How to Generate New Business

"My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably." -George Bernard Shaw

Can a creative comment on the task of an account manager? A major area of interest to me, as a young creative in the ad world, is the sourcing of new business and the true reason that new clients are won.

At MCAD, I was taught that new clients are won at ad agencies because of a good mixture of great work and excellent pitching schools of the Chief Creative Officer, Executive Account Manager and so on. In the past agencies won clients through well placed compliments and extensive friendships; but, things were thought to have changes with small, new agencies becoming agency of record on large brands.

When working at Campbell Mithun, H&R Block dropped us for DDB Chicago based solely on a strong relationship between the heads of DDB and the newly appointed head of H&R Block. This isn't an isolated event, so are things still the same or is it simply different client to client and agency to agency?

I think it's less black and white than that. It seems strong relationships, developed by the account managers, only get you so far, it's the creatives that have to deliver to finally win over the account. It seems the agencies that are winning are those where there is a strong relationship between the creatives and the account managers.

What Inspires You?

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London

I believe that seeking out inspiration, not just for a specific project, but as an ongoing process is necessary for all successful creative people. The things that inspire us tend to be so different, and for many, it doesn't always come from the same creative field as our own.

I collected together all of the inspiring things that I have posted on my facebook over the last year. They tend to be from industrial design, graphic design, advertising and things that just made me smile.

Check it out and get inspired: pictoral///video

Brand Power

"Since the crocodile is the symbol of Lacoste, we thought they might be interested in sponsoring our crocodiles." - Silvino Gomes, Commercial Director of the Lisbon Zoo

The discussion of brand relevance in the ad world had been going on for a quite some time yet it became most relevant on Marlboro Friday in 1993. (The first time that Marlboro cut it's price in spite of it's massive branding.) It was considered the death of the brand until the recession ended. When people had extra capital they spent the extra money by going back to the high brands they loved. A formula seemed to arise from that.

With the growth of interactive, came the rise of marketing over advertising. Instead of promising people happiness, simplicity, youth by using a brand. They turned to creating contests and child-like prizes for giving out your user information. The book, "Married to the Brand", points out that when "courting" your consumer giving them deals and price cuts only shortens the potential life of that consumer shopping your store. Instead of creating a lasting relationship through seeing themselves in you, the brand is saying, "Sorry we aren't awesome, here's a dollar for your email information."

The questions isn't wether or not interactive is here to stay or not. The question is when will we figure out how to integrate brand advertising successfully into interactive advertising?

Here's an example of one place I think it did work:

Agency: Big Spaceship

Client: HBO

Campaign: Voyeur

Work Work Work

I decided to take on another book building project with my art director friend, Karlisha Gray, and my copywriter friend, Katie Bode, generating concepts for the Nissan Cube.

It's a foreign car competing directly with the Honda Element, Kia Soul and Scion xB. It's main selling features being the unique interior styling, asymmetrical window, slightly smaller price point, shorter length and better gas mileage. Check back for more soon.

Some initial inspiration we've been pulling includes: Sprite's SubLymonal Ads, Lacoste Red!, and of course, cubism

Heimie's Haberdashery

As I mentioned in previous posts, I started working on a project for a small men's clothing boutique based in St. Paul, Heimie's Haberdashery, with my art director friend Dan Spillman. This is an update on our progress thus far.

It's been about a month or so since we started the project and after 20 or so ideation sessions we have it narrowed down to half a dozen ideas for fleshing out and picking one to produce. We also took on an awesome copywriter that is finishing up her last year at MCAD, Katie Bode.

Dan has been illustrating some logo concepts for rebranding Heimie's to give it an updated feel that still stays true to Heimie's roots. We were drawn to the more stamp, ornate feel of the top row and the more distinctive aristocratic look of the second row. Dan is working on fleshing these out and turning them into vector images.

While narrowing down the concepts, we have been left with the decision to ramp up the wankiness of the store and sell it for all it's ciche. Or to take a slightly more serious refined route with the creative. It will be exciting to see where we end up so stay tuned for more.

Some of our inspiration on this project: Mustache Blog, Victorian Portraits, Old Spice, Postmodern Gentleman, & Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

Great Creatives Are A Dime A Dozen

"It takes two to make a very great career: the man who is great, and the man (almost rarer) who is great enough to see greatness and say so." - Ayn Rand

I ran across this quote again recently and was surprised with how much it resonates with me now more than ever. My perception has been altered after being fortunate enough to have experience working in three different ad agencies (ranging from traditional to interactive) and having in class experience at two more. From those experiences, no matter what the perception of the agency is to the outside world, I have found brilliant, extremely talented creatives at each of the agencies.

The impetus for agencies that are perceived by the industry to be more creative or cutting edge seems to stem from, not the creatives, but those with the gavel that allow work to pass onto the clients [ie creative directors & account managers]. The creative director is the one that has the chance to see the potential in any given budding idea or stamp it out before it becomes fully formed. The account manager has the power to sell the client into believing in the work and pushing back, when appropriate, to ensure great creative is born for the clients future success.

But the thing I learned the most from my experiences thus far is that when an idea fails or succeeds people pass the blame or clamor for the glory. I do think, to a point, that it is still the creatives fault too. If they can't properly sell their work to their superiors, what right do they have to demand them to buy into it?

Being A Creative

"The most frightening thing. . . about being what someone calls a 'creative person' is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from really. . ." This is a quote pulled from the trailer for the ad documentary Art & Copy which I was fortunate to have a chance to see recently.

That quote made me think about the fact that not only do you not know where your ideas come from, you can't truly be taught how to get to them because every creative has a different way of doing it. The one similar thread through most creatives though, is the need to immerse themselves in inspiration wether that be other design work, the client's research or something entirely different.

One thing that has served as a source of inspiration for me is my surrounding, my ethics and the people I'm with. And Arkansas has not fallen short in providing inspiration thus far.

Check out some of the pics I've kept while looking for inspiration in Arkansas.