I recently read an article in AdAge by Antony Young, CEO of Optimedia U.S., about whether or not relevant experience in the media and advertising world was overrated.  That sparked a number of thoughts for me as it relates to Pile and Company’s business.

Antony was reflecting on college students and their lack of knowledge of traditional media and advanced knowledge of social media.  He wondered how much experience agency media professionals really needed to have.  His arguments for lowering the threshold for experience was interesting, but in some cases not realistic.

There have been many changes in the agency world with respect to the experience of creative people.  Those who have been in the business for a long time were not able to grasp the digital space well enough to develop meaningful creative.  Hence, there was a push to hire younger creative people.  I find it interesting that Antony has now thought of this with regard to media people.  To me, if a media professional knows their trade, they know how to create media strategies to their target audience, whether they are 21 or 55.  As always, they need to build their experience to improve.

Taking this thought process to new business is even more interesting.  Clients require the proposed team to have some relevant experience to manage their business.  This is evaluated by cases and similar things they have worked on, not by how old they are.  I have yet to interact with a client that didn’t feel some relevant experience was necessary.

So my response to this question is no, experience is not overrated.  Agency people and clients alike build experience to be more effective in their roles.