Category Archives: creative

New post on Agency Blog — Thank you for sharing

Share 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.

Why your advertising sucks part 6. You’re scared you might offend someone.

Share 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

Are “digital” creatives the future for traditional shops?

Share 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

Why your advertising sucks part 4: You want it to do everything.

Share Image via Wikipedia Quick, how many copy points can you fit into a 60 sec­ond radio spot? The answer should be one. But many ads that really suck the big one are about two or three things – maybe even more. This is real easy to observe in a print ad. Just open your local

Hey, account guy, where’s your book?

Share Image by Street­Fly JZ via Flickr Every cre­ative in the busi­ness has a port­fo­lio. It’s our call­ing card, our proof of worth, and our stamp of iden­tity all rolled into one. Resume? Why do peo­ple even have those when a book says so much more about your abil­ity to work won­ders day in and day out?

Why your advertising sucks part 3: You think people are stupid.

Share Image by byzantin3 via Flickr David Ogilvy said 40 years ago “the con­sumer is not a moron, she’s your wife.” It seems not every­one lis­tened because the indus­try con­tin­ues to insult her. Ogilvy’s quip may be one of the most quoted phrases in mar­ket­ing and adver­tis­ing but mar­keters often don’t think it applies to

An ad creative’s view of the Red camera. It’s all about the workflow.

Share Image by Titanas via Flickr Edi­tors note: I spent a lit­tle over a year work­ing on the Red Cam­era developer’s other busi­ness, Oak­ley. I’ve worked on mostly dig­i­tal the last cou­ple of years and haven’t cre­ated an actual TV spot in awhile. The last national TV shoot I was on we filmed with 35

Air-traffic-controller mode. A technique to not produce crap.

Share I believe being a great cre­ative doesn’t mean being a great cre­ative all the time. Part of the task of get­ting great work pro­duced and not hav­ing it ruined before cross­ing the fin­ish line involves enter­ing what I call air-traffic-controller mode. It’s a phrase I came up with to describe what I do as

Casting calls are humbling. And not just for actors.

Share Image by Hol­ly­wood Poo­dle via Flickr I’ve just spent the last four days watch­ing cast­ing for a series of videos we’re cre­at­ing for one of our clients. Every time I watch a cast­ing ses­sion it’s a mix of emo­tions — embar­rass­ment, awe, pas­sion, grat­i­tude, won­der, and of course, thanks. Usu­ally the ses­sions are all

Channel your passion. Just don’t necessarily listen to it.

Share Image via Wikipedia My fist hit the table this morn­ing. I was feel­ing pas­sion­ate. Really pas­sion­ate about my work. It’s an empow­er­ing thing – feel­ing so pas­sion­ate about what you do that you’re will­ing to sacrafice your hand. The one you use to write with, which is how you make your liv­ing. My job doesn’t