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A topic of conversation last week was the Netflix series Emily in Paris. Some team members were big fans, so we knew we all needed to check it out. Not only is the story itself really cute, especially with the love interests, but everyone seems to enjoy eagerly awaiting Emily’s next marketing and social media ideas for her clients! We all know this is just a show since typically 9 out of 10 ideas that real marketers come up with end up on the editing room floor. But we enjoy hearing about her successes and why they worked. So many social media posts have magically popped up after watching the series about how someone has a client and is wondering why their social media isn’t like Emily’s client’s and how they can grow theirs like they do on the show? So we thought it would be fun to discuss if working in the same industry as Emily is realistic and if anything relates back to the real world. Let’s take a dive into working like Emily in Paris.
Every Idea Won’t Be a SuccessClients know their business and usually have an idea of what they want. Emily’s clients just let her usually do whatever. Plus, she is in a very niche market. Now, that is not to say there aren’t agencies that just work with clients in the same industry, but our agency works with various industries. We like the different strategies and the different clients we work with.
But it just blows our minds how Emily’s ideas just fall into her lap and always succeed. Sure, we all have awesome ideas. It is likely that is why we have a job! But some of her ideas are just so off the wall. We really don’t ever see them working in the real world, especially when a majority of the time she has to get it done in less than 24 hours. Which leads us to approvals.
Besides the client and Slyvie (her boss), it doesn’t seem like anyone else ever has to approve any of the ideas. In the real world, there are usually a lot of other people that need to give their approval, provide their edits and then the last person in the chain of command has to bring all of those ideas together into one cohesive plan. It usually takes longer than 24 hours to do all of this.
It is good to have an approval chain of command. Mostly so other people can tell you if there is a mistake, or if after editing the same footage for hours on end you missed something. But also because we all do our own jobs. Where we work, we have photographers, videographers, content creators, designers and web developers. We all are specialized in our job, but all have to work together to ensure the client’s project gets done. Emily is basically a one-woman-band, doing all of the work herself. And we never see her actually putting together the work. It just magically appears! Television magic!
But oh how we all wish it was! Our agency is based in the U.S., so maybe working in Paris is like this. Who wouldn’t mind the “everyone starts late and takes a long lunch” work schedule like they have? But we all have to remember this is a show. It is an optimistic look at the industry and doesn’t give a fair perspective to high school or college-age people who are thinking about a career in this field. It doesn’t provide us with the fine details of everything that is hard with social media or the hours that it takes to put together content. Everything just comes easily to these clients of Emily’s, whether she is with the Gilbert Group or the French fashion firm, Savoir.
Plus, Emily started out with like 48 followers. After posting a couple of selfies, she gained upwards of 20,000 followers in what seemed like 3 weeks. Nah – that isn’t real life. That just doesn’t happen unless you are somebody, and Emily isn’t a somebody.
Some clients do have really big budgets. And there are agencies who specifically will only work with clients that have huge budgets. And some clients have smaller budgets. Either way, a budget is a budget and marketers have to work within those guidelines. Unfortunately, marketing is one of the first things to get cut from a budget. So we have to work with the funds we are given and strategically create a strategy that will work and meet the client’s needs and expectations. Emily gets to work with million dollar budgets which is awesome and we love to see what she does with infinite funds.
With marketing comes strategy and that strategy branches out to advertising, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. They all should work cohesively and integrate together. Social media isn’t just about one post on Facebook. It is about making sure that post also reaches clients on whatever other social networks they have. And it isn’t just about numbers. It doesn’t matter how many people like a post. Did those people buy into whatever the post was about? Did they click a link that you included in the post? What was the call to action? That is what is important! We sometimes get to see how many people like posts that Emily does, but mostly we just see her idea put into action and we don’t hear the outcome. In the real world, there is an outcome which gauges campaign success.
Just like any superhero movie, some far-fetched futuristic time travel drama, or whatever alien show is popular, those aren’t real and neither is all of Emily in Paris. While we absolutely love the show, it is meant for pleasure, and it is not a pin-pointed, factual biopic of what working in the marketing industry is like. That being said, we do have a lot of fun when we work. We are a unique group of people and feel like we would be great teammates for Sylvie, Emily, Luc, and Julian. Plus, who doesn’t want to go to Paris!? We’ll go!
