Take this for example: Research in Motion designed the 1st device to send and receive email wirelessly in 1998. Their executives couldn't decide on a name, but had some options firmly in mind: ProMail, EasyMail, MegaMail. The problem was email was not something most audiences wanted to have following them around all the time. In fact, as Lexicon found, even mentioning email raised blood pressure levels. A name like MegaMail would do anything but help get a new product moving. So the Lexicon staff started with a conceptual mind map, trying thousands upon thousands of words that associated with the intended goals of the brand. In the end, the name was composed of two full words. One was a color that evoked hi-tech mental imagery. The other was related to fruit, which had shown results of lowering blood pressure by mention. The brand and its name were massive successes. The product was the BlackBerry.
Cool stuff, eh? The article is ripe with more like that. But you can read it yourself, so instead of share those stories here, I want to point out a few things related to account management that I took note of from the article.
Clients are going to come in with preconceptions about their brand and clients ultimately want to be right. In the same light, clients are going to want to feel as if they are an essential part of the creative process. Account managers have the challenge of keeping these preconceptions from impeding on the construction of the project and yet lead their client's agents to feel included and helpful (if not indispensable). After all, who doesn't want to feel smart - especially if the topic is your own product and audience? Jon Steel aptly points out that the best way to persuade someone to adopt your idea is structure your pitch so that the listener comes to the conclusion [seemingly] on their own. So a client point-of-contact's first job should be to listen. Listen to what your client has to say, what ideas they have, and who they are. Make them feel cared for and included. There will even be times when preconceptions they have will be of significant value, so never ignore what they bring to the table. Listening builds trust, and it equips the listener with tools to support your ideas later on.
If you listen, and use that to your advantage, the following will be mitigated, but rarely completely avoided. Clients are going to be uncertain about what your agency brings to the pitch. After all, they hired your agency because they realized they're not as capable as others in this arena. Subconsciously, clients acknowledge they don't know what they're doing (or at least they see that they're not experts). Of course your agency's ideas will appear strange and uncomfortable; that's why you're here. Their pants are down, but they won't want to admit it. And so they'll be indecisive. David Placek, Lexicon's founder and C.E.O., says that "clients typically drill down on 'I don't know, is that really supporting our positioning?'" Account people need to really work with their clients to aid them in the decision making process. It's starts with listening, which turns into understanding, which yields trust. Client comfort with the people behind the ideas may be the greatest piece of persuasion an agency has when comfort with the ideas themselves may be shaky.
Speak the language of who you're talking to. Just as listening goes both ways, so does communicating. We in advertising have potentially the coolest gig out there. Every stage of the process stems from creativity: it has the power to be bold, funny, powerful, effective, revolutionary, insightful, entertaining, and most of all fun. And we get paid to do it! Minus the biweekly paycheck, it seems more like a sustainable hobby than a job. Well that doesn't always make sense to people, let alone clients. Talking about shaping words into a euphonius resonant sound that evokes emotion may be what the creative folks at Lexicon aim to do. But even Research in Motion executives knew that their duty was practical. To an outside agent, it's about getting things done. So the message needs to be translated. Thus, account handlers need to be multilingual. I'm not talking about throwing business terms into sentences merely to check them off the presentation list. I mean actively shaping your message to meet your audience on their level. Perhaps that sounds similar to what we do with regards to consumers? Equally important is communication with the creative side of the equation in that language. This isn't about suits versus creatives anymore. If you think it is, good luck but I think your fate is already sealed in mediocrity. Account managers are a very important piece of the puzzle. They can merely manage accounts and expectations, or they can rise up and bridge the gap, allowing better work to flow. I know what route I've chosen
The New Yorker writers regularly impress me with their abilities to take even mundane business topics and turn them into something personable. No matter what end of a spectrum you may fall on, I feel a story well told can fill the foreign void in front of you. Maybe this is something we should all try to attain! Perhaps facts, numbers, and all things linear can be harmoniously joined with ideas, creativity, and all things human to make some sort of super enterprise in business, society and the world. What an idea!
In adland (as anywhere else), we have limits. Yet we all have different strengths in this game, and that's OK. That's even great. Because when these strengths overlap, magic happens. Look at what resulted from simply pairing art directors and copywriters during the Creative Revolution (thanks Bill)! The walls defining agency job roles are getting kicked down left and right allowing all the players to share, grow, and innovate like no era before. Lexicon has come up with some incredible brand names: BlackBerry, Pentium, Swiffer, the list goes on. Some of those brands have more aural recognition than the companies that own them! But none of those would've come to be without talented account people to connect client with agency - creativity with context. Examples of great account work can be found all over the place. I consider this article a case study. But it's a case study that points out crucial traits of account management success: listen, build trust, and translate. From there, who knows what can be accomplished?
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