Agency vs. Corporate

Ok, I'm going to take this opportunity to not only comment on the sixth day of the conference, but to address some things I have observed throughout college as well as here. Today I attended two sessions: one by Wieden & Kennedy, the largest independent advertising agency in the world, and one by Twitter and Viacom, large corporate organizations. From the time I set foot into my first Intro to PR class, up to going on this trip, I've have long heard of the dispute between working in an agency or a corporate environment. I always felt it was so black and white. 

Agency life is fast-paced. You supposedly never get bored, you are always working and get tons of experience. Corporate life is more in-depth. You really form a relationship with the brand or company you work for, but you don't always get to work on different things. Both sides have ups and downs. The professionals from Wieden & Kennedy stated their interviews for employees are different compared to traditional companies.

"You have to fail at least three times before you are useful. We want to hire people that want to grow. When your employees want to grow, the agency grows."

Since I went to this session first, I agreed with them. But for the rest of the time they were saying how In a corporate environment, there is no room for failure or growth so talent is suppressed. However, when I attended the Twitter and Viacom debate, they claim that the industry has never been better and that they welcome failures. 

Although this is a small sample, going back the the market research I've decided to pursue, this tells me that for communication companies and professionals....they are really bad at communicating. Everyone at this conference has said the words mobile, innovation, storytelling and future in every session. So if everyone is talking about these things, does it mean that professionals are on the same page? Or are they all on different pages of the same book with the title Relationships by Millennials. 

I know we can't solve the world overnight, but I do believe that instead of throwing around words and hoping some creative picks up on it (things they've already known I guarantee it), everyone should just be listening to the audience. Look at all these innovative tools everyone's been talking about like social media and stuff. Instead of looking at the shares and viewability, let's get to reading those comments. The customers are talking. They are everywhere sharing opinions online. Sure most of them are angry opinions, but most of them are sincere. 

Professionals need to sit back and take a good long look at themselves. They should ask: what advertising do I pay attention to? What am I sharing? When we look at ourselves and those around us, it's easy to see what's working. I don't know if it's because I don't have enough experience, or I'm just tired of old people talking over each other on the Cannes Lion stage, but it seems everyone wants a change to happen so corporate and agencies need to stop this dispute and work together to achieve all this future innovation.