The Chad Can Help

Chad Rea is a man of multiple interests and talents. We recently reported on his 86ing 86theonions, in favor of ecopop. He also does public speaking, career coaching, voiceover work, philanthropy work and he directs music videos.

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His career coaching business is called Create Your Happy. Rea explains the need for career coaching.

You might be surprised to learn that after working for some of the top creative companies in the world, and starting successful companies of my own, including unconventional brand communications agency 86theonions, that I would be left unfulfilled and feeling like I had becomes someone else.

I don’t know Rea, but I’m not surprised. Advertising isn’t the most fulfilling of careers, unless one’s focus is on doing good things for great companies.

Rea mentions that Debbie Robins, Patricia McDade, Susan James and Tom Knowles, founder of Vedic Meditation Center, have been mentors to him and instrumental in helping him “create his happy.”

Rea provides coaching by phone, for those not in the Los Angeles vicinity. You can reach him at thechad at chadrea dot com.

Shed The Suit

Adweek has been offering a lot of guest columns of late. They’re featuring one from freelance copywriter and creative director, Jim Morris, at the moment. He argues that it’s tough being a CD today. His main point is CDs are doing their work and the work of hapless account directors.

As I see my creative director clients at agency after agency being stretched and twisted into unnatural positions, it makes me want to slap the fat cats at the top.

For Chrissakes, bigwigs, let ’em create, let ’em lead, let ’em teach and nurture — but please stop forcing creative directors into suits and making them book their own flights.

In related news, Zeus Jones, refuses to employ account people. Rob White told the daily (ad) biz:

The job of account people is primarily to manage relationships. We have set up our business to solve business problems on a project by project basis. If we’re successful that will build healthy relationships as a by-product. What this means is that the people responsible for the strategies and ideas have a direct, unimpeded relationship with the clients. Our clients like that. It may not always be the most efficient way to run the business but we like it.

Compromise Kills

I’d like to share with you with some thoughts about an evil in our midst. An evil I know all too well.

Compromise is the way of the world, and totally unavoidable in many circumstances. Begrudingly, I’ve learned to accept this fact of life. But I also know what a destructive force it can become. If you let it, compromise will eat you alive, cell-by-cell until there’s no you left, just a vacant shell that looks like you.

In the political arena, Bill Clinton gave compromise a decent name. He had to get things done, one way or another. So he moved his party to a centrist position in an already stifling corporate atmosphere. The nation may, or may not, recover from his practical approach.

On the environmental front, compromise leads to all sorts of compound problems. For instance, otherwise sane people are currently arguing for more nuclear power and the use of clean coal (an oxymoron, if there ever was one). I don’t believe we can stand much more compromise when it comes to the health of our planet.

In the ad industry, where client-service–not content, nor concept–is king, we eat compromise for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And snack on it too. We are so full of compromise that it’s no longer separate from us, it is us.

Steffan Postaer Gets To The Point

I thought you had to be a septuagenarian to enter anyone’s Hall of Fame. Guess not.

Feelings

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[courtesy of Tom Fishburne]

AdPulp Too

Brad Kay and Adweek’s Brian Morrissey have been IMing.

Turns out Morrissey isn’t wild about PR practitioners.

I’m a reporter. If I had my druthers, I’d never deal with PR people. Nothing against them. I’m sure the vast majority are great people. PR, like the ad world, is still all about ‘impressions.’ That leads to spray and pray. The other half of PR is controlling access. Both parts of it inevitably rub me the wrong way. The best PR is the PR I don’t notice – the ones who make a connection and then stop trying to act like a middleman to “add value.” PR people don’t like to hear this, I know. Not all of them are like this, but trust me so many are. I’m amazed how many PR people there are. There must be hundreds of different ones that contact me. It seems like as media shrinks PR grows.

Thankfully, he does appreciate bloggers.

John Battelle, David Armano, Noah Brier, Umair Haque, Fred Wilson, John Furrier, Techcrunch. Among just ad blogs, agency spy was awesome until SuperSpy left. I enjoy AdPulp too.

Thanks for the vote of confidence (that sounds like an afterthought), Brian.

As for the PR peeps, I’d like to relay one of my own pet peeves. I regularly receive pitches addressed to Matt and Danny. But I’m not Matt, nor Danny. I’m David. Just to be clear, I receive the exact same email three times over, all three of which I immediately mark as spam.

[via Tangerine Toad’s tweet]

Aspiring A.D. Monetizes His Search

I recall a number of years ago a prospective student crawled into a wooden crate and had himself delivered to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Art Center didn’t appreciate the stunt, but another, less prestigious art school did. They offered the guy admission.

Now, Adfreak points us to Mike Cessario, an Art Center student with an out of the box idea. He’s selling ad space in his portfolio.

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He’s pitching photographers primarily.

Big Boss Man Woman

Ad Age released its list of 2008 Women to Watch in advertising, marketing and media.

Two of the women I took note of are Karen Kaplan and Pam Hamlin, president of Hill Holiday and Arnold, respectively.

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Kaplan’s rise is particularly noteworthy.

In an industry where shop hopping is the norm, Karen Kaplan has ascended from receptionist to agency president in the past 26 years all under the same roof. To boot, she lives in the same ZIP code where she grew up, in North Boston, with her husband of 25 years, a son and a daughter.

She joined Hill Holliday in 1982 with a B.A. in French literature from the University of Massachusetts. “The year that I spent on the reception desk proved to be very useful, because it was the perfect place to study people and figure out what I wanted to do next,” she says.

“She truly did it the old-fashioned way: She earned it,” says Jack Connors, chairman emeritus of Hill Holliday and Ms. Kaplan’s former boss.

Ground Zero Adds Some Creative Muscle

According to Adweek, Ground Zero has added creative vet Curt Detweiler as partner and ecd. He started at the shop last week.

Aegncy creative partner and co-founder Court Crandall said Detweiler represents “the most important creative hire in the 14 years of our shop.”

Crandall said he has not had a creative partner at Detweiler’s level since the departure of creative partner Kirk Souder in 2001.

“Curt is among the select few that has the whole package to drive the business in a significant way,” Crandall said. “Great companies hire people better than themselves.”

Crandall said that Detweiler “thinks big like the good Chiat people always have.”

Tell The Truth

Brian Brooker, CEO & chief creative officer of Barkley, writing for Talent Zoo asks agency personnel to consider doing something radical to improve the work.

Here’s a thought on how advertising could move up a few notches: Tell the truth. Tell the truth in a way that inspires rather than dulls the mind like a double scotch. Tell the truth in a way that reflects real life, not an advertiser’s pipe dream. Tell the truth in a way that gives customers credit for their intelligence, rather than treats them as if they all have room temperature IQs. Remember that consumers appreciate creativity. They like to laugh. They can put two and two together.

I, for one, am all for telling consumers the truth. But I can’t quite imagine the thousands of brand managers working on commodity products sharing our zeal for honesty.

How Clueless Are We?

There’s really no way to accurately measure cluelessness in the agency business, but that hasn’t stopped Brad Nierenberg and Charlie Jones from trying.

The agency universe is suffering a rapidly declining population of managers who get it. In fact, on average, we submit that only 15% of all agency people actually get it.

Yes, we know: We sound like snobs. But our hearts are in the right place. Honest. We’re not calling out specific agencies, here, and we’re not trying to rustle up some business. We simply want to increase the get-it population, perhaps build a colony somewhere. Why? Because get-it people get things done. They make great teachers and future leaders. They solve problems. They make people money.

For more of their common sense wisdom, see the Brandweek article in its entirety.

Way Way Beyond Web Whatever Point 0

Naked’s Will Collin on media neutrality and the future of the agency business:

The willingness to embrace any and every channel without bias is the only guarantee that your agency will be as relevant to the communications landscape of 20 years’ time as it is to today’s.

Objectivity is future-proof.

Barkley’s Bloggers

Barkley is offering up its resident bloggers.

Sadly, the KC agency also offers up a lengthy disclaimer, lest we think these fine folks actually speak for the Barkley brand.

Also, Woolard Speak is missing from the list above. Yet, it’s Woolard who speaks kindly of his employer on his personal blog.

i’m headed to a little Ozark retreat with some folks from Barkley today to blur the lines. Barkley started sending a smattering of its employees – from all disciplines – to the Ozarks a few years ago. each time collaboration is king and ideas come from everywhere to address specific “assignments” launched on day one and presented on day four.

i didn’t get a chance to go when I was previously at Barkley, so i’m absolutely stoked to head out today. this is just one of a number of efforts Barkley offers to inspire its employees and keep fresh thinking front of mind. can’t wait.

Seven Outposts, One Money-Making Philosophy

Rance Crain has been talking to Eric Mower of Eric Mower & Associates about the consolidated bottom line.

Key to understanding his strategy is that he operates his offices with a consolidated bottom line to “eliminate the forces of nonintegration,” as he nicely puts it.

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“When everyone in an agency organization realized that their interests — and those of their clients — are best served through collaboration, integration becomes the behavior of choice. Our seven offices, multiple practice groups and numerous client teams all know that individual rewards are based on: value delivered to clients, productivity and collaboration.” The agency, of course, tracks the P&L of each of his seven offices, but employees are rewarded on how the entire operation does.

Eric controls 100% of the voting stock but 30 partners have non-voting stock and dividends are paid on a pro-rata basis to all stockholders. He said eight members of his top management team decide on bonuses based on a profit pool each year. Allocations depend on the performance (value to client, productivity, collaboration) of each employee.

Eric Mower & Associates has offices in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Atlanta, Charlotte and Sarasota.

Extravagance In Adlandia

I like it when bloggers tell stories.

Steffan Postaer comes through with his latest offering on Gods of Advertising, So you want to be a rock star creative?

A long time ago, while on production in LA, I had a free weekend and so spent it at the hotel pool. I had my book, a pile of magazines and a smoothie from the bar. This is the life, I thought to myself.

My reverie was soon interrupted, however, by the presence of another creative from my agency and his comely companion. That’s not his wife, I thought, as the conspicuous pair made their way poolside. The creative director stopped by my chaise and I could not help but notice his garb: kimono, Ray-Bans, leather sandals, ironic Asian tee shirt. Not to mention the babe. She was actually carrying his bag!

The girl barely acknowledged me, but he was compelled to catch me up on his global escapades and rigorous production schedule. They’d just shot in Paris and were editing in LA. Then it was back to Japan. Leaning over me, he whispered of the blonde: “That’s my assistant. She arranges everything. And she screws me at night.”

Steffan argues that it’s tempting to lust after this life, ater all we work in an ego-driven business. He also hopes “we realize it’s only advertising.”

Do you have similar tales to tell? We’d love to hear them.

VML Carries Torch

Kansas City Star honors Valentine Radford founder, Herb Valentine, who recently passed away.

In 1926, Herb Valentine and Earle Radford each headed off to kindergarten at Bryant Elementary School, met in Miss Wally’s class and became instant friends.

Years later, the two hooked up upon returning from World War II and went on to form what was for many years the biggest, highest-profile, most successful advertising agency in the Midwest, Valentine-Radford.

At its peak, V-R had more than 200 employees and more than $140 million in billings.

But at the beginning, the going was tough. It was 1946, and the friends thought they had their post-war lives on track — Valentine was writing copy for TWA, and Radford was doing paste-up at the old R.J. Potts ad agency.

Then TWA pilots went on strike and the airline cut jobs, including Valentine’s. All the sudden, his future wasn’t looking too rosy. So he called up his old friend, who was settled, and persuaded him that they should start an agency.

Scott McCormick, who worked at V-R before starting VML with John Valentine (Herb’s son) and Craig Ligibel said, “Herb wasn’t just a great guy. … He was a great teacher. He taught all of us about respect, honor, integrity, duty” and how true professionals conduct themselves. “As I’ve said so many times over the past 15 years, when I wrote the core values upon which VML was founded, they were my words, but Herb’s voice and ideals.”

The AdPulp Interview: Alan Wolk

Tangerine Toad hopped out of the anonymous blogger closet. First on Twitter, and now in a feature interview on AgencySp.

Toad’s real name is Alan Wolk. He is a copywriter/creative director who favors the “tradigitalist” moniker. His agency experience spans nearly two decades with stops at Anderson & Lembke, AtmosphereBBDO, Frankfurt Balkind, Ogilvy, JWT and most recently DraftFCB. Wolk is presently looking for a job where he can “get involved in the strategic end of things, in a major way, right from the start.”

I put a few follow up questions on Wolk’s lily pad after AgencySpy broke the news. Here’s the exchange:

AdPulp: Will you use your blog to help find work?

Alan: It’s my sincere hope that all of theories and strategies I’ve laid out in The Toad Stool will make me more attractive to employers. I think it really defines who I am right now, what I’m about and what I can bring to the party.

As far as actual direct pleas, I do have a link on the blog for anyone who’s interested in talking to me about speaking engagements: appearing at conferences seems to be a logical next step, so I’m using my blog (and now yours) to drum up some interest.

AdPulp: I see you have a book in the works. Have you thought about writing in online?

Alan: At one level, I have been writing it online: Most of the book will be derived from my blog postings. The advantage of an actual book is to get my ideas into the hands of people who might not otherwise find them. Not to mention the fact that if the book was up on a website, I’d be making minor edits to it pretty much hourly.

AdPulp: You mentioned in the AgencySpy piece that what customers want to hear is “never going to be a series of pre-packaged, client-dictated selling points.” Amen to that, but how do any of us overcome this setup, provided the agency we’re working for isn’t one where the work matters most?

Alan: A lot of that change is going to have to come from your clients. As I discussed in The Armies Of “No,” agencies can only do so much with clients who refuse to make marketing a priority. That said, social media does have some built in metrics—people either participate or they don’t and if no one’s participating, it does provide an opening to convince a recalcitrant client to try something different.

You have a law degree from BU. How did you choose to work in advertising? Or did it choose you?

Alan: I was only 20 when I graduated from college and had no idea what I wanted to do: I was a creative writing major and didn’t really have much interest in teaching. My parents were pushing law school and the idea of being able to put off responsibility for three more years sounded pretty good.

While I was in law school, a friend of mine started working as a copywriter, and when I saw what she was doing, I realized I’d missed my calling. So right after graduation I started putting a book together with the help of Dany Lennon, who now runs the Creative Register. A few months later, I was a copywriter. And I can honestly say I’ve never looked back.

I really like what I do for a living, which is more than I can say for most people. So I’ve never regretted the decision.

What inspired the name “Tangerine Toad”?

Alan: To make a long story short, when I started the blog, I envisioned it as a month-long experiment at best, and didn’t really expect anyone to read it, so choosing a clever-yet-sophisticated moniker wasn’t a real priority. It took off and I was sort of stuck with it. Which wasn’t the end of the world- I’m a firm believer that brands can transcend their names (sorry Landor) – I mean Amazon is a pretty silly name for an online bookstore and eBay doesn’t shout “online auction site” but both brands have succeeded in owning the name rather than having the name own them.

John Jay Is Working Harder Than You

John Jay, Executive Creative Director and Partner of Wieden + Kennedy, is working harder than you.

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But hard work in Portland might not be what you’re thinking.

Here’s an indcator, from Jay himself:

…we are constantly searching for people who thrive on freedom, those with an ability and willingness to push their creative thinking into new media, businesses and cultures. We will always do our best work when our people are free to be fearless. Whenever management feels that our people are getting too comfortable with the status-quo, too quiet, too safe, too predictable…we ask our people to “dial up the crazy”.

Dial up the crazy.

It’s Friday night after a shitty work week. I just need to sit with this wisdom for a moment.

Choose Your Words Carelessly

The ad industry, like most industries has a language all its own.

Thankfully, we also have people like Dear Jane Sample to break it down for us.

Teamwork = someone to take the blame

Passion = willingness to work like a horse

Self-starter = able to work without any direction whatsoever

Help drive results = get our projects done on time

Integrated agency = full service sweatshop!

Do you have any others you’d care to add to this list?

Microsoft’s Steve Jobs?

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