Back To School: An Ad Man Looks at Teaching

Les Margulis spent 25 years at BBDO New York as International Media Director, and then settled with his Australian wife, Ann, in Sydney. However, he couldn’t quit the business. The lure of Bondi Beach or the famed Opera season just wasn’t enough. Les formed his own company, Margulis Media Group, and has been doing some serious globetrotting with a seminar series on best practices for media agencies.
His recent assignments have taken him from Kiev to Moscow to Dubai to TelAviv to Johannesberg, and next to Gainesville, Florida where he will serve for 4 months as a Freedom Forum
Professor of Advertising at the University of Florida.

He has found, however, that in his role as “trainer,” he is doing far more learning than teaching. In this new column for The Internationalist, Les Margulis will offer his perspective of how the concept of media is changing around the world, and he will share ideas and best practices from
his various stops around the globe.

I have returned to the University, not to attend but to teach. In my career, involvement with the training programs of the junior staff has been a constant priority. While some senior ad agency staff find it difficult to add training to their personal lists of tasks, I always found rewards in it. Passing on an enthusiasm for the business and raising the bar high enough to challenge the industry’s future leaders, never fails to pay off.
Given that talent is such a key issue for our industry, my new role as professor has me thinking a lot about preparing the next generation of advertising professionals. Without question, our industry must recognize that its future is rooted in starting earlier in the training process. Young people who choose this profession should know something about how to succeed in advertising before the even applying for their first job. Universities teach knowledge, but I am seeing first-hand how a career advertising professional can make a difference by turning theoretical knowledge in to practical knowledge — and igniting students’ passion for the business.
Universities have changed a lot over the years, but the students at heart may not be so different. I am meeting countless young people who have fallen in love with advertising as I had many decades ago. And the ones who will succeed have an understanding from Day 1 that this business is about ideas and the ability to sell them. It is about brands building relationship with consumers. Not so different from the day I started... “The man in grey flannel suit” may now be wearing Dockers and Topsiders and Google has replaced Life Magazine as the source of information. But the core business is the same.
There has, of course, always been a criticism from some that universities don't produce graduates who can function as professionals tomorrow. I don’t agree. My University is open to close collaboration with the industry and guest lecturers are highly sought after, because they bring the real world of the advertising business into focus. The majority of the faculty have real life experience: the ad professors worked in agencies, many in New York and Chicago; the journalism professors worked on dailies, and the broadcast instructors worked either behind or in front of the cameras. The traditional bow-tied Ivy Tower professor is long gone.
My students are taught to respond, as we professionals do, creatively, analytically and intelligently to problems and situations that they encounter in the everyday workplace. Many schools today have internal advertising agencies and real world clients who pay for their ideas.
Universities now know they are a business, and like all other business, they are constantly exploring both revenue enhancement opportunities and cost-effectiveness. They must offer the students the best practical education or the kids will go elsewhere. With “distance learning” more common, students can take a course from any university in a center of excellence located thousands of miles away.
It is here at the university that the students get an early opportunity to see the big picture. We know that once on the job, the time dedicated to actual classroom learning is limited. Young people are trained to be task oriented and not idea driven. (“Do this chart!”)
The solution is for a more integrated relationship between industry and the university so that graduates will have had exposure to both the theoretical aspects of the business, as well as the practical issues of their day-to-day client contact. I advocate that the industry start with more involvement at the university level.
Get to know the students, and then hire the best. Offer graduates more than a desktop and a new IP address, pay them well. The world of high tech, new tech and the Internet has broadened the opportunities for employment. If we don’t connect early with our young enthusiasts, we risk becoming a second rate industry. And in a business modelled largely on best practices, we cannot afford anything less than first rate.