“We do our best to be in a room with three to four agencies max, but even in those scenarios, it doesn’t feel like the best way to start a relationship,” he said, proposing that marketers could instead focus on referrals and chemistry with the team. “If you’re an architect, you don’t build the house before you sell it.”
Since the pitch process is reliant on a quest for external validation that often lacks explanation, Fig celebrates the end in a way that is independent from its outcome. After each pitch, president and CEO Judith Carr-Rodriguez said leadership asks the team to present it to the agency. And just as success cannot be gauged from the outcome of a pitch, she said creative work is an ongoing process that shouldn’t be understated to occupy a single meeting.
“The real problem solving happens when the meeting has ended,” she said, also speaking to the importance of keeping the conversation going in person the way a Zoom call does not permit. “We’re on round four of creative work for big CPG brands, and I know it’s going to be there and it isn’t quite there yet.”
Sponsoring employee growth—and restructuring talent dynamics
According to Farjami, offering the proper training is just as crucial as carving out the opportunity—while a junior employee might be qualified for a promotion, they may not be ready for a managerial role if they haven’t had the time to hone in on their own craft.
As an agency that prioritizes professional development of its staff, Joan Creative gives employees a “career path workbook,” which includes a list of company job descriptions with their prerequisites, such as leading a shoot or pitching new business, according to Clunie. Mapping out specific qualifications internally turns professional advancement into more of a shared responsibility between the employee and their manager, she said.
The creative leader was the person everyone walked around and was in service of, and I think those days are over.
—Lisa Clunie, co-founder and CEO, Joan Creative
“Talent can keep track of their own growth and they can use this as a tool with their manager at check-ins to say, ‘Listen, ‘I don’t have all of these things and I’d like to be promoted within a year, so here’s how I need your help,’” she said.
This transparency allows for a more collaborative environment that values contributions from all levels. Clunie stressed that Joan’s culture of welcoming ideas and objections from junior employees came from lacking this freedom earlier in her career, when the right to speak up felt tied to seniority.
