Tough Love

The Aging Male
The Swami of Spin Welcomes All Questions

Dear WMM:
Our marketing department is comprised of women, and all are under age 30.  Most of the agencies we deal with, ditto.  I'm a 44 year-old male marketing director, and I'm starting to feel like a dinosaur.
Where are the talented guys in this business?  And where do I go after my boss (a woman of 36) shows me the door?  Is this really a sexist, ageist industry?  Is that necessary?
- Endangered

Dear Endangered:
For starters, stop whining.  Concentrate on being the best 40-plus marketing director in the history of the world.  Don’t focus on something you are powerless to stop - the aging process.  Besides, you’re just a kid.

There is a time, whether working in a company or an agency, when you start wondering whether others think you have “lost a step”, that you not quite the creative sharpshooter you once were.

Fool them.  Get a second wind.  Add a new talent to your portfolio as a marketing executive.  In other words, learn something that will set you apart from the crowd.  Own that talent.

David Ogilvy was 51 when Time magazine called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.”  On the public relations side, Harold Burson’s advice is still sought.  And he’s 88.

So, you’re a pup.

Is the marketing field a sexist industry?  WMM has been doing business in Ukraine a decade-and-a-half.  We’ve seen the rise of women in many industries, and we think this is commendable.  We don’t think the industry itself is sexist.
If you feel threatened by the rise of the woman executive, you probably should be.  It merely says that you have more neuroses than Woody Allen.  Get over it.  Fight like a man.

Pitch Happy

Dear WMM:
You've written that you aren't crazy about big pitches involving dozens of companies.  I differ.  We may only hold two ad tenders a year, if that.  Sampling the wares of ten or so agencies is the best way for us to see what the current thinking is, and how it's applied to our business.  Responding to pitches is part of an agency’s job, and the cost is built into its fees.  So WMM, get real.
- Marketing Dept.

Dear Marketing Department:
We love you too.
But, really now, let’s do get real.  Our view is that the winner of a pitch has been pre-selected much of the time, and the company (yours excluded, of course) is merely having the dogs chase the rabbit.

This is the reality in Ukraine, where many advertising contests are phony, tenders are held merely for show and the press is bought and sold with abandon.  You know this. 
Never kid a kidder.

Our advice to agencies is simple:

Only pitch for strategic reasons.  Don’t pitch if there is a gaggle of contenders because you have a better chance at Lucky Sam’s Loaded Dice Casino.  And, do your homework.  If the marketing director’s brother-in-law runs an ad shop, better to pass.

As for building costs into pitches, you must be channeling the Fairy Godmother.  It doesn’t happen.  It can’t happen, or (from what we hear from agency executives) they would be priced out of the market.
Can you imagine walking into a tailor’s shop, asking him to make a dozen different custom suits, and then picking and paying for only one suit?  Well, buddy, that’s the ad business.

Ethical Conundrum

Dear WMM:
Everybody rants about ethics, but if they cause you to lose business, how important can they be?  Right now we're in a recession, and we need every kopeck we can find.  What’s your advice?
- Tired of going straight

Dear Tired of Going Straight:
Yeah, being honest is a bummer sometimes.  But at WMM we advise agencies to take the long view.

We’re not Pollyanna on this topic.  We have been reporting from and doing business in Eastern Europe a very long time.  We know the score.  We know how difficult it can be.

However, we also know that the agencies that don’t buy accounts and that play it straight are the ones that companies that abide by the rules themselves generally like to hire - but not all the time.

Being on the up-and-up in Ukraine, indeed in Eastern Europe, makes you a niche marketer.  We think it’s a pretty good niche.  You might not get rich, but you will do good business and feel better about yourself.

Don’t fall off the wagon. It’s damn difficult to get back on again.