Kevin Chesters Laments Agencies Becoming “Slimy Spivs and Yes Men”

Kevin Chesters believes agencies that have eroded, devalued, or deprioritised trust – those that have become “slimy spivs and yes men” – are those that will struggle most to grow and win.

“Successful businesses in our business are about trust between clients and their partners. I think agencies have done themselves no good over the years by turning into this weird industry of slimy spivs and yes men,” he said. “All the best work comes from the best relationships.”

The former strategy head at Ogilvy, Wieden + Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Dentsu spoke with LBB last night during a visit to Sydney, and following an event he ran with Advertising Council Australia. 

“We're a manufacturing industry, we're not a service industry,” he added. “That's where it goes wrong.

“If you're in the service industry, you just say yes to things. It might be a terrible idea to say yes to a client about something.”

True trust means “they [an agency and client] can be honest with each other and just say no once in a while."

“You have to say no to people – all humans need people to say no. All businesses go to shit when people don't say no. You see it with Musk, if no one tells you you're wrong, you start to believe you're right. That's not the same thing.”

Of course, for agencies looking to find success in the first place, he added, “making good work has always been the centre.”

“It's funny, you look at all the agencies that are successful and they're not successful because of something they've stencilled down a wall, or because they've got more employees or more offices in more places. They're successful because people go, ‘they do really good work. I like that work. I want some work like that.’”

In saying that, it’s lazy and inaccurate to claim good work no longer exists.

“Whenever I hear people talk about how ‘there's no good work anymore’, I'm like, ‘Have you seen the reel for Mother lately? Or Wieden, or Droga, or Special, or Motion Sickness, or Colenso, or Clemenger?’ Go look at the good stuff, stop obsessing over the fact there's a lot of landfill, because there always has been.”

Despite turbulent times and economic headwinds dominating industry discussions, Kevin is firm in his belief: “I don't think we've ever lived in a more exciting time for creatives, creativity, or creators."

“There is a tendency with humans to look on the bad side of things, it’s what kept us alive. We have six primary emotions, five of them negative – so whatever era you work in, you always believe somehow it was better 20 years ago and everything's just gone to hell in a hand basket.”

He laughed about his first day of work in 1995, turning up an hour early while his new boss turned up an hour late. “I was sitting there waiting for him to arrive, and I opened up an industry magazine to pass the time while I waited for him. The first article I read, the headline was ‘Advertising is Dead’. And thought, ‘Oh, fuck, is it?’

“I've been reading a version of the article once a week for the last 30 years. The industry is still growing at 5% year on year, there's still brilliant people joining it, doing brilliant things with brilliant people. I think basically everyone should just cheer up.”

Brands and the marketers who grow them have “always been looking for” one thing from the agencies they work with, he proposed: “a partner to help them answer the questions they can't answer themselves.” 

“If you could do it yourself, you’d do it yourself, right? It doesn't happen in other industries. You go to your dentist and when he says, ‘I think you should have a filling’, you don’t go, ‘Well, I don't think I should do it’. If you're employing someone who is an expert in communications, then what you should do is listen to them when they tell you what to do in your communications.”

For those facing the brunt of industry hardships, however, he said the most resilient agencies are those that draw on persistence, optimism, and belief.

“If you don't believe in the aim, it's very fragile and comes apart quite quickly. Resilience is about asking, why am I here? You need to feel there's a purpose, that we're not bullshitting – and I don't believe in blind loyalty, I don't believe agencies are families. I think your family is your family.”

Kevin spent three years establishing the London arm of mcgarrybowen, working as executive planning director. While “it was no one's idea of a cool agency, we believed.” That mindset helped the team put the agency on the map.

“For about 18 months, we won 16 out of 19 pitches, and we pitched against the likes of Mother, BBH, Wieden. We won because we believed in what we were doing, and we thought we were undeniable. We’d walk into rooms thinking, ‘Who the fuck are these guys? Say no to us if you want, but it won't be a good idea if you do. You're better off saying yes to us because we're gonna do good stuff.’”