After reading In today’s Advertising Age post, Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising, Patrick Sarkissian’s subhead reads: “When marketing decisions are based on numbers, we lose the desire to be creative.”

Damn that’s bleak. And I certainly don’t see it that way.

What clients are asking for is accountability. They want results for their investment in our big freaking brains. And we have to deliver. Why? Because there is no going back to hoping something works, especially when the price tag for such work is six and seven figures deep. In the article, Patrick Sarkissian explains:

Recently, I had a wicked battle with a client determined to let the numbers fully dictate a new creative strategy.

Thing is, you cannot truly quantify creativity. And in ever-increasing fashion, our clients’ (and our own) rote dependence on the dusty world of metrics is exactly why creativity is going to hell.

Here’s the thing: when you leave it to marketers to explain their business and numbers to you, you’re done.

Think about sitting in a board meeting with them. Shadow them for a week and see what pressures they face. Make them go over the metrics before you sit down and develop a strategy. Once you see their business through their eyes, you’ll probably get a deeper understanding of why your pretty comps spray mounted on black foam core don’t mean a fucking thing to them.

It’s up to agencies and creatives to take the lead and explain to marketers how the world has changed and how bigger ideas — and yes, more creative ones that tug at the emotions or take a sledgehammer to the funny bone — are their best chance to emerge victorious in the constant fight for attention.

I think clients and marketers want to trust us again. They want to be able to have a partner they can look to and solve the problems they face. But if we just stand around bitching about metrics and accountability, that day will never come.

If you’ve lost your desire to be creative in the face of metrics, please feel free to refer those clients to me. I’d be more happy to find freedom within the numbers.

Thanks in advance.

So. What do you do when you launch a facebook page featuring a new product people hate? If you’re Honda, and your product is the CrossTour set to release this fall, you put a copywriter and a lawyer together in a freshly-disinfected room, turn on the fluorescent lighting, set the thermostat to about 64º, and get to work.

1. Set up a “Message to Fans” tab; after all, who wants to speak directly to anyone responsible for the very thing being berated?
2. No matter how strong the urge, do not respond directly to anyone.
3. Post a commercial that doesn’t even show the car, thereby fueling fans’ opinions.
4. Make visitors become fans to access “exclusive content.”
5. Explain the removal of comments with something warm and fuzzy like, “We removed comments that were posted contrary to American Honda’s consumer-generated media policy for associates.”

I could go on, but you get the point. Although a lot of bad has been said about the Honda CrossTour (and its social media efforts), it’s apparent Honda didn’t do enough social media homework to soften the blows they never saw coming. Personally, I don’t think the car looks all that bad — certainly the social media effort was designed much more haphazardly. I’d say it was as well thought out as the Pontiac Aztek (now THAT is one ugly vehicle).

Happy Sunday.

Posted via email from michaelcalienes’s posterous

So your full page print ad is running this morning’s USA Today. You spent $189,400 for the privilege — hoping people will care. We don’t. We’re too busy not caring.

We’re making coffee. Checking email. Writing a blog post. Avoiding the swine flu.

Reaching consumers is no longer a matter of reach and frequency and CPM. Frankly, it’s not even a matter of reaching them, it’s about pulling them in — by creating smart, unique content that points them to their own little peephole. If you’ve done it right, they’ll look inside and open the door. Whenever they’re good and ready.

The cost to you? Strategy, passion, and effort.

Thoughts? Opinions? Love to hear ‘em.

From time to time, I’ve placed ads in the Miami Herald newspaper for clients. To them, transplant (my company) is an advertising agency, so you can understand why I’m more than a little annoyed to have received the email below yesterday afternoon. In it, the Miami Herald openly offers businesses the very same guidance my company offers, placing them in direct competition with local and regional agencies like mine.

Aside from the body of the message, the email also included an article titled “PR Outranks Advertising in Improving Consumer Confidence in Banks” (both are shown below this post).

Problems:

1. the Miami Herald sent an article about PR outranking advertising to an ad agency
2. the Miami Herald included advertising functions like branding, direct mail, and print advertising as part of their offerings
3. the Miami Herald uses the words “confused and ignorant” to describe “most people” (I can only assume they’re referring to readers)
4. this email was sent to me by the very person I do (or more accurately, did) business with
5. considering that advertising is in trouble alongside newspapers, perhaps partnering with agencies like mine to figure out a solution may be a better strategy

Below is the email message followed by the article. Love to hear your comments. Love to hear the Miami Herald’s too.

Hope you’re well.

———-

Let me know how we at The Miami Herald Media Company can partner with you to bring confidence to the local community by getting your message out with an intelligent marketing campaign utilizing a combination of print , Direct Marketing (email blast & direct mail) and our interactive network to include Yahoo! The Miami Herald Interactive Network partnership with Yahoo! provides choices to promote your brand in the Miami-Ft Lauderdale area through banner sponsorships and Behavioral Targeting in Yahoo!

How best to use us:

• change perception with new message
• promote products and services specific to your targeted audience
• provide sound financial advice during this financial crisis…most people are confused and ignorant when it comes to finance
• message can include testimonials from satisfied clients

When asked about their banks, insurance companies and investment firms, the study found that 55% of consumers who say they had seen more advertising for their financial institution reported having “complete confidence” in the financial health and soundness of their financial company. Among those who said they had seen less advertising, only 18% had “complete confidence” in their financial company and a significant 45% said they had “little or no confidence” in their company.

The report concludes that this supports the theory that companies that do not advertise are risking widespread public perception that they have failed or are on their way out, at a time when many financial companies are pulling back on their advertising and marketing efforts to cut costs and avoid the appearance of wasteful spending.

Nielsen also found that confidence was linked to age and affluence, as well as the amount of risk associated with the financial institution. Older adults ages 55+ and those with assets of more than $100K were more confident than the average. Overall, a minority of respondents said they had “complete confidence” in their financial institutions:

• Less than 38% had confidence in their checking and savings bank
• 28% were confident of the company that manages their investment or retirement accounts
• 28% had confidence in their life insurance company

In response to what factors would increase confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institution, respondents cited:

• Reading positive stories in the press about that institution (44%)
• Seeing regular advertising for that institution (25%)
• Receiving regular mail or email offers from that institution (25%)
• Regularly seeing internet offers/advertising from that institution (21%)
• Year-over-year ad spending on financial services and insurance was down 13.4% in 2008 compared with 2007. The drop-off was even sharper for Q4 2008 vs. the same period in 2007.

END

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

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

This post is in reaction to the Whopper Virgins campaign currently garnering some not-so-stellar publicity. See Charlie Gibson’s ABC World News Webcast here.

Everyone used to have just an opinion. Now the opinions are attached to microphones like twitter, facebook, xyz.blog.com, etc. and the speakers are pumping everyone’s praise and vitriol into management offices everywhere. Undoubtedly, as more and more people adopt social media, the volume will soon be turned to eleven.

Marketers have to realize now that they’re not going to please all of the people all of the time — and that’s ok. It’s not only okay, it’s the whole point. That’s why a target audience is never defined as “everyone”. If “everyone” is your target audience, you’re on the road to failure. There just isn’t enough money to reach “everyone” and you’d be a fool to try. If you’ve done your homework, you will have further solidified your audience, making them that much more loyal.

If marketers don’t realize this before they begin experiencing increasing mass market pressure to kill a commercial, a print ad, anything that just rubs them the wrong way, they’ll just wind up as puppets of popular opinion, continually pulling the plug on every idea that actually grabs people’s attention and incites a reaction — good or bad.

Dear Marketers: it’s time to 1)  grow a set, or 2) subject yourself to a life catering to mass mediocrity.

I’m pretty sure the first choice will be much more profitable.

Thoughts? Opinions? Love to hear ‘em. My speakers are always on.

The moment the dogfish leaped ashore, I was hooked (pun intended). For the next 45 seconds, I was taken for a ride down a bizarrely sweet road that ended with the concept heading over a cliff. Great visual effects. Great music. Great directing. Great editing. Even with all those greats they are no substitute for the most important great of all: the idea. This is truly a very long way to go for a dogfish sandwich.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to do either by leaving a comment.

Hope you’re well.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUjqcnQc74[/youtube]

I would love your most candid commentary on this TV commercial. Thank you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrh_4EO_eno[/youtube]

As consumers’ attention spans continue to shrink, marketers need to focus on brevity and simplicity.

Take this Wii TV commercial, for example. The only words in the voiceover are “Rated E for Everyone.”

The visual hook is immediate and powerful. The message is focused, unspoken, and unmistakable: Anyone can play any instrument with the Wii.

Unless you’re working on your website, you don’t have to explain everything you do in every piece of communication you create. Focus on what makes you unique, so your audience can follow you there.

So — what’s your company’s singular message? Can it be made simpler? And heck, if you need any advice, feel free to drop a note.

Thanks for stopping in. Hope you’re doing well.