(Part 2) Best products from r/advertising

In the end an art director directs the art, you will end up in a position in your career where you pick the illustrator, the photographer, etc who then execute your vision, instead of you being the creator of the vision.

These days it's very important for AD's to be able to show their vision fast, and when starting out you will have to be able to execute your work yourself. This doesn't mean that you have to be a great photographer and illustrator or even a super skilled designer, but you need to understand what good design is and when design is important. You can work on becoming good at all of that. Pick up some books like advertising design and typography, bookmark all the sites that can help you execute clean presentations of your ideas like graphic burger and keep practicing. Worst thing that can happen is that you get better at designing your ideas. You def have to take classes on using programs like inDesign, Photoshop etc because these are your tools but you can find online classes for that.

Remember those great Volkswagen ads? by David Abbott, Alfredo Marcantonio, and John O'Driscoll just got republished. Got a copy of it myself for Christmas. It's totally, totally awesome.

It's a couple of chapters of preamble from the authors, including one from Helmut Krone, the AD who created the original DDB Volkswagen ads. Then it's just hundreds of pages of really, really good ads.

It's a great read if you're a copywriter, obviously. Dozens upon dozens of beautifully written long copy ads.

It's great if you're an art director, too, because it'll show you a huge number of ways you can do a lot with next to nothing.

And it's great if you're in strategy or client management, because each one contains multiple examples of real customer insight. And how it really is possible to get all the stuff the client wants in an ad without compromising the ideas.

You can't not learn something from reading it. And it's reduced. Get a copy.

Looks like you'd make a great strategist. Your writing is well drafted and professional, and when it comes to creative briefs, that's where your kind of writing and the way you analyze things could really shine. It looks like you enjoy doing research, which is one of the biggest tasks strategists have. You've got a lot of different and interesting things and projects going on here, which puts you in a good spot to work in a creative shop. All that workshop facilitation and keynote speaking stuff you have also puts you in a good place to lead the way in briefings and help keep the creatives on the right track when we start to dick off and stray away from the strategy.

If you want more info on what a strategist does I suggest checking out this book, you can get it used for like $5. It summarizes every role in ad agencies in a really concise way.

Also a heads up, rule number 1 is don't do a landing page. I know it sounds silly but there's hiring managers and CDs out there that say they don't even look at a book with a landing page. I'd suggest taking the links on the side under portfolio and turning them into icons instead of having the main page start off with writing. Just my two cents.

Good luck :)

I am reading a book right now called "Managing Oneself" by Peter F. Drucker. It's super short (60 pages with huge margins and large font). I think it might be worth your while to read. In it he talks about people exactly in your situation. He would postulate that maybe you're much better in a sub-management position than a management position. He would also postulate that it's not so much about "advancing your career" as it is figuring out where you fit in and how/what you contribute. In other words, perhaps you took this current job because you felt like you needed to advance your career because that's what people do. But the advancement of a career does not necessarily correlate with happiness.


I hope I don't sound like I am telling you this is the way it is. That's not my intention. Your situation just reminded me of the book I am reading and thought it might provide some alternative perspective and insight for you.


Good luck!

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators https://www.amazon.com/dp/1422134814/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2kWKzbZH8JEGA

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385512074/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_imWKzb0R9Z6GV

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738205370/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MjWKzbS473XHB

These are three of my favorites that aren't focused on advertising. Each one has incredible insights. If possible, I would start with Blockbusting, then the 10 faces of innovation and I would finish by reading the innovators DNA alongside the power of habit. The power of habit is not a book on creativity but it will help you see how you can create habits that will drastically improve your creative outputs. The innovators DNA has a lot of cool exercises and specific habits that all creative leaders have and the power of habit will give you the know how to integrate those habits into your daily life.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298160X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XsWKzbZXS0TP6

> Most of Coke's sales are from one target. And this target is people who prefer drinking cola.

Actually they don't.

Most of Coke's sales come from people who might buy one or two cans of coke a year. Do they "prefer drinking cola"? Probably not. They prefer drinking lots of different types of drinks.

>Few of Coke's sales are from people who like drinking fruit-flavored citrus soda.

The vast majority of Coke's sales will come from people who also like drinking fruit flavoured citrus soda.

>Schweppes is also Coca-Cola. Yet another brand, specifically tuned for another target for people who would never touch cola or citrus drinks.

I'm afraid this is also completely wrong. The vast majority of Schweppes drinkers will happily touch cola and citrus drinks.

>Just curious — where are you getting your data about broad targets from?

https://www.amazon.com/How-Brands-Grow-What-Marketers/dp/1511383933

This is a great book.

https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Era-Accountability-Binet/dp/1841161985

This is similarly good.

There are other studies but these sum them up the best.

Category after category, product after product, campaign after campaign. The campaigns that have been most commercially successful are the ones that try to grow market share and penetration by targeting very large groups of people.

I like these books just to get the creative juices flowing: Caffeine for the Creative Mind and Team.

If time allows, I like to play games and/or grab a drink with my team.

Sometimes, I imagine what imaginary characters would do with the product/service. It helps if the characters are in the demo, but still fun if they aren't. Once I imagined Troy and Abed going to Dollywood. It wasn't productive, but I had a good laugh.

https://www.amazon.com/Freelance-Manifesto-Modern-Motion-Designer-ebook/dp/B071JRYMSG

This will be your best friend. Joey, who is a super awesome very friendly dude, goes over all the ways you can set up pricing.

TLDR version is it depends on the client. Day rates are most common in work for hire situations. Remote work is often hourly or lump some.
The rate can vary depending on client type (direct, agency, studio) starting right out of school don't do anything for less than 400-500/day assuming you are in the US and that is generally for a 10 hour workday.

>we have a serious shortage of AD/CW/SAD/ACD levels who can be relied on to get shit done by themselves

Why did you hire the ones you have? If they were already there before you came in, I suggest getting some new creatives. You must know a couple freelance ACDs who can be relied upon. Bring them in as freelancers and have them oversee your staff creatives. Then, once your bad creatives eventually leave, use a more thorough interviewing process with the new creatives. And hire them freelance first. Like 3-4 teams at the same time, on one brief, but don't tell them that they are competing. Test them out for 1 week. Toss out the bad ones. It seems like a lot of money to hire 3-4 freelance teams at once, but it'll save money in the long run because the only ones left will be the ones who know what they're doing.

Your job is stressful because you're allowing it to be that way. Focus on building your team.

If Finance won't let you do what you want, then it's time to start playing hardball. Lay off the bad creatives. Use that money to get better ones. Give the pink-slipped creatives a pep talk and a fair severance.

As far as the interpersonal stuff, I recommend a book called The Little Blue Book of Advertising. It's for CD-level and higher. Highly recommended by lot of industry folks, including CEO level. It's basically a management tutorial but specific to advertising, and the unique scenarios that happen in our industry. Yes, there are ways to make even the grumpiest employees feel appreciated.

I just finished reading Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's and if your experience is similar, you'll probably be great at advertising. John had to learn how to interact with other people by observing as an outsider, which is a super useful skill for advertising. You might also consider exploring the art side of things, and getting good at InDesign and Photoshop.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but fuck that book.

Hell, I'll provide a synopsis for you: "David Ogilvy is a genius and everyone else is beneath him, he has a nice house and nice cars and knows more than you will ever know. Also, long form copy rules."

Ok, you probably should read it as there are some salient points which stand the test of time. However, you'd be better off keeping up with modern industry periodicals. Shit changes daily in this industry, and yesterday's award winners often turn out to be completely ineffective at actually selling the products they were intended to.

If you insist on reading archaic reference materials, might I suggest The Book of Gossage - or if you like the idea of an old windbag, try George Parker - at least he's entertaining.


/Flame away

This comment nails it: it's fine to be generally quieter as log as you exert your confidence at the right moments.

I'm a Planner/Strategist, and in my earlier years the one critique during my reviews was that I wasn't asserting myself in meetings enough. It was true: whenever there would be waves of (extroverted) people endlessly talking over each other, I tended to recede into silence, which is a problem when they were paying me to share what I think.

These days, when the room is rambling, I use that time to mentally hone the thing I want to contribute, so that I can really make the most of the eventual opening in that conversation. Doing that over time, you can develop a reputation for making the most insightful contributions to a meeting, as opposed to those who just talk the most.

(Oh, and if you haven't read the book Quiet by Susan Cain, you absolutely should. It's an excellent guide on how to use the strengths of your introversion in environments that are skewed towards extroverts.)

Well it really surprises me that you are experiencing this problem. Advertising that is so split down the middle ceased to exist back in the 70s after Stephen King coined the term "account planner". The account planner is the head of a particular account of course, responsible for the personality of the brand from creative to sales.

I would suggest reading this,

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/features/743160/

and if you can acquiring this book,

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Class-Brand-Planning-Timeless/dp/0470517913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374731577&sr=8-1&keywords=a+master+class+in+brand+planning

That book actually contains the full essay with the pictures that i linked first. I have found it indispensable in figuring things out in my head and thinking the way he did.

Either way, you want to work towards this hybrid position, it exists it is known as the Account Planner. The book is basically a huge set of discourses that justify the necessity of an Account Planner and it's advancement, among a huge multitude of other timeless insights.


Of course i'm not entirely certain that this is in practice in the US, however in New York and the UK, it very much is.