"Advertising has a problem. It's not efficient. Yes, you can buy results-only advertising, but the waste-to-results ratio runs in the same range as lotteries. And yes, Google has revolutionized advertising by 1) making results affordable to nearly everybody, and 2) moving the waste to where it's best tolerated, which is by servers pumping out stuff most people don't mind ignoring. But it's still waste. The day will …
A Good Picture Of Lee Clow
photo by Stephanie Diani According to Ad Age, Lee Clow will be 63 on Thursday. The article mentions the possibility of retirement, but I find the fact that Clow stands at a large workbench all day, much more intriguing. Hemingway did that. The stand at a desk and work thing. …
Do You Copy?
Why Advertising Sucks is running a piece on the various words we use to define ourselves in this business. It seems that being a writer is just not good enough, let alone being just a copywriter. Heaven forbid. Nope. We are now Copy Strategists and Verbal Identity Specialists. Just as a web programmer who does nothing needs to call himself a "Total Experience Director," this latest industry evolution just goes to …
An Agragian Spirit In Adlandia
Advertising Age tells us today about Gay Gaddis, the Texas cattlewoman behind tech shop, T3. Ms. Gaddis, 50, and her husband, Lee, run an 800-acre working cattle ranch, about an hour and a half outside of Austin, near Marble Falls. "The land gives you a different set of values," said Ms. Gaddis, president-CEO of Austin marketing firm T3. "It gives a wholeness that guides a lot of who we are. It translates into how I …
How It’s Done
Former Wieden + Kennedy brand planner, Russell Davies, just drew a well marked path out of mediocrity, for any soul brave enough to follow it. 1. Hire advertising people, you get advertising 2. The key to creative genius; work harder 3. You can't divorce the medium from the message 4. Do good work, the money will follow 5. Hold everyone to the same standard 6. You can tell from the work if people enjoyed making it 7. …
One Task. Many Mediums.
After picking up U.S. consumer promotion and co-marketing duties on the Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, Senseo and Sara Lee brands, Lisa Hurwitz, senior VP-business development and marketing at Arc Worldwide, said: "Retail is really the new consumer battleground. So you have a captive audience in the shopper and figuring out how to capture her attention at retail has become a real critical point for marketers, …
A Client Who Gets It
Assistant Brand Manager on the Cap'n Crunch brand, Jason Dolenga, riffing on Seth Godin's post, "How to live happily with a great designer": Too often, freshly minted MBAs (me included) come to a new marketing role thinking that the way they are going to make their mark is by questioning every little point, color selection, and design decision made by agency creatives. Unfortunately, things all go terribly wrong …
I’m Thinking Arby’s
Friend of AdPulp, Tom Asacker, is looking for examples of excellence in marketing communications (direct mail, ad, collateral, web, etc.). By "excellence" he means: 1. Something that grabs your attention because it is different, out of the ordinary, has a "wow" factor, makes you think, etc. 2. Quickly communicates what's in it for the prospect and why. Note: It could be anything from saving time, having fun, social …
