How did Saturn build a brand? With help from Hal.

I worked for Hal Riney’s Midwest office and am a huge fan of his. About five years ago, I did a Google search for Hal Riney. I didn’t expect to find this document, what I believe is an academic paper from a student, teacher or professor. I’m not sure, as there was no identifying URL and only part of an email address. So, if someone recognizes this and can point to the person who wrote it, PLEASE let me know. I want that person to know that this was a great paper. I will post more papers like this in Cool Bits –interesting finds that I come across in my travels. With that in mind, I thought this was a fitting beginning.

For a PDF of How Saturn Built a Brand, click here.

Alex Bogusky. A true creative genius.

There are a lot of creative people who talk about the creative process and how no one at the agency “get’s it!” Are you one of those creatives? Do you understand your creative process? How about the creative processes of each of the members of your group? One man’s experience… my guess is no.
The fact is, much of our attitudes and preconceived notions about what creativity is and how it works have not been studied by or taught to creative people at any point in either their training or their career. Upon choosing a topic for my thesis, I decided to tackle the topic of creativity in the context of an advertising agency. What I’ve learned so far has astonished, enlightened and at times, really embarrassed me. For example.
The notion of the ‘tortured artist’ came from the late 1600’s. So when your junior copywriter is having a hissy fit in the board room in front of the account team, our client and God, he or she is most likely regurgitating a social script about 400 years old. For an industry of ‘original thinkers,’ this is a tough theory to swallow. But it makes sense. When artists were first truly valued above the European cast of peasant or craftsman, they worked for either the church or the state. In those days, you worked for the man and painted what the man wanted because not only was he paying for the paint, he could have you excommunicated or worse. Kinda makes arguing about where to put the call to action seem trivial.
That all changed in the Renaissance, when wealthy land owners began commissioning paintings and portraits. They wanted to preserve their image, and in essence, their immortality. Back in the day, this power was an awesome power that only the wealthy could afford. That changed the fortunes of many artists from craftsman to celebrities that didn’t have to count on the church or the royal court for their bread. Thus, the tradition of telling the man where to go and how to get there was born!
This lead the artist to a higher rank in society. There were exceptions before, but not on the scale seen at this time. Artists, like authors, were among the first celebrities. This raised them to the about the highest rank in society they could go without royal blood. Their rare abilities to invent and create were likened to the only other frame of reference people had at the time –the creator, or God.
Terms like ‘divine inspiration’ and ‘gift from God’ were, at one time, taken literally.

Debates about the existence of a divine being is beyond the scope of a blog on creative direction, but here I will present the scientific evidence of how the creative process works, why creative people are not taken seriously by other professionals and what we can do about that.
Although the ability to create comes in many forms, and people that posses that ability behave in a variety of ways, there is a common explanation for the stereotypes of creatives as childish, flighty and self-centered. As creatives we spend all day trying to conjure up what to do, we spend little time pondering why we are able to do it. Our attitudes and the creative culture hasn’t changed in several hundred years. We’re not divine creators. We’re people with a distinct thought process that allows us to see things that others do not. I will post several scholarly articles here for your examination, and hopefully it will spark debate about the creative culture in advertising and what we can do to change the negative stereotypes while enhancing the positive, the power to combine that which exists with that which also exists to create that which, until now, did not.

For more information on understanding creativity, download this PDF of this excellent article by George Gow.

Understanding and Teaching Creativity – George Gow

The heroic Samsung charging station at Newark Int'l airport.

Have you ever been on the run or delayed at the airport and haven’t had a chance to charge your phone?

And of course, there’s a tour group Bogarting the outlets in the terminal before your flight when you need it the most. Someone at Samsung must have had this problem, because they took this headache and used it to become a hero. Not only is it heroic, it’s relevant. Bud Light couldn’t do the same thing to the same effect. Samsung provides the charge for no charge, and while you’re plugging in, they show you their new phone. Not a bad trade.

My old boss, Hal Riney, used to say, in a parity world, my best friend wins. Charging my cell phone for me earns some serious best friend points. It’s noticeable, likable, believable and memorable. Everything Samsung needs to remind me that they pay attention to me. Maybe, when it’s time for a phone, (or a TV, or anything else they make) we’ll pay attention to Samsung.

Looking for a charge or a phone, Samsung has your back. Check the perfect placement of the phone, right where you can see it, right when your phone battery is on the blink.

The Chicago School

I was working on my most recent homework for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, when I was asked a question. I had been writing about the corporate culture of most advertising agencies and the lack of professionalism in the industry. Not the kind of professionalism that requires a suit and tie, but the kind that requires that people have the expertise the role they fill requires. The question my professor asked went something like this, “It sounds like an awful culture! Why would anyone want to be in advertising?”

That question was difficult to answer, but after some thought I think I came up with one that, for now, I like.

In my private life, I don’t like to get too close to people. Maybe it’s a problem with trust, maybe I have intimacy issues, who knows. All I know is that when I meet a girl, settle down, let down my guard, I end up miserable and twenty pounds heavier. We’ll figure that out later. What it means in the context of the question is that I don’t get that connected feeling in my personal life. But when I write an ad that solves a problem for someone, when this widget takes care of this little annoyance for this person I’ve never met but somehow know, I feel a connection. And it feels warm and satisfying. That feeling of empathy, the ability to see things from someone else’s point of view, is the part of the business that excites me and keeps me coming back, round after round, to get shit on and lied to by the sharks and scumbags that populate most American ad agencies.

And when I meet those people who share in the feeling I described, I keep them close. I have a dream one day of opening an agency bereft of all the unnecessary politics and dishonesty that permeates what I’ve seen in these past few years. The upper management of so many agencies have chosen political cover over an honest day’s work evaluating their people and seeing who delivers and who does not and consequently, have, in a Value Jet sort of way, aimed the entire industry straight for the ground. But I hope, that despite the shit sandwiches and the layoffs, those likeminded creative folks out there find a place where you can make that connection and feel that warmth.

And if you are in management, do your best to respect that need in your staff. A creative director is above all things a coach. There to inspire even when the ref makes stupid calls and blows the game. Be bold and connect with your staff, your clients and most of all, your customers and, although you may still get fired by faceless holding companies, at least you’ll know what it’s like to feel connected… for a little while anyway.

If you’re out of work and looking to stay active, check out your local chapter of the Taproot Foundation. There is a great project out there for a worthy cause that needs your attention. As an added bonus, you can expand your skills or network with the best in the business. All while earning a ticket to heaven. Much more productive than watching Regis and not shaving for weeks on end. Check them out at http://www.taprootfoundation.org.

In Fleetwood Mac, no one was bigger than the song.

In Fleetwood Mac, everyone contributed. Is your group like that or is it about one personality?

I think that the perfect ad group is one that everyone feels like they can kick ass when they have an idea and hold down the beat during someone else’s solo.

But most of the time the culture of low expectations makes the work common. Clients with tiny balls and even smaller brains do their best to make their ad look like the category. “It doesn’t LOOK like a luxury car ad, how will they know what we’re selling?” The good ideas get pecked to death by the dumb clients. I find even more get shot dead before they get out of the front door. My mentor, Bob Taylor, used to say, “Some guys take great ads and make them good.” Sadly, that guy works at your agency.

There’s so much cult of personality in advertising and so little real talent. Knowing how to recognize talent is key to being a great creative director. Fleetwood Mac had talent. Check out Rumors and try to say that they don’t with a straight face. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

See, I told you. Everyone except the bass player in that band had a certified classic hit song on that album. And frankly, bass players should never sing, unless you’re a Canadian named Geddy. So how do you form your own supergroup?

It all starts with the org chart. Design your organization the way you design a logo for the fake ad you did for your local pub and you’ll have a hit machine on your hands. For example, instead of a creative department with one creative director with a guitar in his office, an untucked Tommy Bahama hanging over his size 42 waist with veto power over everyone, you COULD try a task force made up of creative rock stars. The secret to keeping them cranking out the hits is the sheet music. Spend your time on a tight, logical brief that the client signs off on and you’ll be whistling all the way to the bank. The brief is the secret sauce to any great ad agency. Spend half as much time on that as you do deciding where to eat when you’re in the edit suite and  see what happens.

Think of everyone in your group right now and see if you see a Christine McVie or a Lindsay Buckingham. That dude wails. Every guitar player worth their salt will tell you that Lindsay is sound. And Christine McVie, great singer and songwriter, but can be an ensemble player when she’s got to. Same with Stevie Nicks. The same with Mick Fleetwood. They’re dramatic, they are tight, but in the end Fleetwood Mac realized one thing about them all. That the music meant more than the band. And the band meant more than the bullshit.

Take that look at your group. As a creative director, you need to find ways to love and grow your group. You’re portfolio is your creative people. Don’t be so quick or so ambitious that you forget to fight for your friends.

If your buddy needs to know that his storyboards are holding his ideas back, you MUST find a way to tell him. Offer solutions and help them meet the challenges the agency business presents. Teach him how to draw. Everyone at the agency should be able to draw a little, the art directors BETTER be able to draw! If you can pull it from swipe, it’s probably not an original thought. If that’s in the way of one of your team, then it’s your job to remove that obstacle.

Be a slave to the work, to the creative. If you remember that it’s about the work, you will get your rewards. As Bob also said, “Some guys are in this business for good meetings, I’m in it for good work.”

The good news is, if you took the time to pre-sell your brief, the ‘what to say’ part of the advertising, you’re a lock in selling the ‘how to say it’ execution that is novel and breakthrough. Give it a shot. It can’t be any harder than kissing clients asses and apologizing for crappy work.

Mick Fleetwood rockin' the truck nuts. Check out those nuts by clicking here.

Make sure everyone in your group has what they need to bring a hit, a classic, to the group. Be their psychologist, their coach, their cohort, and their best friend. But above all, be their creative director and direct the creative. Give them what they need to sing. Be the Dr. Dre to their Marshall Mathers. Realize that the better their reputation, the better yours.

One last thought. Don’t hire your friends just because they’re your friends. Hire the best. If you know the best, get them. After all, who do you want singing in your band? A stranger who can sing or your buddy that cannot? When you make your living making music, get the best. And then pay them. Don’t screw them over a couple of thousand bucks.

The Grateful Dead allowed fans to tape their live shows. The conventional wisdom stated that the band was losing money by not charging and protecting the songs. But Jerry Garcia didn’t agree. He said that once they were done playing the notes, they had no use for them. They’d served their purpose and the fans could do with them as they wished. That’s how taping sections were born.

Taping sections were groups of people who would set up in a designated area at the live Dead shows to record the show. The tapers would then make copies of their recordings and trade them with other fans who would make copies and send them out into what grew into an enormous music genome project long before Pandora.

As long as people didn’t profit from the recordings, they were free to trade as they wished. And by allowing this, the band allowed it’s network of fans to grow and expand beyond the gates of each performance. They saw their fans become ambassadors and a show that was otherwise lost to time and memory was now a sales tool for brand evangelists singing the praises of the band’s live shows. By showing restraint and not trying to squeeze every last buck from the band’s music, they gave some of it away and facilitated the creation of a culture.

The Grateful Dead realized that the value of a fan or customer over time is far greater than the profit margin on a single ticket sale. For that, I would count the Dead and their fans, the Deadheads themselves, as brilliant pioneers in the world of viral marketing.

If you spot a virus, remember one or even think of one, share it here!

Check this out. It’s unreal. It’s not the shock that makes it so amazing. It’s more than that. There’s someone like this in every town, every village in every corner of the world. In my high school, my friend John could flip his eyelids inside out. I met a fireman from Ft. Lauderdale that could fart on command. The weird shit is among us and now it’s down to who’s willing to go find it.

Viral can be more than just creating. It can be discovering and uncovering.

The video grabs my attention with this guy’s surreal tongue, but the delight of the camera guy and the good natured way in which he takes it makes me like them all the more. He’s trying to drink his beer, this friends are piss drunk, he’s in the middle of taking a piss and they want to see his tongue. And he thinks it’s funny. He’s like everyone’s drunk uncle. ‘Cept even my drunk uncle washed his hands.

And, if you spot a virus, remember to forward it here.

WHO THE HELL IS SCOTT BROWN?
I’m kind of the unofficial guide to Bud.tv. I’m a comedian and comedy writer in Chicago with a few friends that put together Bud.tv. They were my ‘in.’

I’m also a critical bastard that wants the content to become much better, because, like many of you, about the only sunshine in my day is that 43 second funny video link that shows up in my e-mail. My mission is for Bud.tv to get to a place where it’s all funny. In the immortal words of Sum 41, ‘all killer, no filler.’

So help me shoot for the funny by sending in links, responding here when I’m full of crap, giving me an amen when I’m not and keeping your eyes peeled for the kind of stuff beer guys appreciate. With that, let the party begin.

For more on who the hell I am, check out my website.

WHAT IS RSS or JUST POINT ME TO THE NEW STUFF
The benefit of RSS: getting to the new stuff without going back through all the old stuff.

Isn’t it amazing how the tech geeks can make something simple seem so difficult by naming it something stupid? Take the RSS feed. From the name, I’m lost. So, after some digging on our behalf, allow me to demystify.

Picture Blockbuster minus the movies you don

Using RSS feeds is like walking into Blockbuster and getting your very own ‘new releases’ rack. It’s a program that gathers video, news and content from the internet and put it into a list. It updates as often as you want it to. Click what you dig, ditch what you don’t. That’s RSS.

iTunes Podcasts are RSS feeds. Easy enough, right?

With this in mind, Bud.tv offers several ways to get just the latest content without going through the stuff you’ve seen or don’t care to. Check out the del.icio.us, reddit.com and Digg this video links under the videos on Bud.tv. It takes a second and saves hours.

For more on this, check out howstuffworks.com/podcasting

WHAT’S BREWING: RECCO’S
Here’s a quick look at some of the Bud.tv shows that caught my eye.

WTF: Knob.
This series has the potential to be hilarious. Like when my girlfriend found my porn stash and pasted her face over faces of all the models in the magazines. She thought it was cute, I thought she ruined several thousand dollars worth of Swank. My reaction…WTF.
Recommended if: You like seeing people screwed with minus Ashton Kutcher.

Bad Dog: Brakes
Not sure about this one. The opening is funny, but not sure after that.
Recommended if: You like dogs and watching guys in cargo shorts drive off a cliff.

Slow Mo: Leaf Blower
Thought this was funny as hell. Woulda liked to have seen some of the lingerie girls get this one. And what the hell is flying out of Todd’s mouth? I pray to God it’s Cheetoes and not plaque.
Recommended if: You like ‘see-food’ or deformed people in shop goggles.

Notice the RSS links at the bottom.

The Surgery Show: Breast
Finally, someone makes fun of the phony bimbos and their metro-sexual Beverly Hills boob doctors. This clip is full of what the doctors on TLC or Discovery Health MUST be thinking. This one is hilarious and my favorite since Swear Jar. It’s about time someone put a laser pointer on that bullshit.
Recommended if: You like boobs, hate Beverly Hills or want to laugh your ass off.

Bud Select Lingerie Show goes to Las Vegas

It took me three years to learn how to type with two hands and about two seconds to learn how to type with one. DO NOT MISS. This stop, Las Vegas. If you’ve ever been there, you know it’s full of hot women. Even the litter has porn on it. My kinda town. Personally, I’m voting for Teresa. She’s got a great body, dyed hair and tattoos that scream “I hate my dad.” My kinda girl.
Recommended if: You dig looking at chicks that you will never, in a million years, get next to unless you win the lottery. LUCKY STRIKE EXTRA: Don’t turn off the sound! I you’re feeling bad about your IQ, just listen to some of these interview answers. If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be hot.

And remember, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…except herpes.

ONWARD
Write me with your suggestions. Call me with your ideas. Leave me a funny voice-mail and we may put it on Bud.tv.

Here’s a list of things I’m looking for from you:

Angry voice mail messages you’ve received.
Video of your friends dancing badly.
Reviews of where to go for a perfect pour of Bud in your town.

Later dudes.