How are you doing these days? Hopefully well, but likely not. I don’t have to tell you what’s happening out there. You know the dirty details. You’re surrounded by them.

As the bad news begins to rise a little higher than you’re used to, think about this: leaving the agency setting and moving in-house.

(Wait wait! Before you click off. Hear me out. I’ll be brief, because I understand your attention span, like mine, is in a state of perpetual truncation.)

1. Why work with some clients you like and some you don’t? Why not work at one company you love?

2. Creativity can happen in so many places these days, with so many intricacies and layers, your options are limited only by your creativity.

3. To think that one copywriter and one art director can successfully handle more than one client’s branding needs throughout a myriad channels is simply foolish.

4. To think that one copywriter and one art director can successfully explore the myriad tools available to reach multiple audiences is, again, foolish.

5. (See reason #1) Why work with some clients you like and some you don’t? Why not work at one company you love?

Sure, a lot of the companies we creative people would deem “worthy of working at (or for)” don’t have an in-house creative department. So what? Build it yourself. You’ve spent your career selling smart campaigns to some of the biggest and baddest companies in the world. Selling a mid-size company with a portfolio full of promise on a way to save money and create better more insightful work should be a no-brainer for you.

So, should you take on the assignment, here’s a rough strategy statement:

Convince any one company I truly love and believe in that I can create more effective and insightful work than their advertising agency of record because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darnit, who’s got the money to keep paying for a big damn agency these days?

Thoughts? Ideas? I know you have ‘em. Leave ‘em here.

Have a good one.

Photo Credit Jim Frazier

This morning, like every morning, I’m greeted by another insightful post from Chris Brogan. Today’s was particularly interesting because Fast Company’s Lynne D Johnson spoke on “What Comes Next” as titled by Chris Brogan. I love what she says because it’s brief and smart. She talks about brands bringing the conversation home.

I’d never thought about it quite like that, but it relates precisely to what I believe presence engineering is about. There are so many pieces of brands and conversations out in the ether that she suspects that they will now be focused on bringing all those pieces back home. After you’ve watched her video, play this 65 second video published last month. We’re talking in very similar terms.

So, what do you think?

Please note that by no means am I implying that Lynne D. Johnson has used, endorses, or has ever even heard the term, “presence engineering”.

Yesterday afternoon, Lamar Advertising Tallahassee informed me and other local business owners that tonight, at 6:00pm, several proposals regarding outdoor advertising will be voted on during a county commission meeting.

The email sent was in reaction to this article in the Tallahassee Democrat by retired attorney, Rip Caleen, who writes, “Let’s not cave in to the demands of these out-of-town billboard corporations and squander this rare opportunity to begin restoring the natural beauty of this community.”

The email from Lamar also included a letter (included at the end of this post) from Sales Manager, Ana Sutherland, who cites that “Ninety percent of our advertisers are local business, clients who want to get their message out to the general public and grow our business community.” She also tells of their yearly donations in the neighborhood of $500,000 to non-profit entities.

After reading both, I remembered this article written by advertising great, Howard Gossage. The article originally appeared in Harper’s Magazine, February, 1960. Among his musings, Mr. Gossage wonders “what in the hell billboards are doing anywhere.”

So what do you think about it all? Love to hear your thoughts, and have a great day. I’ve posted commentary from facebook and twitter friends below the letter.

—–

The letter from Lamar Advertising:

March 18, 2009

Dear Friends and Business Partners,

I don’t know how much you read the local newspaper these days, but in today’s Tallahassee Democrat there was an article called “We can clean up our bad case of billboard clutter” written by Rip Caleen.

In his article Mr. Caleen argues that billboards diminish the natural beauty of Tallahassee and calls for a reduction in so called “billboard clutter”. What Mr. Caleen may not know is that:
• Lamar Advertising of Tallahassee provides at least $500,000 per year in free and or reduced cost space to Non Profit Organizations and Public Service Announcements.
• Lamar has committed our digital network to Local Law Enforcement to help locate Missing Children, Most Wanted Criminals, and Emergency Management for messaging regarding hurricanes, flooding and other severe weather.
• Ninety percent of our advertisers are Local business, clients who want to get their message out to the general public and grow our business community.

These are just a few highlights of what Lamar Advertising is and represents in our community. Mr. Caleen wants to paint us as a large out-of- State Corporation. However, Lamar Advertising of Tallahassee has been here for almost 50 years and the people who work here have lived and worked in this community for years, even generations. Obviously, we are all committed to Tallahassee and Leon County.

Today I am asking for your assistance. We would greatly appreciate any help you can give us in letting Mr. Caleen know that your organization and or business has partnered with Lamar Advertising currently or in the past, and what the benefit of that partnership has been. I have attached a copy of today’s article that also includes Mr. Caleen’s contact information.

We thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to working with you again in the near future,

Ana Sutherland
Sales Manager
Lamar Advertising, Tallahassee
850-877-4184

——-

Facebook Comments:

Tom Hall at 10:59am March 19: Get rid of all those big billboards!! You mean that kind of perspective?

Jim Mitchem at 11:20am March 19: as a copywriter, I love the challenge of outdoor (http://tinyurl.com/cfn35x) BUT – I hate the idea of billboards. Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of another form of traditional media.

Rudy Terrada at 11:54am March 19: Outdoor is fun, but sadly save for a few spots (maybe the top 5 markets) the only practical form of outdoor adv. are billboards… and I’m a disciple of the Book of Gossage

Rudy Terrada at 11:56am March 19: IMO a billboard should be no taller that the buildings around it.

John H Webb at 12:11pm March 19: I didn’t realize we have a billboard “problem”. Lamar gave a board for Brewfest last year, plus has dontated billboards for 2-1-1 Big Bend. They have several boards for the Film Festival, so I’m guessing that’s donated as well. If you do billboards right, it’s a great branding tool. Unfortunately, I don’t see many local billboards done right. Too many people treat them like it’s a print ad.

——-

twitter comments to a question posed prior to my publishing the post: “What’s your gut reaction on the subject of billboards and/or outdoor advertising?”

@jleray writes: Don’t like it, but I look at it uncontrollably. Does that mean it works?

@herbert68 writes: If it’s cool, hip, clever, entertaining – I like it. If it’s boring or annoying – I hate it.

@joshmunsee writes: personally i love outdoor. But all to often they lack and are not utilized fully. Long live the Mini Cooper campaign.

@micahdonahue writes: I grew up in Maine without billbds, so my POV is biased. But I love the way OOH media encourages creativity thru brevity.

@ryanthegray writes: expensive for traditional media but fun to do

There are so many companies and individuals claiming to be social media experts and gurus, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell truth from hyperbole. The fact is, the true experts and gurus are the first to shun such labels. Why? Their work and involvement speak for themselves. Plus, they’re constantly learning and exploring — and darn proud to admit it.

If you’re willing to spend your hard-earned money seeking help with social media, spend a little time asking questions and getting answers from the people and agencies you might to do business with. If they’ve really sunk their teeth into the big, juicy, social media sandwich, they’ll more than welcome the opportunity to chat with you over a cup of coffee. After all, social media tools are catalysts for building human relationships and taking action in the physical world rather than substitutes for them.

A few things you might consider asking in addition to Google-ing their name and scouring their website (those should be a given):

1. What social media tools do you personally use?
There are so many out there that there is no right answer, but they should be able to spit out at least five without any hesitation whatsoever. 10 would be ideal.

2. Which do you use on a daily or weekly basis?
Being a social media professional requires involvement. After all, you don’t learn to perform Butoh by merely discussing the subtleties of movement.

3. What have you contributed to the subject of social media?
Involvement isn’t just about posting status updates, it’s about engaging with and being part of the social media community. Not to mention it involves doing some honest thinking about social media’s role is and how it is changing the way we all communicate and engage. Have they written on the subject? Spoken? Blogged? Vlogged? Podcasted? Etc?

4. How have you used social media to “move the needle” for you and/or your company?
Stats don’t lie. People do. Ask for figures.

5. What non-social media experience do you have in brand development?
Forrester Research’s Jeremiah Owyang cites that the average senior social media veteran has four years experience. Considering the speed at which social media moves, that’s very close to several decades. So, ask what did they do before the “existence” of social media as we know it today? Perhaps that person or agency has extensive PR, advertising, or Web and application development experience that will give them the edge.

Of course, these are just a few ideas, but it should give businesses beginning their search a starting point. The simple fact is that you need know as much as you can about the people and companies you’re hiring to help you tell your story. The great thing is, you can learn as much as you want to learn before spending a dime.

Any other questions you’d recommend businesses ask? Love to hear ‘em, and hope you’re well.

—

If you’re want to dig a little deeper into the good and the bad of social media labels, here are two wonderful posts by some actual pros:

Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert Is a Carpetbagger, by Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston

25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong SM Consultant or Agency, by Beth Harte

During a brief back and forth on twitter with @ann_imal (a/k/a Ann Robinson) I offered her — and any interested students — some time to chat about the current state of advertising. The last post on Sunday, March 1, read:

@Ann_imal coffee shop on thomasville just renamed from the coffee pub. i’ll be there friday 10-11:30am. anybody wants to show & chat, cool.

Yesterday morning, as I commented on @ethany ’s post on presence engineering within the enterprise, the reminder dinged on my calendar. I’d forgotten all about it — and I figured Ann had too. Part of me said don’t bother going, you’re busy, no one got back to you, they’re not going to show. The better part, however, made me grab my laptop and head out.

I arrived at RedEye Coffee Shop (formerly The Coffee Pub) at 10am, ordered, and started working. A few minutes later, a young couple walked in and bee-lined to my table. She introduced herself as Ann, he as Rob (a/k/a @annhiliationrob). We grabbed our coffee and sat outside. The weather was perfect and so was the chat. What’s advertising really like? What’s happening to it now? How will social media affect the industry? A few minutes later, @arielle07 arrived. The four of us talked for the better part of an hour, made this 12second vid and said goodbye, thanks for coming, we’ll meet again soon.

As I began writing this post to recount the coffee shop event, I went back and reviewed my comment to Ethan Yarbrough’s post. Part of it read: I am simply fascinated with the idea of how social media will work to highlight personal values and affect behavior overall.

I couldn’t have imagined being shown exactly how social media involvement could change personal behavior for the better within an hour of writing that very idea on Ethan’s blog.

I had posted on twitter where I’d be on a specific day and at a specific time. It wasn’t only a post. It was a promise. Fortunately for me, I kept it.

Thank you, Ann, Rob, and Arielle for trusting I’d be where I said I’d be, and for the great conversation you sparked. And thank you, Ethan, for writing the post that inspired the comment that triggered the lesson. These are truly great times.