New post on agency blog:

The digital age has added a new responsibility to the creative’s job. It used to be that we just had to be funny, smart, and on target. Now we have to be measurable, and we must create content with measurement in mind.

While this certainly sounds like an extra layer that can interfere with creating the best work possible, I’m actually for it when it’s employed correctly. Read the rest at KilgannonSays.

More than a few of my posts have been about the difficulties of working in advertising these days. It’s always been a competitive industry with high burn out and turn over. But it’s been even worse lately thanks to the economy and the rapid change in technology. But there are also some really great things about the being an ad creative. Things that make me glad I’m a copywriter when I come into the office every morning.

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.

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.

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 newspaper (if you still have one). You’re bound to find on the first couple pages an ad with something nebulous resembling a headline and, beneath that, five to fifteen bullet points describing everything the company does under the sun. These “ads” are more like a business plan than effective marketing communication.

News flash business plan publishers – your potential customers don’t care about your plans to make a mint from them. They don’t care how you make money. And frankly, they don’t even care if you do make money.

They’ll only care about you if you can make their life better. And confusing them with a bunch of pointless information won’t do that. It will just annoy them and make them want to buy something from your competitor instead.

Besides being strategically wrong, these ads are supremely flawed in execution. Now imagine you are at the hardware store and you need to buy something to cut steel. Would you buy something that also sawed wood, picked your teeth, had a magnifying glass on it and also promised to file your finger nails? A Swiss Army knife is good for a lot of things but it’s not a great knife (especially for cutting steel).

Now picture of single reinforced blade without any tricky gizoms. Just a long narrow piece of forged steel attached to an elegantly designed handle. It does just one thing and does it brilliantly: it cuts through the bullshit.

To keep from sucking, that’s what your advertising must do. Cut through all the clutter and bullshit while making a single minded case for purchasing your product.

There’s been a lot of hand wringing lately about what an advertising is and what it should be in the digital age. That conversation should not muddy this water. Because when you strip away all the discussion about technology, advertising needs to engage a customer and inform them about a product or a service. Simple, uncomplicated, well-executed messages in whatever medium will do that. Ugly, complicated, poorly-executed messages won’t. Period.