Write what you know, they say. In my book Minor King, I rail on everything from the rich, the poor, politics, religion, corporate corruption, insurance companies, but mostly–the little guy getting screwed over. The Machine, I call it. Every year I get a physical. It’s a privilege from paying thousands of dollars a year in health insurance, co-pays, and annual deductibles. Sure, I needed insurance recently with the trip to the ER, but mostly we just use insurance for checkups and…
My first gig in advertising was working in-house for Citibank. A department they aptly named N-house. A year before, Citibank hired a copywriter-art director team from Saatchi & Saatchi out of Manhattan, and brought them down to their operations campus in Jacksonville, where the tandem headed all direct marketing correspondence for the bank, and lived like kings. It was my first experience with the idea of an in-house creative department. Nearly 20 years later I’m here to tell you that by 2020…
Everyone wants the perfect commercial website, right? So let’s look at how you can get one. First, as with all things, it has to be branded well. You also need to create the traditional chunks of info, provide logical navigation, and start to tell the brand’s story. Second, and this is huge, don’t try to make it do everything. Unless you’re selling tee shirts via e-commerce, this site isn’t going to close one sale for you. The best it can…
With the Super Bowl ads breathing down our necks, it’s time to admit that traditional advertising doesn’t sell shit. Times have changed. No longer is the :30 second TV spot, or the full page print ad a guarantee of anything like a bump in sales. (If it ever was.) That is, of course, unless you’ve got a coupon. No, advertising isn’t advertising any more. When advertising exists as an entertainment vehicle, it’s no longer about sales. It’s about branding. Brands…
Most of what constitutes branded content these days is so formulaic that it’s indecipherable. It’s as though everyone bought the same book and is following it to the letter. It’s boring and uninspiring. And that’s not just an elitist writer saying this. When I read branded content I think from the perspective of the audience. And, well, yawn. Sure, there are some outliers who get it, but most don’t. The problem started a couple of years ago when the benefits…
I grew up with the Vietnam War on TV. Every night Walter Cronkite bringing bad news from South Asia. As a result, I’ve never been a fan of the news. Even today, I believe that all media, including the news, exists for one thing—advertising revenue. No advertising revenue, no “if it bleeds it leads.” No, you can’t stop the news from happening. You can, however, change what kind of news is delivered by what you consume. Earlier this year in…
