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Six Books For The Savvy Creative Director

Peter · April 2, 2023 · Leave a Comment

Here is my list of the top six books for creative director brain stimulation. I could say more. But, why? Ok, let ChatGPT4 define (in a most boring fashion) what an advertising creative director does for a living:

An advertising creative director is a senior-level executive in an advertising agency or marketing department who is responsible for overseeing the development of the creative concepts and strategies for advertising campaigns. They lead a team of creatives, including copywriters, art directors, designers, and other professionals, to develop campaigns that effectively communicate the client’s message and achieve the desired results.

“Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon. I’ll keep this one simple. From Austin himself: “Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path.” Hey, just buy this brilliantly well-written and illustrated guide to how to use your head. Afraid to steal? Pablo Picasso on creativity, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

“It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The world’s best-selling book by Paul Arden.” I worked with Paul at Saatchi & Saatchi London. He was both brilliant and occasionally the most impossible-to-work-with creative director… ever. This is another just buy it. You can turn to any page and get your creative juices following big time. A quote: “Why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required?” One more just for you… “What do you do when your client won’t buy?”

“The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield. Over 25,000 people have given this book 4.5 or more stars on Amazon. Do I have to say more? One more from Steven. “Nobody Wants To Read Your Shit.”

“Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Yes, the word “story” has become a bit overused in the world of marketing. But… Miller’s book delivers a how-to guide for building out a brand story that delivers a brand’s core positioning and reason for existing in the first place. What is your story?

“Contagious” by Jonah Berger. Directly from the Contagious Amazon page: “The New York Times bestseller that explains why certain products and ideas become popular.” Getting an idea to stick ain’t easy. Here is a guidebook to help the creative director in you to get sticky.

“Popular Lies* About Graphic Design” by Craig Ward. Small. Easy to read (or not) you decide. A book built on lies. From Craig: “This is not a book full of facts. Nor is it a book full of advice. It is a book full of opinions, and confusion between those three is how a lot of these problems begin.”

A Banksy Creative Director: Bonus

And for serious inspiration, I Offer Banksy. Banksy You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat and if You Were Not You Would Know About it

Just to be clear here. This book is not aimed at Creative Directors that might be worried about how AI could end their careers.

The Six Best Books On Branding

Peter · March 26, 2023 · 3 Comments

The Art Of Branding Delivered By The Six Best Books On Branding

Here is my list of the top six books on branding. But, first, some words from my soon-to-be-released new book on how to run a KICK-ASS advertising agency. One of the first subjects I tackle is the importance of branding, as in having a stand-out brand positioning that will make the agency unignorable.

It’s An Agency Positioning Jungle Out There

It’s an advertising, digital, design, branding, experiential, social, influencer, SEO, SEM, PR, e-commerce agency jungle out there. Imagine a client trying to find the right-fit agency resource to work with. I’ve been a client that bought agency services. It isn’t an easy decision.

There are a lot of options. When I do a Google search on “advertising agency,” I get 17.8 million results. When I search “digital agency,” I get 20.3 million. “Media agency” yields 11.6 million.

Want even more potentially head-spinning numbers? IBISWorld reported that there are 7,865 businesses in the digital advertising agency industry. Clutch’s database of advertising agencies lists 9,295 for New York, 2,552 for the UK, 272 for the United Arab Emirates, 1,095 in London, UK, and, get this, 105 in London, Ohio. Ohio!

Yikes.

Regardless of what number you find and how you search, there are a lot of marketing service options for a client to choose from.

The Path to Standing Out Is To Have A Kick-Ass Brand. Get Your Branding Right.

Branding ala brand positioning is a radically important element of marketing that involves creating a unique image and identity for a brand. This is how consumers/clients will think about you. In our highly competitive business universe, superior brand positioning can make all the difference between success and failure. Whether you are a marketer, entrepreneur, or business owner, understanding brand positioning is crucial for achieving long-term growth and profitability.

To help you master your brand positioning, I put together a list of the best books on the subject.

These books offer valuable insights and practical strategies for creating and maintaining a strong brand identity that resonates with your target audience. Each of these books will help to make your company, advertising agency, even you = unignorable.

“Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” by Al Ries and Jack Trout – This classic book is widely regarded as the definitive guide to brand positioning. It offers a comprehensive overview of the principles and strategies involved in creating a strong brand identity and differentiating your brand from competitors.

“Purple Cow” by Seth Godin. I tell all of my advertising agency clients that they have a choice in their business development program. Be unignorable or be ignored. Read Seth’s book… “The cult classic that revolutionized marketing by teaching businesses that you’re either remarkable or invisible.”

“Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. This book provides a step-by-step guide for creating a compelling brand story that resonates with customers. It offers practical advice for developing a clear and concise message that communicates the unique value proposition of your brand.

“Brand Identity Breakthrough” by Gregory V. Diehl. This book offers a fresh perspective on brand positioning by focusing on the importance of authenticity and personal branding. It provides a framework for building a brand that reflects your core values and resonates with your target audience.

A Sad Advertising Agency Business Development Story

Peter · December 4, 2022 · Leave a Comment

A Very Sad Advertising Agency Story From Keurig Dr Pepper.

Start here: By now, most people in advertising know that Kuerig Dr Pepper’s marketing team (and I must assume their procurement department) are assholes. Why AHOLES? Here is their advertising agency business development story. This from the UK’s IPA, its leader Paul Bainsfair…

“UK agencies react in horror to the bizarre Keurig Dr Pepper 360-day payment terms”

“Global consumer products giant Keurig Dr Pepper is currently running a PR agency search in the United States, where part of the ask is for agencies tendering to accept 360-day payment terms. Those that cannot are being offered the option of financing, at their own cost, through Atlanta-based, Prime Revenue.”

Are you fucking kidding me?

Why Is This Important? Cause An Advertising Agency Pitch Can Hep Your Agency Go Out Of Business

OK, yes you know that this kind of lame client shit is important to pay attention to. But, playing along with this stuff can put your agency out of business…

The cost and effectiveness of agency business development can make or break an agency. Let me give you a – real-world – worst-case example.

A few years ago a Pacific Northwest agency was one of a set of agencies trying to land a major digital account. The client’s pitch team wanted to see each agency’s strategic approach to the client’s marketing goals and the northwest agency built a comprehensive plan that included performing some market research and even the leasing of related technology. The pitch dragged on forever and the agency was racking up staff and hard costs.

The good news… the agency won the account.

Bad news… the pitch became so expensive that the agency almost went out of business – in this case, after winning the account. The agency’s costs included the cost of the initial RFP response and a four-month pitch. Add in the agency’s actual client work plus the client’s 90-day payment schedule. Yikes. The RFP response, managing and crafting the pitch itself (mega labor hours), and the actual work, once won, all added to have the agency essentially working for free for more than six months.

Could the agency have managed this insane scenario? Not sure. Every pitch and client engagement is unique. That said, the agency could have had a better handle on what was coming when they initially interviewed the client. However, I’m not sure that the client was actually forthcoming. Or worse, really knew what they needed in the first place. Or skilled in running a pitch. or skilled in working with an agency.

The takeaway is that agencies should not pitch everything. Period. Spend the time to understand the client’s needs and motivations, its past agency history, know why you should be the winner, and what the search/pitch details are – including payment terms (yes, often hard to gauge) but if anything does not feel right or professional, then bail.

Always keep in mind the cost of pitching and that, at best, an agency will only win 30% of the time.

Now ask yourself, why would an advertising agency pitch that Keurig Dr Pepper account?

Is your agency pitching too much? Read this…

One more point: Buy this book and win more pitches… I mean it.

How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga

Peter · July 29, 2022 · 1 Comment

The Powerful Advertising Agency Building Personal Brand c/o Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy

I’ve been thinking about the power of the personal brand of Gary Vaynerchuk, David Droga, and David Ogilvy. The power of their brands to drive advertising agency awareness, expertise, and new business.

What is a personal brand? There are many definitions. I went to the website PersonalBrand.com for this definition (why not go to a company smart enough to have bought the URL PersonalBrand?)

“A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large.”

Kinda wordy but you get the idea. My definition: “How people perceive you.”

I am keen on the idea of building and managing a personal brand for agency leaders and senior managers.

One’s personal brand is how you present and control your image to your market – your current and potential clients, your competition, and your staff (and, I can’t stress this enough, your future staff.) Your personal brand puts you in charge of your professional perception and lets you highlight your skills, thought leadership, strengths, and history.

The Advertising Agency and the Power of the Personal Brand

A master… David Ogilvy.

As I’ve discussed in my agency naming chapter, many agencies are named after their founder. In most of these cases, the founder is the face of the agency. The founder embodies the agency mission and soul of the agency.

Ogilvy the global agency continues to use the brand essence of its founder David Ogilvy who passed away in 1999. The agency’s Careers page quotes David and leverages his personal brand to help sell the agency’s creative street cred and soul to future employees:

“As out founder David Ogilvy put it, we seek people who are bigger and smarter than ourselves. That’s how we create a company of giants. We’re always looking for modern marketing and brand experts with big hearts and enormous talent.”

How is this for branding? In 1962, Time Magazine called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry“. Believe me, this recognition did not happen by accident. Ogilvy was a PR brand master. [Read more…] about How Does A Personal Brand Work? Ask Gary Vaynerchuk & David Droga

Is Your Advertising Agency Findable?

Peter · July 14, 2022 · Leave a Comment

“Is your advertising agency findable?” This is one of three key questions, and mucho critical points, I make when I start to help an advertising agency plan its business development program. First things first. The other two questions are: “do you have a new client referral plan/program” and “do you have a system for how to grow business from current clients?” Want to know how to do that? Ask me.

So, Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Your First Issue.

You should have clear objectives for your business development plan. And, the right marketing plan. And, run that plan 24/7. And do you have a smart process to align the agency and make stuff happen? But, the first thing (after having the right positioning and core marketing tools like a great/effective sales-oriented website and LinkedIn presence, etc.) is to make sure that a prospective client who is actually looking for an agency like yours can find you. Yes, a duh.

An idea (a good one)… go ahead and play client and see if you can be found. If you are a Tiktok specialist, will you be found? If you specialize in hospitality, will you be found? If you are the best agency in London, will you be found? You get the idea, right? Yes, a duh. But, go ahead and try to find you.

So, Let’s Get On With It. Is Your Advertising Agency Findable? Are You Everywhere A Future Client Might Look – For You?

This question was driven home today when I examined the Roth Ryan Hayes** agency search consultant website. I noted that they ask advertising agencies that want to be found by clients to list themselves in the WINMO database. A database used by both prospective clients and search consultants. Roth Ryan Hayes asks agencies like yours to enter into the agency information database right here. Just do it.

Need a list of advertising agency search consultants? Search my website.

What else can you do to be found by that client that is looking for YOU?

Some other examples:

Are you on the first page of a relevant Google search? Probably not. What can you do? Do the content thing and manage your SEO. OK, if not listed on page one (and this might take a long time), consider running a Google ad that targets that future client, it’s CMO, and its category. Test a message that breaks through the clutter.
Gee, how about that crazy advertising thing. See what London’s LONDON Advertising has done.
Be in all related marketing services directories. Clutch? Agency Spotter? WINMO?
Optimize your LinkedIn presence. Pay for LinkedIn Navigator. This optimization goes for your company and all leadership and employee individual profiles. By the way, does everyone use the same, or similar, language to describe the agency? Do you look like a team?
Are there client industry lists you should be on? Or, write for industry websites like hospitalitynet.
Does the industry press know that you are a go-to expert on your expert thinking and category experience – always ready to give an educated sound bite? I know that a good PR maven could sell you guys.
Are you speaking at the right industry conferences? No Cannes ain’t what I am talking about. That is ad agency navel-gazing.

There are more “Be found” ideas. Call me up.

Then, Yes, Then. Be Unignorable. Oh, That.

Ok, you are found. Then what? Is your positioning and messaging and branding UNIGNORABLE? Being found is cool. Being unignorably unignorable is even better. Do not waste that be found thing. Work it.

** From Above…

Roth Ryan Hayes, founded in 1988 as Roth Associates, is a pioneer in the search consulting category.

The firm has forged a reputation as a trusted adviser to some of the world’s leading companies as they seek to optimize their agency resources and efficiently navigate the evolving media and marketing landscape. Today, RRH is a leader in the field of agency search, selection, and compensation, providing counsel on the intersection of digital innovation and business strategy to companies such as CVS Health, Aetna, Activision, Blizzard, Home Depot and many others.