• Can You Have Kids AND A Great Advertising Career?

    September 29th, 2010 / Comments (2)

    In one of my recent articles on advertising, the subject of kids came up in the comments thread. Kids, it seems, can cause some serious problems for people in ad agencies. Those with kids want more time with their beloved offspring. Those without kids clearly couldn’t give a rat's ass and, therefore, want everyone in the agency working at the same rate and with the same passion as they do.

    The biggest issue I had with all of this came from a comment that basically said “no one held a gun to your head and forced you to have kids.”

    In effect, you wanted kids, you now have to deal with not seeing them because you chose this career. You knew, from day one, that advertising required a greater commitment from you than most marriages.

    But why?

    If that’s the attitude, it seems apt that more and more people, good people, are leaving the ad industry for other ventures. Why should advertising require you to work 15-hour days, week after week, plus weekends and holidays? It’s not for the money, we all know that. It’s not for the amazing lifestyle, those champagne and coke parties vanished a long time ago. Why should there be this sacrifice? And why should people who want kids have to choose other professions? What if the next great advertising creative wants kids, or has them already? Should this genius be relegated to a career they do not want because they dared to be a parent?

    I really don’t understand this attitude towards people with kids. And trust me, I have seen this from both sides of the coin. For the majority of my career, I didn’t have kids. I was a junior working late on pitches when the older crews were leaving at 7pm to see their respective families. I used to beat my creative director in, and leave after him. He had two kids and he wanted to see them. What a fucking bastard!

    To be honest, I never thought that actually. I never, even in my youth, thought that people with kids did not belong in this industry. I never thought that people with wives and husbands were somehow second-class citizens. I usually thought “good for them, must be nice to have a life outside of work.” Sometimes, it would be more like “man, that guy’s been here for 10 hours and he has to go home and change diapers.” Either way, I wasn’t pissed at anyone. While the folks with kids were off home at the stroke of 6pm to go and deal with yelling and screaming and drama, I was working at the agency with a beer, or out late having a few cold ones with the other agency folks who enjoyed real freedom.

    And make no mistake, you childless peeps, kids and family take quite a lot away that you used to take for granted. While you may see these family types scurrying away early when you’re still stuck at the agency, they’re also missing out on the fun (when there is some, I know advertising is not quite party central). So, you haters of people with a family, give it a rest. Do a paradigm shift and realize that a parent is not some slacker who’s watching the clock because he or she dared to procreate.

    Now having said all of this, I refuse to use kids as an excuse for not being a hard worker. That’s just lazy. If you are working with someone who does poor work, or doesn’t put in the hours, then you have a legitimate gripe. Kids do take more of your time away, but you can make that up. You can concept at home when the kids are in bed, and you can get in early and think through lunch. As with any other important commitment in life, you need to balance work and your personal life. Balance, my friends, is key.

    And that’s a nice segue to the real crux of the matter here; can you have kids and a GREAT advertising career? Not a regular career, but the kind of resume and portfolio that makes people drool and curse your name at the same time.

    That, I think, depends on when you have kids and what kind of balance you decide upon. To be honest, if you have kids early on in your career, and want to be there for them, then you have your work cut out for you. You usually have to sacrifice a lot of your free time to build a good book and good career. That sacrifice will impact the quality of life you have with your children. Is it worth it? Ask yourself why you want(ed) kids and why you would want to see so little of them in order to produce posters and billboards.

    Later on, after you’ve built a solid career for yourself, it’s certainly easier to do great work and enjoy a better balance. People will cut you more slack if you’re an advertising genius who has already proven what he or she can do. But there’s still no getting around the fact that, unfortunately, great careers come from making great personal sacrifices. This industry demands more of your time than others, it always has and it always will. This is no reason not to have kids. As I have said earlier, you should be able to balance work and home life and still enjoy a good career.

    But to be one of the greats? All I can say is, it’s possible, but your kids may just grow up hating advertising because it robbed them of a mother or father.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does. Email him at [email protected].

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • The Egotist Briefs: Gary Greenberg of Allen & Gerritsen

    September 20th, 2010 / Comments (2)

    Gary Greenberg, who considers himself part curator, detective and historian is the Executive VP & Chief Creative Officer at Allen & Gerritsen (a&g), which is ranked by Advertising Age as one of the Top 50 Independent advertising agencies in the US.

    Always focused on what¹s next, Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) strategically combines technology, creativity, media and analytics to develop digital, experiential and traditional branding experiences. Their roster of global, consumer and BtoB clients includes The Boston Celtics, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Bonefish Grill, Hannaford Supermarkets, MFS Investment Management, Ninety Nine Restaurants, WBUR, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Toy State, Waters Corporation and Zildjian.

    How would you rate the creative scene in Boston these days? What would you say Boston has that makes it a better creative environment than other cities?

    Boston has this freaking insatiable thirst for innovation and technology unlike any other city I know. The desire to understand and discover “what’s next?” is how we live. That passion has allowed us to hang seriously tough and be vital in a down economy. The result is good news for creatives. The melding of technology and creative thinking has put us way ahead of the pack

    Do you think Boston is recognized or overlooked in the larger creative community? And if necessary, what does Boston need to do to put itself on the map?

    As I said above, we have an innovation edge here in Boston. But we absolutely cannot lose our edge. To continue to be creatively relevant and be recognized as a city that can accomplish things others can’t, we must develop ideas that can’t be created elsewhere and need to constantly prove ourselves. Boston tends to suffer from “NY envy” being so close and all. It’s bullshit, we’re our own worst enemy.

    That being said, no matter what the agency or company we work at - we root for each other here in Boston. Many of us have worked together in the past, we celebrate each other’s accomplishments and always want to see a great client keep their business here.

    What specific kinds of things does Allen & Gerritsen (a&g) do to foster creativity? Do you have a philosophy on creating great work?

    We encourage our people to get out and live and indulge in their passions whatever they are. This philosophy has always worked for me and comes from the top of our agency. We have aspiring sushi chefs, hack drummers, rock and roll historians, swizzle stick collectors, t-shirt designers, children’s illustrators, film buffs, snowboarders, and even dance club DJ’s. By fostering personal passions, we create a rich and diverse culture, which in turn makes the work better. I don’t believe in locking teams up in a room for days or weeks at a time saying “Go come up with the big idea.” Great creative directors know creativity doesn’t happen on their watch. Culture and environment and exposure to all things creative, art, music, film, even good food, have everything to do with a person’s ability to think differently. We have all of these things in Boston.

    What do you feel are some of the greatest hurdles in producing great creative work? How do you get over those hurdles?

    I try to pass along these messages to my team:
    Simple, ditch the baggage.

    Like anyone that has to jump over anything, being weighed down doesn’t help. Lots of creatives (unfortunately) suffer from battle wounds. Carrying around the mantra “they won’t do this, they won’t do that”… doesn’t help. Every assignment has to be looked at with fresh eyes. In other words, forget everything you knew or thought and just dig in.

    Many creatives out there feel that the economic crapstorm has put all the cards in the hands of the clients. What do creatives/agencies have to do to get some of the control back?

    Gain back the trust.
    Face it, nobody trusts anyone anymore after the last few years of the economic downturn. Clients are no different. Accountability is king, and the stakes are high. In a business climate like this, everyone pulling back and tightening up on everything, that includes who you trust and who you let in to play. So the job at hand is to earn that trust back, and get back in. Once clients believe you care about their success, and not your own, they will slowly begin to let go. Once they let go, you’ll gain some of that control back, and clients will be more willing to take risks.

    Do you feel that online technology is a vehicle for new and better creative work or do you think that concept is being lost in technology?

    The technology that is available to creative people today is crazy. Yeah, on occasion you see technology take the front seat. (I get it, it’s sexy.) Ideas are well, abstract, but technology, you can experience. However, without a strong idea and a sound strategy, it doesn’t matter how sexy the technology is. The combination of strong ideas and technology is where it’s at.

    What’s the best career advice you ever received?

    You have no prayer of making it in this business. I suggest finding another career.

    Favorite campaign of 2010 so far? Why? Care to offer up your least favorite?

    Hands down: My favorite campaign is Wieden’s “Old Spice” work. When you can take an old tired brand and make it feel fresh and smell this good, well boys, you’ve done your job.

    I’m also really proud of the work we just finished for our client Zildjian Cymbals. Zildjian is a storied brand with this incredible rich history and the greatest drummers in the world all play Zildjian.

    Our challenge was: How do you make that relevant when you’re talking to a 15 year old who’s never heard of Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa or even Ringo Starr?

    Our work revolved around the strategy: If you’re a drummer, you get it and you get each other. You speak a certain language, you feel and experience many of the same things in your quest to express yourself and your unique sound. It’s how we ultimately connect them all to each other, and to the Zildjian brand. The work will break in late October.

    What are three pieces of advice you’d give any creative?

    Find something you love to do.
    Go do it.
    Then go create some great work.

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  • It's Not Just Advertising, It's the Greatest Force for Change I Know

    September 17th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    I love Felix, and I love a lot of the points he makes in his editorial At the End of the Day it's Just Advertising, but at the end of the day that post depressed the shit out of me because I didn't bust my ass and go into crazy debt to join what he asserts is an ignoble profession.

    Felix is right when he states that work matters, but not at the expense of your health, spending time with loved ones, or your dignity when you lose your shit and reduce an intern to tears. His words are well-needed in an industry full of people who take themselves so seriously that it interferes with their treating other people like people. But while some found the post uplifting I find it dangerous because it tells creatives, "you'll never really do anything meaningful or worthwhile, except maybe an ad for a charity every now and again."

    It baffles me that as advertisers we develop a skillset that allows us to build companies, change culture and move dollars, yet an infinitesimally small percentage of us actually decide to use these skills to create our own enterprise. Instead we go through our career with blinders on, never questioning the assumption that the only way to build a career is to be beholden to others by either working for an agency or freelancing and attracting clients. That mentality, quite simply, is inane. If you can build a business for someone else, you can build a business for yourself. You can create what you want to see in the world and by so doing, you'll be tapping in o the best of what's within you. To me, that is the definition of doing noble work.

    Here is what I wish Felix had said: "A lot of people in advertising are focused on things that bring misery both to themselves and those around them. When you become obsessed with creating ads as an end unto itself, it is easy to fall prey to things like addiction and angry outbursts. But when you turn your focus to mastering your craft so you can use it to create the changes you want to see in the world, I can't think of a more powerful, inspirational field than advertising."

    There are two great things we can do as advertisers that no one else in the world is qualified for: First, we can advise businesses on how to successfully market, making positive changes in their business model so that companies can be profitable by doing the right thing. Second, with our skill in getting people behind something, we can create movements for things we are passionate about. Alex Bogusky, cited by Felix in his post, is doing both. He gave a speech recently that convinced me that the future of advertising isn't media centric, it's business centric. The next generation of award winning work will come from creatives who convinced companies to adopt more transparent, sustainable business models and then turned that into compelling ads. And recent episodes of his web talk show FearLess have focused on educating people about the dangers of the poorly regulated food supply in America.

    If you're not as passionately in love with advertising as you were when you jumped through flaming hoops to get in the door at an agency, make a list of the things you'd like to change. Then, pick the one that feels most important and turn it into a creative brief. With the internet making it possible for anyone to connect to an unlimited number of people for the low price of a domain name and a hosting plan, there isn't anything that we as creatives cannot accomplish. If you need a guide to help you with the details, I've written one right here.

    Felix, thank you for your rants and your dedication to our craft and the people who practice it. I eagerly await your reply.

    Faithfully,
    Fernando

    Fernando is a passionate defender of advertising who loves human beings. He blogs at bigfuckinglogo.com

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • How to Fail: A Pitch

    September 16th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    If you want to fail a pitch, show up late. There is nothing that says "we want your business" more than being on time. If there is a hard stop, plan your arrival time accordingly. Seventeen minutes prior should be plenty of time. Glad-handing and introductions will take up approximately 12 minutes, leaving ample time to review the 75-slide capabilities presentation you custom prepared for the day in the remaining 5 minutes.

    Send your least senior employees to the meeting. Interns are best because they are generally very timid and cower, stutter and faint when asked pointed questions such as "how are you?" or "did you have a hard time finding our office?" This can be amusing and breathe life into even the dreariest of pitches. If no interns are available at the time, freelancers are second best. Since they have no real allegiance to your agency, are likely angry they haven't been hired on full time and probably would prefer to take the project on themselves, you are pretty much guaranteed not to win the project when you send in a freelancer.

    Always come unprepared to a pitch you want to fail. It is important to be as unfamiliar with your prospect's business as possible. The more obscure the topic the better. It can be difficult to feign a misunderstanding of cotton balls, but no one understands futures trading, for example. In a pitch to a futures trading firm when you asked if you have any experience in their industry, relax. Respond with something along the lines of, "yes, we have a ton of experience in futures trading. Just the other day I was telling our Creative Director about how I thought Facebook was the future of television and he told me that he thought MySpace was the future of television. See, we trade futures around the office all the time."

    It can sometimes be difficult to fail a pitch if a prospect is already familiar with your work and impressed by your portfolio. Overcome any interest they have by displaying specific examples of work you hate. It is not a requirement that this work even be your own. Pull up some competitor's website and grab some of their particularly mediocre work, slap it in a PowerPoint, set up some nice slide transitions (we recommend 'dissolve'), turn down the lights and put on a good show.

    There are a few subtle things you can do to fail a pitch. Forgetting peoples names, or calling them by their reality/porn/Japanime star doppelganger's name can be effective. Coming in still drunk from the night before is fine too. Remark about how glad you are to narrowly pass the field sobriety test on your way over. Swapping DUI stories can be a great ice breaker. Dress casually. Come straight from the gym if you want. Chew gum. Smell like cigarettes. Swear often and unnecessarily.

    At the end of the pitch you should be at your car before they can say "next steps." Practice packing up your bag in advance, a time of 10 seconds or less is acceptable. Never unpacking your bag is preferred. Prior experience on a pit crew would be helpful here.

    After the pitch, don't bother following up. Maybe you'll receive a polite e-mail from an administrative assistant a few months later explaining that they're sorry for the delayed response and while they appreciate all your effort and recognize your stellar work, they've decided to go another direction. Maybe you won't hear anything. You'll completely forget about the pitch until one day you'll read on The Egotist that they hired that competitor, the one with the mediocre work. You'll run into one of the marketing coordinators at a networking event the following year entitled, "Facebook, The New Television" and you'll smile to yourself knowing that you and your Creative Director did trade futures that day.

    Originally posted on The Atlanta Egotist.

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  • Why Boston Beats New York as a Creative Capital

    September 14th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    If the Red Sox could beat the Yankees a few times, despite the disparity in player salaries, Boston can beat NYC in creativity.

    Let’s appreciate the unique conditions and advantages for Boston creative:

    We live at the juncture of Past and Future. Our state is unusual in having so many future-oriented institutions – we’re a higher education capital, a high tech capital, an R&D capital, a venture capital capital – and yet we are constantly reminded of our history. We not only have old monuments and historic sites, we’ve got ethnic traditions, cultural heritage, and Old School folks who take pride in spurning the nouveau. That mix of old and new is combustible. When you think of advertising in Boston to the new, old, or newly old, you’ve got to think imaginatively.

    “Mad Men” is more creative than Madison Avenue. Back in the day, if you wanted to be an ad man you aspired to be in NYC. But now many creative people prefer to work online, and most of the ideas that dazzle are not coming out of New York. Sure, the city is still teeming with writers and artists of all kinds, but you don’t have to be there to make it big in communications. Those who work in New Media especially are creative in whatever community makes them feel most productive. That’s different for everyone, but for many it’s a small big city like Boston.

    We’re more in touch with un-reality. Boston was called “the Hub of the Universe” as a joke, but that ‘tude is part of who we are. We tend to be Boston-centric. Sure, it’s a little conceited, but having the feeling that your city is important makes you all the more driven in trying to do work that is worthy of it. I prefer to think of it in terms of ambition, not arrogance. “Boston ambition” is not always “beat New York!” as sports fans like to shout. In media, it means trying to come up with ideas that will impress, inspire, educate, entertain…not just sell. That may seem unrealistic when you’re just trying to sell a typical gizmo – but it’s motivational. And motivation is crucial because if your brain is constantly sifting through stimuli for a great new idea, the chances are better that you’ll find one.

    Virtual now means real. In recent years. I’ve produced TV spots, corporate comm and live events, but, like many ad budgets, I’ve been pulled online-ward. Boston is a natural hub for the web world because per capita we’re more oriented toward those who work predominantly online -- whether in medical tech, robotics, education, gaming or finance. Boston has become very entrepreneurial, and that means having more than online “presence”; it means dominating online, living the dream online, going big digitally...

    Boston won’t become the financial or entertainment capital of the country – not any time soon. But I really see Boston becoming a hub of New Media globally. That will really frost New York. That’s not our motivation, but... Oh, hell, of course it is.

    Alex Poulos is the President at LaunchPad Media.

    LaunchPad is an award-winning creative agency specializing in interactive media production – creating websites and driving traffic to them through advertising, search optimization, and PR. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, LaunchPad serves clients throughout the U.S.

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  • Patton Must Have Worked in Advertising

    September 9th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    General George S. Patton must have worked in advertising, because he said, “Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.” And it's true. People never see your strategy. They see an ad. Or experience a website. Or hear a radio spot. And if it's clever or exciting or emotional, they'll connect with it. Maybe Patton was having lattes with Mike Lescarbeau and Luke Sullivan and overheard them say that big ideas are like nuclear bombs, in that neither has to land precisely on target to work.

    Joseph Stalin must have worked in advertising, because he said, "Quantity has a quality all of its own." And it's true. If try to come up with one big idea, it'll probably take you two weeks to do it. And it'll be terrible. But if you dare yourself to have 50 ideas, they effortlessly pour from your brain onto paper and at least a couple are always, always brilliant.

    Robert Kaplan must have worked in advertising, because he wrote that the battlefield is more intellectually stimulating than the Potomac, because "ideas can only be tested through application." And it's true. There are people working in the advertising industry who position themselves as "strategic thinkers" purely because they don't have any actual skills. Fuck 'em and their ability to work phrases like "30,000 foot view" into everyday conversations. Nobody lives at 30,000 feet. Spend all your time up there and the lack of oxygen will fry your brain. If an insight doesn't lead to a great execution, get a new insight.

    Napoleon Bonaparte must have worked in advertising, because he said, "The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation." And it's true. Lots of people have good ideas. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways for those ideas to die. A great creative knows that coming up with an idea is only the first step. Then you have to sell it and watch it die and be willing to go back to the well over and over again until you find an idea that lives. And then you have to tirelessly pursue your idea through revisions and updates and productions and post-productions. Napoleon must have traded text messages with Paul Arden just after he wrote, "Energy is 99% of the job. If you haven't got it, be nice."

    Or maybe none of them worked in advertising. Maybe advertising just feels a lot like war.

    Matt is a writer at Karsh\Hagan.

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • How Do Women Climb To The Top Of The Creative Ladder?

    September 2nd, 2010 / Comments (2)

    Let’s start with a quick test.
    I want each of you to think of five great creative directors. Five stellar talents. Quick, you have thirty seconds. Got 'em? Good.

    Now, how many of them are women?

    I would be very surprised if even 5% of you had listed just one woman. I would be even more surprised if two women had made anyone's list. But why? It's not like women don't have talent, dedication or drive.

    As a quick example, if I had the chance to work for Tiger Savage (who just launched Tiger's Eye by the way) then I would crawl across broken glass to do so. She's a living legend.

    Unfortunately, she's in a small minority of creative women in advertising who are easily recalled. I wish I could rattle off a list of stunning female creative directors, but the usual suspects always come up first, and they're all men.

    I saw a stat recently that had me pondering deeply: "85% of brand purchases are made by women, yet only 3% of advertising agency creative directors are women." I believe they’re talking the major ad agencies here, the Madison Avenue variety, but still.

    This all seems more off-balance than a one-legged unicyclist. And while I'm not sure it's completely accurate (85% of brand purchases…really?) it's definitely closer to the truth than saying that the lead creative roles in the ad world are a 50/50 split between men and women.

    Watching "Mad Men" on AMC gives you a quick glimpse into the chauvinistic era of advertising, when men were men and women served the coffee. Even though the show does have a female copywriter, she's got about as much chance of filling Don Draper's shoes as I do of, well, partnering with Tiger Savage.

    Some will say we have come a long way, and it's true. Women are definitely taking their place alongside men in this business, with female art directors, copywriters and designers filling the agencies in droves. But how many of them make it to the top spot? It’s a small percentage. And it all seems quite unfair.

    It’s not easy to point the finger at your own industry and realize that it is behind the times. The corporate business world has promoted women into the top ranks for many years now. Again, it’s not yet equality, and the pay scales are different, but women are holding top positions in some of the biggest corporations in the world.

    And yet in advertising, an industry that works hand-in-hand with those businesses, high-ranking creative positions are still dominated by men.

    Are we still in a chauvinistic business that hides behind a façade of equal opportunities for all?

    Is advertising Neolithic?

    Right now, I would have to say yes.

    The very fact that I have worked alongside some amazingly talented women who should have been promoted years ago (you know who you are, and I doth my cap to your endless creativity) is evidence to me that something is not quite kosher here. Indeed, if the women I had in mind had been born with hairy gonads, they’d be running their departments right now. They’re not. And that sucks.

    Advertising is still something of an old boys network. Just look at the major creative directors currently gracing the top 100 ad agencies around the world. It’s like the cast of The Expendables.

    A wise old advertising owl once told me “consumers will buy from men more easily than they will buy from women.” I’m not sure if it’s a trust issue, or something else, but why would this be? I, for one, am a sucker for a good pitch, and I don’t care who delivers it.

    Well, except for stand-up comedy.

    For some reason, I find men funnier than women, and I am not alone. Stand-up comedy is dominated by guys. With a few notable exceptions, the world of stand-up comedy is a masculine world. And that really made me wonder if there are parallels here that could explain the lack of women at the top of either profession.

    Both industries demand originality, creativity and self-confidence. They also require an instant affinity with the audience, whether it’s a cold crowd or a cold boardroom. It takes a rare breed to win over the hearts and minds of an audience drunk on booze or a room drunk on corporate power. Is that something that men have more success with? Are men more likely to sell a great idea or tell a great joke? It seems like that is what the world is telling us.

    But even as I write that, I can recount meetings where guys shook like Jello when pitching their creative work, and women owned the room. I myself have almost blown creative meetings and have been saved by my female counterparts, who charmed the client and sold the work I was having trouble selling.

    So now I’m back where I started. Why aren’t more women in the top creative ranks of the advertising world?

    Bottom line, I think advertising is taking longer to catch up to the rest of the business world. One hundred years from now, when I am a corpse rotting in some dank grave, I hope the biggest ad agencies have the best creative directors at the helm. And that should always be dictated by talent, not gender.

    As one final note, I am a guy, obviously. I would like to hear from the women out there in advertising. Do you feel like you could one day be the CD of a major ad agency? Do you believe your ladder is way harder to climb? Have you already experienced some of the prejudices I have touched upon here? And more importantly, what do you think we can do as an industry to help change the tide?

    I want our ad agencies to have the best creative people steering the ship. What are the odds that 97% of the best creatives in the world are guys?

    Exactly.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does. Email him at [email protected].

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • At The End Of The Day, It’s Just Advertising.

    August 20th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    What?

    Yeah, I know. In the past I’ve gone off on rants that dropped the f-bomb more times than napalm was dropped on Vietnam. But unlike war, advertising is not really a matter of life or death. And although my rants always serve a purpose, which is to help you improve the work you do, it’s important to remember that it’s just work.

    As my idol (well, one of them) Luke Sullivan said recently:

    “Dude, this is advertising. You’re not pullin’ babies out of burning buildings. You’re not curing cancer or making peace. You make commercials for cry-eye. Websites. End-aisle displays. Jesus.”

    Maybe the combination of Mr. Sullivan spouting those words has, along with the seemingly invincible Alex Bogusky quitting CP+B, planted a seed in my noggin that has started to grow. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age. But advertising is not exactly a noble profession is it? In fact, in the 80s it was up there with stockbroker and plastic surgeon as an industry full of overpaid, arrogant assholes. These days, the overpaid has been replaced by overworked, but the arrogant assholes are never in short supply. I should know, I’ve been one for many years.

    But why bring this up? Especially after spending a few years shouting at you all and generally being a surly old bastard.

    Well, it all comes down to quality of life and your own sanity. I think we all have projects that we know are more important than others. We have those big jobs that not only make money for our clients, but also give us the recognition we deserve. In the grand scheme of things, though, they’re just ads. Creative ads, maybe, but they’re still ads that are ultimately a distraction from daily life.

    Some people say that ads are a break from that routine, like the Superbowl spots. Well, those spots aren’t even ads to be honest. They’re more like entertainment with a logo stamped at the end. And even then, so what? They give you a chuckle, you say “nice way to spend $3 million” and a week after that they’re a distant memory. They go in your book, of course, so that you can get a better job and do more ads that people will forget (cue Elton John singing Circle Of Life).

    Occasionally, advertising can sometimes be for a good cause. You get to work on a charity, or promote health and well-being. On those days, hell, you really are doing work that can save lives. But those jobs are few and far between. Ads for telecoms, financial institutions and junk food are far more prevalent.

    I remember once working all weekend on a project that was deemed “of utmost importance and urgency” by the client. We slept at the agency. We ate cruddy food. We drank beer and coffee in equal amounts. We cracked the job and presented it at 9am on Monday morning. The client LOVED it. Oh yes, we were golden.

    But when we saw that mighty newspaper insert covering the streets of the city the following week, we were less than ecstatic. That highly important job we sweated bullets over was just tomorrow’s garbage. Maybe 1% of the people who saw it actually read it. And maybe 2% of those gave enough of a crap to call the number. But how many trees died to get that wonderfully creative but ultimately innocuous ad onto the streets, lining the cardboard boxes of the homeless?

    I think we often confuse passion and a commitment to excellence with something far less dignified. And that is obsession.

    We get stuck in a box, void of all perspective, and believe that what we’re working on is vitally important. It warrants shouting matches, 19-hour workdays and a social life as anorexic as an Olsen twin. It often leads to stress, alcohol abuse, drug addition (prescription or illegal), ulcers, heart attacks, therapy sessions, divorces, affairs and sleepless nights that turn into sleepless months. It can even cause death. No, it’s not an exaggeration, ad people over the years have died due to some of those reason listed above, suicide and who knows what else.

    And for what? A 48ft billboard that sells a whole bunch of vodka? A TV ad that shifts more under-arm deodorant? A radio spot that gets people to pick up the phone and call Geico? Even if it’s an uber-cool spot like Apple’s 1984 or the Guinness Surfers, it’s just something designed to sell computers and booze.

    The Denver Egotist is on a mission to help Denver suck less. But that is a philosophy that applies to more than the work. It applies to everything that touches your life in this business. And how much does it suck to have a job that makes you ill, keeps you at the office for days on end, and stops you from seeing the people you love?

    I am by no means saying that the work you do doesn’t matter. Of course it does. And I’m not asking you to ignore my previous posts that talk about being a good CD, the importance of a great creative brief, or how to sell great work to clients. This is still just as relevant. We should all strive to make the work we do better, for our clients and ourselves. But do it with some perspective, if you haven’t been doing so already.

    Think about this the next time you’re in a screaming match arguing over the point size of a headline, or have reduced some newbie account coordinator to tears because she dared to say yes to an idiotic client request. Work matters, but not at the cost of your sanity or your soul.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does.

    Originally posted on The Denver Egotist.

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  • Why Account People Suck

    August 17th, 2010 / Comments (1)

    Originally posted on The San Francisco Egotist.

    I’ve been in advertising for longer than I want to admit and I’ve seen the insides of more agencies than I care to remember. Some have been really great creative shops. Others have been more middle-of-the-road agencies that (to paraphrase Peter Mayle) are more concerned with doing what the client thinks is right than doing what’s right for the client. But despite all the differences, there’s one thing I found in common at every place I’ve ever worked.

    The creatives always bitch about the account people.

    Think about it for a second. How many great account people have you worked with? Can you count them on one hand? I’m nearly two decades into this biz and I can still do it with ten fingers. But here’s the thing – if you’ve read this far in anticipation of me ripping into account executives for their shortcomings, you can stop now. Because you know the rub in all this? The fault of bad account executives lies at the feet of the creatives.

    Yes. The creatives.

    If you went and asked every person in your agency, “Who is responsible for producing great creative?” what would the response be? Copywriters and art directors – sure. Creative directors – yeah. Designers, producers, programmers – definitely. Most will mention art buyers and probably project managers. So do you see the problem? Agencies – and especially creatives – don’t consider account people among those who are responsible for actually producing great ideas.

    I’ve always said that when I start my own agency, the very first bullet point under “Job Responsibilities” for every single person in the agency will read “Produce great creative.” Account folks, media buyers, traffic, proofreaders, accounting, HR, reception – every single person’s main job will be to do what they can to produce the best work possible. When I interview account people, the first thing I want to ask is “Can I take a look at your book?” I want to see the stellar work they had a hand in forming and selling.

    With the way account people are viewed now by creatives, is it any wonder that creative briefs are as universally bad as they are? When something they create is seen at best as useless and at worst as a roadblock – why would they invest more time and effort into digging deeper? When a creative team won’t take the time to educate an account executive on the thought process behind the creative, can you blame AEs for not standing up for your work in front of the client? How do we expect them to push back when we give them nothing to push back with?

    Admit it – you hate internal reviews. You hate having to justify your work to an account person before you then have to justify it to a client. But what if you approached internals as a way to add more ammo to your arsenal? What if including that AE wasn’t a chore but a chance to get someone else on your side? How great would it be to have an account team who could literally sell the idea without you in the room because they were so deeply involved with the process? Someone who knew your idea as well as you did because they gave you the insight (in the brief) that led to your fabulous concept.

    So here’s where I backtrack a little bit. Of course the state of account/creative relations isn’t all the creatives’ fault. It’s a two-way street. There’s nothing stopping account people from wanting to be more involved in the creative. There’s no reason to ever cut-and-paste a brief. And account people should never forget that the very best are at least 51% for the agency and 49% for the client.

    But would it kill us creatives to reach out and extend an olive branch? Think of the goodwill we’d make by simply listing the account team first on award show credits. How much better could things be if we brought that Junior AE (and a media planner, and a programmer and a few others while we’re at it) into our first brainstorm on a new project and let them riff with us? Would it matter if they didn’t come up with any good ideas? Think about if they did. It’s admittedly corny as Hell to say “We’re all on the same team,” but that doesn’t make it any less true.

    And then maybe once in a while you'll get a brief you'll actually read.

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  • How To Sell Creative Work To Clients, Part 2 of 2

    August 12th, 2010 / Comments (0)

    Originally written for The Denver Egotist.

    In Part 1 of How to Sell Creative Work to Clients, I taught you how to get ready for the big meeting. Here's what to do to ensure you don't waste all that hard work once you're in the room together.

    12: Get them nodding
    This is an old tip from every profession that requires a sale. From cars to telecoms, the idea is to get the “mark” to start nodding or saying yes. At first, the questions can be innocuous, even unrelated. But getting people into the habit of saying yes makes it easier for that person to say yes to some of the much more important questions later on. Start asking questions that get them agreeing with you. The more nodding dogs you have in the room, the more chance you have of getting a thumbs-up when the work is presented.

    13: Laughter can help
    It’s not always appropriate to have a room full of people laughing, but laughter is a handy tool because it lightens the tension (and there’s always tension). You don’t need to study Mitch Hedberg routines and become a stand-up comic. For instance, your work may already have some humor in it that you can use to get that laugh. Or, you can use humor to set up something that’s less than funny. Wes Craven often uses humor in his horror movies because it’s a perfect way to set up a scare and get impact. You may be presenting something very serious, but you can still start the meeting with some light-hearted banter. This creative presentation could be the only hour of the client’s week that she’s not analyzing spreadsheets or dealing with stock holders, so she may really be looking forward to this meeting. If it becomes a real drag, it can bring the work down with it. Use your best judgment, but don’t think that laughter is only useful in meetings with Budweiser or Diesel.

    14: Brass balls can help too
    I’ve seen some ballsy presentations in my time. I’ve given a few as well. They’re tricky to do, not every client appreciates them. But if you feel out the client first, or already have a good relationship with them, you can get away with it. It can be as simple as slapping an ad down on the table in front of them, getting a laugh and saying “there, that’s what everyone else’s reaction will be, this ad is SOLD” and walking out (I witnessed that as a junior copywriter, I’m still in awe of it). You could say “we’re so confident in this ad, we’ll take no agency fee if it doesn’t raise your sales by at least 30% (get the approval of the big guns first though, or you could be in a world of hurt). You could even rip up the boards with the “safe” ads on them and stand behind just one idea. You have no doubt wanted to show your brass balls on occasion. Well, when the opportunity presents itself, this kind of bravery can have a huge impact.

    15: Persistence is a virtue
    You love the work. You know it’s great. You know it will do wonders for the brand and the bottom line. But when you present it, the client says “nah, not feeling it, what else have you got?” At that point, you have a choice. You can say goodbye to your great ideas and pull out the boards with the less impressive ideas on them. Or, you can stand behind your work and give it another shot. As I’ve said earlier, ideas can’t fight for themselves. The client may just need a push, some extra confidence in the idea or an indication that you genuinely believe in the work. So don’t roll over too quickly. Of course, if you’ve been arguing your point for most of the meeting and the client isn’t moving, you may need to stop beating that dead horse. Standing up for your work is one thing, but adamantly refusing to move on is just going to antagonize the relationship with the client.

    16: Don’t say “you’re going to love this idea…”
    By all means tell the client you love the idea, but don’t ever presume anything about what they will like. You’re basically throwing down the gauntlet so that the client’s natural reaction will be “oh yeah, we’ll see about that.” It’s like that cocky comedian who comes on stage and tells you he’s going to make you laugh your ass off. Now, you can tell people that YOU love the idea. That’s fine. But never tell them what they will think of something. It’s presumptive and it sets you up for complete failure.

    17: If they just don’t get it, whose fault is that?
    We’ve all come back from meetings that were train wrecks. Our shoulders hang low, our brows are furrowed and when a fellow creative asks what happened we reply “they just didn’t get it.” Ask yourself one question – “why?” I’ll admit I’ve presented to some people who seemingly had the intelligence of a house plant, but most people are smart enough to grab a concept, if it’s delivered in the right way. And that’s the key. Setting up the creative is paramount. You need to lay the foundation, and you need to communicate your ideas coherently. Sometimes, it’s enough to hold up a board and say nothing. The ad speaks for itself. But the same can’t be said of TV or radio. Never hand over a script and ask them to read it for themselves. Act it out. You don’t need to be Harrison Ford, just do your best to inject the right attitude and tonality. If the target audience is very different than the people in the room, set up that expectation. If the ad is going in an unusual place, or it’s a guerrilla concept, get that across. All too often ideas fall flat on their face because the complete story wasn’t told. And a killer punch line without the rest of the joke is just confusing.

    18: Finally, remember that you’re on the same side
    There seems to be this “them and us” mentality that propagates most creative departments. Creatives are the artists, clients are the evil bastards who know nothing and want to ruin everything. This just isn’t true. At the end of the day, you both want the same thing – you both want to sell more of the client’s product or service. Sure, you also want a cracking piece of work for your book, but that’s not the priority. So when you go into a room facing an enemy, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

    Go back to those days when you were a young kid and wanted to show something cool to your mom or dad. Remember how you could hardly stand still because you couldn’t wait to show them something? And how eager you were to hear their response? You wanted to make them happy, and they could sense your passion for what you had done. Well, a few decades of rejected ideas and watered-down concepts can create an awful lot of cynicism. Get over it. Every project presents the chance to do something good, and you should approach that creative presentation with that enthusiasm.

    As I say, this is not a complete list and it’s just my opinion. You may have different insights, you may have points to add. But hopefully, this is at least a foundation that can help you sell in some great work.

    Felix Unger is a site contributor, ranter and curmudgeon for The Denver Egotist. He's been in the ad game a long time, but he's still young enough to know he doesn't know everything. He'll give his opinion, you can take it or leave it. If he uses the f-bomb from time-to-time, forgive him. Sometimes, when you're ranting, no other word will do. In his spare time, he does not torture small animals. He has been known, on occasion, to drink alcohol by the gallon. Do as he says, not as he does.

    Originally written for The Denver Egotist.

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