Now, More than Ever, Madison Avenue Needs Unified C-Suite Leadership for Strategic (not Tactical) Transformations

Today’s Madison Avenue leaders — CMOs, Procurement and Agency CEOs — face many of the same kinds of challenges as Odysseus (Ulysses), who struggled to sail home after 10 years of the devastating Trojan War.

(Madison Avenue’s Trojan War — the devastating business effects from digital and social media — has lasted longer than 10 years).

Odysseus, sailing to Ithaca, encountered the Sirens —creatures who sang with voices so beautiful that no sailor could resist them. Men who heard their songs would steer towards the Sirens and wreck their ships upon the rocks. The shore around the Sirens lay white with the bones of those who died there, their skin shriveling on the stones.

Odysseus, warned about the Sirens by Circe, softened beeswax and plugged the ears of his sailors. But given his relentless curiosity, he wanted to hear their music, the promise of knowledge.

He had his crew bind him hand and foot to the mast, instructing his crew that no matter how much he pleaded to be freed, they must only tie him tighter.

Credit: John William Waterhouse, Ulysses and the Sirens, 1891, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Only when the songs had faded entirely did the men unplug their ears and loose Odysseus from the mast. Their strategic voyage to Ithaca could continue.

So it is with C-Suite executives, who are bombarded with the sweet songs of influencers, programmatic media, principal-based media and the never-ending promise of AI efficiencies.

The current lack of brand growth forces all players into “cost-reduction mode” — the use of cheap and ineffective media, the reduction of agency fees and the downsizing of organizations and talent.

CMOs, Procurement and Agency leaders (including holding company owners) need to tie themselves to the mast, and with all the leadership and courage they can muster, to direct their organizations to achieve the ultimate goal: becoming successful at delivering marketing programs and advertising that work to drive brand growth again.

This requires more than “outcome based pricing.” It requires overhauled media and creative scopes of work, increased new product development and a more effective marketing mix of outputs.

It requires fees that are determined rationally for the amount of agency work that brand growth programs will require.

It requires a renewal of partnerships, and an abandonment of vendorship attitudes and behaviors.

Media and creative scopes of work, in particular, need to be diagnosed and evaluated in new ways.

The marketing and advertising initiatives of the past 15 years have failed to deliver anything other than lower costs.

40 out of the top 60 advertisers in the world have grown at only half the rate of nominal GDP growth for 15 years!

It will take the unified efforts of the C-Suite leaders from Marketing, Procurement, Media and Creative to place Madison Avenue’s ship on a new course, avoiding the tempting music of the industry’s Sirens.

They have a vested interest in singing their songs and luring industry players in their direction.

Madison Avenue’s C-Suite leaders need to remain steadfast and solve the larger issue of improving marketing and advertising effectiveness.

O friends! O often tried in adverse storms!
With ills familiar in more dreadful forms!
Deep in the dire Cyclopean den you lay,
Yet safe return’d—Ulysses led the way.

My third book about the advertising industry, Madison Avenue Revisited, is now available on Amazon. The book, which focuses on the evolution of media and creative operations, the effect of holding company ownership and the brand performance challenges faced by clients was launched at Cannes last week.