What I Learned This Year: Steve Connelly

Steve Connelly, President and Chief Creative Officer at Connelly Partners

I was asked by the good folks at The Egotist to give some sort of a review of 2010. And most people would view this as an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned over the past 12 months. A look back at industry highs and lows. Stories of facing obstacles and the economic Armageddon of 2010 yet overcoming with motivating success stories from the Adguy soapbox. Me, I’m guessing you don’t want to read any of that crap. I’m guessing you couldn’t be happier to see 2010 in the rear view mirror. Get this year over with and get on to the next one. So let’s lighten things up a bit…let’s get blissfully superficial.

See, I’ve always forgotten things. I like to think that it’s not because my head is too empty but rather too full. My kids would disagree. But my head is akin to a man’s closet, packed with stuff and none of it neatly put away. Much of what’s in there is trivial, but I can’t get that stuff out from between my ears. I walk the world everyday with a mind filled with useless facts (did you know the University of Southern Illinois nickname is the Salukis? I did). Thus my life is dependent on a Blackberry filled with reminders, alarms, and important events. Which for this conversation is a perfect way to look back at 2010. Let’s roll the magic Blackberry ball and see what pops out each month:

Um, uh oh. January 2010 is totally blank in this thing. Empty. But I swear I did stuff in January…. really I did. Wait a minute; I think January was the month I got a new Blackberry because the previous one crapped out. I freaked out. My tether to the organized world was gone. How would I survive? Yet somehow almost 12 months later, here I am. Lesson number one for all of us in advertising - no matter how bad the year looks, the sun keeps coming up. We’re all still here.

I have an interesting entry in February. There was a radio assignment I was working on. And as I was exploring directions, I wrote a radio spot specifically for Ray Welch to read. All the pauses. All the big words. I could hear Ray’s luscious voice caressing every sentence, making something better of my copy than I ever could have. The fact that Ray passed away several years ago didn’t deter me. I always enjoyed writing for Ray. I enjoyed writing this script for him as well. I miss him terribly. But I know that every time God needs to reach the angels, he has the best copywriter ever up there to write for him. Sure Ray could always turn 60 seconds of copy into 77 seconds, but if anyone can be flexible with media, God can. Ray was a dear friend.

Had a radio and TV VO session on March 9th. Funny spots. Cool thing about the day was how little I was involved. I was ornamental and had no problem with that. I had a little germ of an idea, and a whole team of CP people ran with it, improved it, created the hell out of it and made it a gazillion times better. We would end up winning a Hatch for our work that day at Soundtrack. Lunch was great….I spent a lot of time with lunch. Pizza. That was a good day.

On April 13th I had my first meeting with the folks at Dey Pharma, the people who make Epi Pens. They became a client a few weeks later. We had found a pharma client more interested in our experience marketing to moms, than our experience marketing drugs. Which was sorta limited. Ok, we had none really. This was going to be a good year.

May 20th was my Dad’s birthday. Thanks Dad. Advertising is hard work. I got my work ethic from my dad, who worked as a truckman extraordinaire his whole life. Always worked hard. Always found time for us kids. The birth of Balanceology.

Maybe you’ve seen our Samsonite TV spot? The one with the bull charging the red Samsonite Spinner bag? Pretty cool spot huh? The bull was great to work with. Kept the pooping on the set to a minimum. First presented the idea on June 2nd.

July 20th. Looked at the year to date. Determined that the year was strong enough to allow us to take our agency trip to Disney again. Been able to do it 10 out of our 11 years. Spouses, kids, partners all welcome. What the hell…what am I going to do? Spend our meager profits on cool cars and man-earrings? Nah. Is Disney a bit cheesy? Of course…it was founded by a mouse. Duh.

September 2nd. My anniversary. Nuff said.

October. The Blackberry is chock filled this month. Look at all the dots on the electronic monthly view. Man I was busy. But this is every agency’s busiest month. The month where everyone starts to look and plan and elevate expectations for the next year. The kind of month that reminds you why you got into advertising in the first place. Energy is everywhere. I love October. Perfect that October ends with bags of candy and chocolate. We’ve been on a sugar high all month.

November 12. Had a top-secret breakfast meeting with another agency about becoming part of Connelly Partners. Very exciting. Can’t tell you any more than that. I can tell you I had an eggbeater omelet with spinach and dry toast. We pitched two new accounts I can’t tell you about either. Sorry.

December: The Egotist asked me to write something about 2010. I forget why. Better go check my Blackberry.

The Year in Review. 2010. From Steve’s Blackberry. Don’t fixate on just the big things from the last 12 months. Cherish the little things that make up your year and your life. Your life is details. The little things end up adding up. They define you. Look back at 2010 and look in all the little nooks and crannies of the year and smile.

Happy New Year. And, as the politically incorrect among us would say, Merry Christmas.