What’s the best way to develop new talent in advertising? Current thinking says that aspiring creatives should get an internship to get some experience under their belt, but is there a better way? A way to benefit agencies AND young talent? Dave Trott over at CST thinks
creative youth teams are the way to go. It goes something like this: decent sized agencies (and arguably this is only possible in medium and large agencies) have a junior and a senior creative department. The junior department serves several purposes:
One, it puts heat under the senior department. The juniors are hungry to make their mark and willing to put in the long hours necessary to take their work to the next level. This in turn puts pressure on the senior team to bring their “A” game because if they don’t there’s a junior waiting to step up at a moments notice.
Two, the agency gets a talent at a reduced cost. Obviously the juniors won’t make as much as the senior team, but they will make a decent wage. They might have to pick up a weekend job (when they aren’t at the agency), but they aren’t working for free.
Three, the young creatives benefit because they get full-scale real work, not just scraps. Too often interns get table scraps from the other creatives instead of getting the true real-world experience. The regular creatives keep certain work for themselves, which is fair in an internship situation, but it doesn’t give the maximum experience to the intern.
Four, the agency has a unique edge to pitch clients. They have a youth team that is a little younger than most creatives. A little edgier. A little hungrier. A little closer to “the streets.” This sort of thing can become an asset when pitched to brands looking for that youthful vigor. And a lot of brands are looking for some youthful vigor these days.
Five, the next Alex Bogusky (or insert your favorite creative here) is out there. She might be interning for you right now. Or he might be putting in 14 hour days for your rival across town. Would you know it if they were working for you right now? (every CD reading this shakes their head yes) I don’t think you would. Because that is the inherent problem in most unpaid internship programs. They only get scraps of real work so their chances to shine are reduced. They aren’t paid, so most have to hold down second or third jobs to afford to give you a couple days a week for free, so they can’t always give you as much time as they’d like to. Sure, these could be viewed as excuses a lazy young creative would give. But if you think highly enough of them to bring them on for an internship in the first place, why not maximize their chances of showing you their greatness?
Where do internships fit in? Reserve them for those currently in school at the junior / senior level or as a short term trial before becoming joining your junior creative team (after all, someone has to put pressure on the junior team.) Let them get some scraps of real work, but also give them some full campaigns (even if it’s not real work) so they can show their skills. It’ll help you better evaluate whether to offer them a junior position or not.
I know a lot of agencies have junior creatives. But why not expand it into a department, complete with a junior CD? Why not leverage it as an asset rather than making it a place for the overflow from the senior creatives? Why not light a fire under your senior staff? Why not push your agency to be better?
Labels: aspiring creatives, deep thoughts, rants
