Laura Desmond Meets with Advertising Students at UT, Learns Why They Block Ads

Stan Talks is a library of short videos produced by the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. This new talk, released last month, features Laura Desmond, founder and CEO of Eagle Vista Partners in Chicago. Desmond is intent on building […]

Talent Matters: Agency Layoffs, Repeat Resignations, and Recruitment Hurdles

Layoffs. There’s a word you don’t want to hear at the start of a new year. Nevertheless, business realities creep in and staff reductions are often the result. WPP’s Ogilvy just laid off 80 employees across nine offices, amounting to 3.7 percent of its U.S. staff. Ogilvy’s chief creative officer Leslie Sims was one of […]

Leo The Lion, Maker of Tony the Tiger, et al

Want to impress an ad geek? Buy and wear (or gift) this new “Leo Burnett, Ad Legend” t-shirt. This new t-shirt is offered by Go Ahead! Merchandise from Evanston, IL. The illustration is by Jason Walton from Portland, OR. The art was commissioned as part of my new Ad Legends Workshop. Leo Burnett left an […]

FCB’s “456 Scale” Helps Global Agency with 8600 People Do Provocative Work

Agencies are judged by their award show hauls. Evidence is all around us. Just look at how much your agency spends to enter the back-slapping contests. Or read the industry press. Here’s a lede from a source I respect—Epica Awards: Until recently, Foote, Cone and Belding felt like a fairly discreet agency, doing solid work […]

Hal Riney, Ad Legend

The year was 1956. The city, San Francisco. The agency, BBDO. The job, Mailroom clerk. The future advertising legend, Hal Riney. Riney was born in the depths of The Great Depression in Washington, a fact of his life that influenced his later work, including “It’s Morning Again in America” which helped re-elect Ronald Reagan in […]

You’re Not “Woke” Until You Start To Pay Women Fairly

Can we, the people, shop our way to social change? Definitely not. Can we favor manufacturers and retailers that explicitly appeal to our values? Naturally. This December 4th, ChooseWOMEN, an international platform piloted by Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization, is asking for a focus on the female. “Choose Women Wednesday” invites everyone to shop at women-owned […]

We All Need New Business, But We’re Also In A Battle for the Soul of the Agency Business

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” -John Wanamaker R-E-S-P-E-C-T—it does not come easy for people working in advertising. It never has. In an examination of one of the most intense pressures on agencies, Campaign examines the pitch process today. It’s not a pretty picture. […]

What’s Your “Truth Well Told”?

Quick. In a sentence tell me what your agency is all about. Come on, we don’t have all day. Ad People Can’t Seem To Sum Themselves Up Darren Woolley is the founder and global chief executive of TrintityP3, an independent global marketing management consulting company. Q. A what? A. He’s a consultant. Over the past […]

Marketing Philistines Are Everywhere. Don’t Be A Marketing Philistine.

“Training in marketing makes marketers better. It’s the way we all improve and ultimately move the discipline of marketing forward” -Mark Ritson Mark Ritson is a Marketing Week columnist, consultant and adjunct professor at Melbourne Business School. Last year, he wrote about marketing philistinism. I didn’t see the article then, but I see it now. […]

Your Ego Will Lift You Up, But Eventually, There’s A Wicked Fall from False Heights

One of the first challenges a person faces in the advertising business is the need to grow a thick skin. Like yesterday. Sadly, it’s a lesson unlearned by way too many acting professionals, inside and outside of media, marketing, and advertising. According to Suzanne Pope, professor of advertising at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, […]

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California Dreamin’ Is Still A Thing

Does digital advertising work as intended? Several loud, convincing voices say no. This is what Econsultancy says: “The fact that some of the brightest, most qualified minds in the industry are admitting that digital advertising’s supposed efficacy is more myth than reality isn’t likely to dent advertisers’ faith in digital ads. But savvy advertisers might […]

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Åsk Wäppling’s Adland Torpedoed By “Nuisance DMCA”

Åsk Wäppling is a warrior in the midst of a legal battle to preserve 20 years of her digital work. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the lawyers who misuse it to intimidate everyday citizens, Adland.tv is now offline. DMCA criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures […]

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Content Kings and the Never Contented: A Modern Fable in Reruns

Gary Vee. The guy manages to get our attention. Furthermore, he manages to get paid for the attention he gathers. Gary Vee had my both attention and my respect when he was the wine guy blowing up the business of wine reviews on YouTube. Since that time, he’s moved into the ad world. My world. […]

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Put Your Portfolio Down and Let Me See Your Eyes Shine

Inquiring minds want to know—what’s the best way to land a job at a creative ad agency? According to Anselmo Ramos, founder and CCO at GUT, an independent ad agency for brave brands, intangibles matter most. Most important factors to take into consideration when hiring creatives (from most to least important): – Referral – Spark […]

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Enter Epica, The Creative Contest Judged By Journalists

ICYMI: Epica Awards are open for submission until October 7, 2019 When you submit your agency’s work to Epica, it will be judged by 200 trade journalists from around the world, myself included. In my opinion, trophies granted via peer review are a needless fixture in an industry where vanity is celebrated instead of shunned. […]

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Chief Communications Officers Are Movin’ On Up

In the agency business, the CCO is the Chief Creative Officer. On the client-side, the CCO is the Chief Communications Officer. The Chief Communications Officer is not the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), but the roles are intertwined. Or they were. According to PR Week, modern CCOs are now tasked with brand management in addition to […]

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Are You A Counselor to Brands? Or A Circus Freak Out On Loan?

Generally speaking, agencies of record are no more. Today, even the fattest of Ad Cats are happy to take on projects. Has this change ushered in an era of egalitarianism? Or has it turned ad men and women into fine young cannibals? A Lament for Lost Days The breakdown of the AOR relationship between agency […]

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Influencers Tell One Story – Their Own

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Eric Alt and provided by Epica Press Club. The words are nails on a chalkboard: “It writes itself.” A phrase frequently punctuated with a laugh, the free and easy chuckle of someone who doesn’t have to go and do the writing. Someone who is content to […]

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In A Dallas Courtroom, The N.R.A. and Ackerman McQueen Meet Again

Q. How do men in suits fight? A. With lawyers in a court of law. In the legal skirmishes that continue between the National Rifle Association and its former ad agency, Ackerman McQueen, there is much tit for tat. It seems to me  that their differences might be settled the old way—in a duel. But, […]

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Work Isn’t Just Work—Work Is Money, Meaning and Identity

Rene Huey-Lipton knows the pain of losing a job. Too often it’s a surprise and a violation; nevertheless, dealing with the aftermath is something we are often asked to do alone while acting brave. I don’t know how others feel, but for me, getting laid off feels like someone has yanked their love away. And […]

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