From Mad Men to Tech Stacks

By Rob Whittle,
a longtime D.C.-area advertising executive who sold
his venerable firm, Williams Whittle, to Yes& and is retiring
after 51 years in the industry. This post is a reflection of the changes
Whittle has seen during his decades in the industry.

Picture Mad Men’s Don Draper, slicked back hair and dark suit, standing in front of executives from Philip Morris in an ideation session.

“There’s got to be a differentiation in your Lucky Strikes from all the other brands,” Draper declares.

“Not really,” counters the executive. “We all cure the tobacco, toast it, and…”

“That’s it!” exclaims Draper. “Lucky Strikes are toasted!”

And so, a winning ad campaign was born. No research. No focus group testing. No running it up the corporate flag pole.

When I started out in this business, scenarios of this type were not uncommon. It was gut feel—how did the words make you feel; did they indeed differentiate the brand? It was a glorious era for creatives, unconstrained by extraneous influences. And if your creative director could beat up their creative director, you almost always won.

To say that’s changed is the understatement of the century. I started when the art department used paste, X-Acto knives, and ordered type for print ads from the type house in D.C., delivered by a runner. When Fax machines were invented, it was a seminal event. In fact. I bought Faxes for all my clients, eliminating hundreds of hours of running ads and scripts back and forth to beady-eyed CMOs.

Now, of course, we’ve been through the invention of the computer; the introduction of the Web; email (Wow! You can really send a photo electronically and not have to schlep it across town for client approval?); AI; and all manner of wonders on a laptop or phone.

Today’s marketing seems to have come down to “my tech stack is bigger than your tech stack.” This puts smaller agencies at a disadvantage because of the significant expense of buying and running technology that clients demand. It’s truly remarkable what those who possess these resources and talents can achieve. Tracking buyers and their habits and reaching these buyers in ever-efficient ways. And while there are certainly specialists who deploy these tools, it amazes me how many folks in an agency understand and implement them from the CIO to the interns. Clients have upped their technology games so agencies better be ready to not just follow, but to lead.

Today’s Don Draper might be the Chief Information Officer acting as agency superstar. There is, of course, creativity in knowing how to deploy a tech stack. It’s not so much about words anymore; rather, how to use code in the most effective way. Who’s got the cleverest method of reaching those niche target audiences with the most effective click bait?

But I miss the days when the creative director declared that TOASTED was the way to claim market share and then the marketplace decided if that was right or not.

PHOTO: Whittle, left, with longtime agency partner, Andy Williams, who died in 2017.