He’s known for his hilarious and concerningly accurate Facebook commentary on the media industry, but this time Roy Morgan has shown his serious side with a blistering call-out to leaders…
We are a compassionate and uncompromising industry. We are resilient and unrelenting. I’m writing this, because you need to save us. You need to save me. As an industry we are destroying ourselves from the inside, like a virus. Please, I beg of you, stop turning us into casualties of your battle to the bottom line. Stop doing whatever it takes to win a client. I know we all have global overlords and numbers to hit, but the lower we go, the harder the burden gets for us all to carry, and the harder it is for the industry to survive.
I’m over seeing the smart ones go. I’m over the initiation by fire for the severely underpaid. As the leaders of the industry, support us. Fight for us. Because you set an example for the future leaders. No one needs to work weekends to prove they can control their batshit client, no one needs to cry in the toilets because a grown man who knows better yelled at them over the phone. Enough is enough.
We are a business, and they don’t want us to make money – they want us to be cheaper to save their dwindling bottom line. We are a not a profit reduction – we are people with lives, loves and you, leaders. If clients don’t want to pay for the blood and sweat of your staff, they sure as shit don’t deserve their tears. Unite and agree. Save the industry, but more importantly save our young people.
United by stress is not our creed anymore. I’ve seen tomorrow’s people lost to crawling grey of anxiety and depression. If a client doesn’t see our value and doesn’t think we deserve to be paid for what we do, stop. They can do it themselves. If we need to pitch and battle, let’s fight on ideas, not price – let’s submit that first. A dollar is worth a dollar, but what I ask you all as leaders is, what are we worth? What is the life of an advertising person worth?
More importantly, I call out the Media Federation. Unite us, lay down the law and let’s reign the wolves at the door in. If they don’t want who we are or what we sweat, cry and bleed to give them, let them work the weekends.
Best,
R.M.
