Everyone thinks of Sir Alex Ferguson as one of the greatest football managers of all time.
But it didn’t always look like that.
About 15 years ago Alex Ferguson was in trouble.
Manchester United had stopped winning games.
Whatever Ferguson did, it didn’t seem to work.
People began questioning if he was the right man for the job.
Ferguson was desperate.
So he was forced to take a gamble.
He brought in 5 young players from the youth team.
The unknown and untried: Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, and Nicky Butt.
Ferguson thought they were too young.
But that year, with those young players as their core, Manchester United won the double.
Champions of The Premiership and winners of The F.A. Cup.
5 young players that between them would cost about £150 million at today’s prices.
Alex Ferguson got them all free.
Courtesy of Manchester United’s youth team.
Why don’t big agency creative departments have youth teams?
Keep the Executive Creative Director in charge overall.
But also have a youth team creative director in charge of youngsters.
For the cost of two fat-cat heavyweight teams you could get up to ten teams of youngsters.
They’d all work at least twice as hard as the heavyweights.
The work would be fresher and more original.
And at least half of those teams would be worth keeping.
So you promote them to the main creative department and get in more youngsters.
It has to be a constant process of movement: up or out.
So there would be a constant turnover: and constant competition.
They could work on anything the main creative department didn’t want to.
And the pressure from below would stop the fat cats above resting on their laurels.
The youngsters would be desperate to make their mark.
The espirit de corps would be tremendous.
Just look at today’s Manchester United.
Full of bloated, overpaid, superstars who worry more about their ‘brand’, and their WAGS, and their cars, and Hello magazine, than football.
Now look at the Manchester United of those youth players.
Full of fire, and spirit, and a love to play football.
Not just for the money, but for the fun of it.
If you were a creative director, wouldn’t you like to be able to restock your department from a youth team like that?
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Great idea, something you’re considering?
Sounds like fun. We’ve always said that it would be cool to have a kind of “black ops” section of agencies too: We thought they could be staffed by graduates or young teams and they pitched for business alongside the main agency with crazy/fresh/new thinking. They would probably only win 1 pitch in every 50, but the work they made would be weird and wonderful and after a year or so the teams would be invited into the main agency or told to move on. All overseen by an open minded but professional CD obviously.
Could be fun.
Alright Dave put your money where your mouth is, we’ll come and see you next week.
Liam, I wish.
Matt, that’s exactly right.
Jack, I did say big agency, we’re too small to do it.
I can’t give you a job, but if you want advice and/or help, my email is: dav…@cstadvertising.com
That was an exceptional year for Manchester United, normally one or two promising youngsters might come through the ranks in any given year? for any club. Experience can become complacent, I’ll give you that, but in the creative world, where is this so called promising talent coming from, what colleges are actually worth their salt in nurturing potential? Come to think of it what agencies are truly worth their salt in bringing on this raw talent too?
Sorry, what are we advocating here? The last great discrimination to overcome is age related. If you are good enough then age should be no barrier.
As for getting ‘weird and wonderful’, I’ll settle for connecting with the proletariat in a way that they understand and they are getting older. So I would suggest that agencies and colleges should start to attract the kind of talent, no matter what their age, that has the ability to communicate with what is out there in the real world.
John. What I’m advocating is growing your own.
An ECD is usually too busy running a dept full time, like a football manager.
He probably hasn’t got the time, or the inclination, for training.
So he hires ready-to-work units.
Which is why colleges have a comveyor belt system producing homogenised product.
I’d like to have time to experiment, not just with young people, not just with teams
But hopefully something unconventional that might be capable of producing non-formula anaswers.
We used to call it the 3 month interview.
Interesting.
To continue your sports analogy, I think the best example of what you’re describing would be the Crusaders Super 14 rugby team. They consistently win championships but especially excel at replacing even top flight talent (Dan Carter) with more than adequate replacements (Stephen Brett).
They’re able do this, I think, because they have an excellent, simple structure of play that is well drilled but built to allow open ended creativity. And everyone from their feeder system on up plays to that structure so that when a young player steps up it’s that much easier to slot right in. For a feeder system to work well, your “senior team” and “junior team” CDs have to be in sync, it would seem.
(I might come off sounding like a fan, but I say all this with the hateful admiration of someone who supports another team. I do believe, though, that because of their structures the Crusaders are the most effective creative organization in world; they score tries through beautiful, creative interplay and they win championships.)
I actually work in a big agency that has been running things like you prescribe and for managerial purposes it works like a charm, but on the human side it seems to be lacking quite a bit.
Yes, you can have a factory cranking out internships to placements when you have a dedicated team and wealth of accounts. Some of those newcomers kill themselves despite the measly payments and make the mark, while some don’t. The place is renewed with new energy because we win -comparatively speaking- a lot more awards and the place makes your CV.
The problem arrives when you have crossed 2-4 year threshold with good work and the time comes for the agency to show some love back. They don’t have any, the budget is sub standard and if you have a problem making less money than your peers you can walk any time, there’s line of people waiting to take your place. They will build them from the ground up or show you the exit door. Unfortunately, once you have gained experience and gotten the hang of things, it appears the only natural thought is leaving. The numbers of people deserting to other agencies is appalling but the place stands, because they have relatively good CD’s on top, even if those leave every now and then.
It doesn’t seem, or feel right, but it’s more economically viable so that is how things work.
P.s: I got a 3 month internship in this place, I’m now on my second year. When someone comes up with a better offer I will walk, in the meantime I keep my CV in good terms and my saving’s account empty.
It’s a great point. And a few people have tried to do it, if not in exactly the same way (ie. a whole ‘youth team / dept) When I was at Dare we set up Dare School to try and get bright young things in. We had five people - we would have liked to have the full eleven-a-side but there simply wasn’t space.
I guess the other thing is like football the powers that be want results quicker than ever and it takes time to unearth the next Beckham (or Fabregas as I would prefer).