(Mary Lee) So Peter, you've had a wide range of experience in the advertising and marketing industry. Tell me a little bit about your career - how you got started in the industry and different types of positions you've held through the years.
(Peter) I started my life as a commercial photographer In San Francisco but decided I didn't want to work for agencies and publications for various reasons. So I moved back to New York, where I was from, and went into the advertising industry. During the first 16 years of my career I worked at an agency meeting that most of you have never heard of called Dancer Fitzgerald Sample. But if you listen closely to the TV show Mad Men they are mentioned. It was the largest agency in New York, and was bought by Saatchi & Saatchi in 1986. I spent 16 years with the agency, working in their in New York, Minneapolis, and London offices on a variety of businesses including General Mills, L'eggs Pantyhose, Northwest Airlines, and business development.
After that I founded two internet companies. That company got sold and I moved to Oregon and opened my own ad agency, which I ran for 10 years. Now I get to live in Mexico and I help advertising agencies around the world grow their companies.
(Mary Lee) That's quite a varied career. Sounds like you are putting all that experience to great use now, while enjoying a nice lifestyle in Mexico.
(Peter) Just so you know, there is life after your first job!
(Mary Lee) laughs
(Peter) In fact I'm sure many of you know that in the old days people went to work for blue chip companies, like General Motors, where they worked for 30 years until they retired. Today many people have multiple careers, and work for multiple companies. I think your first job is important, but it will definitely not be the last.
(Mary Lee) You've been on both the agency and client side of the advertising business. You've been with start-ups and you've been with large, established agencies. You are now working with agencies of all shapes and sizes. Certainly your career has given you a lot of perspective, so what do you think it takes to be successful as an advertising or marketing executive?
(Peter) Well, the word I always use is curiosity. And I've always judged people, whether they were people I worked with or people who worked for me, on the basis of their degree of curiosity. Marketing, which advertising is just one component of, but marketing in general, is the business of selling products and services. And in order to sell those products and services you have to understand the customer, and I think the personal attribute that gets you there is curiosity. Think about Amazon, which is a marketing company but is also, obviously, a sales platform. Amazon is constantly looking at their algorithms, at their design, and at the shopping journey their customers go on. So, the best people at Amazon, which is one of the most successful marketing companies in the world, are people who are curious. They have to be curious about who their customer is, what that customer's shopping experience is, and what can be done to further enhance this experience. That kind of curiosity is what leads to great marketers on both the client and the agency sides of the business.
(Mary Lee) The nature of the advertising business has changed since the days we focused on print, television, radio and outdoor. Online advertising, social media and the internet has changed the way consumers are influenced, how they access information, and how they shop versus the days when you and I first entered the business. There are so many different paths that someone starting out today can take. So, if you were entering the advertising business today, what are the opportunities that you would be most interested in pursuing?
(Peter) Well, the business today is very labor intensive. Social media, in particular, is a vacuum cleaner of information and content. Content being the operative word. So, I would say that if I were starting in the business today, I would absolutely understand social media, which means blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to name a few. It's important to really understand and be able to leverage those kinds of tools. I can't imagine an interview now with a marketing company or an advertising agency that a person interviewing a candidate isn't asking them about their social media skills. Now, remember that social media is a marketing tactic. It's not the most strategic side of the business. But that's where many entry level opportunities lie. It's often the area in which a young person is going to get their first job.
(Peter) Another area that is incredibly strong is data and analytics. It's understanding the important role that data plays in marketing. Depending on when you're listening to this, in the past week Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook was grilled in Congress about how much data Facebook accumulates about people and then uses to sell to advertising agencies and clients. So, one has to understand how the whole data part of the business works, in addition to understanding how to develop content. Now, some agencies are still making television commercials and radio commercials and so forth, but I would say as an entry level job, you need to look and sound like you really get social media.
(Mary Lee) In light of this reality, do you think that the best first job opportunity lies on the agency or the client side of the business. Or, for that matter, with an analytics company.
(Peter) Well, there's a world of choice here. So, there are advertising agencies that are generalists and there are advertising agencies that are specialists. For example, there are some agencies that only work in mobile advertising. There are client side jobs where you work for technology platforms, like a Facebook, or or an Amazon. However, not every company is a Facebook and Google, although they control a huge amount of the business. There are a lot of start-ups as well as smaller companies that are, in fact, already public. So, there's a world of opportunity out there.
That said, getting that first job is critical. I would spread your examination of the industry pretty far and wide. I mean, you basically have to kick some ass if you're wanna get that first job. But, the key is just get the first job. It's like an actor getting that first role.
(Mary Lee) Would you agree that someone looking for that first job should also consider casting a wide geographic net?
(Peter) Yes. There's business everywhere. I would say that in the best of all possible worlds, you want to work for a company that looks like they have their act together. When pursuing that first job, one does not have to move to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles and pay big rent. If you can keep your cost down, that's great. There are huge opportunities everywhere.
I'm sure everybody understands that if you play for the Yankees, even Double-A ball for the Yankees, you're gonna look better than if you play for Kansas City. I'm not dissing Kansas City here, but, the more famous and successful the company you work for, hopefully the better the people you work for. I think that may be the most important thing of all - who your boss is, because you can work at a great company but if your boss is not a winner, you've got a problem.
But, the bottom line is, get that first job, and start getting the right experience. If you decide you want to leave that company at least have one or two years of experience. The only thing I would start to worry about in a candidate is if they jumped companies too often.
