Notes from enough time spent in advertising

Nobody wants a drill. They want a hole in the wall.

His legacy remains all around us.

We’re doing fine just the way we are.

Learn from what others do badly.

You can’t do great advertising without a great client.

…who knows a guy.

Nothing speaks louder about a company than the space it occupies.

Make sure that the CFO knows she’s part of the team.

Hitting the trifecta.
Provided by Lisa Strock

When I was a client there were things that I loved about my agencies, things I disliked and things I hated. When I was an agency account manager there were things I loved about my clients, things I disliked and things I hated.

From Tom Peters

How hard can it be?

Probably shouldn’t have done that.

Managing expectations and sometimes you have to tell them you can’t get there from here.

Like having a cousin in the business.

Wrong questions show how bad you are.

Twenty markers for judging an ad.

From those that have been there.

Been there–haven’t necessarily done that.

Jean DuBow on how to be a less annoying trade show client.

Designers don’t cut off their ears.

Provided by Emily Markarian

Should be able to…

Take the blame.

When you pitch a new account, three things can happen and two of them are bad.

Want to make your agency go nuts?

There are only three things you need to know about an ad agency.

Nothing happens until somebody sells something

“You can never give too much. It all comes back.”
Joe Crowley

Just in case anybody in accounting, manufacturing, shipping, media, creative, finance, human resources, IT or operations forgot–"NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMEBODY SELLS SOMETHING." Lance English Sales Manager Envise, Garden Grove CA

Searching for a budget.

Joe Crowley said…

You would have thought by now that anyone with a basic business understanding and responsibility would know what a brand is. Apparently not. According to the Wall St. Journal, Frank Hurt, president of the Baker’s union that just brought down Twinkies, putting 18,000...

Do I really need to know this stuff?

Why is it that the people that seem to have the best handle on the new media, are the same ones that have been doing the old media (print/TV/radio/collateral stuff) since we were ordering type from Hal Leader and running it through the waxer. There has to be some...

Advertising is not dead.

Not all exhibit houses are created equal.

Several semesters ago in my Advertising & Media Strategy class, I asked new students why their interest in working in an ad agency.  A hand shot up, and I only recall that his name was Tim and that he was very short…smallish actually. Tim was an avid sports fan,...

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Every time the client told me we had three extra days on the deadline, I told you guys we only had two.

Pick your partners carefully

Measure twice, cut once.

Lee Clow said, "Don’t tell them you’re going to learn their business.  Tell them that you’re going to teach them yours."  Every shop that ever did a pitch said that they were going to learn their client’s business from the inside out.  Learn what makes their client...

There’s a reasonable argument that says they should, but several years ago a great client was seeking a senior professional to join their in-house marketing team.  I, along with Dave Beckert that handled the media, was asked to meet with the new person on the morning...

People say that we should have a president who is more like us–one of the common folk, just a regular guy.  Not me. I want to vote for the smartest son-of-a-bitch we can find.  He’s got to run the whole government.  If we only got somebody as smart as me to be...

Can only be as good as the client.

Who should run the account?

When estimating a project, three things can happen–and two of them are bad.

If we look back and make assessments about whether or not we’ve been reasonably successful over the years, we might tend to blame our good fortune on things like talent, experience, hard work and certainly a measure of good luck.  But in this business, we can’t be...

Did I say art directors can’t write?

Last week I purchased the new iPhone 4S from the Apple Store in the Galleria.  No wait; they had them in stock, even the white one.  I paid the money, and then they took me over to the set up table where they attempted to transfer all of the stuff from my old 3GS to...

How bad can it get?

For the spring semester of 2012, I had responsibility for an intern–Jenna. She was actually interning for Hadley Exhibits and I jumped in as the Intern Administrator.  While we hope that Jenna gained something from the experience, turned out to be a great experience...

You can get a day pass to walk all over Disney World for about $90.  Go anywhere, do some rides and look all around.  Meals are extra. You can walk all over Paris, go anywhere and see cool stuff…for nothing.  Outdoor cafes are extra.  London and Rome have the same...