Since the launch of the first campaign centuries ago, Creatives and Suits have always been on opposite sides of the creative agency. Execs never seem to know what they are doing, and creatives just seem to not have it all together in those weird brains of theirs, so they say.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Let’s look at Deurmekaar Agency. You’ve never heard of them because everything that could go wrong happens, like the infamous “BalanceTheJagger” campaign.  They are always creating fires that they can’t put out. For instance, Account Manager Katrien is dreadful to work with. She prefers working from home but is always unreachable, is there a Katrien in your agency? (Get them Teams for direct messaging, maybe they won’t miss a thing.) 

So, client sent in a brief this morning for a Key Visual that’s needed by COB. But Katrien’s unread emails are nowhere near organized. (If only she used Outlook for email on Microsoft 365 which splits emails into “focused” and “other” categories, ensuring prioritised emails are in the correct folder.) She wouldn’t have told the traffic Manager, Tumi; “This just came in from client now!”  (You and I know that’s not true, but Tumi doesn’t.) It’s because of moments like this, that Tumi never has a great relationship with the creatives on the floor. She’s notorious for always needing things by yesterday. 

Johan is now on version Final_Final  but the sponsor logo needs to be bigger, now we on Final_Final Final…(I think.) The changes were made on version Final_Final instead of the other confusing doc and the previous changes don’t exist on whatever doc this is that social sent to media.  We’re live and the client is fuming because we’re interrupting their daily telenovela only for them to help us with damage control. (Petrol added to the fire I tell you. Yeah, this is a day in the life of an ad agency.) The smoke has now reached the higher-ups. 

Summons are issued out for 5 am sharp, despite us all burning the midnight oil! (If only they had the same energy when it comes to optimizing workflow processes.) Hear me out, integrating apps across all devices with Microsoft 365 allows the copywriter, the designer, and the client to collaborate in real-time. Client could dictate their changes on their phone while watching their favourite character being swept off their feet, we implement, she approves, we sleep! But noooo, we want fire! I think everyone is taking “Mad Men” out of context.

Am I going crazy, or can you relate?