The issues don’t matter: The election explained by an advertising guy

In advertising we deal with competing brands all the time. Logically thinking, you might assume that one brand really is better than another. But if facts and logic where what consumers were in the market for each product category would have one dominate brand and everyone else would just get…

Trump explained by an advertising creative director

I've shied away from this topic during the primary season because it's a radioactive hot potato that could blow up in my face. But it's also very instructive to those who can see beyond their own biases. (Disclaimer: I'm a third party voter and will not be voting or supporting…

Hey, Creatives! Do you know what your job is?

A lot of ad creatives (and my students) think their job is to create the best damn creative humanly possible on every single assignment they get. That's awesome and I get it. It's also a good long-term career goal. You've got to always be selling improving your portfolio and track…

The empathetic copywriter

Could you write about how it feels to be a new mother if you were a 55 year old man? Could you truly understand a 35-year-old blue collar man's perspective if you were a 25-year-old african american woman? Could you understand the needs of tiger mom if you were a…

Writers: If you haven’t written it, you haven’t thought it.

Back in college, I was explaining to a professor, in great detail, how I was eventually going to write my term paper. I explained I had it all thought out and I just needed to sit down and write it. Easy. His response was, "If you haven't haven't written it,…

Video Content Marketing: Who is it for?

A lot of marketing professionals wonder if video content marketing is something they want to bother with. It can seem like a lot of money and work. I won't say that everyone has to do it, heck there are always exceptions to rules, but every marketer should at least thoughtfully…

Being a great creative won’t make you a great agency owner. Or 10 reasons why creative shops fail.

If I had a nickle for everytime a creative agency failed in this town. Then I wouldn't need to be in a creative business. But I am in the creative business and am currently on my third start up of my own and have also worked at two other start…

Ten things I never thought I’d learn as a copywriter

One of the great things about being an advertising creative is that you get to learn something new everyday. It's often something about a client's business that's far afield of one's normal interest. It could be something mundane like an arcane law that governs a business or a manufacturing process,…

Top 10 books for copywriters to read today

After spending over a decade as a copywriter, and working through the internet explosion, I have a few opinions about what it takes to be a great copywriter in today's creative environment. The three key elements are first, being well a rounded writer, second, having a great understanding of how…

Creative in the age of measurement.

New post on agency blog: The digital age has added a new responsibility to the creative’s job. It used to be that we just had to be funny, smart, and on target. Now we have to be measurable, and we must create content with measurement in mind. While this certainly…