Stereotyping Modern Agencies: How Much is True?

TV shows and movies like “Mad Men” and “What Women Want” glorify the stereotypical advertising world and further pigeonhole marketing agencies and the people who work in them. These depictions tend to lean heavily on the creative side of marketing and cast all advertising professionals as real-life Don Drapers. 

While what you see on the big screen isn’t reality, that isn’t to say there are no relevant stereotypes of modern marketers out there.

The stereotype that all agencies are adult playgrounds with pool tables, Wii stations, basketball hoops and Ping-Pong tables is basically true. What is lost in that image is that the marketing team barely touches them. Sure, they may take a 10-minute break every day to play a doubles match of Ping-Pong, but they ate breakfast and lunch with one hand while the other was tied to their desk. 

Copywriters–frequently known as content marketers in today’s digital marketing world–carry the stereotype that they spend one quarter of their time on social media, another quarter coming up with ideas, and the final two quarters reading The Onion and dreaming about writing for The Onion. 

While thoughts of The Onion may percolate in the back of these professionals’ minds throughout the day, they’re too busy creating content–blogs, articles, infographics, owned media and video–to ever fully form a coherent Onion-esque daydream. As for social media, that’s someone else’s gig.

Developers are stereotypically the nerd-boys at marketing agencies. The type that is likely to Google “how to talk to a girl” and wear tech T-shirts that no one else gets. They’re perceived as being glued to their computer, which invariably contains a file of stupid tech questions from co-workers. 

As for the validity of this stereotype, we’ll never know. Developers are invisible enigmas. Maybe they’ve been working from home all this time?

An art director is pictured as the creative genius who spends all day “tweaking” and “bumping that up a bit.” He doesn’t actually create anything, but he’ll stand over your shoulder and make suggestions while you do. 

In reality, the art director puts in just as much screen time (if not more) than the rest of the department, not only “tweaking” but also creating. He has to coordinate constantly with the copywriters/content marketers to accurately execute the creative content. As for the girl at the bar, he might have been offering to help her move. He’s considerate like that. 

Stereotypes about marketing agencies exist for a reason–just don’t believe everything you hear. 

Alex Kirkwood writes for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. She writes for many other clients as well. Follow on Twitter