Why I miss George but not Bruno

Over the years I’ve worked on a lot of different accounts with many, many clients including George and Bruno who were both real clients.

Now, here’s why I miss George but not Bruno.

While George didn’t believe that advertising could help the Canadian division of the international Brand he managed, he kept an objective, open mind and listened to reason.  Every call, letter, fax or e-mail from George began with ‘Dear Frank, could you please’ and ended with ‘Thank-you very much.’ He showed me, our agency his team-mates, the franchise and his customers how common courtesy, common sense and the common touch can be used to build a brand-loyal service business one customer at a time by addressing our basic need for acceptance, dignity and respect.

The collateral benefit of George’s approach included the following – and more:

• he brought out the best in me as an individual,
• he encouraged me to become a great, not just a good, agency director,
• he offered our Agency the benefit of the doubt when things went wrong and heaped on the praise when things went right,
• At George’s meetings you parked your ego at the door because the meetings probed and challenged emotions and intellect to ensure all stakeholders agreed with, could support and would defend the decisions that were made there.
• We all worked long hard for George, and the brand he led and managed.

In the end we proved George wrong. Our promotions worked so well that we often ended the campaigns earlier than planned. George was happy to be proved wrong!

Bruno was a very different man. He had a sign on his desk: “If anything goes wrong – someone will die”. Professionally he didn’t like Partnerships. He had one with his wife, and that’s it. He expected people to do as they were told, no questions asked. Bruno liked being in charge and in control. It was important that we all thought that Bruno was brilliant - even when he was being a dick.

While Bruno was a regular guest at our agency, and was always available for a cross country TV shoot, lunch, dinner and golf, to make the most of any event the spotlight had to be on Bruno from start to finish.

Bruno did whatever it took to make his numbers and did not care who got thrown under the bus when additional traction or a lighter load were called for. He never expressed appreciation because, in his mind, we didn’t exist. Or if we did, only by his grace.

While people like Bruno may have a role in our society, it’s definitely not in any play that involves marketing, advertising - let alone customer service.

Great ideas are most often discovered where a key operational insight and an emotional contradiction collide like a pair of freight trains. Getting to that intersection takes intelligence, leadership, teamwork, insight and trust.

In the end Bruno lost most of the business that advertising brought in because his operations could not consistently deliver on the claims and promises that he insisted on making in advertising.