The Adverati are once again gathered in Cannes for the annual ego festival. The business press is also in place, in case anything important happens. If nothing important happens, the press will fall back on what someone said. According to Reuters, Mark Read, Co-Chief Operating Officer of WPP, and the holding company’s former digital boss, […]
Ad People
There’s A New Aggregator of Boutique Agencies in Town
What if small agencies with amazing talent combined forces under one umbrella? Might that improve creative output at scale? According to The Wall Street Journal, Plan A, a new advertising-holding company based in New York City will bring together a wide range of creative boutiques. MT Carney, the founder of ad firm Untitled Worldwide, and […]
Talent Is Talent, But Senior Creative Talent Is A Precious Human Resource
For clients who have it all figured out, I suggest working with a junior creative team. The client will dictate his or her desires, and the creatives on the account will do their best to please while spinning their wheels and costing the client more in the long run than the more experienced team. So, […]
Frenemies by Ken Auletta: The Adpulp Book Review
Does Michael Kassan single-handedly control the advertising and marketing industries? Now, I don’t shuttle between New York City, Cannes, CES, and AAAA conferences, but apparently Kassan does. As CEO of MediaLink, a “strategic advisory and business development firm,” he’s a svengali/consigliere/media whisperer-type guy who’s a conduit between the biggest players among ad agencies, media buying […]
Future Ad Makers of America Get Schooled In Pasadena
When you want to study advertising today, where do you go to school? Depending on your educational and professional objectives, there are a handful of excellent options. There’s VCU Brandcenter, University of Texas, University of Oregon, University of Colorado, and the portfolio schools. Another path can be found at Savannah College of Art and Design […]
ANA To Acquire DMA, Forming Largest MARCOM Trade Group in U.S.
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers), one of the oldest and most venerated trade association in the marketing industry, announced that it is acquiring another leading trade group, the Data & Marketing Association (formerly the Direct Marketing Association). The move was approved today by the board of directors of each organization, subject to formal approval […]
Business-Minded Artists and Alchemists Make The Best Advertising
How do ad agencies harness the stormy but illuminating forces of creativity and gain the competitive edge they need to help themselves and their clients succeed? Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer of DDB New Zealand, has some well formed opinions about the delicate balance between chaos and order, and how a great ad agency must […]
Social Media Managers Are Brand Activists, Not Chorus Girls
Wired’s Jessi Hempel says what no one wants to admit: Women are preferred over men for social media management roles. Social media managers usually command less respect than PR managers, while taking on responsibility for an increasingly important distribution channel. The career has been referred to as the Pink Ghetto. Between 70 and 80 percent […]
Greetings From The Client Side
There was a time when ad agencies were cool and clients were boring and that was all there was too it. Well, in case you haven’t been inside an ad agency for a while (or you sit in one of the few offices left in North America with a door on it), things today are […]
The Wider the Pay Gap, The Less Respect the Men In Charge Have
Women in advertising are fighting for fairness. Did you know that 70% of young female creatives say they have never worked with a female creative director or executive creative director? With so few mentors within the business, young female creatives don’t receive the right skills, advice or tools to help them succeed. Nicola Kemp, the […]
Migrating to Client-Side Opportunities: A Rich Topic To Mine
Communication Arts is “The Bible” for the creative side of the business. To be featured in the advertising or design annual, or to appear in a feature article in one of the quarterly editions, is a form of acceptance into the club. To have an Adpulp article land on CA’s digital front page this week […]
