BenAnyan.com

It is this cancerous disease that eats you up, gradually wiping out your optimism, passion and energy. It turns you into a skeptic, an idea killer, an aged dinosaur with a shrunk ability to create anything authentic, creative and exciting. It’s the most toxic situation to watch out for as an advertising person.

When I tasted advertising, I was on fire! I was hungry and optimistic. I was turned on by powerful ideas I saw in international works and was determined I’d soon be able to sell the world class ideas to Ghanaian clients. I soon realized that very few colleagues were as upbeat. They looked at me like you’d look at your teen brother planning to go to the same SHS and Uni with his childhood sweetheart with plans to marry right after.

They recount how a series of events have made them more ‘pragmatic’, tired of the whole industry, and impatient to get out of it. Those without a good Plan B just endure it. They show up at work wishing the day was over already. Great ideas make occasional trips to their minds, they light up briefly, smile and let it slide concluding “It will never happen. I’d never be able to sell it. Damned Ghana advertising!”

They return from client meetings, moaning, nagging, complaining, feeling emasculated and disrespected, yet another justification to be frustrated, to not give their best anymore, to emotionally resign. I call it ‘The advertising black hole.’

I have seen it in different people at different growth stages and in different agencies. My mind flagged it and I determined to never get into that space.

The Whys

1. Client Kings

The current power dynamics between agency and client is so heavily skewed toward clients who treat agencies more as subordinates than partners. Perhaps, this is due to the negligible number of instances where agency has sold and executed an impactful insight-driven business-transforming campaign. Hence the client feels he knows better and keeps pissing on sleepless nights of work. He sees his business as a favor. If you want his money, shut up and obey.

2. Money Bosses

Also, most agencies are run by account manager types, driven more by bottom-lines and mark-ups than creative power. The agency that manages to keep clients and their businesses happy whilst keeping and deepening agency’s creative muscle and treating staff right will become magnet to the best talent and a regional icon.

3. Same Old Client

Another reason is that creatives get bored working on the same client year after year after year, especially when each year is filled with instances of clients forcing their way, doing the same boring routine things we don’t even believe in. There are many executed works you won’t find on Behance and in portfolios because even the creatives who worked on them are embarrassed by what they became.

The Ways Out

1. Stay hungry

Be self-motivated.’ Draw motivation from a deep source. Be driven by an aim so bold it’s almost impossible to be thrown off. Feed your hunger with works that inspire you, that make you ogle. Stay hungry and get out of fatally toxic environments at your earliest convenience! I detest whatsapp (or any other kind) of creative groups where so much time goes into nagging and discussing the bleakness of the industry without making individual commitments to be the difference that is sought.

2. Pay Your Dues

At least for the early part of your career, insulate yourself with the mindset that you are learning and paying your dues. Soak in all the work and countless reverts. Even with a bad marriage to a stupid client, the silver lining is that you will be quick to recognize and appreciate a more reasonable one in future.

Endure your egotistic boss who doesn’t have your back, just don’t adopt his leadership style. But absorb his positives and build your skillset…your time is coming. Be ready to move when it does.

3. Be Ambitious

Ghana is too small, aim for the world. Nothing stops you from becoming a global force to reckon with. It helps, because whatever makes you pessimistic in a local context loses its sting when you broaden your horizon.

4. Taste New Waters

There will come a time to leave your current agency. Moving around can be helpful in rising quickly and getting more exposure as well as escaping rubbish clients and bosses, but this must be done strategically and with the greatest caution; move too soon and you’ll regret it, too late and what’s the point?

Be very strategic about your job moves, don’t be moved by the money alone; who’s your new boss? What’s the company ownership like? What does your career trajectory look like? What training opportunities are there? How’s the team there like? How’s the company culture? What’s their turnover like? You must be as aware as possible of what you’re stepping into and decide if you can put up with it. Try to minimize the shock of the two months after, when you finally get a true sense of what you’ve signed up for.

Learn what you must, connect to the right people, feed yourself with positivity.

There are great prospects in this industry. There will always be strong demand for solid creatives. Hold on to the unique opportunity this industry offers to make good money whilst transforming businesses and impacting humanity. Take a good look at the long term you want and work at it. Learn what you must, connect to the right people, feed yourself with positivity. When you circle the black hole of advertising and look back, the ride will feel so fulfilling, so worth it. Don’t quit.