Category Archives: marketing

Why your advertising sucks. You forgot why you hired your agency.

Share 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

Personal time. Sometimes you have to take some from social media too.

Share It’s been a few weeks since I posted here and for good rea­son. But this really isn’t the time or place to talk about it. (If you’re my Face­book friend and you know me per­son­ally, you already know why I haven’t posted.) I’ve writ­ten here before about the need to post fre­quently and main­tain

Are we in a post-branding world?

Share 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

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

What the hell inspires me? Actually, you can.

Share 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

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 5. It’s designed to make you feel good.

Share 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

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

Why your advertising sucks part 2. The power of no.

Share What’s worse than a yes man? Easy. A no man. (Or even a no woman.) Cor­po­rate cul­ture breeds them just as inces­santly as yes men. And, unfor­tu­nately, so do many large adver­tis­ing agen­cies. OK. So who is the “no per­son?” And how do they make your adver­tis­ing suck? Imag­ine a smart, no non­sense woman who has the

Why your advertising sucks. Part one: Trust.

Share Image by thorin­side via Flickr You prob­a­bly agree that most adver­tis­ing isn’t cre­atively great or even good. From the out­side, one might think it’s a busi­ness filled with dumb, untal­ented peo­ple serv­ing mar­ket­ing depart­ments filled with bean coun­ters who couldn’t care less if their dol­lars are pro­duc­ing a fetid mess. Truth is, too many adver­tis­ing