MAA GreenJam Event – The GreenJam Experts’ Guide To Accelerating Your Agency Career

We thought we would start the year by sharing some insider tips on how to push a little bit harder to achieve your career goals in 2018.

These tips will already be known by those who attended an engrossing MAA GreenJam event in late 2017. This brought together three industry experts to share their expertise on how to accelerate your agency career.

Louisa Clarke, a partner at The Caffeine Partnership, Lou Garrod, deputy manager at Sense and our very own Craig Wheeler, managing director at WDMP, revealed some of the secrets of their success.

So what are their career-critical nuggets?

Firstly, think client. Clients are at the heart of agency business and understanding them is essential to an agency’s success. Craig and Lou highlighted the importance of doing the research and getting your hands dirty in order to get to know clients. They also stressed that this applies not just to account handlers but to everyone and anyone involved with a client.

They then suggested several ways to engage with clients, such as meeting them outside of work, showing an interest in them and their industry, as well as visiting their stores and offices. These are simple, effective ways to show clients that you are prepared to go the extra mile for them.

New business is of course a great way to get yourself noticed, and has been identified as the fastest way to accelerate your career. Craig stated that “It’s about relationships and getting out there. The first rule of new business is: don’t be afraid to ask.” So be proactive, don’t wait for a brief to come in, think about who you know, go to networking events and make connections.

Louisa discussed the benefits of volunteering to help on other tasks within your agency, highlighting the importance of this for personal as well as professional development. By getting involved in areas outside of your own day to day roles, you make your own interests known and stand out.

Why not share, for example, the latest campaign you have worked on with your agency, or something you are passionate about? Or get involved in internal PR, culture and agency events. Be known for something and don’t be afraid to share it.

Louisa and Lou both emphasised the importance of receiving feedback. As well as finding out what you are doing well, remember to ask how you can improve as both are equally important for you to develop.

This extremely interesting discussion demonstrated that you don’t have to be loudest person in the office to get noticed. The overall message from the panel was to do your job well and not be afraid to put yourself out there in order to accelerate your agency career.

Small changes in your day to day working life can make a huge difference to the way you are seen amongst your colleagues. Show up, stand out and get noticed in 2018.

Alex Addison – Account Executive WDMP