The 5 stages of Advertising Week

By Shareen Pathak • September 30, 2015 •

It’s Wednesday, so congratulations. You’ve made it halfway through Advertising Week, which despite its name, is only four days long. As with any event that spans 26 venues and includes 200 panels and sessions, there is bound to be some emotional upheaval. Here are the five stages most Advertising Week attendees tend to go through.

Euphoria
It’s finally here. You’ve bought your $400 pass. You’re in New York City. You’ve got your lanyard and darn right, you’re wearing it to bed tonight. Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus says he is there: “I love when there’s a legitimate reason to get senior clients to come to New York from all over the world,” he said. “Saves a lot and gives us invaluable face time. Not to be confused with FaceTime, which isn’t the same.”

So I’m drinking a coffee at work, and I just realized I’m celebrating Advertising Week AND #NationalCoffeeDay. This is truly a party. #AWXII

— Mike Norgard (@yur_friend_Mike) September 29, 2015

Anger
The euphoric state is not sustainable. Eventually, Times Square gets the best of you. You find yourself directing your anger toward all the things that are going wrong for you.

I planned on attending the #AWXII talk w/ Google on micro moment marketing, but the line was out the door & Wifi live stream is horrible. — Marty Swant (@martyswant) September 29, 2015

Carolyn: . The wifi in here:. #AWXII pic.twitter.com/sY15TErLya

— kim yarnell (@kim_yarnell) September 28, 2015

Bargaining
“I’ll go to your panel if you’ll go to mine.” This tactic commonly deployed during bargaining, where attendees try to make it all feel worthwhile. As one Advertising Week attendee and agency PR manager put it, “this is when I tell myself that I can go home if I just sit through one more panel and tweet about it the whole time.”

Disillusionment
The faster you go up, the faster you come down. The free Facebook cookies are making you gain weight and a diet of free Sour Patch kids and coffee sponsored by an ad-tech vendor isn’t very good for you. Plus, you realize that you might not be actually learning anything.

I’m at a seminar about content creation. I really hope the content they create is not as boring as this. #AdvertisingWeek — Danilda (@danestevez) September 28, 2015

Resignation
“I accept that I’ll be in NYC for four days and rarely leave Times Square. The upshot is that if I’m bored, I can swing by the TKTS booth and grab tickets for a musical,” said Tim Leake, senior vp of growth and innovation at RPA.