Michael Karnjanaprakorn

Love, an agency in Manchester, has decided to expand into the digital realm. Rather than hiring a group of people, they’ve decided to back a dream team.

http://lovecreative.typepad.com/love/2006/11/want_to_start_a.html

“We’re going to back a new agency start-up which will sit alongside LOVE in our happy house in the Northern Quarter of Manchester (possibly with a satellite office in London.) So we’re looking for the dream team to back. So if you’re out there somewhere, you truly believe you have what it takes and you share the same dream as we did to build something fresh, new and different on your own two feet, why don’t you get in touch? Starting an agency is the best thing you’ll ever do and we can’t wait to help you.”

Wow! I’m thrilled to see a company try new and different things. This is revolutionary for many different reasons.

For an industry based on creativity, advertising is setup to suppress creativity rather than to nurture and cultivate it. There are hierarchies, invisible walls, silos and cubicles along every floor of every agency. Worst of it all, experience plays a more important role than talent.

Try telling Lebron James that he has to have five to seven years experience before he can play ball for the Cavaliers.

Besides the point that the Cavaliers still wouldn’t have made the playoffs, it makes no sense. If you’re ready, you’re ready. The same should hold true for the advertising industry.

Since most agencies are setup to foster tradition rather than creativity, young people do not have the right incentive to come up with “big ideas.” The office politics, internal structures and reward schemes result in many people asking themselves, “what’s the point?”

Case in point. Let’s say you come up with a brilliant idea that saves or makes the company millions of dollars. What’s in it for you? Absolutely nothing unless you get promoted and make $10K more with a new title attached to your name.

Employees will work harder with the right motivation. Of course you’ll have to get the right person – someone that will go beyond the job requirements to do exceptional work along with an entrepreneurial spirit.

But, I think an opportunity like this will create the right incentive for young, hungry and motivated creative entrepreneurs. These people would rather work for themselves than make $30K a year doing meaningless work everyday. It would make a lot more sense to give
them a company to run.

With an experienced agency (or company) to guide them along the way, both sides will benefit from this new partnership. Agencies get fresh and new thinking from young minds. And the young ones will get a chance to run their own companies without the complete risk of a brand new startup.

It’s hard when the people at the top have spent years getting there but it’s time for a change. Now who wants to back a company if I start one? Show me some love!