads.

When I switched to my first agency job, I knew my production would slacken. One, I was no longer working in retail. And two, at least I hoped, the quality of my work would improve. During my first year at Lowe, I had the most productive year in the New York agency. I produced 12 print ads.

This year in my agency, I had another very productive year. I produced countless online ads, a lot of internal video pieces, a lot of ideas for pitches, and nine television commercials.

But today, in agencies I have the distinct conviction that the large majority of people produce nothing but decks.

This is not to say deckage doesn't involve a lot of work. Or doesn't generate valuable revenue for agencies. Or doesn't cement relationships with clients who relish innovative theorizing.

I would just rather produce things that live outside the echo chamber of the Williamsburg-Madison Avenue "Axis of Decking."

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