For all those media doom and gloom reports about the economy and all of the woes you may be experiencing right now, there is still plenty to be done. Remember, readers, we are the keepers of our destiny and have the power to make it happen.
Peep these tips for all you creative folk out there.
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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/
Chicago – Dallas – Los Angeles – San Francisco – New York City – Seattle: These placement gurus have got some good work and clients brewing. Go get you some work and you are free to send all commission checks to me via Paypal 
Seriously, lots of great work and opportunity for freelance. Let me know how it goes!
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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/
I have a friend who doesn’t eat anything he hasn’t had before without a huge amount of coaxing. He decides he doesn’t like things even before he’s tasted them. There are literally thousands of amazing foody experiences he’s going to miss out on because of this. It boggles my brain how he can be so phobic of food – all he needs to do it pop it in his mouth, give it a whirl, and low and behold he’d probably like it. Maybe even love it.
The same thing happens in advertising. Clients are the main culprits of this extremely frustrating trait.…
Ever wonder, “what does it really take to develop great ideas?” I mean the big ones. The juicy, sloppy, wet ones that drench the culture and live soaked in society for decades. Well, there is a great Cannes Selection film, “Art & Copy,” that does just that. Or, shall I say instead of wondering, the filmmakers decided to Just Do It!
Check out a screening in your area: http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/screenings/
While in Atlanta, I’m gonna go to the screening on Wednesday, April 22nd as part of the Atlanta Film Festival. Tune in Thursday for my review–like you care what I think–but I’ll let you…
Hello 12 Point Type readers! I’m a new writer to this blog and I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with an eloquent and compelling first post on par with my fellow bloggers here that would convince you to subscribe so fast you’d chalk it up to an outer-body experience. Unfortunately, my aspirations fail me. Instead, I offer this:
Now I know a good deal when I see one, but I think it’s safe to assume copy-writing just isn’t for everyone;
even if you do it for a living.
A little something to keep in mind when writing is content and…
Ok. Gonna tell you a little secret….
I know we can get caught in our rut of, “how much bigger do I have to make this logo,” “must EVERYTHING have to be sketched, comped, and spelled out to buy off on just the concept?,” or “do I have to work with the brand marketing all-star team from the 60’s?”
But on my way to meetings yesterday, I got a quick reminder of how lucky we are. I was riding on the interstate and saw a car on the freeway hit the guard rail only to be thrown into oncoming traffic. This reminded…
On Monday, April 13, one of the towering figures in broadcasting and commercial voice over, Harry Kalas died at age 73, prior to the Philadelphia Phillies – Washington Nationals baseball game. Kalas collapsed in the broadcast booth two hours before the game.
Kalas had been the voice of the Phillies since 1971 and was one of the most recognizable voice talents in the sports broadcasting industry for the past five decades. Before coming to the Phillies, he was the broadcaster for the Houston Astros from 1965 to 1970. In 2002, Kalas was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and received…
Ahh, now I know where awards are and the money to pay for entering can be found.
To those of you who dream of seeing your name grace the gold pencil, running in meadows with gold lions, or at least getting in the table of contents of design award annuals: get ready to pay up. I have been amazed at the fees participants must pay for entering design shows. Ok, ok, maybe I can understand the big bucks for Cannes, One Show, even CA, but all types of “award shows” are now asking for exorbitant amounts for just one entry in…
Sarah and Mason go out west to shoot a Dove commercial and Mason wants to use the opportunity to work the client’s brand manager for more work. Mason has been teaming up with Sarah now that he and Conner are on a creative time out. Conner soon finds out the extent of Mason’s loyalty to him. But things go awry as Sarah clashes with the insufferable director while Robin from Dove is on set. Never good!
Who said Surreal Life is the only home where washed up celebrities could roam?
Where oh where do accounts like this come from…little in the middle but got much back!!!
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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) who has been in the communications industry for over 8 years, specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/
Ok, ok…how many of you guys out there feel my pain.
“Jazz it up, add great graphics and make it snappy!”
This was literally copy and pasted verbatim from an email I once received from a client. Teaching clients the value of what we do is getting old and I refused to forward this to my creative teams because I value them waaaaay more than jazzy, great-n-graphicy, and snappy (sounds like the 8th, 9th, and 10th dwarf). So, glad I didn’t here my all time favorite, “make it pop.”
So I open the floor to two questions:
1) Why, oh why, do strategic communication…
So, what is the answer?
In a world of competing designers where everyone with Arial and a Sharpie are now the next Paula Scher, how do you compete for work? Is spec the answer?
Well, as lines have been drawn, there are two sides to the work-for-free war and boy oh boy are the jump drives flying.
One side believes that designers must take a united stand to not give free labor and belittle our purpose and industry. The other side says that in this overcrowded, over-saturated, and any other “over” word you can think of, it is just part of the evolving world…
Hey kids! It’s time for another installment of “Does That Really Happen In Advertising, Joel?” The answer is yes. I know, I know, you haven’t even asked a question yet. That’s OK, this is advertising, so the answer is always YES. Even if it hasn’t happened yet, the answer is still YES. As in, Yes, it will happen, just stick around long enough and reality will make fiction look like a dull, faded mirror. www.tnt.tv/series/trustme/episodeguide
It’s evaluation time at RGM and Mason takes a break in the taping of a radio spot to inform Conner that as his superior, he has to…
In an international world, those of us in the communications industry are charged with being able to deliver messages that can transcend all cultures.
Question:
How can we develop brand messages that everyone can relate to?
Answer:
Sometimes it’s important not to say a word
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Jonathan Glazer ’s Cannes Lion Winning Levi’s Commercial
TRUST ME’s latest installment addressed an issue we all go through at some point and time in our careers. In the words of the immortal band, The Clash “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” The proverbial double edged sword. Fueled by Mason’s (Eric McCormack) long overdue need to have some heavy duty home renovations and Conner (Tom Cavanagh) getting busted on bogus expense reports to the tune of over $4000! YIKES! I’ve seen tons of very smart people get axed for very stupid moves like this, for a much lower dollar amount too… Committing career suicide over a steak dinner…
Episode Six of TRUST ME struck an especially resonating chord being about partners and pitches. They are often mutually exclusive and one can often make or break each other. Both inside and outside the advertising business. That can become an Olympic Decathlon of another sort.
Mason McGuire (Eric McCormack) still stinging from the ARC Mobile fallout with GCD Tony Mink (Griffin Dunne) for shooting a commercial the client loved and now there are NOT a client any more, finds out that his group’s agency rival Simon Corcoran is working on a pitch for the 2016 Chicago Olympic Games pitch. Mason convinces Tony to ask RGM big cheese Denise…
Civilians ask me about the new TNT series TRUST ME and want to know, “Is That What You Do?” “Does that Really Happen?” Yes and yes. Last night’s fifth episode is a primer on explaining why…http://www.tnt.tv/series/trustme/episodeguide.jsp?seasonId=44881&episodeId=46035
- Do you go off on a tangent and do what you are expressly not supposed to do? It happens sometimes. In last night’s episode, Conner (Tom Cavanagh) and Mason (Eric McCormack) decide to shoot a TV commercial even after they are informed that the account, ARC Mobile has gone into review because the client isn’t totally happy with the work the agency is doing. People going…
Ahhh, this ad is joyful. It’s almost as good as the chocolate! Almost.
I saw this ad on the telly a few weeks ago whilst sprawled over my Mum’s sofa. As soon as the “trolley dollies” appeared my jaw dropped open like some glaikit fool and torrents of verbal abuse escaped my mouth. I found this ad really sexist and wouldn’t be surprised to discover that the entire team behind this was exclusively male.
Am I getting up on my feminist high horse with this light-hearted piece of eighties joviality? Probably. But honestly, I am not a fan of the whole brassiere burning, hairy armpit bearing, mustachioed school of feminist thought. However, I am…
Last night’s episode of the TNT dramedy series “TRUST ME” did a great job of illustrating how seemingly simple situations can spiral out of control thanks to the best of intentions.
Sarah Krajicek-Hunter (Monica Potter) award-winning copy writer now with an office and a window, finds out that she has been designated as a lesbian success role model in the advertising industry by the social web site AdGabber.com www.adgabber.com/profiles/blogs/so-how-many-people-watched
Sarah goes off the deep end and into overdrive to convince everyone that she is straight and actually enlists the help of the idiot twins, Hector and Tom, choosing one of them to escort…
I have to ask the question, has no one ever said to anyone at any time, if you know this is wrong, then why are you doing it given the risks far outweigh the benefits?
TNT’s new Dramedy series TRUST ME episode 3 is all about recognition, or lack thereof, loyalty and trust.
A Grand Slam breakfast goes for $5.99, so the maximum retail value of this giveaway would be $15,457,075. But, the cost of of the food to prepare a menu item is 25% to 30% for this food giveaway, and 30%, would be more like $4,637,122. Add in 2,500,000 coffee, juice or a soft drink orders with a 85% mark up, averaging $2 each, DENNY’S nets $1.70 per beverage, or $4,250,000 in drink revenue.At this point, the entire promotion now costs $400,000. The value of the massive amounts of free media coverage the promotion generated? Worth 1000 times that figure, if not much more!
Add in any extras and that more than offsets the costs for increased labor at their locations to handle the traffic and plus the repeat business levels that will increase as a result of this promotion. Denny’s is coming out way ahead…
TNT’s new dramedy TRUST ME: Episode 2 treads into some pretty common waters that can often get murky when we on the agency side try to tip the scales and skew circumstances and results to suit our evil purposes: Being Right! Dangerous territory at the best of times and highly addictive and self-destructive. http://www.tnt.tv/series/trustme/
The moral dilemma arose when Mason McGuire, newly anointed Creative Director (Eric McCormack) and his partner copy writer Conner (Tom Cavanagh) get a call from their client ARC Mobile that they don’t like the tag line: What you can do with one hand? The focus group in all their collective wisdom didn’t like the…
RGM’s reputation for launching the most successful brands says more about them than it says about their clients’ brands. They see themselves as an agency that not only pushes boundaries, but buttons too! Defining the space between clients and their consumers.
The Pepsi Saturday Night Live MacGuyver spoofs “MacGruber” really sucked and were a great example of how to make an unwatchable TV commercial.
TRUST ME did a good job at painting an accurate portrayal of the highly volatile and dysfunctional silo I know as the ad agency. If you haven’t worked in this realm and someone who does says they don’t like shows like this, it’s probably because it forces them to hold the mirror up to their chosen profession and it presents a less than flattering reflection!
Well, that is according to T-Mobile’s newest spot. I am a huge fan of anything dance related. Enjoy!
With the economy the way it is and companies having to make major layoffs and cut backs, who has $3 million dollars for a 30 second Super Bowl ad? Well, Miller High Life is going to save a few million by running a one-second ad during the Super Bowl with the company’s pitchman Windell Middlebrooks, the lovable wear-house worker.
Their Website, 1secondad.com, says,”…We’d rather have our message short and to the point, if it means delivering more honest beer at a tasty price.” At 1SecondAd you can watch a bunch of 1 second ads, a few videos featuring Windell Middlebrooks, and their…
With ads striving to be more creative and eye-catching during this economy, there are two big brewers who are seeking to push star power as a sufficient way to counteract a failing economy. Here is a great article from NewYorkTimes.com regarding this new campaign:
Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken are preparing efforts to reach beer drinkers who have been watching their spending since the recession began. Beer has long been thought to be less affected by downturns than other consumer purchases, but the severity of current conditions has called into question the most cherished of marketing assumptions.
“Now more than ever, you need to give…
