Julie Anne Longano.
Julie Anne Longano, Founder, Peeps Consulting
The trend of agency-side media professionals looking to move client-side is nothing new but the specific motivators behind the trend are always evolving. These insights are crucial to keep illuminating as an industry, in a collective effort to retain strong talent on the media agency side of the fence.
I spoke with two industry executives with varying insights and real-world working experiences on this trend to help unlock fresh insights. A third industry exec from media agency land also eagerly provided insights, but their holdco agency preferred that they weren’t included in this piece.
The fence sitter
This professional wishes to remain anonymous, so we’ll refer to him as Kevin.
“The thought [about client side] has always crossed my mind; not necessarily to escape agencies and the negatives around it – but more about the ability to truly influence things… In agency side we are involved so late in the piece, so often – even when you have a good relationship with the client, it’s late to build anything meaningful and impactful,” Kevin told me.
“Compared to a few years ago we are spoken to even later in the piece…There are so many competing and conflicting agency partners, so many experts that clients are talking to - that media are fighting for relevance.”
With partners like Google and Meta intertwined with clients directly, Kevin says there are more people in the client’s ear than a decade ago, when there were clearer swim lanes. Now it’s so fragmented.
Given his desire to move client side, I had to ask the question as to whether pace, pressure and work-life-balance were factors. He said: “I am definitely allocated as more than 100% of a person on the books in my agency - but it’s far and away better than where I have worked in the past. It’s very unique in that regard.”
Over the course of his career in media agencies Kevin had “been consistently charged out at 150% of a person, minimum.” He certainly pondered whether perhaps on client-side people are considered 100% of a person and no more, “though the clients I work with are working as hard as me, so I’m not sure. Maybe the grass is not greener.”
On the topic of work-life-balance and professional capacity Kevin felt that there was still a Hollywood smokescreen misconception of client-side being easier; both in the work and the hours – referencing the burnout and mental health time pressure priorities of agency-side. Conversely, “People have gone client side and found it quiet to the point of questioning if their emails were working.”
The Turnstiler
This executive is a well-known senior media professional with over a decade’s experience agency-side who moved client side, then back to media and back to client side once more. We’ll refer to him as Mark (from marketing) because he has asked to be anonymous … presumably so you don’t go after his job.
He kicked off with the boarder pros and cons: “There are different pressures and different stresses on each side of the fence. Media agencies try to make you feel happy at work with office spaces that are 'cool', perks such as drinks, snacks, breakfast and other incentives like personal leave for birthdays etc. Whilst a cynical person would say that's to distract from the grind, at least they try to focus more on team morale and depending on agency size there is a care for the individual. And whilst yes, the volume of work can be high, and the juggling of tasks is challenging, the collegiality or trauma bonding is real, albeit not necessarily healthy.
“Given you are working in a service-based industry [in media agencies] there is a drive to deliver for the brand you work on, sometimes more so than the client-side brand/campaign managers. And whilst you ride the rollercoaster of results, you do have the luxury of being a little more removed from the business pressure, that is, our campaign delivered in terms of media metrics which is great but it didn't deliver on sales, which could have been messaging, product, price whatever, but that shields you from the hit the client faces where all those decisions come back to.”
We all know the perception of client-side being slower paced and therefore a stronger choice for work-life balance but this doesn’t always translate to success. Mark said: “Client side, yes the pace is slower in a big corporate. For an ex-agency person that can prove to be their undoing. Agency life does create an addiction to adrenalin and dopamine hits of ticking things off your list. Client side, your projects will last months/years and decisions are slower. Bigger organisations require more process, and the bureaucracy and red tape can feel onerous, the stakeholders requiring engagement are seemingly infinite and if you are going to client-side to be closer to the decision making, then you do get a wake up as to how far away you truly are from those decisions.
“You are often faced with a matrix of departments and decision makers that need to be aligned before moving forward, and the politics of that can be a minefield! The client side sometimes becomes more massaging of internal egos than actually focussing on the marketing work. Plus, a focus on your own standing in the business beyond just the work - how you are perceived and where your next move is.
”Given that slower pace, the deadlines are longer and therefore yes, the hours can be more in control on client side than agency which is huge for managing life outside of work. - as well as not being tethered to your phone/email/teams at all times to ensure you're delivering 'good' service. But that said, given the need to attract and retain talent, the flexibility can often be better agency-side but that's agency dependent - as are all the observations above be it agency or client.”
Mark misses the chaos, the messiness and the all-in to get it done in agency life but admits that’s probably the adrenalin addiction that he’s toxically craving. “Where I am now on client-side I am lucky to be in a position where I have an excellent team that is well structured and resourced, that is supported by an agency that cares about the work and is well compensated for it. Which I understand is rare!”
Overall, Mark’s take on agency versus client side wraps this conundrum up perfectly: “The grass is greenest where you water it. Being distracted and looking for where it's better is not always going to be the truth - and at the end of the day where the business actually gives a stuff about the humans that are working for them, and people in general are open that it is a good place to work is best - which is what you can't figure out in an interview!”
In summary, the ongoing desire for agency-side professionals to move client-side is something that we continue to face as an industry; and the motivators are changing somewhat rapidly. Now more than ever, the more stories we can share about those who do make the move, and those who want to, the better equipped we will be in understanding the realities around the motivators. This way, we can address and work to overcome these factors when designing roles, responsibilities and structures within media agencies and client relationships alike.