Cultural Event #1

Fostering Creativity in the Age of Innovation was the first event of the New Denver Ad Club’s Outside Speaker Series.  Founded in 2007, the New Denver Ad Club’s purpose is to elevate the Denver advertising community’s profile nationally and to provide networking and career development opportunities for advertising professionals and students.  This particular event began with an hour for networking followed by a presentation by Richard Lent, the founder and CEO of AgencyNet.  A leading digital agency, AgencyNet has worked for clients such as Bacardi, Grey Goose, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Time Warner, just to name a few.  Lent talked about the challenges facing the digital industry and shared a few secrets to the success of his business.  I was impressed not only by the recent work samples that Lent shared, but also by the actionable insights he provided.

As Lent pointed out, the advertising industry is fast changing, and agencies are asked to innovate every day.  Clients want something that has never been done.  On top of that, clients want agencies to pre-price those innovations and to deliver them under unrealistic timelines.  Not to mention that design is one of the most subjective deliverables on earth.  This fact makes client buy-in challenging, especially if you’re dealing with several executives.  Lent’s discussion of these challenges resonated with me since I have experienced the frustration of trying to design something that pleases multiple people.  It is nearly impossible to make everyone happy.

To face these challenges, Lent shared twelve secrets to success.  What I appreciated most about his insights was that they were actionable and that they were clearly born not only out of successes, but also out of challenges and failures.  Throughout the presentation, Lent was very candid and open about his experiences and how he runs his business.  One of the tips that stood out to me the most was to “run a flat organization.”  Lent insisted that hierarchy gets in the way and that communication can get distorted, as it does in the child’s game “telephone.”  Instead of rewarding good work with a new title, people are rewarded fiscally.  Another of Lent’s ideas was to foster innovation by investing in non-billable time for your team to invent for the sake of innovation. From those innovations, AgencyNet has created a volume of intellectual property that has developed into its own revenue stream, and at the same time wows prospects.  Lent’s other suggestions included to “turn competitors into friends,” to “select clients wisely,” to “collaborate with the client,” and to adopt a “no a-holes allowed” policy.  Although some of these ideas might seem obvious, agencies often don’t know when to turn a client down and don’t involve clients in the brainstorming process, both of which can cause major headaches down the road.

As a student in pursuit of a career in advertising, I was impressed by Richard Lent’s presentation and by the opportunities that can come with being a member of the New Denver Ad Club.  I have since joined the club and resolved to attend as many of its future events as possible.  I have also resolved to work for a company that fosters a culture of innovation!

Visit http://www.agencynet.com/#/portfolio/projects to see examples of AgencyNet’s work.  Of particular interest to me were the Track My T and Own Your Own C projects.