If you’re an account executive, that may not be the most positive of headlines. A bit Daily Mail really. Chin up, read on – this is not a deliberately gloomy look at the role, it is a pragmatic one, and one that may help turn it into less of a shitty job.
The account executive role is a diverse one. Meaning AEs tend to get a diverse amount of crap to deal with. And a wholly diverse load of meaningless, low-value, borderline-inane tasks that are rarely valued, if even recognised, by clients.
This is not intended to be a lamentable ode to the account executive. Far from it. It is an attempt to signal loud and clear that what PR agencies have come to view as the comfy, conventional dogsbody role on client teams has to change – as part of the broader change that all PR agencies need to go through in order to modernise.
The account executive, as we know it, is becoming extinct. Dead as the friggin’ dodo.
The reasons I say this are, perhaps, cold comfort for agencies that have not yet confronted this, but at least should give some encouragement to account execs who have already figured this out and are taking steps to address it. They are:
1. The account exec is the backstop who is a relatively cheap resource, so agencies throw them at problems (“just go and make the calls and get some coverage”) in the absence of more experienced people being applied to come up with solutions to those problems.
2. The account exec typically does too much manual and laborious PR support work, which is now simpler and cheaper to automate. Press clippings books, detailed reports that nobody reads, shipping things from A to B and completing errands that have little or no purpose (and could be avoided by simply being brave enough to question why they’re being done) are the sorry stomping ground of the account exec. That needs to change.
3. The burden of admin and support work (that nobody values and is a bitch to do) means that account executives can take longer to learn about the media, learn how to represent their clients’ brands to the media and gain the experience required to become a good counsellor. There’s a Catch 22 though – no clients want execs let loose representing them until they’re house trained to do so, yet agencies don’t just want execs non-chargeable while they learn the ropes. This is the crux of the account exec dilemma, and if we’re honest it always has been.
The reality is that the traditional account executive job specification is a tough launchpad into a career. You start with bags of enthusiasm but no experience and little practical knowledge. You are focused on becoming an account manager, so beaver away gaining expertise and experience despite never really being trusted by clients and colleagues to do so, at least not under your own sole steam. Then when you finally become an account manager you are thrust into the fray of managing everything day-to-day, even though you’ve often been working in a shadow capacity as an account executive.
So if account executives are soon to be no more, what should replace them, and how can agencies make that role pay? I don’t have all the answers yet, but my thinking is we need a new kind of account executive, one that is media-savvy (albeit to a lesser level than more senior colleagues), can develop the right content and contribute ideas, understands the basics of campaign planning. And most important of all, understands and has a genuine interest in the changes happening in the media – and wants to develop the skills that will be necessary for working with it in the future.
I have some thoughts about how agencies can fast-track executives better, and make the training and development input required commercially viable. It doubtless needs better collaboration with academia as well. But I’ll save that for another blog post.
To finish off this one, a few thoughts on what skills and aptitudes account executives, or whatever the role is called, will need in the future:
1. Media-savvy: an interest in, and knowledge of, all relevant media. Including reading the daily newspapers, blogs and being active on social media platforms. Meet journalists, read their work, know what’s on the front pages each day.
2. Editorial nouse: understanding what contents works and why, and being able to recite examples of best practice and creativity that have been really effective.
3. 360-degree planning: you may not be developing or running plans solo yet, you need to understand how the whole PR lifecycle works, from the up-front insight through to ideas generation, content delivery, results that influence reputation and how the effects can best be measured.
4. Write and develop other content: if you don’t enjoy words and images, you’re in the wrong job. Not everyone will have great written English skills and the ability to make ideas and messages come to life through what they type, but they have to be keen to learn and have a thirst for it.
5. Be interested in PR: not just in your next job move or what other agencies do as little perks, but how PR is modernising, examples of really powerful PR, forming a view on where it fits into the marketing mix as things modernise and meet as many other PR people as you can.
Get all of this right, and the role as we currently know it will become far more interesting, far more beneficial for careers long-term, and an integral part of modern PR, rather than a bit-part bystander.
Account executives of today should not fear the changes that are coming to their job roles, they should tackle them head on. Challenge themselves, challenge their employers, ask lots of questions, snack and feast on media, learn how to make great content, see the bigger picture.
These are changes that will see the best rise up faster, and the can’t-really-be-arsed brigade fade away. But they beat the hell out of clippings books.
