Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category:
Really good stereotypers
Recently, I’ve been working on a minority-focused campaign, and it’s done nothing but made me ask lots of questions. Now, for a typical white guy working in the ad industry, I am blessed to both work for a minority-owned firm and have very candid relationships with several black people I work with, which means they will give me nothing but honest feedback on whether or not an idea is treading too close to that mythical line of offensiveness. And for our whole creative team, that’s an invaluable asset. But this process has made me analyze the way other brands flail in their attempts to market to segments by ethnography instead of demography. All that’s to say: I don’t think anybody is getting minority-targeted marketing right.
5 out of 100 is pretty sad
In the most recent issue of Fast Company, they released their list of the 100 most creative people in business. Of the esteemed 100, only 5 of them work for a company that does “marketing” of any variety:
32: Lee Clow, TBWA
39: Greg Hahn, BBDO
59: Noah Brier, Barbarian Group
81 & 82: Karin Hibma & Michael Cronan, Cronan
So, um, wow. I thought we were supposed to be the most creative people in business? What happened here? I thought marketing was the marriage of creativity and business; that we were tasked with creatively solving business problems; that the greater ad industry was the helm of creativity. Not so, according to FC.
For this, I believe there are 2 reasons. The first is far more jaded and less plausible, but requires thought, nonetheless.
1. Is it possible that the marketing industry is far more isolated from the rest of the business world that the people we consider “rock stars” of the industry are really little more than peons in the greater business world? I think it’s highly likely. Look more closely at the names chosen. Clow is an obvious pick, since he is the Michael Corleone to Ogilvy’s Vito Corleone status. Throw somebody in from BBDO, since that’s about the only agency that most people have ever heard of (courtesy of foppish depictions of ad agencies in film. I loved Alan Alda saying “BBD and O” in What Women Want). Do ten minutes of digging past Crispin, and you’ll find Barbarian Group. And, throw in an under the radar name like Cronan, and you’ve covered your bases. And make sure you leave out Bogusky. FC has had an absurd man crush (much like most of us in the biz) on AB for quite a while now. After the big splashy feature last year and the full page blurb 18 months ago, people will begin to think they pump him up because Microsoft (CP+B’s big ole client) has a pretty hefty media buy with the magazine.
Plausible? Eh, maybe. Probable? Sure. If you’re a tad jaded.
Or, there’s the other option.
2. It’s more obvious than ever that the ad industry as a whole has grown embarrassingly stale. Most of our business models are as stale as the rehashed rehashed ideas we continue to sell clients and expect them to throw money at us because we’re creative. At least we tell the we are.
For me, this theory holds a lot more water. Think about it, the basic agency model has barely evolved since the 1960s. Watch Mad Men, and you get a sense of what most agencies are still like that. (Creative team + Account team) x Media team = Agency Model. Outside of a few noteworthy shops (Mother, Creative Orchestra), we still hire people who do one thing well and throw them together with other people that do one thing well and expect a certain outcome. And we as a group are still held creatively hostage by the invoice that our clients may or may not sign based on how the last client meeting went. Until we break these two basic molds, marketers will never live up to their potential.
We should hire multi-talented, smart people who are both creative and business savvy. We should work with clients that respect the value of a good strategic partner, but first we must re-earn that title. We still have a lot of work to overcome the Charlatan stereotype that we will do or say anything for money, because the reality is that stereotype is still resoundingly true.
So, why is it that if we are so creative that we don’t focus that energy on our own business model? I have 2 explanations. 1. It’s scary. 2. Most advertising/marketing folks are bad businessmen. They mostly don’t understand it, outside of the context of a brand. If they did, things would be way different.
Hopefully, it’s just the first reason. But I have my doubts.
Is Twitter the next MySpace?
Does anybody else remember how awesome 2005 was? The economy was rolling, jobs were plentiful and MySpace was all the rage. It was everything. Marketers all over the fruited plains were making sure their brands had a MySpace page. People were blogging on how MySpace was changing the industry. It was almost as awesome as the Adkins Diet.
Now, raise your hand if you still even use your MySpace account any more. Thought so. This is precisely why I feel like Twitter will inevitably fade out of relevance in the next 5 years. Granted, I feel like marketers and agencies alike need to engage in social media and know how to properly wield it as a tactic in their overall brand strategies, but what’s the breaking point? Seeing the numbers for Twitter’s growth (something like 1400%) are troublesome for those who think it’s gonna be bigger than advertising on the television set. It’s a great tool and it should be used wisely, but make no mistake: Twitter has a shelf-life. And when it gets so saturated with your mom, your pastor and your high school English teacher that consumers start to leave, then something else will inevitably take its place.
However, I feel certain that Twitter hasn’t even come close to reaching its zenith. It’s got a long way to go down the monetization path before it gets oversaturated. People are just now figuring out how to make money off of it, so until Apple or some other worthy, cash-laden suitor makes an offer, it’s safe to work into a basic strategy. But I am afraid too many people are leaving agencies only to start social media companies who’s business model is based on the idea of twitter being relevant indefinitely. Well, I hate to break it to you, but it will fade from relevance.
Many of these agencies are also predicated on the idea that social media is right for every brand out there. Also, a farce. Many solid brands have no need of social media because their target audience is almost wholly not online. But no worries. Somebody is inevitably pitching social media to them.
I am a huge fan of the practice as a supplement to good marketing strategy, but as I’ve often stated, don’t make it the focal point of your strategies or of your agency. And especially not on one social media outlet.
My Presentations at insightory.com
So, I was asked by the good folks over at insightory.com to post some of my presentations. My deck on employment branding called “Causality” is currently the key insight. Check them out when you get a chance.
The client relationship
I often ponder the ad industry. Where it’s going, who’s going to be the next big player and what’s wrong with it.
Many times nothing comes of it, but today my ponderings drifted into a far more philosophical territory. What truly makes a good client relationship? What is a client’s ultimate loyalty to? Is it the cost of doing business with you, whether high or low; is it the location of their ad agency, whether local or NYC; is it the quality of the service or the quality of the creative; or is a combination of all of these things. But beyond the why, the real point of ponderance I had was, “why does a client choose to stay with you?”
See. The boys from Sterling Cooper now how it's done. A good looking CD.
There’s one type of client that I like to refer to as a “Golf Course Account” or the type of account that simply picks their agency on the golf course. That’s the kind of account that agency principle’s love and creatives despise. When the client relationship is based on nothing more than an inferior handicap, a few Michelob’s and a wager on a missed putt, there’s nothing that awesome creative and strategy can do to save a business when a better schmoozer in a foursome comes along next time that dude is at the country club. It’s a dangerous way to construct an agency and an even harder way to keep talented people around. They want to win business on the merits of their work, not on the ability of their boss to shank a drive.
Read more »
Best customer complaint letter of all time
I wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t. Matt Lane Harris penned this gem of a letter when his Mr. Coffee pot fritzed out on him for the last time. As a writer, I can easily say that I have never read a better customer complaint letter. Ever. And this dude is a art director.
mr. coffee,
i love coffee. so not long after graduating college, i congratulated myself with the nicest maker i could afford: the URTX85, (purchased at a Target) i was like a proud parent. i showed it off to friends and neighbors. check out this sleek new model. check out matt livin’ large. i just dropped a 50 spot on a coffee maker.so you can understand the pain i’m feeling at having to rip the thing out of the wall outlet and hurl it into the backyard this morning. i didn’t get coffee this morning and that hurts too. but i couldn’t suffer the abuse that the URTX85 continually poured out. no not one more day.
i’ll explain:
since day one, i’ve gone to the coffee maker anticipating a cup of recharger at the beginning of the day and found (surprise!) a carafe overflowing with coffee. Why? because at some point during the brewing process, the filter collapsed, sending coffee and grounds into my pot and clogging it up. not only would i have a terrible mess to clean up, but no coffee either. this happened at least once a week. seriously. for a year. today was the third day in a row. it was either me or the URTX85. i chunked it out the door. it felt good. i scared the dog.i know what your gonna say… FILTER. but i got that covered. it was the suggested filter for the model.
you know, i’m not that rational in the morning. i need that coffee. find me about 10am and i’m a whole new person. i’m just thankful this happened on a saturday, and i dont have to report to work after such a traumatizing spectacle.
now look, im not expecting yall to do anything. i bought it a year ago. i didnt fill out the card. (who fills out the card?). but i had to tell someone about this rage inducing design flaw. (but the carafe is strong as an ox, hurled into a concrete and wood scrap pile and NO DENT).
i’m not prone to these sorts of action. but i love coffee. deny me and suffer. today the URTX85 suffered. it felt good. it was better than coffee.
im kickin around, “should i replace it with a cheaper mr. coffee product?”, should i go to another brand?i’m looking for swiss-like prescion in a coffee maker. if the $50 model wont cut it, what will? help me mr. coffee, and give my warmest regards to mrs. coffee.
sincerely,
matt lane harris
Guess what? They sent him a new coffee pot.
Great new spot from Sprint
I really like the new spot that Sprint put out this week. It operates under the web-based philosophy of providing content to someone instead of just cramming your product down their throats. It’s graphically nice, it’s smart and the final claim of the 4G network is not lost on the consumer. I actually stopped fast forwarding my DVR and rewound it to the top of the spot, just to watch it. THAT is the ultimate test of a spot.
Nicely done.
We killed the media?
It’s often nice to see one broken business model throwing stones at another broken business model. That’s kind of like the Unions blaming the auto industry for making their cars too expensive because they pay their workers too much. But for anybody to insinuate that the Rock Mountain News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, et al, are declaring bankruptcy and floundering in their own ink because advertising sucks, you’re more stupider than I thought.
In today’s New York Times, their Idea of the Day references an article from TechCrunch and another from The Economist to bolster their case that the shuttering of newspapers across America is all the fault of advertisers. This notion suggests that our work is bad and people don’t want advertising, therefore we’ve been the crutch that fed their fetid business model for years. We’re already the most hated profession in America, so why not pile on a bit more, eh? It’s way easier to blame somebody else. In Disney’s animated film, Meet the Robinsons, the antagonist, Mike “Goob” Yagoobian, makes this great comment: “Hmmm, let’s see: take responsibility for my own life or blame you. Ding, ding, ding, ding! Blame you wins hands down!” So for anybody associated with newspapers, this is so much easier to do. They could look at their archaic business model or the fact that they’ve all become opinion papers instead of journalists, but I think they would much rather find somebody else to blame. And under the current “blame somebody else” zeitgeist, it’s perfect.
The tenuous relationship between ego and creative
So, it’s no secret that most good creative directors carry around an often hulking ego on their shoulders. But the question that I have to ask is , “Why?” Is it that our profession attracts those who can only be described as “assimus maximus” or is it that that particular character trait is necessary for the job.
I personally think it’s both and neither. Lemme explain.
Ego is quite possibly the most destructive force to unleash on a creative department. When acds and ecds and ccos all start seeing who can pee the most on an idea, 99 times out of 100 that idea gets turned into a horrible rendition of its initial self. I think the two most recent Bud Light campaigns are most likely a great example of that. I think most ad campaigns from big shops are like that, with the exception of a few. Anytime I see a spot on tv that’s not focused and creatively misses, I always believe that somebody’s ego either willingly sabotaged somebody elses work or somebody’s ego got in the way of good work making it on air. I’ve seen it first hand where really smart creative gets rurnt by a higher up who thinks they know better. They pull a ten year old trick out of their thread-bare quiver and ramrod it into a good concept. I’ve got a reel full of spots like that.
And then there’s the other side of this coin. Sometimes, that big nasty opinion is necessary in a room full of creatives. It’s what Aaron Gresham and I have come to describe as the “Voice of God.” I’ve found that it’s almost imperative to have an edge of some kind so that people know they need to respect that opinion, and not just because your title says they do. You have to know more about a subject matter, and you have to have a demeanor that demands respect, which requires a nice balance of ego and confidence.
Book review: Billy
While on vacation this past week, I read Albert French’s seminal work, Billy. From a literary standpoint, the book was very good. Set in the rural hallows of Mississippi in 1937, the story revolves around Billy Lee Turner, a 10 year old boy who kills a 15 year old white girl in quasi self defense. The book chronicles his capture, conviction and eventual execution at the hands of the white establishment. Throughout the novel French maintains a mastery of the language throughout the book and tells the story from an intriguing and compelling point of view. The plot, which careens toward destiny even from the opening pages, gives the reader hope that what seems both eminent and gut-wrenching might not actually happen. And while I can praise Mr. French for his literary prowess, I have to harshly critique him for writing that which he does not know.
I grew up in Mississippi, a fact I am proud of despite everyone outside of the state telling me I should be ashamed of. Albert French never lived in Read more »