Then I came across Lee Clow’s Beard. It’s a steady flow of insight of the “wish I said it that way” variety. Today’s: “Most people don’t have enough time to interact with their kids, let alone your brand. Respect that.”

Who on Twitter do you find uniquely worthwhile?

mj

For November, Jeff Gabel, Chief Creative Officer at Partners + Napier will share his observations on the “common constructs of great ideas”. Jeff is a unique package of big idea, business savvy, and passion for execution. In fact, I recently subjected Jeff to an MRI brain scan, and discovered both left and right sides uniquely well developed and working flawlessly together. Actionable insight yours for the taking. Here are the details:

Tuesday November 17th, 5:30 pm
Tap & Mallet; 381 Gregory Street
$5 non-RAF members, free to members

See you there. Here’s Jeff and I prior to the MRI. When we pulled him out, tube was covered in sketches and post-its.

mj

So I was happy to come across Christopher Kimball’s piece in Thursday’s NY Times. Mr. Kimball is the publisher of Cooks Illustrated. The article reflects on Gourmet’s demise, but goes on to offer a smart and contrarian reaction to the dominant theology of our day: digital democratization.

The whole article is here. Think it over the next time you price your services or read about a national brand soliciting ideas through crowd sourcing.

Here’s a quote:

To survive (digital democratization), those of us who believe that inexperience rarely leads to wisdom need to swim against the tide, better define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do, and refuse to climb aboard this ship of fools, the one where everyone has an equal voice. Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks.

Advertising, the business of commercial communication in all its forms, is a craft. Experience matters. I wonder if the ad business itself believes this.

Cheers!
mj

Tim’s evangelism lasted another year perhaps. The Saturn brand meanwhile soldiered on, right up to this past Wednesday when GM announced that a planned takeover by auto mogul Roger Penske had fallen through. It appears the Saturn division will close next year.

Even before the current auto slump, Saturn had become a staple of MBA case studies on how to kill a promising business. Conventional wisdom has it that the meddling execs of GM killed the quirkiness in an effort to lower costs. The predictable cycle commenced, with loyal owners spun off each year.

I’d like to introduce an alternate theory: Saturn was dead on arrival. That it even got off the ground is a testament to brilliant advertising from Hal Riney and a decent dealer network. The problem was the cars – uniquely styled at times, but nothing special in performance, quality, or safety. Saturn created a compelling brand narrative, but not a good product.

Saturn has failed spectacularly, but not uniquely. Countless brands try to create a “brand experience” before doing the hard work of legitimate differentiation. My favorite category is airtravel – remember Song or Ted (we want to be like Jet Blue, can we do it without actually changing?).

Sadly, agencies and marketers are often asked to create the story and then canned when it doesn’t connect. Wish I had a more uplifting message. Cheers!

mj

P.S. while appreciating some of Hal Riney’s Saturn tv work, came across his work helping to elect Ronald Reagan. Politics aside, far more memorable than anything I’ve seen lately from candidates.

Where?
Tap & Mallet
381 Gregory Street
Rochester, NY 14620

What Time?
05:30 to 06:00 PM

How Much?
Free for members,
$4 non-members

Description
Join Jon Brown, Director of Interactive Services at Partners + Napier, and your fellow RAF members for a conversation on Social Media, as in What, When, Where, Why and How. Information on us, beer on you.

mj

Struck by the overwhelming sameness? Like a template was handed out at a 4 A’s conference. Right down to the “proprietary approach” and 3rd person bios (“Our clients describe Mike as quietly brilliant. So they’re surprised to learn he fronts a local punk band on the weekends”). I selected two for fodder, one bad and one good:

McCann NY (bad)
I defy you to discover anything relevant about this agency in 30 seconds. Eventually I found the “what we think” section, and have concluded that concealment was intentional (summary: they’re really really open to ideas). And moving links, still, in 2009?

Full disclosure, I used to work at McCann NY prior to emigrating to Rochester. Met my wife there. Loved the place. They are better and smarter than the site suggests.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky beta (good)
In certain circles, it’s very 2005 to openly admire CPB. But when faced with conventional challenges, they continue to think and behave unconventionally. The beta site is the latest example. Video, feeds and news about CPB and clients. Not just the sanitized PR stuff either. So it captures the impact the work is having rather than assessing work in a gallery. Time on your hands? Watch “Brokaw meets Bogusky” video.

Let me know examples you admire, local or otherwise. Love to see more of the good stuff. Or tell me how wildly off-base I am.

And the announcement:
When introducing the new blog team a few weeks ago, I neglected to mention P&N CMO Sarah Hanson. Not a minor oversight. Sarah arrived in Rochester from Boston’s Digitas with a ton of digital experience. More on Sarah here. Look for her to light up the blogoshere later this month.

mj

“20 minutes and a Beer”
Not what you think. It’s a monthly event where we’ll ask a local expert to opine on a topic briefly, then we have a drink. Simple as that. We have one planned:
When: Tuesday, September 22; 5:30
Where: Tap and Mallet
What: Jon Brown from P&N will give a practical tour through Social Media

Why only one planned? We want to test the idea and get feedback before we blow out a schedule. So join us and share your thoughts.

A Bigger, Badder Blog Team.
3 stars have joined the ranks, perhaps lured by our comprehensive health insurance program:

Chris Lyons, who describes himself this way: above average jump shooter, lousy putter, pretty good Illustrator, devoted Teacher.

Jennifer Wolfe, Principal + Designer for Jennifer Wolfe Design and Adjunct Professor at RIT.

Whit Thompson, ACD at Roberts Communication. Whit has been an outstanding addition to the Rochester ad ranks and promises no shortage of opinion. Decent tennis player too I hear.

As Buffalo Bill and fellow RAF member Terrell Owens would say, “get your popcorn ready”.

Matt Jones

This is typically the type of initiative that invites loads of criticism from the snark community (and this has). But why not? Minneapolis sees an economic opportunity in changing how people view their city (sound familiar?) and they’re taking a shot. Congrats to the local 4A outpost on pulling agencies together on this.
The real test will be if it continues to be a vibrant, useful site or just another launch and leave.

mj

We here at the RAF would like to clear this up. At last week’s retreat (boondoggle down at the Greenbrier, or was it the 4th floor at Partners?), we took the first step: agreeing to a simple statement of purpose. Not a grand vision, just something we could say in the elevator when asked “what does the RAF do?”. Here it is:

“We strengthen our creative communications community through programs and events that educate and inspire great work”.

That’s it. May not roll off the tongue, but its pretty straightforward. Any rate, we don’t intend to spend months on a strategy deck. We want to do stuff that makes good on the promise above. And I’m pleased to report that as we discussed event ideas on the afternoon of the retreat, we kept coming back to this statement to sharpen our focus.

In addition to tweaking some of our annual events to be more on strategy, we’re also going to explore a casual monthly affair to exchange ideas and have a drink. More to come on that.

In meantime, love to hear from you. Does the purpose make sense? Is it attainable? What opportunities are we missing? Appreciate your thoughts.

mj

The juxtaposition of these 2 stories got me thinking about whether the advertising and marketing community relies too heavily on one demo to make the big decisions. So, a couple questions:

1. I appreciate middle age white guys. I may be one, depending on if I live past 74. I also won a dance contest in 3rd grade, so take that into account. Anyway, if we continue to make the lion’s share of ad decisions, forget fairness, is this good business?
2. Does Ad Age come off as patronizing by compiling a list of accomplished women, then lining up the men when they want an expert point of view? Possibly they chose men because of the subject matter, because, you know, women don’t drive cars, purchase cars, or understand the simple fact that in 2009 only a Duramax 6.6L turbo diesel V8 with 660 lb ft of torque is appropriate for your neighborhood landscaper to tow a lawn mower 4 blocks.
3. Let’s switch to age for a second. If you’re over 50 and working in an agency, you likely own the place. That’s a lot of experience on the sideline. Do we think they’re out of ideas, require too much money, or something else?
4. If we’re in charge, why are men in beer ads stone dumb? Don’t answer that.

Btw, here’s my caveat. I don’t read Ad Age closely enough to indict them for institutional sexism or any other ‘ism. Just using the stories to ask a question about the business.

mj