be a black sheep

A highly recommended article from my favorite mag, Fast Company:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/mayhem-on-madison-avenue.html

In the Mad Men days, ad men drank, smoked and flirted at the office, and companies hired them to do the things they didn’t have the expertise, the resources or the time to do – complex ad campaigns, the accompanying illustration, photography and copywriting, and the purchasing of TV spots, and newspaper and magazine ads.

Ad agencies existed because they filled an inherent need for businesses – how else would you be able to reach a large group of potential customers and clients, in a way that would translate your brand to them and inspire them to buy your product or service?

But in today’s world, we’re all marketers. With every status update, tweet, viral video, blog post, and automatically-generated geo-location update, we’re all creating content 24/7 that speaks to our brands. And we have growing, targeted and engaged audiences that trust and listen to us… and if we’re really good, let us lead them.

Just as scribes who hand-copied pages of texts in the 1400s eventually gave way to the printing press and movable type, there’s no longer a need to hire an ad agency to get your message out.

So what’s a marketer to do? Well, in today’s world, the real value that any sort of marketing firm offers breaks down into 3 parts:

• the idea (the ah-ha moment that strikes your clients in relation to your brand and message)
• the plan (a guideline to help you navigate an online world full of infinite tools and platforms)
• the implementation (what you actually do that is measureable in terms of ROI)

These are vital in today’s world just as they were in the 50s.

But the most important part of this process is this:  the client has to take an active role in the implementation of the plan. I’ll go into more detail on this in some future posts, but think about it – who’s better to speak to your brand and to talk to your customers, than you?

So the future of marketing agencies – successful ones anyway – belongs to those that not only provide their clients with an innovative idea and an effective plan, but have the capacity to let the client do what they’re now able to – and that’s to reach out to their audience and ignite a real relationship with them.

As I lean over the edge and peer towards 2011, having decided to start my own marketing agency, having just launched a record label and completed a successful European tour for one of the artists I represent, having found the best business partner and confidant a person could hope for in Kathleen, and looking back at all of the really cool, inspiring people I’ve met and have relied on the past years, here is my gift to all of you – a collection of everything i’ve learned the hard way over the last 10 years.

Goodbye, 2000-2010, here is a proper send-off to you.

1. Get absolutely everything in writing.
2. Always listen to your gut but never act on it right away.
3. Ideas are worth something, don’t smother them but don’t just give them away either.
4. Passion is a valuable quality…
5. …Because very few people have it.
6. When you feel like completely giving up, stick it out for one more week.
7. Never underestimate the help, knowledge and inspiration you can get from your friends.
8. If you’re in a position where people doubt you, take it as a challenge to become better.
9. Always, always, always keep learning.
10. Never agree to meetings that are longer than 30 minutes. Your time is precious – always demand an agenda.
11. Workaholism is never the answer.
12. Don’t work in an office without any windows.
13. Try not to fear unemployment, you can become pretty ingenious when you’re completely broke.
14. Every company in existence today should have a technology plan of some kind in place. It is imperative.
15. Practice the art of saying “no”. And it is an art.
16. Curb your inbox. Getting 500 emails a day is not a sign of achievement, it’s a sign of lack of ability to delegate.
17. Remember that every decision is based at least partly on emotion. Every single one.
18. Always look at conflicts and decisions from other people’s points of view before your own.
19. A company’s culture is not what’s discussed in the boardroom, it’s what’s discussed on coffee breaks.
20. In whatever you do – lead, do not follow.