Let’s start at the beginning for those people who don’t work in advertising and aren’t obsessed with Mad Men.

Like most companies, ad agencies are composed of different departments. You’ve got the wacky Creative Department, the schmoozy Account Services Department, the impressions-obsessed Media Department and its cool kid brother the Social Media Department, Production, Strategy and so on. Each one has its own specialty and its own way of helping clients and the agency itself reach its business goals.

Now Creative and Account Services have been duking it out Sharks/Jets-style long before West Side Story. They’re constantly wrestling for control because each department has its own distinct goals—and not-so-shockingly they don’t always align.

Creative wants to make ads that are cool, unique, meaningful and—do I really have to say it? Creative! They want to make work that cuts through the clutter, inspires its audience, is on-brand for their client and looks hot in their portfolio.

Meanwhile, Account Services’ main goal is to please the client and keep winning new projects. They want to present work that the client will buy and be pleased with. As long as the client is happy and quiet and paying their invoices, account executives are happy.

Sometimes the Hayley’s Comet of advertising occurs and these two very different things align in a beautifully magical way. This happens when the client is open-minded, when the account services people trust the creatives and when the creatives are hungry and inspired. When everyone on the team has the same vision, the same goals and the same taste…that’s something really rare.

Naturally some creatives are more client-sensitive and some account people are more creative-sensitive. Personally, I’ve always been…how do I put this…less than account services-sensitive. I’ve always been Team Creative. Team Do What’s the Coolest. Ha! The brief? Whatever. We can do something WAY cooler than this. They might know what they like, but they don’t know what they need! It’s up to us to come up with something great and sell them on it! Let’s make robots and shoot the whole thing in Bali!
 WHAT’S A BUDGET!?

Well, I had a professional epiphany about all this during our wedding planning.

Wedding planning did something very funny. It turned the tables, turning ME into a client. Suddenly I was the one dishing out money and being schmoozed and “serviced” (hahaha, serviced…) and the whole process has been a tremendously eye-opening experience for me professionally.

My favorite vendors are the ones who are proactive. Who get me. Who know what I want. They keep me in the loop but don’t harass me. They never bully me into decisions and don’t act out of convenience or ego. They explain WHY certain things will work or won’t work, and help brainstorm new ideas that I hadn’t thought of. They’re big picture people who actually listen to me and respect me. They get me, get my budget and work WITH me instead of bulldozing me or ignoring me. They incorporate what’s important to me, but use their own experience to give me insight that I wouldn’t have known on my own. Oh also, I ENJOY working with them! I like them!

Then there are the vendors who I dread calling. Who make me feel stupid or silly or poor. They care more about what’s going on with them and their own vision, rather than what I want. And, guess what—that feeling TOTALLY SUCKS. Knowing that someone doesn’t care about what you want or doesn’t care about going out of their way to help you is a lonely, depressing feeling. When they just want to do what’s easy and what’s comfortable for them; it super blows. It makes me anxious and self-conscious all at once…both bad things for a paying client to feel.

So of course now at work, I want to be the fun vendor! The one who is creative and collaborative rather than selfish and hostile with something to prove. Now, when I’m concepting or writing headlines, I try to be more client-sensitive and less self-serving. I try to make it less about my ego and more about what the client wants and has asked for. It’s a tricky balance; the client/vendor relationship. Clients hire vendors because the vendor is the expert. If I knew everything about hair, and I knew EXACTLY how I wanted my wedding hair done and exactly how to do it, I’d just do it myself. Easy. But I don’t have those skills, so I have to hire people who will get the job done for me; who understand my vision and will help me get the results that I want. Beautiful, modern, whimsical non-cheesy wedding hair. So I can tell the hair stylist what I want, but I have to trust that if I want to wear my thick hair down during my summer wedding, she’ll tell me that the humidity will make it pouf out and look flat. I need her to steer me in the right direction and be honest with me about my expectations. We have to work together to make sure I’m happy and they’re not promising me things they can’t deliver.

This teamwork is what it all comes down to. Everyone using their own unique skill set for good and working towards a common vision. When the creative team is rocking it out and the account services team is schmoozing and up-selling and making the client feel confident and excited…that’s the Hayley’s Comet. We need to keep working collaboratively, being sensitive to everyone’s needs and specialties, and we need to push one another to create the very best work and relationships we can. So my next professional goal? To help facilitate more Hayley’s Comets here at work and in my life in general.

But that sounds pretty ambitious. So maybe I’ll just start once I get back from my honeymoon.

Yeah, that sounds good.