You're crazy. Saul, you've been hiring the wrong suits if that's your experience. And if your proposition hangs off having half an agency team, then good luck... because you are therefore a glorified freelance operation?

I do sympathise with Saul as recruiting the right people can be a nightmare as there are lots of deluded halfwits out there who think they are good account managers/handlers. Letting your creative's 'project manage' is questionable. Good creatives need to be 'fresh' on a brief.

As a creative, I'd rather not spend my time generating estimates and invoices, purchase orders, forecasting, contact reports etc etc. Thank god for account handlers.

That's interesting Saul. So how do you charge your creative's time out. Do you apply different rates depending on what they're doing? Economically speaking that won't work, unless

a) you pay your creative's a low wage
b) your creative's are only worth a lower wage
or
c) your creative's are actually designers, in which case their wage is lower

Either way, it's appealing when you're small, but I don't understand how this business model is scaleable (assuming growth is part of your plan of course).

Anonymous 10:24.
Your comment "Thank God for Account Handlers"..this could be the end of advertising as we know it...what have you done?

"Our creatives are both well fed and well noursihed, nor do they..." - your copywriting skills aren't serving as a showcase for your creatively driven approach Saul.

'The company says it has changed its identity to make more of its key proposition: "the agency without suits". It is run entirely by creative’s with no account handlers or client service staff.'

Sorry, it's taken me this long to stop laughing.....funnily enough, I have worked with many award winning creative’s/teams in the largest agencies in the world as well as small regional creative agencies and found that they often lack the commercial breadth or the interpersonal skills required to maximise the client/agency relationship or the profitability of the account

DDB is the most creatively awarded agency in the world and planning/account handling is the bedrock of the agency, if Saul is right in his business model, clearly Sir Martin, Trevor, Dean etc have been getting it wron g all these years....

I am afraid this sounds, as one of the previous contributors mentioned, like a bunch of spoilt creative’s who don't want anyone messing with their toy (even if account management could actually add some value and insight).

I think Saul also confuse account management with planning? Sounds like they also have too much time on their hands, shouldn't creatives be busy being....creative, rather than the process driven part of account handling and developing the business....just a thought.

Can't see this business doing anything more than irritating most of the readers of The Drum going forward, still don't see how changing the name from speak2 to Other Agency highlights the usp that they don't have account management....or is it just me?

Good luck to the clients I say........

Exactly Saul.......they recognised that man cannot live by creative alone and built relatively successful businesses on specialist skills (inc suits who can also have an understanding of human behaviour, market forces, media selection and on and on) not jack of all trades master of non.......

So I am glad we agree on one thing.........

I was under the impression that The Other Agency was run by creatives? Saul, you describe yourself suspiciously like a suit....maybe a little bit 'management' rather than a juice flowing creative chappie, something smells a little bit 'off' or do you divide your time between the P&L and have a little play on the scamp pad as well?

I think insulting an entire profession is both insensitive and naive. A successful agency is about a successful team, and everyone in the business matters, from finance to creative to account management.

It's fine to run an agency without account management if that's how you want to structure your business and you can make it work for you. Equally, it's fine to have it as a proposition. What you should be doing is "selling" the benefit of a creative led business, not the feature of a missing department.

Sadly, you've opened a can of worms, and handled this press release in a brash way. This unfortunately verifies a lack of clear thought or strategy, something "suits" are experienced in tailoring.

The waiter and chef analogy is surely missing the point.

Sure "chefs we can wait tables. While the waiter only dreams of being the chef..."

But how is the chef going to have time to cook any food in the kitchen if he's having to wait the tables too?

The waiter and chef analogy is surely missing the point.

Sure "chefs we can wait tables. While the waiter only dreams of being the chef..."

But how is the chef going to have time to cook any food in the kitchen if he's having to wait the tables too?

You say "insulting an entire profession is both insensitive and naive." I think NOT challenging an entire profession is lazy and denies innovation.

Man, you just don't get it....it's not 'insensitive and naive' it's arrogant, and looking at the FindaProperty.com work or the pieces featured previously...your proposition of spending the budget on great creative clearly just isn't working!

If they spent more time on delivering 'great creative' rather than project management, perhaps then your proposition might hold water.

Rather than insult the models of many very successful agencies, many very creative agencies, why not just hold your hands up and admit you can't interview and find high caliber account management that can add value to your business.

If your proposition is right, surely AM would have been removed from the agency model a very long time ago. Saul, just take your medicine, you have handled this release very badly, when in a hole stop digging, it really doesn't do your credability any favour

Blessed are the Project Managers.

Why didn't they just call themselves Suitless?

I thought that was the name and I liked it.

For a company which doesn't employ 'suits', the name 'The Other Agency' sounds more like the name which an agency which only employs 'suits' would come up with.

I find this interchange very interesting. I recently had the 'pleasure' of listening to a creative slate the suit profession and I have to say it was one of the most bitter and childish abrasions I have ever heard. This from a creative that I had previously had a lot of respect for.

What it underlined to me is a blinkered lack of understanding and respect that both 'sides' have for each other and the fact that any excuse will do to have a pop!

The waiter and chef analogy really sums this up. "You hate me 'cos you isn’t me" seems to be the message here.

In reality, that opinion is neither productive, collaborative or even very informed. You might as well tell the person who fits the breaks to a car that their role in the process is of no value simply as the individual does not contribute to the overall design.

Creatives, for the most part are decent human beings and so are suits. if creatives want more from suits (and vice versa) then stop bitching and become active participants in your own rescue...

...if you genuinely have all that talent and intellect, use it to educate, inspire and support your colleagues.

Whether Saul has it right or wrong is neither here nor there and it is his business to live or die by, but he is creating a talking point and a USP to take to like-minded clients! So good luck to him and everyone else!

It doesn't get better if we don't all try and get better!

I agree, he should have called it something more fitting with his selling point!