Everyone dreams of hitting the big game-winning home run. You picture it: Cameras are flashing all throughout the stadium. The crowd is ready to burst with excitement. Every player on both teams is fighting to conceal the mounting pressure they are feeling.
You swing, and send the ball deep, deep, deep over the second basemen’s head. You arrive comfortably at first base with a single. The air goes out of the stadium for a second, but then it builds again as the next player comes up to bat.
This isn’t how the …

Nothing kills innovation more than someone in a meeting making a “good point.”
Good points are made by people in the meeting who really don’t need to be there. People with vague job titles. Their job is to make these good points whenever someone important is in the room. Someone like a client or a CEO. These good points sound something like this:
“According to our research, humor doesn’t resonate with our target market.”
“Our audience is known for loyalty. This work doesn’t acknowledge that.”
“I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, but the work …

Because you treat them like morons. Instead of saying you’ll sell more of their shit, you say you’ll…
-increase household incidence and purchase frequency.
-emotionally connect with our target.
-build brand loyalty.
-activate consumer passion.
-increase consumer engagement.
-enhance the shopper experience.
-build market share through relevant communication.
-build greater presence and greater exposer among shoppers.
-increase brand awareness through aggressive media and guerilla tactics.
-motivate consumers by embracing their trust.
-increase brand loyalty by enhancing the consumer experience.
-build relevance among younger audiences through social networks.
I didn’t make these up. I pulled them off of one presentation that some agency did …

A wise comic-strip beagle once said, “There’s no sense in doing a lot of barking if you don’t really have anything to say.”
Somebody get this puppy a job in advertising. Please.
These are the words we all need to live by, agency and client alike. People think if you shout loud enough or make something clever enough, it will make people think you actually have something worth talking about.
More likely, they will either be annoyed by you or simply forget about you.
Think of the greatest ads or campaigns you’ve ever seen. …

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.
You’re in a meeting with a client. They are excited about some new offer, product, upgrade, whatever. You listen intently. Then they start talking about the advertising.
And that’s when you feel it coming. You may even cringe a bit in preparation.
That’s when they say they want the advertising to be like Apple’s or Nike’s.
First of all. Why does everyone want their advertising to be like someone else’s? Shouldn’t companies be striving to create their own identity?
Secondly, why do you think you can have …

Advertising is a team sport.
A relay race is a good metaphor.
When it works well, clients run the first leg then hand the baton to the account guys. The account guys race along and hand it to the strategy guys, who, in turn, deliver it to the creatives, whose job it is to get it across the finish line.
Sure, sometimes the baton gets dropped.
Sometimes a runner falls.
And sometimes everything goes right and you still get beaten.
That’s the business.
But there is one mistake that is really unforgivable: when one discipline doesn’t hand …

I’ve spent a little bit of time working on the client side of the business. Not much, but just enough to give me a little perspective.

It’s all about the money.
This is not a judgment. It is simply a statement of fact. You work for a large corporation, chances are you get a large bonus when you hit your numbers. Not an ad agency sized bonus, but serious money.
No wonder clients are so nervous about some of the work we present. There is no incentive to take a big risk, the …

Is good advertising always good?
By good advertising I mean the stuff that either wins awards or gets recognized around the office.
Is it really good though?
Is it working for the client? Is it selling anything? Is it making people think differently about a product?
So many creatives get hung up on doing something cool that they forget the main goal of our jobs—to sell shit.
We can make as many excuses as we want, like ‘I’m protecting the integrity of the brand.’ or ‘It’s going to get create a ton of word-of-mouth.’
Maybe.
But I’ve …

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate my big salary, the nice hotels, the fancy dinners and the expense reports—but I’m a creative bitch and I’m addicted to compliments. I need compliments from my creative director. I need a visit from the CEO to personally tell me how great I am. I need to hear it from the client. And, I want the client to say it in the meeting. Not just nod his or her head and later on tell the account executive they were happy. I need instant awesomefication. …

There’s a trend in marketing circles between agency and client. It goes something like this. Client wants to find the very best agency they can to help them market their wares for the best possible price. Client puts out an Request For Information (RFI) to find an appropriate suitor. Client then invites a smaller number of agencies to a Request For Proposal (RFP) that amounts to that agency making their case for why they should be selected. If the client is indecisive, of low moral fiber, or just not very …