Account executives and the art of the presentation
Updated: 16 hours ago
Curated by Sara Al Jazaery, Creative Director & Iraq Country Manager
You will never become a successful account executive unless you learn to make good presentations. Most of your clients will be corporations, and you must be able to sell campaigns to their committees. Your presentations must be well written and well delivered.
Do not make the common mistake of regarding your clients as dopes. Make friends with them. Buy shares in their companies. But try not to become entangled in their politics. Emulate Talleyrand, who served France through seven regimes.
Always tell your client what you would do if you were in his shoes, but don’t grudge him the prerogative of deciding what advertising to run. It is his product, his money, and ultimately his responsibility.
In your day-to-day dealings with clients and colleagues, fight for the kings, queens and bishops, but throw away the pawns. A habit of gracefully surrendering when you stand on trivial issues will make you difficult to resist when you stand on a major issue.
Don’t discuss your clients’ business in public places. Keep their secrets under lock and key. A reputation for leaking can ruin you.
Learn to write lucid memoranda. The senior people to whom they are addressed have more homework to be read by executives who have the power to act on them.
Live read from "Ogilvy on Advertising", made me want to get up and write it before I forget to because of how accurate these commandments are. An account management can be a custodian or a contributor, but man it's so satisfying be to a contributor.
Thank you David Ogilvy!
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