Do it.

Sorry, clients, but there isn’t a magic formula for your advertising/marketing success. There isn’t a single Agency Process™ on the planet that works for every single brand every single time. And if you ever pick up a book on marketing that promises you a step-by-step approach will stimulate your brand growth, throw it in the dumpster fire.

Yes, part of what we do is science-based. Behavioral science, that is, and behavioral science is based upon experimentation. Analytics and data can help us predict behavior and give us some insights into what types of messages work best in what spaces and when, but people aren’t entirely predictable — our behaviors change as our circumstances change. We’re constantly evaluating and adapting and adjusting. As such, more often than not, we buy emotionally and then justify our purchase decisions rationally.

“It was cool. Plus, it was on sale.” 

Way back in 2003, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners produced one of the greatest automotive spots ever, in my opinion. The story goes that when the dealers saw the spot they hated it. It didn’t show the cars until the very end. Didn’t talk about the warranty. Didn’t talk about fuel efficiency. In other words, it didn’t follow the automotive advertising formula and, therefore, it didn’t fly with the dealers. However, the CMO of Saturn loved it and she ran it despite their objections. And every time the spot ran, visits to the dealerships increased. Yes, Saturn is no longer around. But it wasn’t the advertising from GS&P that killed that brand.

I recently saw a post on r/advertising where someone plugged a bunch of famous slogans into Grammarly and, predictably, few came out unchanged. Why? Because the slogans were written by people who understood that in order to stand out, they had to stand apart. To break free from convention. Free from same. Free from safe. To freely take risks

To think different.

Sorry, clients, there isn’t a magic formula for your advertising/marketing success. But if you keep doing and saying what every other brand in your category is doing and saying, keep following convention, keep minimizing emotion, you’re going to fail your brand. Guaranteed.

Hello. And goodbye.

What I love about advertising isn’t the timesheets. It isn’t the cold pizza, goopy Chinese food or Cisco coffee at 2 o’clock in the morning. Day after day. Night after night. It isn’t the weekends that aren’t really weekends or annual postponed vacations. It’s not the egos or the politics or the drama that unfolds when they’re combined. It certainly isn’t the missed dinners, missed games, missed milestones.

What I love about advertising is the ads. Print ads. TV ads. Social ads. Digital ads. Ads that aren’t really ads, but really are ads. Whatever — it doesn’t matter. I love looking at them. I love listening to them. I love experiencing them. The only thing better, to me, is making them.

Which is why I’m done with advertising. 

Specifically, I’m done with the business of advertising. I’ll leave worrying about margins, employee churn rates and new business wins and/or losses to the agency Chief Operating Masochist. 

Me? I’m going to have fun. I’m going to focus on the work. Thinking and creating and writing and coloring and playing. Because there’s nothing better than coming up with something from nothing. Solving a brand or a business problem. Producing smart, conceptual, well-crafted advertising — in whatever form it takes.

Going freelance wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve been a full-time agency employee my entire career. But going through a pandemic hasn’t been easy, either, and so far I’ve made it and I’ve learned a lot about myself — about what’s most important to me both personally and professionally.

No doubt I’ll miss the free booze and foosball tables. The epic holiday parties and gossip that follows. I’ll miss being on a team that’s all in the same boat, all rowing in the same direction. Most of all, I’ll miss hanging out with other ad nerds and talking shop on a daily basis. But I’ve learned I can successfully create great work from home without sacrificing a large chunk of my life, or sanity. Should I miss agency life too much, as a freelancer, I can always set up shop in an agency conference room for an afternoon.

If you’re an agency recruiter or creative director in need of a freelance creative director/copywriter/art director, a marketing professional or business owner who needs support, or someone who just wants a fresh set of creative eyes on something, I’m available.

The suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked.

Whether you’re the one commissioning them or the one designing them, logos are hard. I know — I’ve done both. When we decided to update the Sauder logo, I hired a designer for the job. I gave him some direction and after several rounds of thumbnails we decided to present nine refined sketches to the client. Yes, that’s a lot. From there, based on feedback, we whittled the nine to three and presented to the owner.

And then the designer fell ill and was hospitalized.

With an approaching deadline, a shrinking budget and a toiling group of designers, I decided to finish the logos myself. The three logos became two and I began further refinement — picking and setting the type, picking the color palettes, fretting over alignments, etc. One logo finally emerged and after a little more refinement the new Sauder logo was born.

View fullsize

Now, I’ve never had one of my logos reviewed on site like Brand New. Not sure what that says about my logos or me. But when a new logo is unleashed upon the internet, I am constantly amazed at the number of negative, hateful comments left by “guest” reviewers. Creative people are an insecure lot — that, I get. We’re constantly being told our ideas suck. By our partners. Our CDs. Our AEs. Clients. Wives. In-laws. Etc.

So I wonder why we bash one another? That, I don’t get.

Some say it’s the cloak of anonymity that propels people to say things they otherwise wouldn’t in person. I’m not sure I buy it. I’ve never posted anonymously. If I’ve had something to say, I’ve said it as myself. I don’t have an online or offline persona — I have me.

Others argue that the reason people troll is because they can throw a comment out, leave, and not be held accountable for their words. Okay. But aren’t people accountable to themselves? I’ve said and done plenty of stupid things in my life. In public, no less. But I’ve always been accountable and have always taken responsibility for my words and actions — not that ownership gives me a pass to be a jerk.

I can’t sleep with a jerk.

Did the person who designed the new Olive Garden logo deserve all the hate? I feel bad for them — even Fast Company got in a few jabs. And why, when somebody leaves an agency, do the people who comment on AgencySpy happily, anonymously, tell the rest of the world how much that person sucks?

It’s a poor reflection on our industry. An industry that I love. And, according to "experts" on the internet, an industry that’s filled with a bunch of people who suck.