еrying to figure out how to market a project properly without spending a fortune on it. you need someone for ads, someone for design, content, social media, maybe SEO too, and hiring a separate person for everything gets expensive pretty quickly.

do you guys usually hire freelancers, work with an agency, or just handle most things yourselves? wondering if there are any decent ways to keep costs down without neglecting half the marketing.

For some reason, this week it’s really registering with me that there are A LOT of people who work in other industries and barely, if ever, work “after hours” even if they can work from home. I think I’ve been in an agency setting for so long that I forget that that’s not actually the norm, so I guess I’m having some sort of an epiphany today. I’m the only one in my friend group who consistently works into the evening, and of course more like until 8-10pm during the pre-holiday period. Given my current benefits and compensation (within OMC), I’m over it, to say the least. I’m in account service and I’m positive I have plenty of transferable skills outside of this industry, it’s just hard to know where to start looking and what to search for.

I'm a VP at agency. I run accounts across paid channels and have a team under me, and I've spent my whole career agency-side. I'm waiting to hear back on two roles and honestly don't know which I'd pick if both come through.

1. SVP, Client Lead at another agency. It's the logical next step toward EVP, with more visibility and a chance to build a name in the industry.
   
2. Senior Account Executive at Google

Where I'm stuck:

- Comp: If I hit quota, the Google package likely beats the SVP offer.
- Work-life balance and benefits: My assumption is that Google is a big upgrade here, with saner hours, fewer fire drills, and better benefits overall than agency life.
- Ego (being honest): SAE feels like a step down in title. I know everyone starts somewhere at Google, but going from leading a team to an IC sales seat stings a bit.
- Strategy: What I love most is owning a client's overall media strategy and making recommendations across the whole plan. The role is pitched as consultative, but I'd still only be recommending Google products. How much real strategy work is there?
- Stability: Tech in general seems to be being hit with layoff after layoff. Google not even 2 years ago let go of people on their ad sales team. Not to say agencies aren't exactly stable either but at least in my position you’re scoped to a client.
- Pigeonholing: I worry that once I'm in platform sales, it's hard to get back to agency leadership or go client-side, and that I'd only be a fit for big-company roles afterward.
- My current team: I genuinely like my team and respect my leadership. We're in the middle of a lot of change, and I don't want to leave them in a tough spot or handle an exit badly.

Questions for the group:

- The big one: would the industry see VP agency → SAE at Google as a step back? Even if the pay, balance, and benefits are better, would it read that way on a resume or to future hiring managers?
- Am I overthinking this? Am I trying to move up too fast, or just chasing money?Gut checks welcome.
- Anyone who took the agency SVP path instead: glad you did?
- How did you handle leaving a team during a rough stretch?

Appreciate any takes.

Well shit. Just got off of a call with one of my managers who's up on the food chain. We will be receiving an email next week stating that there will be mandatory RTO for employees, primarily for those of us who are full time remote.

Beyond that I got no further info. As with anything else OMC related, it is piss poor planning and decisions, just do it NOW and figure it out later.

Frankly I see it as the way they will achieve the 15k employees downsized by end of year (based on comments by the global CFO lead after losing the PepsiCo business). Can't move or easily make it to an office by XX date? Laid off with no benefits.

Our new CD started two months ago and he making me feel incompetent.

He keeps critiquing old work and campaigns that were half started when he joined. I get feedback like “This is what we should’ve done” except those ideas aren’t in budget nor are grounded in what was happening when we started working on these projects 4/5 months ago.

I don’t want him to think I’m incompetent or bad at my job.
Do I just wait until reality sets in for him?

Howdy! I am looking to leave my current role at an agency and explore elsewhere. I don’t particularly love or care for media, but it pays my bills. I thought I’d enjoy being more client-facing, but honestly I think my personality is more suited to being more behind the scenes/not working with clients or being a main point of contact for clients.

Curious if there’s anyone else here who’s in a similar boat who has pivoted or found something? I’d assume an in-house role elsewhere would be a fit, but most of the roles I’m seeing requires a lot of communicating with clients. Or is this a totally unrealistic endeavor?

I’m currently a Media Planner at a large advertising agency and have been in my role for about 5 months. I have a little over 3 years of experience in the industry overall, and I’m starting to realize that I really don’t enjoy media planning.

I find the work pretty stressful, and I don’t particularly enjoy the day to day responsibilities.

Between managing budgets, trackers, deadlines, client requests, and constantly following up with different teams, I just don’t feel like this is something I want to do long term.

I don’t necessarily hate marketing or advertising as a whole, but I’m starting to think that agency life, or at least media planning, might not be for me.

I’ve been considering making the switch to an in-house marketing role, or even exploring other areas of marketing that aren’t so heavily focused on media planning and budget management.

Do we think I could even get a new job without being in my current role a full year? I was thinking of framing it as a career switch in interviews. But unsure if I could even get interviews if they see I haven’t been at my new company a full year.

But - I am so unhappy I constantly think about quitting with no back up.

For anyone who has made the transition from agency media planning to any other type of role - any advice?

I work in paid media at a large agency, and I’m getting increasingly frustrated with how much hand-holding some offshore teams require.

I have no issue with offshoring itself. My issue is when someone supposedly has 4+ years of paid search/social experience, but I’m still explaining things that feel pretty basic for that level, not just technically, but around communication, attention to detail, problem solving, and actually thinking through a task before doing it.

I’ve tried training sessions, written instructions, examples, templates, checklists, walking through the logic, making myself available for questions, etc. But sometimes the same mistakes keep happening, or something obviously doesn’t make sense and nobody stops to ask.

I’m happy to help someone who genuinely wants to learn, but there’s a difference between not knowing something and showing very little ownership or curiosity about improving.

So for people at big agencies dealing with this, what actually works? More training? Stricter accountability? Smaller scopes? Escalating performance issues? Or do you eventually accept that this is just part of the agency/offshoring model and stop caring so much?

I’ve been 11 years on the supply side, publishers partnerships, monetization strategies, SSP connections, the full sales cycle from prospecting to signing agreements, in addition to account retentions and upselling…so basically everything on the supply side.

I’m so fedup and I feel depressed that I’m stuck in the same ecosystem, I feel that I put myself in this niche side that I can’t pivot to something else, or I don’t know how to do so. I believe that I have so many transferable soft skills and a rounded knowledge and experience on the AdTech industry im general.

Is there any possibility to make a shift in my career or change industry? Or even jump to a client side or agency side?

I feel so down for the past years and zero fulfilment in what I have been doing.

I appreciate any feedback, tips, advices!

I’ve worked at a major holding company for two and a half years as an associate. I’m ready to make the jump to the Senior Associate level. I’m about to interview for a Senior Associate role at another major holding company but this team will be integrated my previous role was digital focused. Is there any advice, tips, and/or resources I can use to prepare for the jump?

Hi! Question for omc folks in nyc, I just started a month ago and this 3x a week office policy is killing me. Is there any way to go around it or talk to HR? Thanks!

I published some new ads all of them got approved and active. After 2 hours I got notification that ad has been rejected, after 2 hours and spending $7 is now showing delivery error instead of rejected.

It shows Invalid Usage of ForceRunStatus and when I open the edit it says post got deleted. I don’t understand what’s happening here, can anyone help me out please?

Are client leadership roles future proof and any good? Or is it better to pick specialist roles like PPC exec, Programmatic exec, paid social exec etc?

Looking for more work-life balance and do not want to be at an agency anymore for obvious reasons.

So as the title suggests, I am aware of the holdco, Hakuhodo and its presence in Singapore. I know they are a collective of companies/boutique agencies worldwide, an online search high and low did not return any results about where to find job opportunities or job openings. Can someone who knows about them enlighten me on this?

Results were nothing like what their demos make you believe lolll

Arcads had the most natural delivery, but barely any control over the setting. Good for talking heads, not so much when you need the product shown a certain way

Creatify got the product into the video the fastest since it pulls from the product page. Delivery feels more like an actual ad though, which isn’t always what you want

Heygen looked like a corporate training video 😂

Veo3 had the best looking footage by far, but probably the worst actual ad out of all 4

People keep confusing good looking videos with ads that actually convert, they’re not the same thing

Imo it really comes down to what you’re trying to sell and how. Some tools are better at showing people, others at showing products

And none of that tells you which one will actually perform better until you run the ads

Got all 4 videos if anyone wants to compare

Long-term unemployment: Do your family and friends see you as a screw-up, or do they know/understand this industry is just that unstable?

I’m not in the advertising industry but I have clients who are. My degree in college is related to the industry so I pay attention and am fascinated not only by the psychology and the buying habits of consumers, but also of the mechanics and technology within this industry.

Last night, I was watching reality television (guilty pleasure) and noticed one of the cast members was wearing a really beautiful necklace. I quietly “thought” to myself, “hey I’ve seen that necklace before, it’s beautiful but I can’t remember the brand.” This necklace was very prominently placed around the neck of the cast member who was attending a black tie event, and she was wearing a beautiful dress that complemented the necklace. The necklace was very front and center.

The script was very subtle because I didn’t even think about it until this morning. The cast member made a comment to her husband, something akin to “If I’m going to receive a gift box, it better be a Van Cleef.”

The line was so subtlety placed - it was clever, and the story went on to other topics.

This morning I wake up and scrolling through the New York Times app feed and guess what shows up?

You guessed it, the very same necklace in an advertisement for Van Cleef and Arpels.

I saw the necklace in the advertisement, thought to myself, how did this get into my news feed the very next morning when I didn’t speak it and I didn’t even search for it?

Then I remembered that the cast member had spoken the name out loud on my television, and my phone heard it.

This wasn’t a coincidence. Now you don’t have to search for it or even speak about it out loud. You just have to be near someone who speaks it or be watching television with the product placement moment and boom - it’s all over your news feed.

This is a technology I wasn’t aware of. And I have to say it’s quite effective. If I was in the market as a husband for a gift for my wife, or if I was a wife looking to purchase something for myself, I definitely would have gone out and searched for or purchased a version of this product.

Technology is definitely listening. And it’s embedded much deeper into our lives than I ever imagined it was.

By the way the necklace is the Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra Collection and sells for around $24,000, just a “bit” out of my price league. 😉

I’m hoping to get some advice from people who’ve made the jump from agency to client side in pharma or healthcare.

Feeling really burnt out in the agency realm but want to stay in Pharma & trying to see what the best path forward would be.

Mainly, I’m trying to see where on the client side my experience level would fit in best?

Quick background:

• 10 years in healthcare/medical communications
  • 7 years in Program Management (started as a Program Coordinator and ended my PM time as a Senior Program Manager)
  • 3 years (4 years come January) as an Account Supervisor

Is it worth the switch? Any and all advice is appreciated! :)

So I’ve been doing graphic design for quite some time now, and I think my portfolio is decent. Lately I’ve been wanting to land a junior graphic designer role at a marketing agency, but honestly I’m not sure where to start.

For those of you who work in agencies, what made you stand out when you were starting out? And what do you look for when you’re hiring juniors?

Would love any advice.

So I’ve been doing graphic design for quite some time now, and I think my portfolio is decent. Lately I’ve been wanting to land a junior graphic designer role at a marketing agency, but honestly I’m not sure where to start.

For those of you who work in agencies, what made you stand out when you were starting out? And what do you look for when you’re hiring juniors?

Would love any advice.

Anybody see any changes on your Empower/fidelity accounts? It was supposed to be done this month, I even have a note in my Empower account on October 5th that says "

"The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. Savings Plan

Your employer has chosen a new financial provider to administer your retirement account. Your account has been transferred to Fidelity Investments. Please contact Fidelity at 800–343–3548 or your employer for any questions. This account reflects a zero balance due to this change."

But oddly enough I still have a balance in Empower...

Wanted to join an advertising agency as an assistant media planner to develop and learn more skills and and also see how the industry works as I don't have much experience outside of being a marketing assistant and working on Google and meta ads for 3-4 months.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to even find job postings for positions and then get an interview after applying. At the same time, I'm seeing a lot of people saying they want to leave agency life or the industry in general as pay is low for the long hours of work and career growth is difficult.

So, I was just wondering how current media planners are feeling about agency life and the industry in general. Would you still suggest someone early in their career to apply to agencies right now?

Also, any suggestions and tips for people like me looking to get into an advertising agency would be awesome!

I'm an art director at a large fin-tech company where I've worked on 3 separate teams within the last 4 years. My site has been down since 2022, and I'm finally ready to rework + republish my portfolio, but I'm struggling with how to do it now that the bulk of my work is for one brand. In the past, I had a tab for my AD work with an icon/image for each company I worked for (leading to a separate page housing the work for the respective brand). I also had separate pages for personal creative work + "about".

Now, I'm struggling with how to do this with my new work. I have several large campaigns I want to show from my current job (ranging from experiential, retail, OOH, social, etc.), but it feels disorienting to have several campaigns (in different LOBs) underneath one brand page. Has anyone who's worked in-house for a while navigated this? It seems like most people organize their sites in this way, or I see some with one homepage that just list brands/project names in a side bar. I think the homepage w/ the project name sidebar solution would be the easiest, but I personally prefer a cohesive site with more than just one homepage.

any advice from other in-house ADs or CDs reviewing portfolios for hire?