December 16, 2005
AdAge.com blog revised 10/17/05 Title: Yes MantraToday, I sent an admonition to my co-workers. I overheard a couple of “We can’t because…” a little too closely together. A great idea was about to die before it got out the door because of a production obstacle. It left the impression with me that they who felt defeated by ob...
December 14, 2005
As an industry are we getting worse at creating great ads? I feel we may be substituting gimmickry for ideas. Maybe it’s just the cycle of culture we’re in. Hollywood keeps coming out with movies that are remakes of TV shows. That’s the same thing as what we’re doing. Maybe we’ve just run out of creative juice. Maybe w...
December 12, 2005
Small agencies have to become very good at working with microscopically small budgets, small timelines and small staffs. There is small room for error so you have to be good. There’s not a lot of pad in the budget because there’s barely a budget. Small agencies embrace this daily challenge. My employees will scream if they here me utter...
December 07, 2005
Being out of touch with latest trends of culture can be a problem for any ad agency in any city, big or small. I think it is a huge problem for small agencies in small towns. We can easily adapt to a slower pace. Staying in tune is a matter of having the passion and drive to be influential. Our business is about creating new things. We should all b...
December 05, 2005
My partner and I just made a business call on one of the largest marketers in the country. We had 15 minutes scheduled to show them why we should be considered as an alternative to their conglomerate “agency of record.” Two hours later we left with smiles on our faces. It seems they saw all of the advantages of what their large agency p...
December 02, 2005
I was 8-years old. But I was doing it. I stood, legs straddling my shiny new red stingray bicycle. Its black and white checked seat poked my back, urging me to start my run. The road before me was long, steep and straight. I put aside the thought that I had only learned to ride a week before. I put aside that my 6-year old brother was perched on th...
November 28, 2005
Entropy is the dispersion of energy. A battery powers a flashlight. The battery’s electrical charge is dispersed to the flashlight’s bulb filament. The filament glows from the energy and disperses the energy as light. The light travels as far as the energy can carry it before it dims and disappears.Why is an ad guy giving a science less...
November 23, 2005
I drive to work down a little two-lane road that runs along the Rio Grande. It divides dozens of estates and horse farms along its path. There are no stop signs, no traffic signals. And the speed limit is 25 mph. It is very relaxing to take this route to work versus the freeway. I was thinking this morning, while I was cruising along this old cott...
November 21, 2005
A co-worker and I were sitting on a plane the other day waiting to fly home. We happened to be on the exit row so it wasn't long before a flight attendant was standing next to us to ask if we were willing and able to help others off the plane should we survive a headlong dash into the ground at 800 miles per hour.My co-worker, an always-cheerf...
November 18, 2005
“Should we use a jingle?” “Should we have a celebrity spokes-person?” “What's our tagline?”These questions are asked in every initial branding meeting I have with a client. I have this wonderful image of me answering by first jumping on the conference table and then screaming, “If advertising was a wer...
November 16, 2005
Not too long ago I was re-entering the country with a co-worker. As we were going through U.S. Customs my co-worker was delayed by a customs official. I noticed she appeared a bit flustered speaking to him. When she finally came through the station and met me at the baggage loading area I asked what was up. “I crossed the red line,” she...
November 15, 2005
All of our clients go through a Charrette™, our unique planning process that brings all disciplines of the client to the table to help determine brand direction. My partner, Steve McKee jokes with clients that it is their “Brand Therapy.” There is a bit of truth in his joke in that most of our clients actually benefit in ways in ...
November 14, 2005
You may have read in one of my earlier entries that we had to move our offices. Our previous location was in the 300 year-old historic area of Albuquerque known as Old Town. Today we are closer to downtown. The trappings of urban life are not always pleasant. One of my employees just related one of his first experiences in our new office. While pee...
November 11, 2005
I was talking to a friend a few days ago who was an AE at a previous agency where I worked. He said he had been looking into doing something other than advertising. He wasn’t excited about it anymore. I can see why. When we worked together, we were like trench soldiers on the Western Front. Except all was not quiet. We bled to gain a very sma...
November 10, 2005
For his 25th birthday one of my copywriters was given an inflatable basketball and goal by his co-workers. It now adorns a corner in his office. There is something infinitely satisfying about hitting a hook shot while goading him to meet a deadline. All kidding aside, this little basketball goal is quite therapeutic. By bouncing (no pun intended) i...
November 09, 2005
A book I'm reading asserts that marketing is a tool for advertisers to allow the consumer to lie to him or herself. It's done tongue-in-cheek, but it caused me to wonder, am I responsible for someone's self-delusion? Or, are people going to delude themselves no matter how I present my client's product? I also wondered how responsible a small agency...
November 07, 2005
We have a little white board in the back of our agency where the “Quote of the Day” is recorded. Passing by, you can’t help but notice what’s up there. You read and you laugh, wondering from what context the statement was derived. One of my personal favorites was from on of our account supes who said, “I can’t ha...
November 02, 2005
Doing great work means thinking unconventionally. Information outside the industry is more important to opening your brain-flow. This is why I encourage my employees to gain inspiration from places other than our industry ad annuals. They show us where we have been, not where we are going. But I don’t just want my employees to get better at w...
November 02, 2005
Today is one of those I will file in the “paying dues” category. I'm writing a script for a client's internal presentation. Not the most creative opportunity. And pretty time consuming. But it's an important part of working closely with my clients. It's important to them. They appreciate me helping them. And I never ...
November 01, 2005
We moved our offices recently and some technical difficulties left us without computer and Internet service for a couple of days. This brought to my attention how enormously technology affects the way a person works and thinks today. The younger the employee, the more helpless and hopeless they seemed. They had an especially hard time figuring out ...
