Try Not To Weep When You Read ADWEAK.
6 Years Later: My 2021 take on my 2015 ADWEAK take
I thought that I’d update my 2015 (yes, 2015) blog post about the wonderfully endearing but way too insightful and painful ADWEAK take on the advertising industry. I’m re-upping my extremely positive perspective on ADWEAK because they have begun to up their use of LinkedIn so I see them daily.
And, because they talk about themselves like this – like humans:
What began as a fun parody Twitter account has become a full-blown creative studio. @Adweak has grown organically to over 75k followers with an average of over 3 million impressions a month. But snarky tweets don’t pay the bills. Our real job is working with brands and agencies on a wide variety of creative projects. You name it, we’ve done it. We have a shit-ton of experience with agencies (TBWA\Chiat Day, BBDO, Deutsch, DDB and more) and brands (PlayStation, HBO, Dr. Pepper, Energizer and the list goes on).
We’re good, we’re fast and we’re not A-holes.
ADWEAK – Attitude Is Good
Hey, most advertising agencies have little to no attitude & point of difference. They kinda all use the same lingo and would never say ‘shit‘ or ‘A-hole’ in their descriptor copy. There is little attempt to break out of the crowd. I am talking about having a strong and competitive positioning; established expertise and a smart messaging system that makes them unignorable.
Too bad. But, wait, there’s more. Here are some of the painful but all-too-true ADWEAK posts that blast out to their 81,000 Twitter followers. To put that number in perspective, 20-year-old Digitas North America has 66,000 Twitter followers.
Current favs… cause they are all too spot on.
BREAKING: VMLY&R Considers Adding More Letters To Name
BREAKING: After Several Rounds Of Presentations, New Business Client Informs Agencies They’re Going To Hold Off Making Decision Until Early Next Year
BREAKING: Agency Forced To Revise Schedule To One Day For Creative Development, Three Weeks For Client Approvals
BREAKING: Charmin Toilet Paper Challenges Agency To Make Them A “Lifestyle” Brand (LOL< I actually think that Charmin is a daily lifestyle brand…)
OK, I’ll stop. But first. If you are a client looking for different and unignorable, give these guys a shout: adweakeditor@gmail.com
Back to my 2015 Post
ADWEAK joined Twitter in 2008 as @adweak. In case you are speed reading this is not… Adweek, the advertising news magazine
I’m not sure when I first found this humor + advertising + opinion Tweetland, but it has been my “Advertising Onion” for a long time. The thing is that these guys nail the world of advertising and its inhabitants again and again. Most readers and there are close to 14K Followers, laugh along but, of course, cringe at ADWEAK’s over 2K Tweets about the insanity and insecurity of the world of advertising.
ADWEAK apparently (I stress apparently) started in 2000. I sleuthed out this fact by actually asking Google and received a link to the ADWEAK website where, as one might expect, there is little information beyond a general message that you will get little information. The website claims that they deliver “Ad Criticism and Blatantly Fake News.” I’ll let you visit to see what you find.
By the way, if you are wondering where my awful clickbait headline came from, head to the bottom of this post.
Fund ADWEAK
We have few ways to thank ADWEAK for making us feel like shit while laughing. One way is to buy an ADWEAK mug from their CafePress page. I suggest that you go and buy one about your specific job function to help you get real and also thank the Editor. I’d buy one but I somehow managed to sell my ad agency and ADWEAK does not have a congratulatory mug for this event.
They do have some mugs that should be highly relevant to everyone in today’s ad world. Like the one on the left. The copy: “BREAKING: Study Finds 90% Brands Should Just Shut The Fuck Up In Social Media” is one of my favorites.
Borrowed New Business Interest
The real point of this blog post is to highlight a few of my favorite ADWEAK Tweets that accurately nail the world of agency new business. I’ve added my thoughts below each. Why? Because I am using ADWEAK to quickly create this long copy blog (1,513 words) and because I just can’t stop talking about how many ad agencies can’t figure out how to hyper-charge their very own new business programs.
ADWEAK On Advertising Agency New Business
I’ve selected a smallish sample of ADWEAK’s Tweets on advertising agency new business. They generally nail it. But, I wanted to add my perspective on their 140 character perspectives.
I hope you’ll laugh.
BREAKING: Agency With Really Cool Office Space Somehow Loses Pitch To Agency With Just Sort Of Ordinary Office Space
PL Comment: Saatchi & Saatchi London had very basic overly white digs. Basic black & white because the work spoke for itself. On the other hand, Saatchi New York spent well over $250,000 building out a “new business suite” that included a dedicated conference room, a reception area, dining room and a kitchen. Did this palatial approach help NY win more accounts than London? No. Do most clients really want to see your cool reception area? No. Do they like to see how you overspend on foosball tables? No. Which brings me to the next point…
BREAKING: Agency President Wants To Make Sure Someone Is Using Ping Pong Table During Potential Client Office Tour
PL Comment: I stupidly bought a foosball table for my Internet start-up ActiveBuddy. In the early 2000’s I was competing with lots of other NYC start-ups for limited talent and thought that we needed to give our overworked staff some in-office play time. We didn’t really need to do this. I made the same mistake years later when I bought a ping pong table for my Portland agency. All I really got was to hear ping pong balls announcing that a couple of my AE’s seemed to prefer to play pong rather than work. It drove me freakin crazy.
By the way, my clients did not give a damn about the games. Surprising!?
BREAKING: Investigation Concludes Agencies Claiming Not To Be Ad Agencies Are, In Fact, Ad Agencies
PL Comment: Most clients still call most marketing communications agencies or digital agencies or social agencies Ad or Advertising Agencies.” Think I’m kidding? Let’s ask Google Trends. So, if you wanted to be found on Google… what would you call yourself?
BREAKING: Agency Team Meets In Parking Lot After Pitch To Share Their Interpretations Of Client’s Body Language During Presentation
PL Comment: According to many advertising search consultants (read my book on pitching) say that at the end of the day interpersonal chemistry is how agencies get chosen.
BREAKING: Study Finds First 15 Minutes Of Agency New Business Meetings Spent Trying To Figure Out How Work The Projector
PL Comment: Again, read my book on pitching. Figure out where and how you are going to present well before you show up. You’ll like the Goodby Silverstein story.
BREAKING: Search Consultant Agrees 100% With Client’s Choice Of Agency Following Review
PL Comment: Of course.
BREAKING: Study Finds 90% Of Agencies Expecting Client To Put Account Into Review Any Day Now
PL Comment: Of course. Paranoia is rampant. So is the loss of client loyalty.
BREAKING: Big Agency Business Model Is Broken, According To Every Small Agency
PL Comment: If you are a small agency that does not say “we once worked at big agencies and we are gonna give you big agency talent at a better price and lower overhead with less hassle” call me up. Really, you don’t say this?
BREAKING: Agencies Running Out Of Words To Combine For Made-Up Terms Such As “Brandvertising” To Describe Their Unique Philosophy
PL Comment: Hey just do it. Why not? You need some differentiation. But, make sure your secret sauce deserves discussion.
BREAKING: New Business Director Tired Of Hearing From Junior Creative Team That Agency Should Go After A Beer Account
PL Comment: You think you hear this a lot? Try running an ad agency in Portland, Oregon. I did and I did.
BREAKING: New Business Meeting Gets Uncomfortably Awkward When Client Asks Who In Room Created The Spots On Agency Reel
PL Comment: LOL.
BREAKING: Agency Pitch Team Boldly Claims To Know Exactly What Prospective Client Needs Within Hour Of Receiving RFP
PL Comment: Give me two OK, three hours and a laptop and I can figure out what any client is doing wrong and should be doing right. And… so can any savvy ad agency leader with more than 10 year’s experience. The hard part is the strategy and… the execution.
ADWEAK RESEARCH: Should We Do A Book? Some Of Our Favorite Headlines And Other Shit. Thoughts?
PL Comment: Yes! Just watch my HubSpot presentation on writing agency books.
BREAKING: Digital, Social Agencies Still Referring To What They Do As Non-Traditional
PL Comment: I left advertising (the first time) in 1995 to join Advance Publications and put newspapers online. Digital marketing and advertising was invented in the mid-1990’s. 20 years ago. Digital is now traditional.
BREAKING: Lyft Asks Small Shops To Do Shitload Of Work On Video For Opportunity To Be Invited To Pitch They’ll Never Win
PL Comment: Please learn to say no.
BREAKING: New Business Directors Desperately Trying Figure Out Email Address of New CMO That Was Just Announced by Retail Brand
PL Comment: Just start using Datanyze.
BREAKING: Agency Had Really Hoped Someone Would Have Downloaded Their “White Paper” On Marketing By Now
PL Comment: Really? This isn’t that hard. Sorry. But, go check out my stats. Like this white paper thing I did for the healthcare industry that won us two new accounts. And, to date, over 2,700 views.
BREAKING: Client Narrows List of Agency Contenders to Those Who Don’t Refer to Themselves as “Brand Storytellers”
PL Comment: I like stories. But, you are competing with StoryBrand, so get it right.
And, My Favorite ADWEAK Tweet Of All Time (Because it is about moi)
BREAKING: Unemployed New Business Consultants Know Exactly What Your Agency Needs To Win New Business
PL Comment: Yup, I am an unemployed new business consultant (well, and unemployed ex-agency owner and your competition has hired me).
I got into this consulting thing after I sold my agency and, like a lot of agency sellers, I had to do something during the three months that I promised the buyer that I’d stick around to make sure all of the accounts were happy with the transition. What I did do, because very few people at any new agency are interested in your opinion after you’ve sold your agency, was to analyze the buying agency and make some serious recommendations about their positioning, management, staffing and new business program.
I realized that I actually know what I am doing. Give me a shout. That’s if you need help and want to stop sounding like the butt of an ADWEAK joke.
—————————————————————————————–
Oh, the headline… “Try Not To Weep When You Read ADWEAK.” It came from one of those places that is forcing people to use ADBLOCKERS. I mean, how many inane ads can you take every day?
Leave a Reply