Advertising News and Know-How
Some of the industry's best agencies have given rise to a plethora of spinoffs. Goodby Silverstein, for instance. On the other hand, agencies like Wieden + Kennedy and The Richards Group—the two largest independents in the game—for whatever reason, have not fostered a litter of smaller agencies. According to Ad Age, the equation in Dallas is beginning to change. At least three new shops have opened since the …
Continue Reading about Dallas Is Home to Three New Spinoffs of The Richards Group →
Common ground. It's been missing in America, and we desperately need to regain this sacred space where all Americans are on more equal footing. With this need for community in the air, a private school in Southern California enlisted help from Aron Fried, who graduated from the school. The result is a charming commercial that sells the school and a whole lot more. https://youtu.be/0PTu3j-_s-w This is what Fried …
Live events like concerts and trade shows do not translate well to online formats, a factor that has devastated many businesses in the sector since COVID-19 began to ravage and kill people last March. Cannes Is Not Exactly Roaring Like A Lion Cannes Lions' London-based parent company Ascential issued its full-year 2020 financials this week, noting that the Festival will likely be a hybrid digital-live format, with …
Continue Reading about From Cannes to Austin, The Festival Season Clicks Into an Unknown Future →
John January came up in the agency business as a copywriter. Today, John is the Co-CEO of Signal Theory, one of the biggest and best advertising agencies in Kansas City. In this new episode of Ad Chatter—the podcast from the makers of Adpulp.com—Dan Goldgeier and I ask John about his journey. Listen in to hear how he went from "one great teacher," to study journalism at Wichita State, to work as a copywriter, then …
Brand Marketing in the digital age has been an awkward paradox: you must win the trust and preference of consumers but activate behind a curtain of third-party cookies. To make matters worse, accountability has become lopsided. Brand teams are accountable for preference, consideration, trial, household penetration, customer loyalty, and sales lift (to name a few). Meanwhile, the media publishers financed by those …
Continue Reading about Retail Media Is the New Standard for Ad-Supported Media →
There are several hills I’m willing to die on, and one of those hills is that people that who work in the creative industries and enjoy their job are better at it. I have no data to prove this, I have no graph or chart or diagram. I just believe it, but I’m not the only one. More recently, the argument for (work + fun = good work) seems to have found its place in the collaboration between our very own ‘Van …
Continue Reading about Today’s Masters of the ‘New School’ Are Rewriting the Rules →
There’s a classic trade ad for McGraw-Hill Magazines in which a stern-looking guy in a desk chair says, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your company…Now-what was it you wanted to sell me?” (There’s more copy, but you can see it for yourself.) Decades later, we live in a world of self-professed thought leaders and a PR firm that proclaims itself the arbiter of “trust” in its annual surveys, leaving the rest of …
Continue Reading about AdPulp Book Review: Trustworthy Gives Brands A Roadmap To Walk The Talk →
My mom is a big Ancestry.com fan. She's been using the service for several years to research our family. She has learned a lot in the process. We now know that our Jewish ancestors fled imperial Russia during the first decade of the 20th century due to czarist persecution. My mom also recently discovered new records about her long-lost grandfather (my great grandfather). He owned an auto repair business in …
Continue Reading about Ancestry.com Reveals and Then Connects You To Your Heritage →
Do you ever notice that curious thing that happens when you really think about a word? You may sit there thinking what a strange collection of sounds and noises to mean something so specific, so nuanced. There's so much meaning from seemingly so little. Isn't language fascinating? How do we make complex associations from what are effectively refined grunts? Maybe our brains are magical. Then poof. The meaning …
Here's a new commercial from Kia that relies on hyperbole. You could say that hyperbole comes with the territory. That it's expected, especially in automotive advertising. Yet, hyperbole does nothing to help build brand value. Because it's a lie. The truth is we've been telling stories since campfires were invented. https://youtu.be/VQW4kEh44Xs I had a highly annoying boss once. Thankfully, he said one …
Continue Reading about The World’s First Storytelling Machine? No, It’s Just A Car. →
