Studios are reporting the biggest Memorial Day weekend ever.  Why is this important? The advertising industry is consumed these days with articles about the “changing” media landscape, detailing why it will never be the same. While it’s important that we keep up with the advancement of media technology, it’s also important to recognize that we’re not experiencing a rapid, wholesale transformation of an entire society’s media consumption habits. People still love to go to the movies, watch cable television, and, gasp, read the occasional newspaper.

What we’re experiencing is more of an evolution. Some people are quickly adopting  new technology – but not everyone. And many of the adopters aren’t necessarily dumping the old media but rather adding another way to consume media to their diet. Here are nine statistics that might surprise you if you’ve spent too much time reading and listening to the gurus.

• While every social media expert may own an iPhone, most Americans still don’t own any smartphone at all.
• Unlike me, most people aren’t dumping cable for Internet TV. More people than ever are subscribing to broadband Internet and cable TV.  Only 3.9 percent have broadband.
• 45 percent of all ads recorded on DVRs are actually viewed.
• Only 10 percent of Americans have devices that connect their TVs to the Web.
• The top bandwidth hog for mobile is e-mail, not social networking.
• Pop stars are still selling millions of singles.
• E-book sales may be skyrocketing, but only 5 percent of people own a dedicated device to read one on.
• People are using iPads with TV, not instead of it.
• Most people are not interested in owning a 3-D television. In fact, most don’t even own an HD set yet.

So what’s the takeaway for a marketer who wants to make the most out of the latest technology? Know your customer, learn her habits, and you’ll find it easy to speak to her where she is.

But that’s all changed. An art director is now expected to know how to program flash and an a account man better know more than a little bit about testing and measurement. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at a job posting for an Art Director these days. It’s not uncommon to see 10 different programs that they are required to know.

Technical knowledge is a good thing. The more you know the better, right? Well, not if we’re now evaluating professionals based on technical knowledge when it’s not their primary job.

I’m not saying this as a technophobe. For a creative, I am actually pretty technically capable. But a great creative or AE, is someone who can think generally about a problem and come up with solutions across multiple disciplines, many which even aren’t considered marketing or advertising. And that’s just not how most technologists think. In the end, generalist thinking is way more valuable to a client than knowing how to manipulate a timeline in Adobe Flash Professional.

Early in my career I worked with a guy who refused to be wrong. Ever. He now works alone. Probably because no one can stand to work with him anymore, no matter how brilliant he is.

A few years later, I worked with someone who refused to admit when they didn’t know even the slightest technical detail and would proceed to bullshit about which they knew nothing. The stream of related bullshit could go on for weeks – bullshit tends to multiply. No one I know has heard from this person in years. They were probably buried by their own bullshit.

What I would tell these people, if they would listen, is it’s OK to say, “I don’t know.” Or defer to an expert. Some of the most successful and happiest people I’ve worked with throughout the years are totally cool with looking like an idiot, at least sometimes, when it moves the job forward.

I am cool with it too. Ask me about coding. I’m sure to give you a deer in headlights look and then point you in the direction of someone else.

Let’s face it, business is complex as hell in the digital age. No one should be expected to know everything these days. And everyone should be suspect of someone who pretends to. And in the end, a project’s success is more important to team members than anyone knowing it all, all the freaking time.

1. The people. Sure they’re some real egotistical jag offs in the business. But I’ve also worked with amazingly smart, talented, wonderful people. Including other writers, directors, photographers and, of course, art director-partners — some are still close friends years after working together. If I didn’t have this job I never would have met them and had a chance to be inspired by them.
2. The job is never the same. I once spent an entire year doing nothing but advertising sunglasses. But each day was different, with new problems to solve. With the advance in technology, that’s even more the case now.
3. I write for a living. This was a dream of mine as a college student. Yeah, I imagined living on the west bank and writing brooding novels about the isolation of modern man, but I’m doing what I dreamed about even if the topics are more mundane.
4. I love making things. Most people don’t make things. I do. From start to finish, I create things from the blank page.
5. Production. The trips aren’t as fun as they used to be back in the day but standing on set for twelve hours a day, working with a production crew, and seeing actors bring your vision to life is just cool.
6. Learning everyday. Maybe there are a few days here and there where I don’t learn something but most days I do. Much of it is really obscure stuff. But have you ever played trivia with a copywriter? We love this stuff.
7. The challenge. Even with a “bad” client, the job is challenging. And I be bored if it wasn’t.
8. You’re not expected to fit in. No one expects me to dress a certain way, talk a certain way or even behave a certain way. As a creative, we’re even encouraged to be a bit eccentric. Which is good, because I am.
9. Loving pop culture is OK. Lets face it, where else in society is watching a ton of TV and movies, making Simpson’s references, reading comic books, and immersing yourself in social media encouraged?
10. That feeling you get when you’ve really nailed it. It doesn’t happen often enough, but there are days when it all comes together, you walk out of a meeting and you know that your hard work just floored them. And it’s awesome.

But like so many wonderful things there is a dark side. Too much champagne creates obnoxious dinner guests. And too many followers  can create obnoxious tweeters, bloggers and human beings.

My four year old love to say, “that’s not how you do it. Let me show you how to do it” after figuring something out on her own or being shown something by her pre-k teacher. She wells with pride and is hoping for a pat on the back and a little admiration. I’m sure this reminds you of a blogger or two that is looking for a little more than an opportunity to share.

Fortunately, this is as far as it goes for my daughter. You see her audience has yet grow — it’s still limited to her immediate family. So far she has yet  to build 6,000 twitter followers and then morph into the the obnoxious, Rock Star, social media maven.

But frankly we all need to be conscious of loosing perspective once we get a little following. So how can you recognize if you’re suffering from the Rock Star Complex?

1. You constantly preach transparency but you don’t respond to tweets or comments on your blog because you’re so gosh darn busy.
2. You have an auto-play video of yourself on your blog that illustrates how great you are.
3. You refer to yourself in the royal “we.”
4. You’re constantly writing about how great you are rather than sharing great information.
5. You spend more than minute talking about yourself as a brand and not your business.
6. You call business trips “road trips” or even “tours.”
7. You think about how you will blog about a job more than how you will deliver value to your customers.
8. You think you’re more important and smarter than your readers.
9. Your original profession has been subsumed by the marketing of you,  your blog, your e-books, and your workshops.
10. You’re thinking of hiring a personal assistant.

The irony is no one wants to work with a hack. And no one want to work with a prima donna either. Although they’ll never say it, what they want is  to work with someone who is both. Or which ever one they’re needed to be at any given time.

Fighting for work is admired and rewarded. But giving up the fight is also rewarded, just not admired. Just make sure you do them at the right time or you’ll be rewarded with a severance check.

How do you know when to fight? Think like you own the place you are responsible for both payroll and the professional reputation of the firm. Would you still be arguing the size of the logo? If yes, dig in. Producing great work takes combat skills. But knowing when to use them ensures you’ll survive to use them when it counts.

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.

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?

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.

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.