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If You’re Going To Sell The Agency, Sell It To Meredith

AdPulp Blog — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:18:05 +0000

Arlington, Virginia-based New Media Strategies is getting some positive press from Ad Age, thanks to a novel buy out strategy that awards not just the owners of the agency but the employees, as well.

New Media Strategies was acquired by Meredith Corp. back in 2007. When that deal closed, CEO Pete Snyder and fellow founders set aside a stock pool to reward employees who stuck around. Three years later, that stock pool has appreciated to $2.5 million, meaning the 30 employees out of 50 that remain are getting checks valued between $80,000 and $105,000 this week. Not a bad reward for helping Mr. Snyder and other shareholders make their earn-outs.

More recently, Des Moises-based Meredith--publisher of Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, Midwest Living and several other popular titles--boosted its marketing services arm of the company via another acquisition, this time in mobile. According to Ad Age, Meredith acquired mobile hotshop The Hyperfactory this month after taking an initial stake in the agency responsible for the much-loved Kraft iFood Assistant app one year ago. I've long been impressed with Meredith. They're a successful publisher and a successful marketing services provider. That's the page I'm on--on a much smaller scale, of course--with AdPulp and Bonehook. [UPDATE] Word on the street is several NMS staffers flew the coop after they received their payouts. But that sounds like a relatively natural process to me.

Imagine If You Didn’t Need A New Phone, Or Laptop, Or Desktop, Or Router. Ever!

AdPulp Blog — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:21:57 +0000

Ed Cotton of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is thinking big thoughts again. This time about sustainability and what brands might do to radically embrace it.

...although a whole industry exists to refurbish, re-sell and repair old products, it's not branded and at the forefront of the brand experience. If brands were to get behind it and support and create the infrastructure, it would create a whole new brand relationship. From the onset, consumers would be looking for brands through a different lens; they would be thinking about a lifetime of experience, they would be looking for reliability, for service skills and for the technological know-how to update when required.

Cotton started thinking about these ideas after learning how BMW is dedicated to servicing the 600,000 classic BMW cars still on the road today. Imagine if Apple felt that way about their expensive devises. It's easy to imagine, but hard to conceive.

An Agile Provider Jumps Through Hoops

AdPulp Blog — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:56:26 +0000

In what appears to be a twist on iterative marketing, Razorfish is unveiling its newest offering--Razorfish Agile--which intends to help C-level executives develop products and services faster and more efficiently. Razorfish describes their "agile" concept as a faster way for designers and technologists to launch websites and digital marketing campaigns, especially where complex application development is required. Instead of specialists creating polished designs and handing them off to each other in assembly-line fashion for development, agile teams work in collaboration to quickly develop and revise prototypes based on customer feedback. "CMOs are letting go of their obsession with producing one-shot campaigns based on a single idea," said Razorfish Chief Technology Officer Ray Velez. "The agile test-and-learn approach is becoming especially popular as CMOs respond to pressure to prove their value constantly through innovation." The agency's training program educates clients on issues such as how to create a schedule and estimate costs for an agile project, and how to build agile teams. PREVIOUSLY ON ADPULP: Fighting Words (a post about iterative marketing).

The AdPulp Interview: Luke Sullivan

AdPulp Blog — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:12:53 +0000

Luke Sullivan, Copywriter. I somehow can't imagine his name without the professional designation, given how synonymous the two are. Of course, Sullivan's more than a Copywriter today. He's also Senior VP/Managing Group Creative Director at GSD&M in Austin and the author Hey Whipple Squeeze This, one of the more instructive "how-to" books available on the topic of creating advertising. Sullivan also has a new blog called Hey Whipple. Thankfully, it's not an obvious ad for his book, but a furthering of his thoughts on the ad business. Enough with the introductions. I know you know who he is. But did you know his portfolio once sucked? Okay then, please read on... Q. Your former colleague Bob Barrie now has his name on the door. Do you ever think about running your own shop? A. Nope. Because I know how hard it is. It was hard for me just moving from copywriter to a creative director, in the sense of moving away from the front lines of the work. Once you're a partner, man, you're even further away from the work. Well, at least that's how it felt to me. I don't know how Bob does it, but it would be too much for me. Q. Is social media important to you? Or would you prefer to avoid it? A. I have really enjoyed discovering first the online world back in like '97 or so, and now more recently social. Yeah. I am not plugged into everything though. Just Facebook and Twitter, though I do maintain a page on LinkedIn. I sorta look at Linkedin is the office, Facebook is a backyard BBQ, and Twitter is a cocktail party. That kinda sums it up for me. Q. Does an aspiring copywriter today need to show more than ads in their book? Is web content also needed, given clients' voracious need for it today? A. Very true. I cannot bring myself to hire someone who doesn't have a serious amount of digital work in his or her book. But here's the main thing I look for (after, of course, great ideas executed across a variety of media): I look for CRAFT. For writers, this means, well, the craft of writing. The quickest way for me to judge that ability is in good old-fashioned headlines. So I recommend having some good ol' print or outdoor, work where the entire piece is held up with a strong headline. This is important for juniors given that the jobs a junior writer is handed are often small print jobs with no photography budget. Jobs where you pretty much need to solve the whole thing using nothing but words. So, advice to writers: write. Q. Tell me what you drew you to GSD&M and what are the best things are about the agency and living/working in Austin? A. I love GSD&M and I love Austin. First of all, it's kinda weird to be working in such a big agency in such a small town. In fact, GSD&M is the biggest place I've ever worked. Also, check out our client roster. It's amazing to work on all these blue-chip brands from our little Texas town: the U.S. Air Force, BMW, Goodyear, Norwegian Cruise Line, L.L.Bean, and of course Southwest Airlines. Sorry if I sound like I'm from the PR department, but that's the way it is. The single best thing about working here (which I felt the minute I walked in the door in 2003) was the warmth of the culture. You can't invent culture. You can't buy it. You can't ship it in or transplant it. You either have culture or you don't and GSD&M has the strongest culture I've felt in my 31 years in the business. It is extremely familial; which is especially cool given the size of this place. And as for Austin, man, it's such a cool town. Patton Oswalt the comedian did a show here and he made fun of us. "Austin would elect a hacky-sack for mayor if they could." It's just a bunch of hippies down here. Everybody has a tattoo and everybody is in a band. There's SXSW Interactive every year and a couple years back, during Austin City Limits, I remember coming home one night and sitting on my back porch and listening to the Rolling Stones play live, from the park just over the hill. Yes, it's very hot here, from about June till September. But when you think about it, pretty much every section of the country has four months of crummy, whether it's Portland's rain or Minneapolis's snow. Four months of somethin' that kinda sucks; ours is heat. But as my wife says, "You don't have to scrape heat off your windshield before you drive into work." One last thing. Austin is NOT Texas. Dallas is Texas. We're just....well, we're Austin. Q. Are you only as good as your last ad? A. Oh, I've always thought that was a little harsh. And back when I was a harsh little ad critter, yes, that was my credo. But I found this made me beat myself up, pretty much all the time. I was in a constant funk about it. The thing is, creative people are prone to this kind of silly shit no matter what field they're in. We take our work and ourselves too seriously. I once heard that it is the responsibility of the artist "to last." To survive. The great ones, they do. The people worried about what they look like, worried "Am I only as good as my last ad," I'm not sure having that much fear and friction in your head would be a good way to work, not if you want to have a long career. It'd be like that Jackson Browne lyric, where the "sound of your own wheels drives you crazy." Q. Do you have an iPad and or iPhone? Why or why not? A. Of course, I have both, you nutty nut. I will buy everything that company makes. I love everything about the company. I love their vertically integrated art direction. The sparsity, the use of white, it defines the way their website looks, their TV spots, the design of their products, the way the stores look, all the way down to the dang boxes you carry out of the store. In fact, their packaging's so cool, I still haven't thrown away the box my iPad came in. Stupid, I know, but it it's just so well-made. The sense of quality just seems to come off the box in waves. Q. Do you work more than 40 hours a week? A. One of the best parts about the culture of GSD&M (and Fallon too, as I remember it) is a sense of work-life balance. Yes, we work our asses off, but when you're done, you go home. Sure, during pitches, we're here around the clock, drinkin' the tepid coffee and eatin' cold pizza. But when you're done, you're done. There is no unspoken code here that says you gotta be here all the time. I think that leads to low morale and then burnout. Q. What led you to advertising as a profession? Did you grow up wanting to write copy? A. I grew up reading comic books: Spider-Man, Daredevil. Then I started making my own comic books, which if you look at a comic, it's basically a storyboard. Telling stories with words and pictures. It took me a couple of years out of college to put those two together: telling stories with words and pictures, and advertising. Lordy, I remember the first book I put together to get into the business. What Tom McElligott and Ron Anderson saw in me I will never know. But man it sucked. But somehow I got in. Q. Can you explain to me-a doubter-why industry awards shows matter as much as they do? To me, peer evaluation seems like the wrong metric to base one's career on. A. I'm all over the map about this one. I grew up positively insane about working the awards circuit. I think that's probably pretty normal for younger creatives. The reason? I see ad careers in terms of three stages. Early on, it's about GETTIN' FAMOUS. That's what awards help do. Then, once you've got a bit of a name goin', that's when the juniors say, "Man, I oughta get paid more if I'm doin' so great" which, of course, is when the second chapter kicks in - GETTIN' MONEY. Then, when the final third of a career comes around, maybe when you got kids to worry about, a house, a spouse, when you have a life ... well, but then it's all about GETTIN' STABILITY. You want a job that will last. You don't wanna have to move your family around. So, with that sort of career track in mind, I get the whole awards thing. On the other hand, if you get too into awards, it'll start to effect your work. Because now, instead of sitting down to solve a business problem and to write to a particular audience, you could be writing with an award show audience in mind. It's conceivable one could begin to work with a sort of Super Bowl "How-can-I-amaze-everybody" kind of mindset, one that may not be right for the problem at hand. Q. What are your favorite ad campaigns that debuted over the last year or two? A. Apple vs PC. The Most Interesting Man in the World for Dos Equis. Google Chrome Labs. And I love this new work from Leo Burnett for Allstate, featuring that cool actor named Dean Winters as "Mayhem." Q. You wrote the book on making better ads. Can you also speak briefly here on the magic of creative presentations and selling the work? A. If you wanna get ahead in this business, and I mean really ahead, you are gonna have to good at presenting. There's no way around it. Now the thing is, you can have a very good and long career in advertising and never present. You can be a "below the line" sort of creative who just stays in his/her office and cranks out the great stuff. But in order to move up the corporate ladder (and that is a good thing, people), you gotta get good at presenting. Getting great at presenting would be even better, but not everybody is great at this stuff. Present every chance you get, whether internally at the agency or in front of clients. Practice is the only way I know how to improve at it. Well, there is one other way, happened to me back in 1981. I spent about a year and a half goofing around as a stand-up comic and going on stages all over Minneapolis. Man, you wanna talk about getting confidence? Getting up there and learning how to get an audience on your side is extraordinary training for presenting concepts to a client. It doesn't come without pain. I can remember DYING several times. There probably isn't a worse feeling in the world than DYING on stage. Ouch. Q. Some people have claimed there's been something of a talent drain in advertising, of late. Are agency people (and clients) as talented and intelligent as always? A. I don't see it. The rise of the ad schools has resulted in a very robust pool of candidates to pick from. I am seeing so many amazing books. Sorry, but I disagree with this one.

Red Bull Points Facebook Fans In The Right Direction

AdPulp Blog — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:46:59 +0000

When you first land on Red Bull's Facebook page, this is what you see: Naturally, Facebook's "Like" button is at the top of all these arrows. My guess is most people do what I did and click "Like." Note: after you "Like" this page and become a "fan" of Red Bull, you don't see this appeal any longer.

Jantzen In The Mad Men Spotlight

AdPulp Blog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:07:30 +0000

As of Sunday night, season four of Mad Men season is underway. The first episode of the season is called "Public Relations" and it opens on a scene at a Manhattan restaurant where a wounded Korean War vet now working for Ad Age interviews a stoic Don Draper. Draper plays modest, and credits this feigned modesty to his Midwest upbringing. Another interesting storyline in "Public Relations" is the use of Portland sportswear company, Jantzen. Draper, who just described himself as Midwest modest, has a real problem with the modesty he sees in the Janzten brand. In fact, Draper refers to the clients as "prudes" before throwing them out of the agency after a poor presentation. Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is a stickler for details, so I can't help but wonder how accurate this depiction of the Jantzen brand in 1964 is. I also wonder about what kind of sales uptick the brand may be seeing this week, as a result of the Mad Men integration. Draper may have cast Jantzen out of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP), but I doubt real life consumers of the show (and swimwear) are taking his words to heart. Let's have a look at Janzten's modern day offerings, shall we? Available at Popina in NE Portland Maybe the brand was prudish in 1964. I don't know. But it's sexy now. Back to the Draper-tantrum for a minute. Creative people in advertising are known as hotheads--it's a type from central casting. Even so, I bristled at Draper's treatment of the two gentlemen from Portland, who came to him eager for answers to their marketing problems. Draper's dismissiveness might play well on TV, but in real life, great creatives step up, not aside.

Target Aims To Hit Politicians With Influence

AdPulp Blog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:28:21 +0000

Yeah, I saw this coming. Corporations are opening up their bank accounts for politicians now that the Supreme Court Citizens United decision makes it easier. Check out this AP story first. (We can't reprint portions of content from the AP, but it's a good overview.) Now, The Huffington Post takes a look at how thorny an issue it is.

A campaign contribution to a well-known anti-gay politician in Minnesota has become a rather large public relations nightmare for Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel--and the store now faces boycotts and backlash from the gay community. Target's Chief Executive Steinhafel said gay employees have been concerned about the money helping state Rep. Tom Emmer, who opposes gay marriage. Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, a group staffed by former insiders from outgoing Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration. MN Forward is running TV ads supporting Emmer. The Associated Press reports that Emmer is a fiery conservative who lauds Arizona's strict approach to illegal immigration, once advocated chemical castration for sex offenders and wants to lower taxes. His profile contrasts with Target's moderate image in Minnesota, where the company is known for donating to public school programs, food pantries and the annual Twin Cities Gay Pride Festival.

Keep in mind that for individuals in Minnesota, the maximum contribution is $2,000. The politician in question advocates policies that, supposedly, would advance Target's business interests unrelated to his views that affect the LGBT community. (Again, see the AP story). But here's the bigger point: When companies like Target choose political sides, obviously, some consumers won't like it. But I doubt there's enough public outcry to make the company change its support of candidates. We're going to see more of this type of spending because of the Citizens United decision. Lots more. I'll say it again: The right politicians can protect a company's bottom line--and its brand--more than marketing can. And if more corporate money ends up in the hands of politically-oriented ad firms, more general market ad firms will want some of that action as well.

Digital Publishers Don’t Have Old Media’s Margins, But The Best Operators Are Making It Work

AdPulp Blog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:09:21 +0000

Daniel Lyons of Newsweek wrote an interesting piece about the business side of Huffington Post, a new media company with $30 million in revenue.

HuffPo has a big audience--24.3 million unique visitors last month, nearly as many as The New York Times--but like most Web sites, it can't monetize it very well. Right now, HuffPo generates just over $1 per reader per year. That's nothing compared with the mainstream-media outlets that HuffPo hopes to displace. Cable-TV networks and print newspapers collect hundreds of dollars per year from each subscriber, and then generate hundreds of millions in ad revenue on top of that. The hard truth is that advertisers want to put messages on Web sites, but they just don't want to pay very much for that privilege. And perhaps for good reason. When was the last time you clicked on an Internet ad? Or even noticed one? "Maybe it's time that someone says the unsayable--that online advertising just doesn't work. A Web site turns out to be a not very good advertising vehicle," says Michael Wolff, the Vanity Fair columnist who also runs Newser.

It seems that Wolff may not be an avid reader of Ad Contrarian, a man who dutifully waves the Online Advertising Sucks flag each week. That online advertising sucks is a debate and a business problem that will not go away. We've certainly touched on this topic hundreds of times here at AdPulp, but what progress are we making toward solid answers to shaky questions? And what exactly are we, as advertising professionals, learning from this? Do we find it maddening or humbling? Frankly, very few mediums have proven resistant to the advertising bug. Will digital ultimately prove resistant? I don't think so. I think what's already happening is we're slowly learning to operate on slimmer margins. Companies like HuffPo are learning faster than most, which is why they have a fighting chance to be profitable over the long term.

A Rainy Night In Georgia With Humongo Nation

AdPulp Blog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:19:34 +0000

They had to slog through some nasty summer Southern thunderstorms, but they finally got into the ATL and I was privileged to meet up with Matt, Kristien, Darryl, Renato and RJ from Humongo Nation 2010. Humongo Nation is a project of Humongo, formerly known as Plaid. This marks the 4th year they've loaded up a van and done a 2-week stretch through a slice of America. This year, it's a Portland, Maine-Miami route, where they're seeing marketing folks, agency folks, and other good peeps along the way. Darryl told me that publicity from the tour has helped his agency gain a higher profile, leading to some new clients and an acquisition by Source Marketing, an MDC company. So it's both business and fun, with a large dose of connectivity. You can follow them on Twitter and check out their tour website to see videos, read their tour (and food) blogs, and see what it's all about. It sure beats most agencies' self-promotion efforts.

NFL Legend John Randle Stars In Spots For Vikings Scratch Game

AdPulp Blog — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:14:13 +0000

On behalf of Minnesota State Lottery, Minneapolis agency OLSON recently employed the comedic talents of Twist Director Grady Cooper. Cooper calls the spots, "Stupid comedy for smart people." Which might be funnier than the spots themselves.