As many of you have emailed me privately praising me for my courage on speaking out and putting my name with the RFP issued by the DC metro. I say thank you.. But… Where in the hell are you in this.. Sitting on the sideline playing politics is just wrong. Secretly sending me emails saying way to go.. And then filling out the RFP and being quiet.. Because you may win? Or don’t want to be seen as a trouble maker.. You are also the same folks that I see at meetings complaining about what a tough town this is to do good work… Well.. wake up.. First.. we are all in this together.. clients, and agencies.. Together.
I have yet to sit in a room with one of our clients and feel nothing but compassion and responsibility to do the right thing for them. If we are your agency we are all..100% in the game.. No side lines and no yes men.. No sir.. mam… That’s not why you hired us.. And it’s not why we work for you.. It’s a team based on trust and respect. And that comes from honesty and total 100% transparency. That way we succeed together.. and sadly fail together. But its together. And that DC starts at the start. If we want better work to happen here, and I do.. Then it starts with being honest form the start. And in this town, that’s with the RFPs… The irony here is that I am trying to get into an RFP being handled by a good consultant and a killer client as I type this. I would walk across the country and write the dang thing with the blood of my worn out feet for this one. I love the product and the way they are going about it.. I know in my heart, that this service will succeed because of this. Regardless of who is hired. It can’t fail because the folks doing the service are good, smart, passionate and want to do it right. I just pray we are right enough. I know we are, but can I communicate the solution well? That’s the challenge… not can I figure out what they are thinking and what they should spend…. Like the Metro RFP… So if you want to fill the metro RFP out, and continue the madness, go for it.. Only one of you will win…and the community will lose.. This is your chance to be heard.. and to say.. I was in DC when the marketing community was strong and changed things.. Wake up.. Speak up.. and improve things. It all starts with you..
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We all have something we get all Mr. Smith about. With me, it’s agencies paying interns (which is the right and legal thing to do). Yeah, sometimes I feel like one lone voice in the wilderness. Interns email me offline to say thank you (agencies sure don’t). But they can’t comment publicly because — I don’t know — maybe they think they’d get black-balled. Fear of retaliation.
Before you get too disillusioned though, just ask yourself is this the way change happens in this town? Based on what else you’ve seen? Because maybe a different approach, e.g., you could pow wow with a bunch of RFP-savvy players who support your view and ask them what to do about it. Take it offline first, see what you come up with. You gotta do what works.
Re: the lack of public response — well, people are loathe to publicly comment on even the tame stuff posted online. That’s one reason why WP & FB put out that “like” feature. Lot less commitment to ask for. So maybe people disagree with you, but don’t want to say so. I disagree, myself, but I did qualify that with saying that I really don’t have experience with RFPs. Not many people are willing to put themselves on the line about anything, esp. something hot.
Or maybe people are on vacation and it’s just not on their radar. You know, the town almost shuts down in August.
Comment by Mary Fletcher Jones — August 4, 2010 @ 11:47 pm
I love you mary, I love that you are speaking your mind and contributing. For the record, we not only pay our interns. 2 this year. We have a program that if you want. You can be an intern for the full 4 years of school. No coffee getters.. You must pick one thing you always wanted to do in marketing, and do it. We help and teach and advise. You get to go on a shoot if we shoot, client meetings, and help. Thats it. We just had one graduate and is a top blogger now in the music business. So hats off to Andrew.. We love our interns… We just hired one while in school will be doing some social media for us as well… shhhh dont tell anyone.. she is smarter than most of us in that world… Its almost like she grew up doing it.
Comment by Matt Smith — August 5, 2010 @ 12:56 pm
You guys rock. Hey and the intern soap box speech wasn’t directed at your agency, although I did call another agency on the mat this week for not paying their interns because I’m just mean like that. And I love interns and all their energy and ideas. And I was an intern once.
Comment by Mary Fletcher Jones — August 5, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
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