Tesar-Reynes

I got a call in the late summer from a guy I placed at a large company back east. He runs corporate communications and advertising. If I remember, the guy is in his mid-40’s and is a certifiable Type A. The conversation started with “I am going f’ing postal! You gotta minute?”

The gist of the explosion had to do with the fact that his three agencies were going in circles with non-relevant off-strategy creative. And the digital shop was the worst. I swallowed hard and asked if it had to do with bad direction. His next 16 sentences were not complimentary to me, my family or the company. His net-net was an entirely different observation: they seemed to keep reinventing the wheel. What was being presented to him either had failed before or was poorly thought out.

I asked him about the people who managed his account. He said they were all real smart, full of ideas, aggressive and knew his business. He was at a loss on how to lead them. Right after that he hung up to take another call.

He called me back yesterday and said problem solved! I said, what did you do, hire new agencies? The answer was no. He went to each of the agencies and asked them to hire a gray beard on his business; he was tired of the account group chasing their tails. Since that time, he said their product seems to be better and the prices seem to be lower. I wonder if he is pulling my leg.