Ad People

High Jive had a reaction to the BooneOakley job posting bit. When it comes to hunting for talent, agency executives with hiring authority tend to fish in a limited, exclusive pool. In this case, the pool has been sucked even smaller with the requisite CA Annual and One Show credentials. These honors are arguably prestigious, yet neither is particularly inclusive. Why does an industry that allegedly embraces …

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I've always argued that the great majority of agency personnel who add value to America's biggest brands are grossly underpaid. The thought is that the copywriter, art director or account person who consistently delivers million dollar ideas to the brand(s) in their care, rarely sees that fact alter their own compensation in proportional ways. Of course, none of that applies to this bunch. They're getting paid. [via …

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Brian Morrissey of Adweek is writing about Web 2.0 companies that are built on customer-centric models. He names Zappos, Etsy, Threadless, Craigslist and Yelp as leading examples and gives his piece depth by describing the lengths Zappos goes to engage with customers. But there's something else in the article that I'm attracted to. Google's home page may have nothing but a search box and links to Google's services -- …

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Sally Hogshead writing in Ad Age says "there's no such thing as the idea." If you can break out of the mind-set that you have to create that one almighty concept, you can stay more open to client feedback, integrate other media platforms and forage outside of your comfort zone for creative thinking. This is good advice. Too many times I've watched in horror while creative staff impaled themselves on a sword for …

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David Armano, VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass, writing in Adweek says, "Many advertisers aren't focused on building the digital applications that people want to use; they're focused on somehow cramming marketing into them." Armano's way out of the forest: 1) Usefulness. 2) Utility. 3) Ubiquity. He calls them the "Three U's of Advertising in the Application Economy." …

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I've been looking at lifeiscarbon, from ad man Nicholas McLean, for a few weeks now. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on there, but this post helps spell it out. For less regular readers of lifeiscarbon® or those who may be new to the website, we thought it worth quickly restating what we do and why we do it. At it’s simplest, lifeiscarbon® is a way for us to raise awareness and interest in Scandinavian …

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The ever-generous Tom Asacker sent me a serious looking hard bound book, The Ad Men and Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Advertising, edited by Edd Applegate. I finally cracked the tome and read the chapter on Howard Luck Gossage, written by academic Kim B. Rotzoll. Here is a passage I particularly like (from page 160): They (advertising practitioners) regard the audience incorrectly—as individuals gathered by the …

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