Mind the Gap: The Surprising Differences Between UK and U.S. Agencies
Enjoy this Q&A with our newest COHN Helen Hoyt about her experiences and insights on the differences between American and British agency life
Helen Hoyt is a one-of-a-kind, magnetic marketer who started at COHN earlier this year as an Account Director. She’s electric, insightful, fearless and just the absolute model coworker and colleague, and we’re thrilled to have her join our team at COHN. There’s also another fun fact about Helen that doesn’t show up in a bio: She’s from England, and her diverse and worldly background has shaped her as a dynamic marketer throughout her career.
Because we’re all a bunch of Anglophiles at COHN, we thought it might be fun to pick Helen’s brain on the differences in marketing, culture, agency life and client life between the UK and the U.S.
1. Let’s start with the big one—what’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed between working at UK agencies and U.S. agencies?
What I love about working in agencies in the U.S. is no matter what your title is or how junior you are, the scope of a project is fully understood and exposed to all levels of the account team.
Back in the UK, things like SOWs were only for the eyes of directors and above, and that wasn’t something you really pushed as a more junior team member. I guess you could say that role hierarchy is less formal here in the U.S., and I think that’s a really good thing. It enables the ambitious, more junior account people to get stuck into the why at a much earlier stage in their careers. I had an Account Executive at my previous agency supporting me with writing business cases and scopes of work for one of our clients. I really don’t think this would have happened, had we been in the UK.
One thing you do have to learn quickly is that job titles do not have the same standing on both sides of the pond. In the UK, an Account Executive is pretty much the entry-level position at an agency; whereas here in the U.S., it is a more senior role, as there are Assistant AE’s and Account Coordinators that would fall below it. We don’t have the position of Account Supervisor in the UK, and that doesn’t quite translate to a Senior Account Manager. In fact, I would say a Supervisor is more senior, but an Account Director in the UK is more junior than an Account Director here in the U.S. See, it’s confusing!
It took me a while to figure out what level I was at and what roles I should be applying for when I first got here. All that said, I think titles are taken a lot more seriously in the UK and I like that over here, it’s all a bit more relaxed and fluid.
2. How do client relationships differ across the pond? Are UK clients more formal, or do Americans take the crown for being buttoned up?
The industry itself attracts a certain personality type—one that is typically outgoing, positive, approachable and energetic! I would say this translates across the Atlantic, and I haven’t come across any major differences in clients whether they are British, American or from anywhere else. Everyone wants the same thing. We are all working towards the same end goal and that doesn’t change culturally. That said, I think reserved personality types are more accepted in this industry in the UK, whereas here in the U.S., I feel you have to be outspoken to get noticed.
I had a client once based in Texas and really enjoyed learning about Texan culture, as I feel it’s unique to the rest of America. I found them to be super friendly and easy to work with. So far, I have found clients from the East Coast a little more direct and brusque.
I think it really depends on what company your clients are working for, the nature of their product and the culture of their organization that really determines how formal things need to be. If I were to generalize, I would say that UK clients are typically more formal and indirect, while U.S. clients lean toward being more casual and direct.
3. Creatively speaking, do you think UK agencies take more risks, or do U.S. teams push the boundaries more?
It’s not so much that UK agencies take more risks. I think it’s more about what audiences want and expect from advertising and this does differ across the two countries. Culturally, advertising in the UK will lean towards a more smart, subtle and tasteful approach. In the U.S., it seems more accepted that ads are shouty, sales-driven and exaggerated.
The UK ad industry is more heavily regulated – it’s also very common for the British public to complain to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) who regulate everything on TV, print and digital. You cannot get away with saying things like ‘our product is the best in the market’ without backing it up with proof in the small print. I find there are fewer rules here in the U.S., which leads to more misleading advertising. You often see on billboards over here bold statements like ‘best in the world’ or ‘biggest in the U.S.’ These are claims that are very unlikely to be true but this practice seems generally accepted by the U.S. public.
I was working on a campaign for Range Rover Sport back in 2012, and I remember the creative team being very frustrated in the early script development process that they were not allowed to show the car being driven fast, as that’s a hard NO in UK advertising. The spot was going to run globally but because of the ASA’s regulations around automotive advertising, the creative team had to get imaginative with how they portrayed a sporty car not going fast! They landed with ‘Positivity Charged’; a visualization of the car’s creation in an apt feat of engineering and science inside The Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The beauty of the ad is that you don’t really know what it’s about or what car brand it is until the end. This is a classic example of a more subtle approach to advertising that I think you see more of in the UK than you do here in the U.S.
4. Agency life can be its own culture. What surprised you most about the day-to-day vibe at U.S. agencies compared to the UK?
Gosh, this is a tough one because I think agency culture can really vary depending on the agency itself, and whether it’s independent or part of a global network. When I started working in the U.S., I’d had a pretty significant break from the industry (something to do with marrying an American, having two kids, losing my mother to cancer and a global pandemic), so I was expecting to find myself a little out of my depth and playing catch up. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how familiar it all felt, which gave me comfort. The only real difference I noticed was the increase in Zoom calls. That took a bit of getting used to! One thing I have noticed is that over here in the U.S., there does seem to be more meetings. Often there’s a meeting to discuss the meeting! I feel like in the UK, we just picked up the phone or hashed it out over a cuppa tea in the office kitchen. But this is more likely because we were physically together more pre-pandemic. I never got the opportunity to work remotely in the UK so a lot of my experience has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is pre-pandemic and thus, not a direct comparison.
5. How about pitching ideas? Do you find the approach to presenting work and winning clients differs in the U.S. vs. the UK?
I am not sure it does. I think this is more down to the client you are working with and the culture of their business or where they are from. In the UK, I worked on Reckitt campaigns for Finish and Airwick, and our clients were based in New Jersey. London is such a multicultural city to work in so you are dealing with colleagues and clients from all over the world. This is truly wonderful and gives you such a great insight and exposure into different cultures which I love.
Here in Colorado, I’ve had to learn about how Americans living in the Western United States like to do business. I have personally found it slightly slower-paced than what I was used to but I know that’s not the case in New York agencies!
In terms of pitching ideas, I think the U.S. puts more effort (and budget) into this process. This is likely because the client budgets are bigger – a national brand in the US has a much larger target audience than a national brand in the UK (which is closer in population size to the state of California).
6. If you could steal one thing from UK agency culture and implant it here in the U.S., what would it be—and why?
The pub! But this doesn’t just apply to agency culture. I miss UK pub culture in general. It just doesn’t exist here. The pub is essentially an extension of a person’s home – the word ‘pub’ is short for public house so think cozy atmosphere, informal and friendly. The pub plays a big part of agency culture (in London especially) as it’s where everything social happens! It’s where you go for drinks after work, where everyone has their leaving do, where the office Christmas lunch is, where you take clients for drinks or lunches – the nicer pubs for that! You’d even go to the pub to flesh out creative ideas or ‘work’ on that group presentation!
Another thing that ties nicely into the pub conversation is the ‘happy hour’. In the U.S., a happy hour is simply that. I have found that the happy hour would normally take place in the office itself here in the U.S. and everyone would head home after one, maybe two drinks. But us Brits can’t just drink for an hour… so it doesn’t really exist in the UK which can be a good and a bad thing! Happy hour is several pints in the pub and getting the last train home. In my early days at Oglivy, we’d head to the subsidized bar that was inside the office most nights. It’s amazing how much stamina you have in your early 20’s!
I feel like the brewery needs a mention here. This is a fantastic part of Colorado’s culture (and the U.S. in general) that has not yet taken off in the UK. As a parent of young kiddos, we rely on breweries to get us through the weekend as they are by far the most kid (and dog) friendly place to hang out with friends while enjoying a beer. They actually beat the British pub on this front!
On a separate note, I would make biscuits (the British kind) a compulsory item in the office kitchen as a cup of tea without a biscuit to dunk it in is a little sad. I once took a pack of Digestives biscuits to a client meeting in Texas which caused quite the stir as everyone thought I had brought tasty laxatives to the meeting!! A classic example of where words can have different meanings, depending on what country you are in. I guess McVitie’s are not concerned with the fact they sell a biscuit (sorry cookie) that most Americans assume is a laxative! Their sales must be doing fine everywhere else in the world!
