A Blog About Blogs: Why Does An Advertising Agency Need A Blog?

I’ve began to notice that many advertising agencies have blogs. Have you? Why do you think they have them? Who do they expect to read them?

Honestly, I LOVE that agencies are taking the time to maintain blogs. It truly demonstrates their interest in being transparent and sharing a little bit of their personality. Advertising being the creative field that it is, it’s great to see the creativity even delivered on these blogs.

What really makes one agency different from another? Well, their blog can help you understand what makes them, them.

Here are 5 reasons why I think it is GREAT for advertising agencies to maintain a blog:

1. Shows Inside Look Into Agency’s Company Culture to Potential Employees & Clients

This summer I worked on recruitment advertising and learned just how important it is for a company to advertise working there. To be able to select the best candidate for the position, the company must receive the best applicants. Agency blogs demonstrate what type of people work for the company, what they do at the company. They offer an “inside look” at what goes on behind the curtain for potential employees to see.

Example: Ogilvy: Apps & Apps, Photos galore!

Clients also want to find their perfect fit. When a business is searching for an agency to work with they may browse the agency’s online presence in hopes of getting to know the company’s culture. A blog is a great way to share what makes your company stand out from the rest.

Example: Mullen: Mediahub and Millenial Media Partner for Mobile Innovation

2. Displays Knowledge, Understanding and Point of View of Industry Trends & Future

A responsibility an agency possess to it’s client is to be an consultant and knowledgeable about the choices they should make. This includes knowing what is going on in the industry and having a point of view on trends and the future. Great blogs include stories about trends right now, a point of view on that trend and some idea about its impact will be on the future.

Example: Mindshare: Big Data Promotes a Culture of Data-Informed Decision Making and Adaptive Marketing

3. Allows Employees to Express Themselves

Behind every agency, big or small, are the employees with interests, knowledge and opinions that make them different from the next. A blog can highlight the interests and expertise that an agency’s employees may possess.

Example: DraftFCB: Loving What Your Doing and Doing It Better… My Open Source Story

4. Demonstrates Great Sportsmanship

Just like any other business in a capitalist society, advertising can be SUPER competitive. The pitch process can be cut throat and agencies are always trying to rack up the most awards. It is nice to see when agencies can step back and acknowledge great work even when it is done by other agencies.

Example: The Marketing Arm: 12 Examples of Vine in Action

5. Promotes Your Agency’s Work

Can you believe that advertising agencies advertise themselves? Yup! It is just as important that agencies receive a little buzz for their work as it is for the clients. So what do you do when you’re not getting that buzz in Advertising Age or Advertising Week? What happens when you’re campaign is great but hasn’t been recognized by Cannes or the ADDYs? Turn to your blog. Show off the work you’re proud of. Support the great commercial or print campaign with some behind-the-scenes information and readers will be happy to learn about what went into building the amazing work.

Example: Wieden Kennedy: Behind the Scenes of the Oreo Instagram Super Bowl Execution

Other Great Agency Blogs to Check Out:

Jack Morton

DDB

Hill Holliday
McCann Truth Central
72U

What Would You Ask the CEO of Your Company?

Yesterday, the Mullen interns had the privilege of sitting down with Mullen CEO, Joe Grimaldi. Not many employees at any organization have the honor of sitting down with the person that runs their company, especially one the size of Mullen. After all of the small interactions I’ve had over the past 10 weeks with Mr. Grimaldi , I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Joe’s background and receive the brilliant advice he had for all of us. Here are some of the highlights I am proud to pass on.

Advice for Starting a Career in Advertising:
Demonstrate your passion for advertising. This is not an easy business to be a part of with long hours, and high amounts of stress. You have to want to do it. When you’re promoting yourself online and during interviews, display a point of view. This means have your own opinion about trends in the industry and things that you like or dislike. Share “what you will be at the company”. Explain to the recruiters what you will contribute to that company if you were hired. Have resilience and infectious enthusiasm. This job will knock you down over and over and your ability to get back up will determine how long you last in advertising. Show people that you are someone they want to work with.

Thoughts About the Future of Advertising
Advertising has always been a reflection of a culture as well as a vehicle to lead culture. The future of advertising will include new forms of “direct marketing” that use analytics to better understand the consumer and target them even more. We’ll see tv behaving more like digital and mobile will expand. It is important to have a broad knowledge of everything and to be curious of all of these things. Despite how many numbers we can crunch, don’t become slave to the numbers. Meaning, don’t let what the numbers tell you make you forget about the message you are trying to transcend. We are in the idea business, don’t forget that. Entertainment is a fundamental aspect of advertising.

Book Suggestions
“A book is like an ad, I start reading when I’m interested and I stop reading when I’m not”
So Joe is not much of a reader but suggested authors like Larry Weber (of Weber Shandwick) and Fred Goldberg. He also suggested reading anything that allows you to see inside an agency.

Favorite Campaign
Joe immediately said that his favorite campaign is the next one Mullen produces, knowing that is the answer he should say. He then gave an honest answer which included some of these great campaigns:

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/nmwXdGm89Tk&source=uds

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/myG8hq1Mk00&source=uds

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/IJNR2EpS0jw&source=uds

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/zRaQRbAxXaA&source=uds

He also mentioned he has enjoyed the work for Dove, Old Spice, and Volkswagen. Lastly, he included his praise for agencies like Wieden Kennedy and Droga 5.

Everything Is a Learning Experience

Joe’s background includes jobs as a musician, a shoe shiner, a motorcycle mechanic, a media planner and a account manager. Each job gave him a different learning experience that has contributed to who he is and the leader he is today.

Shoe Shiner: “The enthusiasm and effort you contribute to any job matters.” The only way you can get the next job that is better is to do the one you have now as well as you can.

Motorcycle Mechanic: “This was an opportunity for me to shape my own art and take things apart then solve the problem” With this Joe described how creativity comes in many forms and through working on motorcycles he found that he could be creative when it came to solving problems. His ability to take the bike apart and put it back together again convinced him that he could eventually do this in an entrepreneurial way with a company.

Tips for Leadership

It is important to “create a cause that people thing is worth working and putting effort into.” When people can come to work and know they believe in what they are doing they don’t mind spending long hours doing it. They will be happy to contribute the effort and they will volunteer their time because they have faith in its outcome.

Final Take-Aways:

Outwork others
Never forget integrity, human dignity, and respect for everyone
Learn to play the hand you are dealt
Aim high

Internship Week 8: Another Productive Week

Well week 8 probably tops the list at suckiest week here. Yes, suckiest is the adjective I chose.

I know it is silly to complain about getting paid to sit on Facebook, Twitter, Buzzfeed and Mashable all day but that is exactly what I’m going to do in this blog post so feel free to stop reading if you think it’s silly.

I would say I’m joined by about 50% of the interns in this frustration. Advertising is unfortunately one of those industries where work is some what unpredictable. Unlike the jobs of a teacher who comes in every and teaches from 8am-3pm or whatever and presents a lesson in forms of periods, writes lesson plans and grades papers. Advertising experiences busy points and dry spells. During dry spells interns are the first the feel the grunt. With little for full time employees to do it is even worse for interns.

So here I am at week 8 feeling ridiculously bored. I’m ashamed to be that intern that is seen never doing work. It’s getting very difficult to look busy for 8 hours every day. I hate to hold this against my internship experience here but honestly I’m getting tired of being an intern in general.

Summer Insight Series Take Aways:
So each week we have a “lunch and learn” event with someone from the agency and all the interns where we have the opportunity to learn more about the area of advertising, the people who work at Mullen and their experience of working in advertising and at Mullen.

This week the session was led by Tim Cawley, SVP Group Creative Director. As a copy writer he was able to discuss some awesome advice that speaks on both a creative level and advertising industry level. Despite his experience in the creative department there is so much I took away from this presentation. He offered up:

6 Truths According to Tim:
1. “Work for good people”
He basically expressed the importance of working for a great agency where you learn and do work that is great. No matter the salary, when you’re starting out you need to work under people that you understand and that understand you. Having a mentor at the early stages in your career also is vital.

2. “Anything can be great”
The example Tim mentioned was Cannes Grand Prix winner – Dumb Ways to Die. This was a campaign for railroad safety, created for Metro Trains. Sometimes it isn’t about doing work that is for the client with the biggest budget. It is about doing work that contribute to your agency’s portfolio. Each assignment must be treated like it’s the best thing you’ve ever worked on no matter what.

3. “Be Nice”
Clients tend to offer a lot of feedback and we forget that it is way harder to be the client. Be empathetic and a team player. Don’t point fingers because it take a team to produce good work. Advertising is a small business and you want others to want to work with you. Advertising is a “a business of opinions” and you want the one people have about you to be positive.

4. “You’ve got to sell your best work every time“
Nobody cares about your work more than you do. If you want to be known for your work, be on your work! You life is attached to the work you do. The money you earn, the car you drive, and the house you own all goes back to the work you produce. Don’t wait for others to make the changes or edits. Do them yourself.

5. “Use the ‘Uncle-in-law Theory'”
In advertising we often forget that we are selling products to average consumers, not other people who work in advertising. Go to places where these “cheesy idiots” go. Malls. Theme parks. Wherever. Keep working until your idea works for your consumer.

6. “There is no such thing as the perfect presenter”
There are many types of presenter. It is all about being able to defend your creative choice. Don’t BS. If you don’t know, say “I don’t know” or get the right person to come in a give the correct answer. Prepare to know as much as you can about your work. Talk from the heart about the choices you make.

Lastly, Tim reminded us:
– Advertising is “using art to trick the world into believing what a company wants them to believe.”
– We work as employees work for the advertising agency at the end of the day and they are the ones who sign out paychecks. We must produce good work for the agency as that will lead to good business, more clients, and awards which will lead to good business, more clients and more awards.

Wild card: A commercial from a campaign that Tim worked on that he used his awesome song writing skills for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9q7_M5W0fE

Internship Week 7: It’s About Believing in What You Do

This week was an interesting week and by the end I was happy it was over. My supervisor was back and as predicted things went back to that way they were before. I returned to not only doing nothing but knowing nothing. I was kicked off everything I had been working on the previous week. I felt like I had proven myself beyond competent enough to handle the projects I was working on and when I was not longer even on the emails I perceived it as a symbol of mistrust. As a result, a goal I have set for this up coming week is to speak up and request that I be cc’d on all emails. It is important to my education and my experience that I get to learn my seeing as well as doing. Not including me on emails is preventing me from gaining the best learning experience possible.

3 Things I Learned This Week:

1. Importance in a companies corporate culture
This week some of the Mullen staff gave a great presentation about the “Mullenteers,” an opportunity to help set up community service and volunteer opportunities for Mullen staff. Even though the meeting was really for full-time employees I’m glad I went. As I prepare myself for job applications I am reminded it is super important to not only look for a company that offers an appropriate job for your but also offers a corporate culture that you believe in. It was really great to know that Mullen works hard to give back to the community as it is something I believe is very important.

2. Advertising agencies also work as consultant
Often it is miscommunicated that all advertising agencies do are pitches. They pitch to new clients or they pitch new campaigns to old clients. Like on tv, the client says “yes” or “no” to the pitch and then either the agency makes it happen or doesn’t and that’s it. This week I helped to put together a point of view (POV) for a client which included our recommendation for a decision regarding the use of some new technology. This was a different side of an agency I had never experienced before. In addition to pitching campaigns, an agency can also act like a consultant for their clients. Clients pay for great ideas and our expertise on all types of marketing.

3. Sometimes it’s about being the silent team player
As mentioned above, I helped work on a POV for our client. It was really a tasked distributed to our digital producer but when I noticed that she hadn’t done it even though it was due like 4 weeks ago, I went out on a limb and asked her if she wanted some help putting it together. She gracefully accepted my help and with her notes and my own knowledge I put together a draft of the POV and emailed it to her when I was done. The next morning the POV was sent back to my team with me cc’d on the email. Both my supervisor and her boss commented on how well it was put together and organized. I decided to open the file she sent back and noticed 97% of the content was what I wrote. In my mind I gave myself a pat on my back. Even though I did not get any credit for putting together the POV, I was happy to be a silent team player. In the end it isn’t really about who did it but rather that it was done well and helps the client. As an intern and soon to be entry level employee, I should get used to not getting credit for everything I do.

Summer Insight Series Take Aways:
So each week we have a “lunch and learn” event with someone from the agency and all the interns where we have the opportunity to learn more about the area of advertising, the people who work at Mullen and their experience of working in advertising and at Mullen.

This week’s session featured Ryan Houts, Senior Brand Strategist. He kindly gave a great presentation about the area of strategy and it’s role in advertising and at Mullen. Ryan walked us through a top secret example but it outlined how strategy works with the other departments and what they contribute to a project.

4 Take away from Ryan’s Session:
1. Strategist are dot connectors
Strategist take what the client wants, what the consumer wants, and current trends and connects them together to build a strategy that makes sense for everyone.

2. Planners have to care about everything
Planners can’t just be limited to print, broadcast or digital. Today, everything is so connect that a planner must thing on all platforms/media.

3. You can’t hold your ideas to close but you must stay true to your ideas
When a planner passes on their insight to creatives sometimes the creatives will look at the brief and completely go in a different direction. Planners must know when to lean back and let the creatives do what they want or remind the creatives to stay on brand/strategy.

4. A good account manager thinks like a planner
An account manager plays devil advocate in many situations. They fight for the client’s opinion with creatives and they fight for the creatives ideas with the client. Account managers that can think strategically can best know when to fight for which side. Also, there are times when a strategist is unable to write a creative brief. An account manager with the skills of a planner can make up for the lack of time and handle the creative brief themselves.