by mark August 31st, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
Originally, this chart was going to be included in the “Circling The Drain” post. But then I thought, maybe I should save this for a few days and use it as an excuse to beat this (we hope not quite) dead horse one more time.
The scary thing about this chart is that with very, very minor changes to the angle of its slope it can be used to represent several things:
1) The trend in agency headcount, especially within the creative area.
2) The average tenure of agency-client relationships.
3) The average amount of time a CMO is likely to keep hir or her job.
4) The approach of an aircraft about to make a very hard landing.
I suppose it could all be a coincidence, but I don’t think so.
by mark August 30th, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
It feels like I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time over the last year reading about the imminent demise of traditional media (which I suspect may turn out to be like the reports of Mark Twain’s death), coupled with a simultaneous paean to the rise of non-traditional media. Every time I turn around there’s another article about the minuscule increases in TV spending (albeit off a very large base) and the dramatic increase in Internet advertising (albeit this time off a much smaller base). And along with this, there’s the daily outpouring of new media vehicles that have advertisers all in a tizzy: “Hey, we can put ads on cell phone screens”, “Hey, we can make podcast ads”, “Hey, we (at TiVo) can put little logos up in the corner of the screen and annoy people while they’re fast-forwarding past the ads.”
All of which brings to mind the old Johnny Lee song “Looking For Love (In All The Wrong Places)” because that’s what it seems like these advertisers are doing. Instead of attacking the root cause of their problems–most of their advertising is ordinary–they’re looking for novel places to put more ordinary advertising. Seems a bit daft to me. But then, there’s an even bigger problem associated with this quest for the Holy Grail(s) of media vehicles.
Continue reading ‘“All The Wrong Places”’
by mark August 28th, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
Fans of the old TV series Chicago Hope or ER may recall this charming expression as the phrase the docs used to describe patients who weren’t dead yet, but “had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel” as the saying goes. A saying that appears to have more and more application to the advertising industry with every passing day.
Witness the widely reported deliberations of Bank of America as it tries to determine which agency holding company–not agency, agency holding company–will be the lucky recipient of its business. Not to mention Sears Holdings’ decision to dump Ogilvy & Mather and consolidate all its business with Y&R, both of which are part of WPP.
Continue reading ‘Circling The Drain’
by mark August 23rd, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
I know these daily missives of mine have become more like monthly bulletins, but I promise I will do better. Actually, I was off doing a bit of face-to-face missionary work trying to spread the gospel of extraordinary advertising, but this is a much bigger platform. And what a wonderful example of extraordinary advertising we have to show today.
I’ve been aware of the “what happens here stays here” campaign for quite a while insofar as I like to keep track of smart ideas I hear or read about. But this is the first actual execution I’ve stumbled across.
Continue reading ‘Lucky Vegas’
by mark August 3rd, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
You tell me. Two companies have some involvement with Lance Armstrong. Several days after he wins his seventh T de F, they naturally feel compelled to run an ad celebrating it. One runs an ad that is in hot contention for the “most ordinary ad of the year” award and the other runs this spectacular one.
What’s the deal? Are big pharm companies just congenitally doomed to do ordinary advertising? Or do they just need a 5-year double-blind study to know the difference?
by mark August 2nd, 2005
in Daily Thoughts.
It never ceases to amaze me how effortless an extraordinary ad can appear to be. I mean given the task of announcing that a certain hospital specializes in minimally invasive sports surgery, how could you not come up with this beauty? (Which also has the distinction of likely being the first ad in history to use the words “minimally invasive” comfortably in a headline.
Kudos to a brave client, though, who was not made uncomfortable by the fact that the stitches on a baseball–even when partly retouched out–still look like big, honking stitches.
Oh yeah, and I’m back.
Originally, this chart was going to be included in the “Circling The Drain” post. But then I thought, maybe I should save this for a few days and use it as an excuse to beat this (we hope not quite) dead horse one more time.