The Importance of Networking

Networking.

When I was in school, I believed that I would get jobs through the simple purity of my ideas. The word "networking" was on a list in my mind with other words like "selling" and "schmoozing"--words that I'd heard were part of our business but that I had no interest in. It was all about the ideas.

Well, here's a secret. I have never sat in an interview and shown anyone my portfolio. Not once. I got an internship through my school, I got a job through my internship, and I got a second job through connections I made at my first job. I hope you think no less of me.

The math is simple (actually, it's probably complex, but the idea of it is simple). In advertising, the usual stint at an agency is probably 2-3 years. So take however many people you know from school, or the agency you interned at, and imagine them all bouncing from agency to agency every couple years, and all the people they come in contact with at those agencies. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of contacts.

I'm not that old, but when I left school there was no Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter. We had email address books and phone numbers. It's easy to keep in touch with people these days, or at least keep track of where they are and what they're up to. If you're not using at least one of these sites, you're missing an opportunity that you may regret if you find yourself in the market for a new job. Because when we need to hire someone at my agency, the first thing we do isn't look through the stack of portfolios in the corner. It's not call a headhunter. It's ask everyone in the creative department: "Hey, you know any talented people looking for a job?"

Here's a good post on how to use social networks to find a job.

I got this link from a very talented writer I know, Tony. How do I know Tony? He is a former student of mine. We've stayed in touch via Facebook and Twitter.

Makin' Ads turns 2

Makin' Ads began two years ago today with this post.

Thanks, everyone for making this bigger and better than we originally planned.

- Jim and Greg

The YouTube Test

We've just wrapped up award show season, when juries of the most respected minds in the advertising industry tell us which work is good.

I'm joshing you, of course. Awards are good to win, but any of us is perfectly capable of forming our own opinions about which ads are good. Opinions are known to be subjective, after all.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's also something to be said for seeing what "normal" people think of your TV spots. You know, "normal" people, as in not award show judges, not jaded writers and art directors or adcritics. Just people who watch stuff on YouTube.

You have to take YouTube comments with a grain of salt. The person commenting could be in your target. It could also be a 12-year-old boy. But hey, how often are award-show judges part of the target market either? There's just something refreshing in knowing that the person judging it is just giving their opinion. Kind of like if they were sitting in front of the TV and your ad came on. And if you do an ad that someone else likes enough to take the time to post on youtube, well, that's a decent compliment in itself.

Are you as honest as Ben Folds?

I was just listening to an interview with Ben Folds on Sound of Young America.

One of the things that struck me was how he would use a tape recorder as a kid. He would record himself playing his music so he could go back and listen to it with fresh ears. If he thought he really had something, he'd take the tape to JC Penny's, put it in a stereo, push play, walk around the store a bit and kind of sneak up on his own music as if he'd never heard it before. If he didn't like it, he'd change it, or scrap it altogether.

I guess the alternate universe story would be Ben writing some songs he was satisfied with, stopping when they were "good enough," performing for a few people who thought they were okay, never signing a record deal and complaining about the fact that his work was just never really understood or that he never had a big break.

If we really want to do great, fantastic, killer work, it's not really about having a big break or finding an audience who gets us. We've got to be as honest with our ideas as Ben is with his. And we've got to be willing work to make the okay ideas much, much better.

A Few Observations on Framing and Language

One of the important things you'll have to do many times in your advertising career is craft language to frame a topic a certain way. This simply means that you control how someone looks at an idea. What perspective are they viewing it from and how are they judging it?

You obviously can't always control how someone perceives your idea, but with the right language and the right tone, you certainly can influence it. Here are some examples:

1) Setting up your work for a client. I like to let the client know, as I set up the work we're showing, how I judged the work and what I think it has going for it. This doesn't always mean they'll agree, but it lets them understand where I'm coming from before they form their own opinion. Or I'll ask them to put their 12-year-old boy hat on (or whatever the target is) for a moment as they listen to the script.

2) Is there a completely different strategic approach? When my agency did a campaign for Brita Water Filters, which had always been about super-clean water without impurities, someone had the smart idea to re-frame the issue to be about conservation. Because a good deal of the plastic water bottles that people use end up in landfills or circling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Here's another example, the likes of which you've probably seen in hotel bathrooms.



The cynic in me sees those signs and thinks, "Yeah, right. The hotel's just trying to save money on laundry." Which may be true, but it is helping the environment too, and in the end I reuse my towels.

3. Word choice for the little things. Consider these possible call-to-actions in a banner ad:
Click here to visit blah.com.
Discover more at blah.com.
Start the journey at blah.com.
They're all asking me to do basically the same thing, but each sets my expectations for blah.com. Is there a better way to say what you want?

Here's another example that always strikes me when I see it. Rather than the typical SELL BY DATE, some drinks have the much more promising ENJOY BY date.



Framing is not about tricking anyone. It's about asking someone to consider something from a different viewpoint. And if you have any questions as to whether it's important, I invite you to listen to this episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Radiolab. In it, they discuss the potential effect of Obama's election on the academic performance of African-American students, as well as how the simple act of framing a test (i.e. the language used to say what the test measures) can have a huge impact on test scores.

The best blog post ever

We don't promote too many books on Makin' Ads. We'd encourage you to get very familiar with the annuals, first. That said...

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Creative directors vs. creative engines

Don't confuse being the creative director of an agency with being the creative engine of an agency. Sometimes, they're one and the same. But not always.

I've worked at agencies where the creative director, however well-respected, was not the creative engine. Those who came up with the best work, the killer lines and fresh layouts were not always the ECD, the CCO, or even the CD. They were the people who loved their jobs and worked like crazy to make sure their ideas were as good as they could be. They never settled.

It may take you a few years to be a creative director. But you can be an agency's creative engine whenever you decide to be.

A thoughtful article from Jeff Goodby

"We are becoming irrelevant award-chasers."

Here's a great article by Jeff Goodby on the current award show mentality.

Living vs. Working

Years ago, I read an interview with Richard Branson. He said that one of the keys to his success is that he stopped seeing a difference between working and not working. I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said it was just living. He worked. He spent time with his family. He played. He worked some more. It was all just living.

Granted, that may be easier to say when you're a multi-billionaire and family time is spent on a tropical island you own. But still, I think he's given us a key.

The best creatives I've known come to work the next day and say, "Hey, I had this idea last night. What if we..."

Shamelessly Plug Your Agency Whenever You Cannes

Congrats to my coworkers for bringing home a couple statues from Cannes this year with their Reverse Graffiti work for Greenworks-in my opinion, the coolest thing my agency's done.