Top 11 Warning Signs Your Ad Agency Is Becoming Pretentious

  1. They present your new logo on a movie screen…in 3-D.
  2. Chef-catered, 100%-organic lunches feature grass-fed Kobe burritos and free-range chicken tenders.
  3. Therapeutic bidet stations with premium Evian.
  4. Their list of office locations reads like a Condé Nast adventure travel brochure.
  5. Oxygen bar in the penthouse lounge.
  6. The Executive Creative Director’s Pembrook Welsh Corgi has his own corner office.
  7. Kona Nigari bubblers in the conference rooms.
  8. Matching monogrammed ostrich leather laptop and PDA cover.
  9. The palm tree in the executive reception area was planted by Queen
    Victoria on her 32nd birthday.
  10. Bowling lanes and a 4-D flight simulator machine in the lobby.

#1 ROOFTOP HELIPAD

Creative? Check.

A little egocentric at times? Who’s not?

Over-the-top, self-aggrandizing advertising divas? Never!

We won’t lie – advertising can be a lot of fun. And it definitely helps that we enjoy what we do, because the enthusiasm shows in our work. That said, it’s important that we remain focused on what’s most important: our clients’ success.

At the end of the day, we have no illusions about why people come to us. It’s to build effective, creative communications that connect with consumers in meaningful ways. And to be efficient in the process. It’s easy to lose sight of that if you take yourself too seriously, as it seems a lot of people are these days. It probably goes without saying, but the more important an agency becomes to itself, the less important its clients become. The way we see it, the more grounded we stay, the higher our clients can soar.

If your agency seems to be taking itself a little too seriously, perhaps it’s time for Plan B.

8 thoughts on “Top 11 Warning Signs Your Ad Agency Is Becoming Pretentious

  1. An agency I worked with a couple years ago stopped using business cards because they thought they were too cool to use them. So when someone asked for a business card from one of their people, the poor fools would just give a nervous laugh and whip out their iphone.

  2. Yep- it’s pretty funny to see agencies that have locations in all exotic places… Nobody needs an office in the Greek aisles. Unless they’re hiring, then I’m in.

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