Some people who get divorced from or break up with a lover often talk about how they forgot why they ever got involved with their special someone in the first place. Or they just wonder what happened to the love. As if it was a magical thing that came and went with the wind.

These kinds of emotions are often felt in the client agency relationships too. The old story goes – people change, grow and become disconnected.  They  begin to take each other for granted. Sooner or later they just don’t understand each other any more.

What’s a marketer to do? You’re landscape is changing on you daily. Money is tighter. Stress has never been higher. Doesn’t my “partner” understand what I’m going through? Maybe. Maybe not. Have you explained it to them lately?

Marketer, believe me. This one is a two way street and I’m not blaming you. And frankly, you’re the one with hand in the relationship. Agencies need to do more to nurture the love and keep the spark alive. If that means more face time, a trip to a conference, a happy hour on you or a trip to a ball game do it, weekly.

Maintaining chemistry long term isn’t something that’s easy even when true love is involved. Sooner or later you’re going to have a spat about billable hours. And if you don’t have a rock solid foundation and open lines of communication it could get ugly.

That’s why you’ve got to take a few moments to remember why you guys got together in the first place. To recall what it was like when you went stag to party. And never forget what it was like in that old relationship where you had irreconcilable differences.

Maybe talk this through with your partner every now and then. Remind them how happy you were when she helped you with that amazing presentation and about the day you got to tell your boss about the awards and the amazing ROI numbers. Good luck and please don’t forget.

I’m not really the biggest fan of his or even watch his shows too often but I do find him a curious spectacle. Mostly because he exemplifies what so wrong and right about leaders in the creative fields. First top five of what’s right wrong with his creative leadership.

1) Yelling. If you have to yell you’re not commanding any respect. It’s time to re-evaluate your whole style.

2) Too much negative criticism. Learning how to critique properly and giving positive direction that keeps the troops motivated is a skill few master and few are as bad at as Chef Ramsey. I’m not saying professionals need sugar coating, but please tell someone what they did right too and give them solid direction on how to improve what they’ve done. Understanding your way isn’t the only the right way is how you become a multiplier and not a diminisher of others’ talents.

3) Very little leading by example. Great creative leaders teach by showing as much as they do by critiquing.

4) He’s deaf to his people. Yeah, a lot of the people he works with on TV don’t listen but he doesn’t try to relate to them on their level either. Creative leaders have to get to know their people so they bring the best out of them.

5) He’s adversarial. Why the hell would anyone put themselves on the line for someone who isn’t on the same side? Great creative leaders make their team understand that they’re all in it together.

OK. Yeah the guy does a lot wrong but there are a few things that come accross on his TV personality that I really admire.

1) Passion. You can’t watch his show and not understand the guy is deeply passionate about his craft. Leaders have to show passion if they expect people to follow them.

2) He’s a student of his craft and he’s well educated about its practice. Creative leaders need to be able to communicate not just knowledge but the importance of life long learning.

3) Hard work and determination. He obviously puts in the effort. When leaders slack off the minions take notice. When they bust their ass and get results, it sets a damn good example.

4) He’s an advocate of his craft. Leaders should speak out in defense of their craft whether it be on a blog like this or on a television show like his. Viewers of his show should gain an appreciation of the culinary arts.

5) He’s a mentor. All-be-it one of the nastiest mentors on television but he does seems to want to take certain people under his wing. Creative leaders who care about the craft as a whole should help build its future.

6) He listens to his customers. Great creative leaders gain acceptance, responsibility, respect, admiration, and  success for themselves and those in their employ by listening to and knowing what to do with feedback.

Well, I guess he’s doing more right than wrong by my tally. What do you think?

Probably the most fun thing about the agency embracing social media has been the internal learning around the agency’s blog. Along with Jonathan, I play a central role in editing and administrating it.

Being a copywriter, you may think I’m going “yeah, it’s funny to see an AE struggle with the blank page.” (It’s not, because that means we’re going to miss a deadline if they don’t come up with something quickly.) Actually, what I love is that our internal dialog is reversed, spread out, and more democratic while blogging.

The way things usually work is with process. And process is great and  great process can create great work at an agency. But when that process is flipped on it’s head, with employees evaluating  the execution and content of articles written by people not with in our departments or that are higher up the pyramid, it forces everyone to engage in a thoughtful internal dialog. Here are a couple examples:

One of our senior account executives wrote a piece about a campaign we had both worked on. I had some very specific feedback on some of his content. It seems both of us had come away with different leanings from a significant job. And we may have never had that discussion with social media.

In another post, our Director of Account Service, describes the importance of monitoring and how it’s structured for our clients. Social Media is something I’m involved with on a daily basis but business end is something I’m not.

Working on articles with our agency president has been the most interesting. Not only am I learning a different perspective on the industry but I get to collaborate and learn from someone I rarely get to work with. This helps me to see the business through her eyes and hopefully she’s able to gain a wee bit of prospective from me.

If you don’t have an blog for your business, I encourage you to start one. It’s a great way for clients to learn about your business but it can also be a great tool for internal learning too.

Part of the creative’s job these days is to develop ways to encourage sharing a new campaign. It’s no longer enough to create brilliant creative that connects with the audience. Now, creative needs to be so powerful that it encourages “engagement” and “sharing.”

Read the rest here.

Economic pressure has created a situation where marketers are asking for immediate results before they ask for perceived luxuries like brand recognition.

Clients are demanding metrics that connect marketing to sales. Metrics for things like brand recognition are tough to tie to concrete things like sales and thus to ROI.

They’re also pushing for media plans to focus on Web and direct because they provide concrete tracking data. While television, where branding has thrived is receiving less interest of late.

What does this mean for the practice of branding in the future? Well, I think in the short term it means less money spent taking chances on things like this Web video that offer no measurable call to action, direct tie to a product or product message. Heck, all it does is get consumers excited about a brand? Heck, it’s not like Nike built an empire doing that or anything.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Many in the digital sphere are calling for an end to the discipline of branding. They say branding was developed for mass-markets and we can now reach individuals behaviorally and target them with more relevant messages tailored to their individual behavioral profiles — demographics are now old school.

Some people may see behavioural targeting as very Minority Report but it usually means more relevant comunication for the consumer. And causes less stereotyping of the target audiance. And that’s good, right?

Well, until we start factoring scale. It makes sense for people with very large marketing budgets and for retailers with specific products for specific people. Amazon does a good job of this on me. But what if you have a limited budget  and market and can’t create individual messages because your audience isn’t Amazon-sized. In some cases, it means turning the focus back on the brand and the benefit it offers consumers as a whole.

Ever met someone who never takes sides. Never makes a clear decision. Always wants the group to decide so he doesn’t run the risk of making anyone upset. You probably called this person wishy washy, indecisive or maybe even weak. And never a leader.

Now imagine this person is your brand. A lot of marketers are scared to death that someone may call, email, write a letter to the editor or, God forbid, tweet their dissatisfaction. They would rather stand for nothing then have someone rant about their product on their Facebook wall.

Now think of a person with strong opinions maybe even famous people with strong opinions. Those people probably have a lot of lovers and haters. Most politicians are that way and many business leaders are that way too  –like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Yet their brands represent the two largest market capitalization in the world (Exxon is the only US company with a larger market cap than Apple).

People find their personalities both attracting and appalling as well as the products these companies offer. Sure, they are unique individuals and companies but that’s the point. So is Tony Heish and Zappos. Or Mark Cuban and his Dallas Mavericks and HDNet. And of course, Martha Stewart and Omnimedia.

A company doesn’t have to have a strong CEO to stand for something either. You probably don’t know who the CEO of Disney is now that Michael Eisner (or Walt) is gone but you understand what the brand represents (yes there are people who hate the mouse). And what about Porsche? Or say Burberry?

A brand can stand for something just through the products it makes or the service it offers. But is often communicated effectively through it’s marketing and advertising. I’m not going to dissect ad campaigns and say which ones run the risk of offending and which make a stand. It’s pretty obvoius when they do and when they don’t.

As a writer and creative person, inspiration is something I’m supposed to know a lot about. I shouldn’t need your help, because I’m inspired to write witty, interesting things all the time, right? Certainly I’ve got a direct line to the muse? Unfortunately, there’s no bat phone for writers.

Article continues here on agency blog.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what the future’s creative department should look like and who it should be headed by. Do traditional shops need to get rid of their old guard and make way for leaders and practitioners steeped in the traditions of the digital shops?

Surely they need to get rid of dated thinking. Kick out folks who can’t code, tag, and develop an app. And there’s no one who understands how to make use of the new tools available than someone with a digital background. Right?

But what about all that brand stuff? Is a techno creative really better equipped to communicate the client’s brand story than someone who’s been focused on it their entire career? Aren’t the truly great communicators capable of doing their job in more than old-school traditional media?

Digital creatives are getting dinged for lack of branding and planning experience. While traditional creatives apparently can’t grasp the internet. But are either of these characterizations fair?

I think people are getting too caught up on resumes and not focused enough on real skills. For example, I work at a traditional agency yet the majority of the work I do lives online. Some of the work I do is even social media marketing — imagine that. Does this make me a traditional creative or a digital creative. I suspect in the eyes of many recruiters who can’t get past a resume it makes me a traditionalist. But I just see myself as being current.

Marketers need professionals that can tell their story and engage their customers in all media. Be it on Twitter or on a billboard. And that is best done by a media neutral creative, working off a media neutral brief, for a media neutral media buy.

I don’t think the best creative comes from a digital or a traditional background. What is important is their grasp of  today’s tool, the future, and the client’s business.

Too many marketing departments spend countless hours navel gazing, trying to find a omniscient inner-voice. This oracle is supposed to communicate who they are as a company and what they need to tell their customers so that they will finally understand the value they offer the world. It never works.

Sorry, navel gazers, your belly button can’t help you. Finding yourself might have been the mantra of 70s-self-help gurus but you’ll need to listen to your customers first if you want to make your marketing relevant to them.

Even worse, this feel good approach most often leads to corporate chest pounding. “Your number one source for widgets.” “The market leader in top-quality widgets.” Messaging no one gives a damn about outside the company and most customers will even find off putting. After all, who wants to listen to someone who only talks about themselves.

This approach totally ignores what the customer cares about. If you’re spending all your time discovering yourself, you’re not discovering the hopes and desires of your customers. Just your own.

The saddest part is there’s never been an easier time to really get to know what your customer wants and what they care about. Just fire up your internet browser and get to know them better. They’re putting everything on record for you through social media. Heck, you don’t even have to actually talk to them to get to know what makes them tick.

To be clear, this isn’t to say who you are as a company isn’t important – as long as it’s focused with the perspective of the customer. An easy to understand example of this is — UPS. What can brown do for you?

There’s a kind of deviant you can find in lurking in most ad agencies. Sometimes they’ve made it to the top, sometimes they’re just bottom dwellers but they rarely have a passion for what an agency actually produces – creative solutions to business problem. But they do aim to please the client and maybe even collect a tip along the way.

Here are the top 10 signs you are one of these enemies to the work:

1. You worry more about the presentation than the substance.
2. You think your job is to get creative to understand the client’s postion and not to solve the client’s underlying problem.
3. A brief is a “form” you fill out to get the creatives to do their damn job.
4. Your unique selling position is access to a skybox at the stadium.
5. The client is your “friend” and not a business partner or colleague.
6. You get the traffic manager to do your dirty work.
7. Your best comeback is “but this is what the client wants.”
8. Your job has more to do with managing projects than solving problems.
9. You feel you need to apologize if you come back to the client with a better solution than was asked for.
10. You expect everything you jot down on a pad from the customer’s mouth to come hot off the grill ASAP without any back talk.