Bart Cleveland - Advice for the Small Marketing and Advertising Agency: Small Agency Diary

Make 'Can't Never Could' Your Agency's Motto

Don't Talk Yourself Out of Success

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 11.13.09 @ 12:31 PM


Bart Cleveland

I think every teacher I had from kindergarten through high school used the tired idiom "can't never could" to challenge my fellow students and me. Old fogies are so tiresome, I thought as I rolled my eyes. God bless them for ignoring my indignation and continuing the chant: "Can't never could, can't never could."

Read More

0 comments

The Little (14-Person) Agency That Could

Ad Documentary "Art & Copy" Reminds Us We All Start Small

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 10.28.09 @ 05:10 PM


Bart Cleveland

It started with three people and a dream. They dreamed of doing things their way. They didn't plan to change the industry or the culture. They just wanted to be the best they could be. And in making the dream come true, an industry grew up.

Read More

7 comments

Small Agencies Make Pretty Good Dates

We Might Even Get Your Ready for the Prom Queen You Seek

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 10.15.09 @ 10:00 AM


Bart Cleveland

You know you're probably doing the right thing when you continually lose your people to our industry's powerhouse agencies. It may sound like a negative, but if agencies such as Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Mother, and Chiat Day hire your employees, they obviously think you're doing something right. Leonard Monahan was such an agency in the '80s and '90s. David Lubars, Kara Goodrich, David Baldwin and Ernie Schenck all grew up there and then went on to be leaders in our industry. Where was Leonard Monahan? Providence, Rhode Island. That's right, the hub of advertising, dynamic Rhode Island.

Read More

11 comments

The End of the World as We Know It? I Hope So

The One Constant in This Business Is Change

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 10.09.09 @ 02:38 PM


Bart Cleveland

IBM did a report suggesting that advertising will dramatically change in the next five years. I've got news for Big Blue, it has dramatically changed every five years of my career and I've been around awhile. Though the report had some relevant information, it made me snicker at its not-too-original doomsday prophecy that ad agency creative is going to be threatened by customer-generated ads. To which I state, "Where do you think the idea of customer-generated content originates?" That's right. An ad agency "created" the idea.

Read More

5 comments

Don't Assume Your Employees Know What You're Thinking

Brand Communication Starts in the Office

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 09.29.09 @ 11:57 AM


Bart Cleveland

It's not easy to practice what you preach. Maybe because most of us agency owners don't admit to ourselves that the same principles apply to us as to any business. When we work with clients, one of the first things we research is their internal health. Without fail, there are key obstacles to success that marketing cannot help a business until they are removed. Anyone with a nominal amount of business experience knows that you won't sell your product for long if you don't live up to its promise.

Read More

3 comments

You Can't Be All Things to All Clients

The Key to Differentiation Is Relevance

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 09.09.09 @ 11:31 AM


Bart Cleveland

Differentiation is something that every agency preaches to its clients. Yet most ad agencies are a commodity. Very few have a distinct personality. I have no greater fear than my agency being without a mantra -- having no reason for being other than a paycheck. I realize it is a business that must make a profit, but if my agency has no personality, it is average. And to me, whether you're flipping hamburgers or making ads, being average is worse than not being at all. Being average in our industry means your agency is a commodity that fights for clients in a price war. Sound familiar?

Read More

5 comments

How Love for the Work Overcame a Minuscule Budget

A Production Company Reminds Me How Much Fun This Can Be

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 08.20.09 @ 02:58 PM


Bart Cleveland

I am working on a commercial with a minuscule budget. It's a very simple idea, so we should be able to pull it off with a little help from the right production company. We bid it out and get enthused responses. This gives me hope that this micro-budgeted creation will live up to its potential. Then a new contender emerges. Someone not previously on our radar, recommended by a friend. I look at the reel and think they have too much high-budget work to be interested in my little job.

Read More

12 comments

Small Agencies Should Nurture the Artists Within

We Are in the Perfect Position to Break Advertising Rules

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 08.13.09 @ 12:33 PM


Bart Cleveland

My kid brother, Tom Cleveland, owns an art school in Houston called, The Artist Within. He recently had a news team from a Houston TV station come out and talk to him about his school and his work.

Read More

5 comments

Don't Take the Monkey From Your Employee's Back

Solving Everyone's Problems Is No Way to Run an Agency

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 08.04.09 @ 12:14 PM

Bart Cleveland

Small agencies are great places to work for people like me. I like to get my hands dirty. For example, this morning I got up early and came to work so I could draw some storyboard pencils for one of my art directors. It was therapeutic to just sketch away. The rest of my day wasn't nearly as much fun, running from meeting to meeting to deal with the analytical part of my job. I like doing the work, even the menial task of drawing a layout. I miss it. And therein lies a potential problem. If I take on my employees' problems, they don't learn, grow, gain confidence or feel gratified.

Read More

10 comments

The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

We've Got It Pretty Good in This Business

Posted by Bart Cleveland on 07.17.09 @ 12:07 PM

Bart Cleveland

I've never been in the Peace Corps, but I remember seeing the commercials for it when I was a kid. I realize that the passion those commercials were trying to evoke by saying "It's the toughest job you'll ever love" can apply to any job. I know people who are passionate about jobs that would drive me crazy if I had to do them. Can you imagine being excited about designing a machine that uses air to convey corn flakes from one giant receptacle to another? I know someone who is. I also have a friend who sells pipe valves. He loves his job. I'm glad, because I'm sure pipe valves are really important in keeping things where they belong and not blowing up, but that seems mind-numbing to me.

Read More

4 comments