To be honest, I wasn't blown away by the work in the new CA. And I blame Huey Lewis and Bryan Adams. You see, I’m a huge fan of music—and I started buying records when I was 7 years old. To me, nothing will ever replace the music I heard in the few years when I was 13, 14 or 15—smack in the middle of the 80’s, which many older people considered to be a musical wasteland at the time. But damnit, I wanted my MTV, and I …
How Does He Do It?
Court Crandall has creativity oozing from his pores. He runs one of the best agencies on the left coast, writes (and sells) popular screenplays and now he's got a new children's book to his credit. According to the book's publisher, "Hugville is a town full of unusual hugs. If you come to visit, learn how to squeeze a friend with the Octopus Hug, twist him with the Tornado Hug, and tickle him with the Monkey Hug! …
Go Daddy’s Papa Pontificates
Bob Parsons, CEO of domain name registrar, Go Daddy, chimes in on the "art" of TV advertising. In my opinion, in order for a television commercial to be effective, it has to be polarizing. This week, "USA Today" published its annual list of top television advertisements for 2005. "USA Today" showed Go Daddy’s Super Bowl ad to be both the 4th most liked — and the 4th most disliked — ad. That’s about as polarizing as …
Ownership Model Seriously Out-Of-Date
Marc Babej of Being Resonable recently asked Tom Asacker of A Clear Eye some pertinent questions. Here's one: Q. You’re one of the few marketing writers who are every bit as passionate about retention marketing as they are to acquisition. Is retention marketing getting more respect now than it used to, and why? A. Thanks for the kind words Marc. And let me modify your use of terminology slightly. I don’t believe the …
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Jason’s Prognosis
Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs, Inc. makes some interesting predictions for 2006. Read them all at his site, or read these two, cherry-picked for your pleasure. 13. The housing bubble will deflate/burst (it's much worse now than people are saying) and consumer confidence and spending will be moderately shaken. This will create a pullback in consumer advertising which will result in a cooling of the media/Web 2.0 …
Pedigree Is Dog Food
Lewis Lazare: Talent Zoo, an ad agency headhunting firm that keeps tabs on hiring trends, often has insights we find to be on the mark. Its latest concern about a streak of "arrogance" in agency hiring these days struck us as worth sharing. Ragan Jones, associate vice president of recruiting, said: In 2002, agencies could afford to be as picky as they wanted about hiring. They could demand pedigree and get it. In …
Lack Of Passion Smells To High Heaven
In her latest Talent Zoo podcast, Sally Hogshead interviews Avi Dan, 53, Global Executive Director for Euro RSCG. Midway through the piece Dan says, "Clients can smell lack of passion like dogs smell fear." Prior to joining Euro RCSG, Dan was at Berlin Cameron in New York, where his focus was on new business. The agency won the Coke Classic, Pfizer's Zyrtec, White Wave Silk Soy Milk, Pernod Ricard's The Glenlivet, …
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Smock v. Fenske: Front Row Tix Still Available
Mike Smock is a marketing strategist with more than 500 marketing campaigns executed in 38 industries over a 25 year career. Therefore, he is taken aback by Mark Fenske's claim that "nobody ever created a good ad writing to a strategy." I don't get this. I never will get this. I am proud of the fact I don't get it. Look, advertising is not art. Advertising is weaponry in a battle for market share. If creativity helps …
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