The talent wrangler
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Tony and I have known each other for decades. Before joining FCB he had an illustrious career in advertising. At FCB we worked together in the relaunch of Nabisco in Latin America. After FCB, Tony switched gears and joined GRN –Global Recruiters International— first as President of GRN Calabassas and currently President of GRN Sarasota. At GRN he concentrated on the ad industry and quickly became one of the stars of the company. Today, Tony is one of the best know recruiters in the ad industry and, especially, in the Hispanic ad industry.
Defining moment - I'll have to go back to college for this one. At college I sort of thought I wanted to be a copywriter. But what really galvanized it for me was when this one professor of marketing named Lee Adler, great guy, was talking to us about marketing and positioning brands and so forth. And he said this, “you're not selling a quarter inch drill bits, you're selling a quarter inch holes”. And it all kind of snapped into focus for me. I love psychology. I love to understand the way people think. I love the way marketing works. And that was the defining moment.
What changed that you would have never expected? - You know, I thought when I joined an agency and moved to maybe another agency a few years later, that I'd always work in the advertising industry. And I thought I'd retire from an agency. That didn't happen right about when I was knocking on the door of 50. I got bounced a couple of times and it was the first time in my life that I ever got laid off from a job.
Another huge change is that clients are demanding much more of agencies because they could measure things. And it became much more of an ROI world. And I think that also caused procurement to start to batten down the hatches with agencies and really, really squeeze the industry.
How did you cope? - I still needed to make money. So I decided “I have to change jobs, I have to do something completely different”, which got me into the recruiting side of the business. I'm now an executive recruiter calling on agencies, talking to agencies, putting people into advertising. We got trained in the art and science of recruiting. My love has always been advertising. So, I recruit in advertising.
I saw some stat recently that said people will have five to seven different careers in their lifetimes well, yeah, this is my second but I don't know if there'll be a third. We'll see what happens.
One thing that, surprisingly, has not changed? - I ran client services at La Agencia de Orsi back in 2004 and 2005. And at the time, we were trotting out a presentation called Hispanic 101 to educate clients on the Hispanic market and facts and figures and growth and the opportunity. That same conversation is happening today, which astounds me. We haven't gotten beyond that.
What would you say about older candidates to a CEO or CMO who is hiring? - Hmm. Yeah, see, that's a tough one because I'm motivated by making the placement. And sometimes agencies don't, you know, don't want to hear about someone that's maybe not in their line of sight.
I'll get specs. And this is sort of like the kind of hidden ageism, if you will, where they're looking for someone with 12 to 15 years of experience. Do the math on that. You're talking to someone in their early 30s with a lot of energy, an up -and -comer, a diamond in the rough. And when it comes to salary, well, you know.
So, I'm torn between, making a sale, and putting the right person in there who I think could really do the job.
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