Had a lovely meeting with a student to review her portfolio today. She’s a few months away from graduation and the el-crapo job market and I’m afraid the years of honing her skills haven’t given her a sharp knife to cut her way through.

Yes, knowing how to use tools like the Adobe Creative Suite is important, but knowing how to use ones brain is why someone wants to hire you.

So, here it it is, in real simple words: your job is to make me more money than I pay you as your boss. And my job is to make my clients more money from the money they spend on advertising/marketing/design/development etc.

Because, advertising only costs if it doesn’t work.

Yep, there you have it. The essentials of business, all in one nice, easy to digest post.

You’ll see those words all over this site (unlike other ad agencies) who talk about all kinds of other things that sound good to MBAs, but, when we get right down to it- we do things to help sell stuff. If it doesn’t sell, it’s not creative, good or worth a dime to anyone.

How does a student need to prepare for that moment of terror when they walk in with their book and ask for someone to hire them, instead of all their other classmates?

Here’s a secret: you are the product. If you can’t sell you- how can you sell other peoples sugar water, netbooks or feminine hygiene products?

Just like any other creative brief, you better have done the research: what’s the industry, who are the leaders, what’s their claim to fame, what did they do better than their competition? If I get one more student through these doors who hasn’t heard of Bernbach, Ogilvy, Chiat, Clow, Fallon, Wieden, Bogusky, Rand, Pentagram, Duffy, etc. I should start cutting off ears and sending them back to their schools. How can you teach this business and not talk about those who’ve changed the industry?

And as much as we like to think it’s all pretty pictures with snappy words, you better understand something about how money is made. What’s a business model, what’s the distribution channel, how does your client make their money? Is it the razors or the blades? How can you make your client money if you don’t know what makes them money? Being able to focus on the right thing, is the first step in making them more money than they pay you. Read a few business books- get cozy with Peter Drucker or Tom Peters. Know what’s made to stick and who is a linchpin. (I should be putting in links galore here- but, I’m already giving you the secret tools to your success, you should have  to work a bit).

Last but not least, the job market you are preparing yourself for isn’t the one that’s there today, but the one for when you graduate and beyond. You better be tapped into what’s the next big thing- not what’s the big thing right now. Hint: Web 2.0 is already well established- start thinking about what happens when your phone has the bandwidth and speed of a desktop machine and is always on and connected. If you don’t know how to run a content management system, optimize for search, build community or produce video don’t even think of graduating yet.

And when you do go in to interview for that job, and you’re sitting across from an old guy like me (face it, men still rule in advertising) it shouldn’t be me interviewing you as much as it should be you interviewing me- because the first job you take will have a lot to do with how much you get to grow. Make sure the passion is still burning in your future boss as brightly as it’s burning within you, because it’s going to a take a super hot fire under your butt to add your name to the list of those who’ve come before and changed this business.

That’s what makes me get up every morning and love what I do. Because, as the saying goes, even a bad day in advertising beats a great day in anything else.

And that’s why you went to ad school in the first place? Isn’t it?

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Posted in: Careers in Advertising, The craft of advertising

Just watched this video about the future of magazines via e-readers. Nothing mentioned about newspapers (who need a new metaphor for presentation of content more than do magazines which have evolved over time).

The video really showcases an elegant interface, but it’s still a very 1 way mechanism- with no discussion of feedback, learning about the user, or delivering custom ad feeds, very much a designers solution as opposed to an advertising based/business model based solution:

The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reading experience in which high-quality writing and stunning imagery build up immersive stories.

The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines. It has been designed for a world in which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming.

via Digital Magazines: Bonnier Mag + Prototype | Bonnier AB.

The real value is being able to deliver custom ads, with feedback to advertisers- do you like this ad, this product, do you want to learn more, or you want to buy? Will the content be a pure cash buy for the user, or will advertising still support it? And best of all, we’ll finally know who is reading the ads.

Remember, without the need to print- and distribute, the costs for content producers drop considerably. However, the cost of getting readers willing to pay- that’s another matter. While we may solve the hardware issue, solving the content value equation- and the amount of intrusion of advertising is a much bigger problem.

What will be most critical is a single publishing standard- so that one e-reader can read any content and advertisers can reach all readers based on your personal preferences. The only other remaining challenge is getting enough of these readers out all at once. It will have to be fast for publishers to transition smoothly. With magazines and newspapers dropping like flies, maybe it’s time for a national e-reader initiative as part of a green tech movement. Every newspaper, every magazine, should consider ending printed publications by banding together and delivering an e-reader as part of the subscription cost.

The faster we move to digital print, the faster we move to better, more trackable advertising.

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Posted in: 1 to 1 marketing, Future of advertising

There has been a movement to “marketing as a service”- where the customer is rewarded for their attention instead of bothered by it.

Good advertising makes fans/friends, good service makes customers for life.

Google decided to spend their marketing money giving customers something that is useful: free WiFi at airports (note- at least two on the list already had free WiFi- Las Vegas and Jacksonville).

When you’re traveling this holiday season, you can enjoy free WiFi at 47 participating airports and on every Virgin America flight. Just bring a WiFi-enabled laptop or mobile device and stay connected to family and friends for free while you travel now through January 15, 2010.

via Free WiFi – A 2009-2010 Holiday Gift from Google.

The real question is why most airports haven’t realized that business travelers, who are their bread and butter, would tell you that WiFi is more (or at least equally important) as toilet paper in the bathroom stalls. In the hyper-competitive market for business travelers there is no excuse for not having both free WiFi and plenty of charging stations/power outlets for the power traveler.

What can your business give away to build goodwill? What information could you provide that makes you not only the expert in your field, but invaluable to customers? Make every interaction with customers one where you give them value and they will value your business relationship.

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Posted in: Marketing as a service, Practical Marketing 101

Peter Drucker said:

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Yet, time after time we see companies trot out responses to competition that aren’t much different than the competition. Witness the box like car pioneered by the Scion Xb, then the Honda Element, and now the Nissan Cube. Honda misjudged the primary market so badly for the Element- thinking young hipsters would be the primary market- and it ended up being a car for the practical geriatric set (don’t worry, Chrysler had the same experience with the PT Cruiser).

And then there is a crazy inventor named James Dyson. The man who made 5,127 prototypes before coming up with the vacuum that doesn’t lose suction as it does its job. Not only did the vacuum work better- it also looked better- bright yellow, in a land of beige and brown. It also proudly displayed your dirt- something other vacuums were skittish about.

He was able to charge a premium for his product, not because of better marketing, but because he had built a better product. How many times would I rather get a better product than a better advertising pitch: it’s a no brainer, every time.

Dyson Air Blade hand dryer

But the key to the Dyson brand is that they’ve continued to offer products that don’t look or act like other products. Just adding a ball to the vacuum wasn’t enough, next came the hand dryer- the “Air Blade” the scraped the water off your hands with one simple swipe through a wall of super fast air. It cut the time to dry hands by a third compared to other air dryers.

Now, Dyson introduces a fan- like no other. And, while the fan looks different, works different, it also solves a major safety issue (which I only found out once I tweeted about it- and a friend instantly retweeted- kid safe, no fan blades).

Dyson Air Multiplier fan

Sure it costs about 10 times more than the fan you can get at the local superstore, but, that’s what real innovation does- it gives a business a distinct competitive advantage. Here is the description from Dyson:

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ fan works very differently to conventional fans. It uses Air Multiplier™ technology to draw in air and amplify it 15 times, producing an uninterrupted stream of smooth air. With no blades or grill, it’s safe, easy to clean and doesn’t cause unpleasant buffeting.

via Dyson Air Multiplier™ fan | Dyson.com.

So, next time the client says “make the logo bigger” the correct response is “make the product better.”

Dyson understands what Peter Drucker preached. Innovation is better marketing.

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Posted in: Brand relevancy, Differentiating your brand

Poor United Airlines.

Spend millions of dollars to tell us that they’re the Friendly skies- but break one guitar, try to deny a claim- for several years, and it all goes bye-bye faster than a rocketship.

One week after Dave Carroll, a relatively unknown singer in a band called Sons of Maxwell, released a music video called “United breaks guitars” he’s had over 3.3 million views. It was all over twitter the very first day of release, and United was finally making apologies two days later.

Companies can’t afford to tick off customers anymore- because customers can fight back.

Taylor guitars took the cue from the video- and posted an info video to talk to guitar players about how to travel safely with their guitar, and offered to repair their competitors guitars, should this happen to you:

Of course, while United has spent literally millions to associate themselves with Gershwin, I’m pretty sure that for the next few years- Rhapsody in Blue won’t be the first thing many people think of when they think United.

In fact, the total absence of information on the United site- about this, or on a response from United on YouTube, instead- having Dave Carroll telling folks that United decided to pay up after the release of the video, show United just doesn’t get it.

When you search on their customer service site- it says it all:

Screenshot from United Site for United Breaks Guitars

This is not how to respond to 3 million plus views on YouTube.

So, remember- next time a customer calls with a complaint- think of it as an opportunity to create a good news story, ’cause the bad news one will hurt.

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Posted in: Everything you want to know about advertising

We live in an attention society. Everybody wants it, few get it, and all of us give it.

Advertising legend Howard Luck Gossage said “People don’t read ads, they read what interests them and sometimes it’s an ad.”

In today’s marketplace, people watch and share the outrageous. The question is, is it outrageous in a way that extends your brand message? Is it something that helps you make your point about why brand X is better than brand Y?

Evian, a company that sells the most commoditized product in the world- water, gives us an entertaining ditty with babies roller skating to the track of “Rappers Delight”- anyone 40 and older- their core market, remembers this song, and thinks babies are cute. This ad will get a lot of positive spread.

Then, there is an ad, probably done by the bad boys of advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Internet Explorer 8 and it’s private browsing feature. You’ll watch this- go, eehhwwwwww- and then tell 10 friends. O.M.G.I.G.P. or “Oh, my god, I’m gonna puke”

If given the choice, which would you prefer represented your brand? And, if trends continue, the puking woman is outscoring the babies in views on YouTube by a landslide, so think carefully.

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Posted in: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Viral Marketing

Hope Poster by Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey just got smacked on the hand in Boston. A $2000 fine is nothing compared to the national press this criminal proceeding brought him.

Fairey, a graduate of the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design Rhode Island School of Design, was best known for his “Obey” campaign with the image of Andre the Giant- until he hit the big time with his Obama “HOPE” poster which may go down as one of the earliest iconic pieces of art from this century.

Before having a sponsored show in Boston, Shepard did what he does- and did some wild postings. That means putting up posters with wheat paste in places where he didn’t have permission.

One persons art, is anothers eyesore.  This piece from the Boston Globe sums up the outcome of this high profile case:

Shepard Fairey, the street artist who for decades has plastered his stickers and posters on buildings and street signs, yesterday agreed to stop leaving his mark in Boston.

Fairey, who once told the Globe he had been arrested 14 times for tagging, apologized to the city and pleaded guilty to three vandalism charges.

“People should be responsible about sharing their art,’’ Fairey said after agreeing to the plea deal in Boston Municipal Court. “That is not a transition or an evolution in my philosophy.’’

Fairey said that now that he is an established artist – an ongoing show at the Institute of Contemporary Art has drawn 100,000 visitors – he does not need to tag like he did when he began his career.

“Fortunately, I am in a place in my career where I can get sanctioned places,’’ he said. “So, it’s not an issue I will ever have to worry about again. . . . There should be more public outlets for art.’’

via Fairey pleads guilty to vandalism charges – The Boston Globe.

It’s nice that Shepard thinks there should be more public outlets for art- in NYC construction barricades have long been places for posters. Other cities have created legal graffiti areas. However, there is a distinction between permanent paint and posters with wheat paste- I’d much rather deal with the wheat paste than spray paint. This doesn’t give anyone the right to place posters, ads, or tags anywhere they want.

Microsoft tried to cover NYC with static cling decals- and got caught. Is chalk on sidewalks OK for advertising? That too is up for discussion.

As we assault the public with non-stop advertising messages, the realm of outdoor ads is just too lucrative to ignore: they can’t be ignored, tuned out, skipped past. However, legal outdoor like billboards, vehicle wraps, mall signs are expensive when compared to the guerrilla style postings that got Fairey in front of the judge. For a $2,000 fine and a lot of publicity- Fairey came out ahead.

For the rest of us, it’s a warning. Future cases won’t be so easy or cheap.

The advertising industry has powerful lobbyists protecting billboards and other big media. The Next Wave believes that the industry needs to make a case for different access to local affordable outdoor- like bus shelters, legal posting areas- for local businesses as a part of making place and local wayfinding. Small business makes this country run- and yet, when trying to compete for space with powerhouses like Procter & Gamble, the little guy often gets squeezed out.

Shepard can afford to pay the fine these days. As he says- he now has access to galleries. Were all those arrests and court cases worth it? Obviously.

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Posted in: Guerrilla campaigns, Low budget advertising

Guy Kawasaki once wrote that “Advertising is the plastic surgery of business,: a procedure to make ugly and old products look good” in his book Selling the Dream

However, the business of business has become corrupted by charlatans practicing what can only be called some kind of voodoo economics- be it in banking, insurance, or even selling cars. We’ve started taking our own economic buzzword driven drivel and packaged it into arcane business models- ones that suggest that selling “Credit Default Swaps” is actually business instead of grand theft.

I recently questioned if Venture Capitalists, as they practice their craft now are anything but parasites. With the casinoization of Wall Street- where stock prices can drop by half, even when a company hasn’t changed it’s products- business model or suffered from any change in demand (Google during the current financial meltdown), is there any reality attached to the very real and tangible ways to define and guide business?

Either you have solid financial goals, objectives and strategies- with real products and services that fill a need, or you don’t. Back in the dot.com bomb of 1999-2001 we had VC backed online companies opening only to go out of business the next day (www.bigwords.com ended up at a local liquidator- the breadth of the offering was amazing- Amazon like, when all indications that laser focus is the key to most online success).

I lay the blame purely on the shoulders of Wall Street and Bull Speak. You know, the ability of CEOs with no “skin in the game” who are able to “push the envelope” inventing new “ecosystems” for “profit optimization through….” while forgetting the basics of business, which is providing goods and services that fill real needs.

So, I was ecstatic to find this:

Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

via Fight the Bull – Why Business People Speak Like Idiots.

Which besides having the book: Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide

Also comes with a downloadable BullFighter software program, which allows you to analyze your Microsoft Word document for a BS quotient. If there is one thing that stops advertising from being able to do its job- making the “ugly and old products look good” it’s the clients inability to clearly describe the market, and the product without lapsing into bull speak.

Copy god, Howard Luck Gossage once famously said “people don’t read ads, they read what interests them- and sometimes it’s an ad.” If you try to read some of the horse hockey coming out of our corporations, talking about “making paradigm shifts” when what they really mean is we can’t clearly tell you why we do what we do, but you should still believe our CEO is worth $2K an hour- and we’ll be lining up for a bailout from the Federal Government as soon as we figure out how to explain what we’ve been squandering our stockholders money on.

Business and advertising both are easier without bullshit. So go get your Bullfighter now- and lets work together on selling stuff.

We won’t confuse you with anything that won’t directly impact your bottom line (translation- make you money).

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Posted in: Advertising humor, Practical Marketing 101

You’d think with the world watching as the worlds greatest automotive company declares bankruptcy, the first effort to rebuild the brand would reassure you that they still know how to produce quality – would at least mention it?

Not so with the new spot from Deutsch.

The reason GM failed was that they took their eye off the ball, and refused to listen when Americans started buying smaller, higher quality, better fuel efficiency from companies that didn’t change the trim a little bit and try to convince us that a cat was now a dog.

Telling the American people that “This is not about going out of business. This is about getting down to business” in a spot full of canned imagery including hockey, football, baseball and horse racing- isn’t about getting down to business at all, it’s more mumbo-jumbo from a company that has not only failed it’s stockholders, stakeholders but our entire country.

When the saying used to be “What’s good for GM is good for America” you can’t just slap some anonymous announcers voice on top of  emotional images like a tattered flag waving and expect people not to wonder why our government just backed you up.

Lee Iaccoca set the standard when Chrysler took a bailout, coming on camera with a direct and honest apology for failing- and making a promise to come back. What this spot says is that GM doesn’t even have anyone left with balls enough to lead them out of their mess.

Compare this Chrysler spot from 1984, and you’ll understand why GM still has no clue about what “Getting down to business” means.

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Posted in: The craft of advertising

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is proving why they are at the top of almost every agency search consultants list. Burger King continues to have same store growth after years of failed campaigns, and changing agencies. VW was almost ready to give up on the US market, again, but have at least started to rebound sales. But what started out as an embarrassingly bad intro for Microsoft with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, and then into an “I’m a PC” has now hit pay dirt by not even talking about Microsoft’s products, but by doing a comparison between PC hardware and Apple hardware.

“Laptop Hunters” is credited with changing perception of brand value, according to a BrandIndex study:

Based on daily interviews of 5,000 people, BrandIndex found the age group gave Apple its highest rating in late winter, when it notched a value score of 70 on a scale of -100 to 100 (a score of zero means that people are giving equal amounts of positive and negative feedback about a brand). But its score began to fall shortly after and, despite brief rallies, hovers around 12.4 today.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has risen from near zero in early February to a value-perception score of 46.2.

via In Mac vs. PC Battle, Microsoft Winning in Value Perception – Advertising Age – Digital.

Hefty gains in a short time, although Apple hasn’t sat idly by:

But, while this battle royal can wage for years, the real reason that Crispin Porter + Bogusky keeps winning for their clients is that they get the fundamentals right.

They know that advertising is supposed to surprise and delight, not inform and sell. They take great pains to make sure that you might actually want to talk about the ads they do around the water cooler at work the next day.

Today, they pulled one out of the hat for me. I own a copy of “Hoopla” which is their monograph. For the most part, it’s heinously designed making it almost impossible to read, but, inside the back cover- I discovered (via a tweet by Alex Bogusky) there is a secret second book:

This guy @DomineConcept discovered the hidden book that was bound inside the back cover of our book Hoopla » link to Dominé Concept | Hooplanetics and a ripped up HOOPLA book….

Which led me to carefully operate on my $50 copy:

A secret book awaits inside the back cover

I’ve also been watching the CP+B Ebay auction of their interns time:

ANNOUNCING THE CP+B INTERN AUCTION

In the past, our interns have created work for companies like Burger King, Volkswagen, Guitar Hero and Microsoft. And now they can do the same for you. Bidding starts at $1 for three months of service with all proceeds going to the hardest working people we know – the CP+B interns themselves. So bid early and often, and world-class advertising can be yours for a fraction of the going rate.

via Crispin Porter + Bogusky Intern Auction: Summer 2009 – eBay (item 270392380113 end time May-27-09 10:57:37 PDT).

Which is currently going for $5,400.

It’s innovative, it’s interesting and it’s not strictly advertising. It’s a conscious effort to manipulate and shape contemporary culture, cajoling and dancing outside the boundaries of conventional advertising wisdom. Everything can be an ad if you make it interesting enough.

And that’s why they are winning awards, accounts and owning the crown of the Hoopla kings.

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Posted in: Apple Advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, The craft of advertising, VW advertising