by Next Wave Team | Jun 5, 2007 | Careers in Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Marketing & the Web, Minorities in Advertising, Search and Business, Web strategy
Extending the myth that great advertising can be produced on the fly- ignoring the hard work of studying the customer, the market and the clients unique selling position- we now have a new pimp for the creative superstars: thetalentbusiness.com
Comparing themselves to Creative Artists Agency- which is more of a rep firm than a placement company- brings a whole new level of sneer to the ad world. In an industry that already has proven itself unable to integrate, or provide pay equity, we now have another tip-of-the-hat to the good ol’ boy network concept.
Yes, bringing in top talent can help you refine a good plan, a good concept, or help you brainstorm- but, the idea that you can freelance a brand to stardom must end.
With the Internet making it really simple to share your skill set with the world- finding the right people has gotten easier, not harder. When was the last time you had to wait for a portfolio to arrive by FedEx before you knew what the person was capable of?
Advertising Age - Headhunting Has a Whole New Look
The former CEO of Bartle Bogle Hegarty USA has joined forces with Gary Stolkin, chairman-CEO of global recruitment agency Kendall Tarrant, to rebrand his business with no less an aim than creating the ad-world equivalent of the entertainment industry’s Creative Artists Agency — and, in the process, change headhunting as it’s been known.
Answer to industry ills?
Today the pair relaunches the London-based agency with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, São Paulo and San Francisco as the Talent Business, adding a 10-person New York office under the direction of U.S. CEO Lucy Meredith. As the name — a shift away from the stodgy legal-firm approach of putting the principals’ names above the door — may suggest, Ms. Gallop and Mr. Stolkin believe they can create a different type of talent agency at a time when the industry regards itself as being in a talent crisis.
“The industry is going through a big bang right now,” Mr. Stolkin said. “All the agencies say, or want to be able to say, that they can do everything: ads, digital, direct or whatever. But recruitment is typically done by recycling the same ad people. We wanted to create an agency that would cut across the silos of the different disciplines. We also wanted to come up with a genuinely global offering, so that we can find and provide a resource for talent all over the world.”
While silo-integration efforts always prompt industry skepticism, the Talent Business is backing its bluster with an internal fee structure that eschews the usual recruitment-agency model of paying each individual headhunter a commission on candidates placed in jobs. Instead, employees share 25% of the company’s pre-tax profit — last year Kendall Tarrant made around $3.5 million after employee bonuses were paid. By removing the focus on commission, Ms. Meredith said, the company will encourage sharing of candidates among recruiters and focus on clients’ best interests rather than on simply putting butts in seats.
Removing stigma
The Talent Business is hoping strong branding across its website — thetalentbusiness.com — and other communications efforts will help turn the shop into a destination for people interested in changing jobs and take away the stigma of knocking on a headhunter’s door. As one media-industry recruitment consultant admitted: “At some consultants, there’s a belief that the best candidates are the ones you root out, not the ones who come to you. Good candidates probably feel the same way.”
The consultant doubted that mind-set could be easily changed, but Ms. Gallop and Mr. Stolkin think candidates should be asking recruiters to show them the money. They envisage something akin to a firm of sports or entertainment representatives, offering life coaching and job advice throughout a person’s career. “The reason we focused so heavily on the branding here is that if we get this right, the candidates will come to us,” Mr. Stolkin said.
No matter how good thetalentbusiness thinks they are- they have no clue about one type of search that executives use now: Google.
Their site, built in Flash, doesn’t show up in Google at all:
Your search - site:thetalentbusiness.com - did not match any documents.
Guess the first person they should place is someone who can help them with their own search results.
by Next Wave Team | Jun 2, 2007 | Advertising, Creativity, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising, The Craft Of Advertising
Found this via Ernie Schenck- (who still has no clue what trackbacks are).
And while it’s hip jargon in the stratosphere of advertising to say something like “your strategy is showing” as if that’s a bad thing- I always fall back to Ogilvy’s famous line about the consumer not being a moron- but your mother. Mom understands she’s being sold to- she knows it’s an ad- and strategy or no strategy showing it comes to Howard Luck Gossages classic quote “People don’t read ads, they read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.”
So, flaunt your strategy for all I care- just make sure it’s interesting. I liked the definition of what “creative work should” do- (and note- the spelling isn’t wrong- it’s just a Brit talking)
adliterate: Too damn right my strategy is showing
Creative work should engage people, provide an emotional connection, build memorability, invite people to join the conversation, absorb them in the moment, build emotional desire and all of those wonderful things that it does. But it should also dramatise the strategy.
I can’t for the life of me think why you wouldn’t want your strategy showing unless of course it is so lifeless and limp that 10,000 volts wouldn’t bring the bloody thing to life.
If that is the case then burying it under layers of creative artifice and never speaking of it again is the least you can do.
Our definition at The Next Wave of strategy is even shorter: Create lust • Evoke trust™ and that’s what drives us. No matter what you do in the realm of marketing- always remember, keep it interesting- no price and product laundry lists, or simple feature lists- not unless you want to pay for those 10,000 volts to keep it alive in the customers mind.
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | May 26, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising, The Craft Of Advertising
McCann trademarked this phrase in 1926, and it’s as important today as then: Truth Well Told ® and it should be a cornerstone of any ad, not just the great ones.
This TV spot from Element 79 Partners in Chicago, is actually one of a series called “Origins” and it will serve us well for an example of what makes great advertising.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vpfzBMj8T58
Gatorade is a category leader, and may as well have invented the sports drink market. From a leadership position they understand they need to make a connection with their target market- but not beat their chests. This is a key ingredient that car companies would do well to learn. Nobody likes a braggart- and this applies to your advertising as well. They have taken the story of their products beginnings and turned it into a near mythological tale- if you have history, if you have a story, take it and use it.
Up until watching these spots, the connection between Gatorade and the Florida Gators wasn’t obvious to me, it was just a trade name that spurred a whole bunch of other ‘ades- with the exception of the original one- Kool Aid® which totally missed this market segment. (Right now, anything with the word “Gator” in it might hit a sore spot in our home state of Ohio- thanks to two national championship losses to Florida this year). Element 79 has managed to do several versions of this same story- and still keep them different. Unfortunately, I can’t find the other treatments to share with you.
But, the key to realize is that it tells the story, solidifying the category leading position, and can be done several different ways. Both good ingredients.
Another key ingredient is to play with the familiar. This spot uses both familiar music- and familiar sports stars, stories and even the announcer (sorry I don’t have his name).
While hit music, star athletes and well known personalities are all great to have in a campaign, this one does it without making them upstage the product. Although I love Michael Jordan in so many of the ads he did- they often ended up being more about him than the product.
Which brings up the next trick to making a great tv spot: cool by association. In and by itself, Gatorade is just a drink. Once you connect it to the mythos of sport, and particularly championships, you’ve planted a brand statement that speaks to the innermost desires in all of us: the dream of greatness. If you can make someone believe that your product will make them great, better looking, smarter, richer, sexier etc. you have done your job.
Telling your story in :30 or :60 seconds is a major accomplishment. Most TV commercials can’t do a fraction of what this spot does- typically a spot is good if it hammers home one salient point- this one is coup de grace for the category of sports drinks. If you can’t tell your story in your spot- can you at least get their attention and make them curious enough to go to your website?
Budget also plays a part in your formula for a great tv spot. Some of this was archival footage, other parts were shot to look that way- but, always remember, if you don’t have a big budget, go for a big concept (I’ve been told that this is a mantra at Crispin Porter + Bogusky).
The last secret to getting the best results for your TV commercial- put it on your site, put it on YouTube, let as many people have access to it as possible. Let your customers talk about it- discuss it- analyze it (just like what we’re doing here) the days of “controlling” your message are over- your customers are now at the helm. When you post it- remember to add a lot of descriptive text, since search engines have no idea what a video file contains. For this spot we would suggest: The history of Gatorade, Gatorade tv commercial, origins of gatorade, the story of gatorade and how gatorade was part of the Florida Gators sports success - get the idea?
If you have more questions about how to make great tv spots on a big or little budget, or on how to get them seen by the most people- ask us. We’ve got plenty of good ideas on how to make your brand stand out and your message heard.
