Should I get a job in digital?

Some of them did: Andrew Walmsley, who began his career at Bartle Bogle

Hegarty, co-founded the digital media agency i-level; Mark Collier
worked at Collett Dickenson Pearce and BBH before founding Dare (which
sold to Cossette Communications in July for a potential £30
million); and Rob Forshaw and Matt Nicholls, the founders of Grand
Union, were former managing partners at M&C Saatchi.

But plenty more got their fingers burnt, which might explain the
historic reluctance by traditional agency people to get involved in the
now not- so-new new media. But with digital agencies selling at
multiples far higher than their traditional brethren, and the internet
now an accepted part of mainstream media, isn't it time you got some
online experience on your CV?

The attraction this time around isn't the money. Unless you're a
technical specialist, where salaries have seen considerable inflation,
pay packets in digital now are broadly in line with those at traditional
agencies (see graph). Neither is it the size of budgets, which remain
smaller than those in traditional advertising - and client contact on
digital accounts is often with marketing managers rather than their
bosses.

Nevertheless, the list of people switching from traditional media to
digital is growing. Last week, Indy Saha left Xbox, where he was the
head of advertising and brand for Europe, to become the planning
director at Agency Republic. Earlier this year, David Pattison moved
from PHD to head ILG Digital, the i-level parent company; Alan
Rutherford, the vice-president of global media at Unilever, left to run
the Publicis Groupe-owned Digitas Global; and Giles Montgomery, a
creative at Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, went to Grand Union as creative
director.

Planners and account men have also been tempted. Toby Horry, now the
joint planning director at Dare, is an ex-Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
senior planner; Mark Tomblin, a former director of strategy at Publicis,
is now at the digital agency TBG; and Stuart Barnes, a group account
director at St Luke's, has just moved to Agency Republic as the group
business director.

Montgomery spent 13 years in Amsterdam before leaving last month to join
Grand Union, one of the UK's last major digital independents. He had no
experience in online - other than setting up the W&K Amsterdam blog -
and, he says, was becoming frustrated by the lack of opportunity to do
anything outside the traditional creative heartland of TV and print.

The attraction of Grand Union, he says, was the chance to come in and
make a difference (the agency has been without a creative director for
months) and what he saw as a genuine creative opportunity.

"I knew budgets weren't the same - I'm used to $1 million to make
a TV commercial - but that didn't bother me," he says. "What I find
interesting at the beginning of a project is that part where anything is
possible. That's the difference with digital rather than traditional
advertising, where the possibilities are limited to TV and print."

Montgomery is in somewhat of a minority as a traditional creative who
believes that digital media offers more, not less, than TV from a
creative point of view. In June, the blog Scamp
(www.scampblog.blogspot.com) ran a post from the DDB London creative Rob
Messeter, in which he described the majority of digital advertising as
"really pony". "If I presented anything so woeful to my creative
director, I'd be laughed out of the room," he added.

The post got lots of responses, many of which agreed, calling digital
advertising "puerile" and "boring" and digital creatives "not good
enough to get a job in an advertising agency".

Montgomery thinks that's rubbish. "What about Crispin Porter's work for
Burger King in the US - they encouraged the client to put the entire
budget online and created console games that are actually selling and
making money. Or Nike+, where the guys got a marketing brief and came up
with a new product category?"

Both examples are US-based, but demonstrate the creative possibilities.
If you just want to make great films, that's fine, too - last year's
Cannes Film Grand Prix, Ogilvy's Dove "evolution", was a viral.

Even senior creative directors with years of advertising experience,
such as Robert Campbell, the Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe founder, and
Nick Bell, the former executive creative director at JWT, have been
doing the rounds of the digital agencies looking for work
experience.

Barnes admits that while creativity in digital was something he thought
about before he made his decision to join Agency Republic, he doesn't
believe it should be a concern.

"I used to work on Clarks, and it's great being on that kind of account,
but big-budget TV ads have become so few and far between that I sit at
home now and cringe during the ad breaks," he says. "In digital, the
exciting thing is the strategy and how you connect with people. It's
frustrating working at a traditional agency now because they don't have
the skill-set to push the boundaries into new areas of advertising," he
adds. "Here, there's a tangible level of excitement about the
opportunities and work coming up. There's none of that jaded attitude
that means no-one ever explores anything or tries to do new stuff."

Although he admits that client contact can be more junior, Barnes says
that many advertisers, particularly in sectors such as telecoms,
financial services or travel, are taking digital seriously because it's
financially imperative for their business. For companies whose
successful online presence means increased sales, chief executives as
well as marketing directors are keen to get involved in online
strategy.

Even clients that don't use the internet to sell product are starting to
agree. Stella Artois, famous for its brilliant TV ads, recently decided
to commit a serious portion of its budget to online, and launched
www.stellaartois.com, created by Lowe Worldwide.

Being able to talk to clients about how they should approach digital is
now a prerequisite for even the biggest of traditional advertising
agencies. As a result, people with good digital experience are in high
demand, according to Mark Rapley, the planning specialist at The Garden
Partnership.

So, if you need some digital on your CV, what's the best way to get it?
Join a specialist, Rutherford says. According to him, although he had an
understanding of digital media before moving to Digitas (Unilever was
one of the first advertisers to use digital in the late 90s and has
continued to do so since), his knowledge was not extensive. However, he
feels technical expertise is not necessary for people wanting to make
the move into online.

"All media will be transmitted digitally over the next few years," he
says. "That doesn't mean you need to understand technology to be able to
work on strategy for brands that want to use digital - you just need to
be able to understand the outcome."

And as budgets and the specialist agencies themselves grow, there's an
increasing demand for people with transferable above-the-line skills and
a genuine interest in digital advertising. All the creative teams at
glue London have backgrounds in above-the-line, and its senior account
managers are also more likely to come from traditional agencies, Mark
Cridge, the agency's chief executive, says. "You really only find people
who are used to dealing with senior-level clients at traditional
agencies, there hasn't been that kind of job in digital agencies until
now," he adds. "Planners and account people migrate easily, but creative
teams sometimes find themselves a bit overwhelmed by all the
possibilities."

But is it even necessary to move at all? Ben Fennell, the managing
director of BBH, says that because clients are now using traditional
agencies to produce digital work, it's possible for traditional
advertising people to get the right digital experience with their
existing employers. "We are hiring people with digital skills across all
disciplines, but we're also investing a lot in training our existing
staff," he says. "We've created a bespoke digital course and shipped in
specialists to train our people in things such as mobile, gaming or web
design. Two-thirds of the agency has already gone through it and the
rest will follow."

BBH has no specialist digital department, but instead is working on
getting digital skills established throughout the agency. As part of
this, it has introduced a reverse mentoring scheme, where some of its
young digital specialist staff spend time with senior people, showing
them interesting websites or pieces of new technology. "There was time
when there was creative resistance to all this, when pay packets, awards
and profile were so much higher in traditional media," Fennell adds.
"That's finally changed and I think people realise that being able to
work with digital is non-negotiable."

Ask the digital specialists, though, and they'll tell you that the
majority of ad agencies still pay lip-service, at best, to digital
media. It's certainly true that in the UK (the opposite is true in the
US), the majority of awards and the biggest account wins are still going
to the digital specialists.

There are other advantages, Collier says: "Digital agencies are
attractive, not only because of the potential of the medium, something
that I think everyone has now accepted, but also because of the
atmosphere. We're seven years old, we've got a flat structure, no-one
has an office and, as a result, there's a genuine culture where you're
encouraged to try new things."

Rutherford agrees. "It reminds me of the media independents in the 80s -
people had the same questions then about client contact and hierarchy.
The fact is, this is a brave new world, and you can either roll with it
or stay where you are and miss out on the opportunity," he says.

THREE WHO HAVE MADE THE LEAP FROM TRADITIONAL TO DIGITAL

- Giles Montgomery, Creative director, Grand Union

Montgomery joined one of the UK's last major digital independents from
Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam last month, despite having no real online
experience. It was the creative opportunities to be found in digital, he
says, that prompted the move.

- Alan Rutherford, President, Digitas Global

Formerly Unilever's global media chief, Rutherford used to be in charge
of one of the biggest budgets in UK advertising before he left to join
the international arm of the US-based Publicis Groupe-owned digital
network.

- Indy Saha, Planning director, Agency Republic

Saha, who was until recently the head of advertising and brand for
Microsoft Xbox EMEA, will be responsible for the planning strategy
across the digital agency's clients, including Mercedes-Benz, Unilever
and Sony PlayStation.

THE CASE FOR DIGITAL

- David Pattison, chief executive, ILG Digital

Why did I move into the world of digital? Genuinely, I felt that the big
opportunity for future market success lay in the digitally focused
world. Like everybody who thinks of moving to digital, my only concerns
were: how little technical knowledge could I get away with, and did I
need to dust my skateboard off?

Six months at ILG and my observation would be that lots of things are
the same as the world I left: the ups and downs of client account
management, where you get good people, how you grow/evolve your
business, and, most importantly, is it crunchy or smooth peanut butter
in the kitchen?

Lots of things are different: the speed that things happen, it just
keeps coming at you, and it is almost all new. There is a genuinely
collaborative atmosphere around all of the working relationships. The
people are different: they are younger and have less business
experience. But there is a thirst for knowledge and a confidence born
out of that knowledge and opportunity. It may come as a surprise to you,
but they are all human beings and don't have pointy ears.

The clients are learning something new and want you to lead them, and
because of its accountability and real business results, there is
considerable interest higher up in client organisations. The
shortcomings are almost all based on the immaturity of the industry.
It's eight years old, has had its ups, downs and ups again. Five years
and you are a veteran and probably aged 27. That's - fortunately for me
- where a bit of grey thinning hair and experience comes in. It's what
the industry needs to move forward, and a lack of technical knowledge
will not hinder a move into the digital world. An open mind and coping
with learning a new thing every day is all that's required.