Account Manager's Portfolio

I once read an article that proposed account managers should be required to use a portfolio of work when interviewing. I agree.

Being a young creative in the industry, I see how frusturating it can be to work with an account manager that poorly interprets a clients feedback consistently or simply says yes to everything a client wants. Often the reason for this seems to be that the account manager is judged on how much new business they can get from a client and if they simply do exactly everything the client says they should, hypothetically, be rolling in the dough.

However, if they consistently give the client what they want instead of bringing the agencies expertise to the table to enhance their clients work (involving push back) the work can become stale, sales can plateau and eventually that client will find a different agency they can refresh their brand. The best campaigns out there takes a brilliant creative; but, an even smarter account manager that can sell the work and help the client understand why this move is the best for them.

If an account manager is required to show a portfolio of work they sold through to the client, an agency can quickly see if the account manager is simply a yes man or worth their weight.

Account Managers I want to work with sold these ads through:

Levi’s O’Pioneers///W+K

Nike +/// R\GA

Target’s Sign of the Times///PMH

HBO Vouyer///Big Spaceship

Skittles Pinata///TBWA

Starbust Berries & Cream///TBWA

Sprites Lymon///Crispin + Porter

Brand Power

"Since the crocodile is the symbol of Lacoste, we thought they might be interested in sponsoring our crocodiles." - Silvino Gomes, Commercial Director of the Lisbon Zoo

The discussion of brand relevance in the ad world had been going on for a quite some time yet it became most relevant on Marlboro Friday in 1993. (The first time that Marlboro cut it's price in spite of it's massive branding.) It was considered the death of the brand until the recession ended. When people had extra capital they spent the extra money by going back to the high brands they loved. A formula seemed to arise from that.

With the growth of interactive, came the rise of marketing over advertising. Instead of promising people happiness, simplicity, youth by using a brand. They turned to creating contests and child-like prizes for giving out your user information. The book, "Married to the Brand", points out that when "courting" your consumer giving them deals and price cuts only shortens the potential life of that consumer shopping your store. Instead of creating a lasting relationship through seeing themselves in you, the brand is saying, "Sorry we aren't awesome, here's a dollar for your email information."

The questions isn't wether or not interactive is here to stay or not. The question is when will we figure out how to integrate brand advertising successfully into interactive advertising?

Here's an example of one place I think it did work:

Agency: Big Spaceship

Client: HBO

Campaign: Voyeur