Name a great organization, and you’ll find two different and complimentary skill sets behind its success.  One skill set is about vision, strategy, and entrepreneurship.  The other is about planning, conscientiousness and systematic effort.

For decades now, agencies have attempted to weave both of these different skill sets into the same person: the account executive.  With just a little securitization, it’s easy to see why this is an impractical expectation. Most humans simply aren’t built with both sets of skills.  In fact, the tendency to be good at either one or the other is a psychological trait most of us are born with – not simply a preference. 

And now, with the advent of digital at the centerpiece of the agency business model, the need to have dedicated roles in the areas of brand strategy and brand management is more critical than ever.  The complexities of managing a digital assignment eclipse anything traditional account managers have ever done in the realm of traditional media.

Here’s a simple way to think about these two jobs:

Brand Strategy	Brand Management
Define	Deploy
Plan	Perform
Ideate	Integrate

Achieving excellence at these different but complimentary skill sets is what defines greatness in organizations.  At Hewlett-Packard, Bill Hewlett had the “strategy” skill set, complimented by David Packard’s strong “management” skills.  In the film world, consider the necessity of having a skilled producer who can bring together the needed talents and resources to make a great film.  That’s a very different skill set from the director, who is concerned with how to tell the story.

Resistance is futile

Most agency executives have a natural resistance to the idea of splitting the account management role, mostly because the majority of agency leaders today came up through the old system.  But the world has changed.  Being in “accounts” in the days of Mad Men is a job that doesn’t really exist in the same way today.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for this new structure is to address clients’ chronic concerns about lack of proactive thinking from the agency.  “Lack of proactive ideas” is routinely cited as one of the main reasons for switching agencies.  There’s simply no way agencies are going to be able to improve in this area simply by trying harder.  There aren’t enough hours in the day for an account executive to manage 30 projects, respond to 120 emails, and participate in 10 phone calls AND also provide a constant flow of proactive ideas to their clients.  Even if there were such super humans who possessed these two VERY different skills sets, they simply wouldn’t have the time.  Agencies simply have no choice but to move in this direction. 

Identifying the right people for the right roles

The fact is that over 80% of the work in a typical agency is related to the brand management job—the work that revolves around production, execution, distribution, and coordination.  So an agency naturally needs a lot more brand managers than brand strategists.  Usually the ratio is about 3:1. 

How do you know who’s right for which job?  If you’re an agency leader, you already have a pretty good sense for who in your firm is best for each role.  Here are some of the leading traits to consider:

Characteristics of an effective Brand Strategist	Characteristics of an effective Brand Manager
Insightful Subjective Perceptual Synthesizing Comfortable with ambiguity and paradox	Logical Objective Organized Systematic Accurate

In your firm, you undoubtedly already have most of the people you need to fill both of these roles.  In Ignition’s experience of helping agencies transform to this new model, we find that the majority of account people (all the way up to management supervisor) self-identify as strategists.  That’s because when asked the question, they assume that brand strategist is the “senior job” and that brand manager is the “junior job.”  This attitude is a relic of the way they were raised in the business, where account executive trainees started in the traffic department and then graduated through the ranks of account management.  Each promotion and title change would take them closer to the role of “strategic thinker.”  An account supervisor was assumed to be more strategically talented than an account executive. 

This sequence of events is as illogical as it is ineffective.  It’s like saying to a talented art director that if you work really hard, someday we’ll make you a copywriter.  Brand strategy and brand management are two different skill sets, and they now deserve to be considered as two separate but equal career paths.  The necessary mindset from management is that brand management is not a stepping stone to brand strategy, and that one job is in no way better than the other.  These are two different functions within the agency, and you can be just as successful in one as the other.  Both career paths should offer the same opportunities in terms of title and salary advancement. 

Project management as a lead discipline

Major digital agencies have been operating in this mode for some time now.  At firms like Razorfish, project management is a highly respected discipline staffed with some exceptionally talented people.  In consulting firms like McKinsey, it takes an MBA to earn the title Project Manager.  Agencies must change the mindset they have around this title and function.  It has nothing to do with who is junior or senior in the firm, any more than a producer is subservient to a director on a film set.  If anything, it’s the other way around.

Agencies must implement a structure that allows both disciplines – brand strategy and brand management – to operate side by side, with director level positions in each function.  Members of each discipline can advance through the ranks, receiving increases in responsibility, title, and pay as they go.

Here, then, is a basic list of roles and responsibilities for each function.

Role of Brand Strategy	Role of Brand Management
Identify KPIs	Lead scoping process
Plan strategy	Manage internal development
Develop briefs	Align resources against needs
Manage research resources and providers	Manage deliverables
Ideate with creative and media partners	Allocate talent
Leverage insights	Orchestrate teams and agency functions
Provide expertise on brand and category	Assure profitability through pricing and scope management
Uncover opportunities	Leverage technology tools to enhance effectiveness of project management
Grow business	Secure approvals and assure compliance
Champion new initiatives	Spearhead collaboration with partner agencies
Etc.	Etc.

Executing this new structure

In order to implement this new structure successfully in your firm, you will need to answer a set of detailed questions about who does what in order to avoid overlapping roles and responsibilities.  To do this, make a list of the major phases of work that are typical for your agency, then make deliberate decisions about which role is primarily responsible for each step in the process.  Your chart will look something like this:

P = Primary responsibility  S = Secondary responsibility

	Brand Strategy	Brand Management
Discovery
Leading the discovery process	P
Identifying brand touch points	P
Monitoring competitive activity	P	S
Identifying scope of value	P	S
Developing scope of work	S	P
Conducting secondary research	S	P
Supervising and analyzing primary research	P
Developing and presenting brand and consumer insights	P	S
Development
Initiating new assignments and creating jobs in the system	S	P
Developing strategic plans and recommendations	P	S
Developing creative and connection briefs for major campaigns	P	S
Developing creative and connection briefs for projects		P
Compiling job specifications		P
Setting up briefings		P
Briefing teams about strategy	P	S
Briefing teams about logistics	S	P
Presenting major programs and recommendations	P	S
Presenting finished work for approval		P
Developing project schedules		P
Prioritizing client work		P
Developing client business and growth opportunities	P	S
Generating business-building ideas	P	S
Facilitating integrated, cross-functional solutions	S	P
Maintaining regular contact with clients	S	P
Execution
Identifying needed assets and resources		P
Integrating agency functions and services	S	P
Managing overall workflow		P
Reviewing work for accuracy and compliance		P
Approving strategic direction of work	P
Obtaining necessary legal and other clearances		P
Obtaining necessary internal approvals		P
Updating job production progress in software system		P
Handling client disputes and negotiating resolutions	S	P
Distribution
Tracking and monitoring client deliverables		P
Monitoring media channel placements and schedules		P
Reporting
Issuing and updating status reports		P
Organizing and conducting status meetings	S	P
Budgeting and Billing
Developing spending recommendations	P	S
Managing client budgets	S	P
Presenting pricing to client	S	P
Reviewing and approving invoices		P
Negotiating with client about changes in scope	S	P
Measurement
Identifying metrics of success	P
Overseeing measurement of metrics	P	S
Analyzing and reporting metrics	P	S

Developing a stronger project management discipline, staffed with skilled and dedicated people, is absolutely essential to the future success of the marketing communications industry.  We’ve moved well beyond the simplistic world of print ad production.  And way too much agency profit slips through the cracks of the current account management systems and structures.

On the strategic planning side, clients are clamoring for more thought leadership from their agencies.  In fact, they are virtually up in arms over the fact their agencies are only reactive, not proactive.

So if you like the idea of higher margins and more satisfied clients, implementing the brand strategy/brand management structure will help get you there as fast as anything else you can do right now.

Related content:

• Moving to a project management approach »