Josh Wener: From ad agency junior to marketing fixer

Josh Wener doesn’t frown, or fret. Nothing seems to faze him at all. It’s a bubbly disposition paired with both feet firmly on the ground.

He’s not your typical advertising agency ponytail. He’s taken the road less travelled in the industry, one of substance and a low tolerance level for gobbledygook.

In fact, he’s abandoned agency life and fashioned a new kind of job for himself; a fixer, in marketing.

Wener has always embodied an industrious spirit. “From a young age, if I wanted something, I had to work for it,” he shared.

He started his career the usual way, as a junior in an ad agency.

Hurdles

Despite facing hurdles due to a lack of traditional agency qualifications, Wener trusted his abilities.

“I had no agency qualifications, but I believed in myself, and I knew I would be an asset to them,” he said.

This self-belief led him to carve out a career path in full-service creative strategic marketing agencies, learning and growing through diverse roles over 18 years. Wener has seen and done a lot of it.

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From heading up production through to client service and fulfilling creative roles, he got to fill his cup and today it runs over with knowledge and on-the-spot ideation that comes as second nature to him.

“If you have a challenge,” he said, “call me. I’ll fix it.”

When the pandemic changed the business landscape, Wener found an opportunity amid the chaos. Everything was in flux and money was tighter than a drawstring on a pair of swimming trunks.

Side hustle

He had the foresight to start a side hustle a year or two before, anyway, because he said, in the advertising business, you never know when the company you work for could take its last breath.

“I leaned into Sharp Pencil, a business that I started as a safety net, drawing on childhood lessons of working hard and fuelled by a passion to make a difference in a world that was no longer what we considered normal.”

Wener transformed one of the rooms in his Orange Grove home into an office, a space that he loves, because it’s not a traditional four-walled office.

It’s a creative space within a home where, he said, the love and support from his wife and children, particularly during difficult aspects of his journey, gave him the strength to forge forward.

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Traditional agency life could have ever been considered normal, he said. It’s a highly competitive world where agencies can be made by a big client win, or decimated when it loses its largest piece of business.

Wener said traditional agencies are a complex business.

“Agencies have overheads, and people in the creative space don’t come cheap.” It’s an ebb and flow business with competitive egos and experts around every corner. And, he said, the world of advertising and marketing is changing again.

This time, not the cash flow, but the creativity factor. That’s all changing.

“Creativity at the moment is at a crossroads – there are more tools available to enable just about anyone to explore their creativity, and yet, with technology moving so quickly, that it also diminishes the very media mediums that we engage with.”

Marketing fixer

Sharp Pencil saved his life, and it’s growing.

The idea of being a “Marketing Fixer” has captured his own imagination and that of his growing roll call of clients.

He defined what he does as “someone who has knowledge and experience to either know or find the solution to a problem that has multiple factors, including time, money and quality”.

This he pairs with achieving maximum impact with minimal cost, and Wener advocates clear planning, realistic expectations and making the most out of limited resources.

Turning pennies and pounds over, and over. Relationships with clients are also changing. “Clients want to be seen and heard. There is so much noise out there that just being seen and heard is sometimes the most difficult.”

Shine brightest

His favourite sector is retail and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), where he believes the challenges and opportunities allow him to “shine brightest”.

And taking all of this into account, he donned his trademark check-beret and settled into business mode. He said relationships with clients remain key, but days of billing at supersonic levels are over.

Previously, the advertising industry could bill for as much as a creative sneeze, but the global economy has a cold, and in South Africa, it’s closer to a bout of flu.

That’s why being a “fixer”, he said, held so much appeal for him. “I take on tasks where time is not always on anyone’s side and knowing the answers to How?”

His rule of thumb? “Never take on anything that you can’t deliver.”

Despite his success, Wener acknowledged self-doubt was a challenge.

“The greatest career obstacle is probably one that we probably never overcome.”

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