10 Tips for Starting Out In the Advertising Industry

10 THINGS TO KNOW WHEN STARTING OUT IN

THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill March 5, 2014

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: STUFF I LEARNED ALONG

THE WAY THAT MAY OR MAY NOT MAKE THE NEXT FEW MONTHS

OF YOUR LIFE SLIGHTLY LESS BEWILDERING

doug kleemanR E C O N O P

[email protected]

804.912.6128

135 North Harr ington Street

Raleigh, North Carol ina 27603

9196800900

* by the way, this is no longer my phone number. email, yes.

Hi.

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which way do I take,” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

YOU’LL ALWAYS BE A STUDENT.1

THE ANTI-WIND TUNNEL MARKETING MOVEMENT. BRAND DARWINISM. METCALFE’S LAW.PRINCIPLE OF ALACRITY. DIVERGENT VS CONVERGENT THINKING. YELPIFICATION. DATA

AMARA’S LAW. ANDREW EHRENBERG. THE BRAND MOTIVATION MANIFESTO. PARTICIPATION.

THE FLYNN EFFECT. HOMOPHILY. DON PEPPER’S ONE TO ONE MARKETING. LEE CLOW’S BEARD.

PETE BLABER THREE MIND PHASES. VIPASSANA. EXAMPLES OF CULTURAL TENSION. DIXONS

BILL BUXTON’S LONG NOSE THEORY. THE BOOK OF GOSSAGE. TEMPORAL PLASTICITY.

LONG NOSE THEORY. HERE COMES EVERYBODY. ACHIEVING CULTURAL STASIS. MEMEOLOGY.

JOHN BARTLE & POSITIVE PLANNING. AARON KOBLIN’S FLIGHT PATTERNS. KEEP WALKING.COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BY MICHAEL PORTER. LATENT VALUES. WORDS TO STRATEGIZE BY.

VIRAL SPREAD & ABSORPTION RATE. THE RATIONALITY PARADOX. 2010 ONE SHOW QUOTES.MARKETING IN THE ERA OF ACCOUNTABILITY. SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION. PAUL ADAMS.

5 PERCENT CREATIVITY CHALLENGE. SYMBOLIC SELF COMPLETION. RICHARD SEYMOUR.

POSITIVE EXTERNALITIES. GILMORE & PINE. MAO ZEDONG’S PEST CAMPAIGN. CHANGING YOUR LENS.STEFAN SAGMEISTER’S HAPPINESS PROJECT. DAN WIEDEN’S GENERATION OF NEW CONSUMERS.HOW TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE. MARSHALL MCLUHAN. ANCIENT CHINESE.CRITICAL MASS CROSSOVER. DISNEY VS PIXAR STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES. HAWTHORNE EFFECT.STEPHEN KING ON WRITING. EMOTIONAL CONTAGION. ZUCKERBERG’S LAW. PATAGONIA.ST ELMO LEWIS. MYTHS ABOUT WHAT CONSUMERS WANT. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY.UX HIERARCHY OF NEEDS. THE NEGATIVE PATH TO HAPPINESS. BANKSY’S BRANDALISM.ALVIN TOFFLER & PROSUMERS. MIRABILE DICTU. BRIEFING FOR PARTICIPATION. PHASEOLOGY.

THE SEVEN ASSUMPTIONS OF TWITTER. THE SOCRATIC METHOD. PRODUCTION AS STRATEGY.HEART BY GOOGLE. DAN ARIELY’S ECONOMIST SUBSCRIPTIONS. THE SHIRKY PRINCIPLE.THE PARADOX OF CHOICE. JOHN CAGE 4:33. AVIS. GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS INDEX.

WRITE YOUR OWN TEXTBOOK.

Junior Strategy

CONNECT WITH THE COMMUNITY

THE PLANNERSPHERE

JUNIOR STRATEGY

PLANNING TOOLS & HACKS

THE PLANNING SALON

Account Planning School of the Web >

Skillshare, Cousera, other online MOOCs

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LEARN FROM LEADERS

41:10

We discovered methane on Mars. Methane is the byproduct… it’s part of the

gaseous effluences of anaerobic bacteria which on earth operates deep in the

intestinal tracks of farm animals.

That’s a really scientific way of saying, “there are Mars farts.”

2 WATCH. THE. WORK.

THE BEST WAY TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC IS TO LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC.

"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.”

John of Salisbury, 1159

A GOOD PLACE TO START:

CREATIVITY-ONLINE

COMMUNICATION ARTS

THE ONE SHOW

ADFREAK

ADAGE

PSFK

CONTAGIOUS

TRENDWATCHINGADS OF THE WORLD

LÜRZER’S ARCHIVE

COLORIBUS

AWARD ANNUALS

etc……

GO A STEP FURTHER. TRY TO DISSECT IDEAS.

WHAT CHALLENGE DID THIS PIECE OF COMMUNICATIONS SOLVE? !

WHY DID THIS PARTICULAR MEDIA CHANNEL MAKE SENSE? !

HOW DOES THIS IDEA DIFFER FROM CATEGORY CONVENTIONS? !

WHAT MAKES THIS WORK PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE? !

WHAT IS THE KEY INSIGHT? !

HOW IS THIS RELEVANT TO CULTURE? IS IT? !

WHAT DOES THIS WORK SAY ABOUT THE BRAND’S AUDIENCE? !

HOW COULD THIS IDEA EXTEND ACROSS DIFFERENT CHANNELS? !

HOW WOULD YOU ARTICULATE THIS IDEA IN ONE SENTENCE? !

[ for example ]

ALIEN = “Jaws In Space”

3 BECOME A “WONDER JUNKIE.”

* Carl Sagan’s “Contact” (1985)

THE PICASSO PRINCIPLE

“You are a mashup of everything you let into your life.” - Paula Scher

“Planners have no responsibilities. Not really. Which means you’ll never be that important. But it makes you free to think about the right stuff, and gives you the time to consider stuff. Everyone else in the agency actually has to get stuff done and often don’t have the time to think. You do. So you should. !

- Russell Davies

4 QUESTION EVERYTHING.

Your value to an agency or to a client or to this industry lies in your ability to poke holes in the world around you, to question things that nobody else ever thought to question and to devote yourself to making sense of stuff that others simply aren’t willing to.

CHALLENGE CONVENTIONAL THOUGHT WHENEVER CONVENTIONAL THOUGHT IS NOT BEING CHALLENGED

The interview: You need to test an agency to see if it’s the right fit

just as much as the agency is testing you for the right fit. !

(don’t let this be your job interview)

5 PICK A BOSS, NOT AN AGENCY.*

* 88% sure this is not mine but I have no idea where it came from

1. Those who want to go work for a company to make it successful 2. Those who want to go work for a successful company

TWO TYPES OF MINDSETS*:

*Jamie Zawinski

6 IDEAS, NOT ADS.

SHOW IDEAS, NOT ADS

Okay, maybe some ads, too

“Portfo l ios now conta in app ideas , experiential stunts, short-film scripts and real-time marketing ideas. It’s great, but it makes it hard to judge whether a student can come up with long-lasting brand ideas, or just random one-offs.”

- Lars Bastholm, Rosetta

“We want students to go beyond… integration and ask, ‘What purpose does this provide the user and what can I do to make the user’s life better?’ ’What is [the behavior] that can help us come up with the creative so that it’s a sound creative strategy?’

-John Militello, Google

A PORTFOLIO IS NOT JUST A SHOWCASE OF YOUR WORK, IT’S A REFLECTION OF HOW YOU WORK.

Stop making things. This world doesn’t need any more stuff. It needs smarter systems. It needs better ways to connect things that already exist. Become obsessed with connections, all sorts of connections — useful, fun, unexpected, helpful, informative. Then think how to insert things into them so that you create something new.”

- Ana Andjelic

7 ABANDON PERFECTION.

“THE SHOW DOESN’T GO ON BECAUSE IT’S READY. IT GOES ON BECAUSE IT’S 11:30.” - Lorne Michaels.

It took me much too long to realize:

DON’T FOCUS ON BEING SMART. FOCUS ON BEING USEFUL.

“To feel absolutely right is the beginning of the end.”

Albert Camus

8 DON’T BE A DICK.

“The size of the human brain has tripled in the past three million years; much of this growth is devoted to interpersonal capabilities such as empathy and cooperative planning. !In the harsh conditions faced by our ancestors, cooperation aided survival; thus, factors that promote cooperation have been woven into your brain. These include altruism, generosity, concern about reputation, fairness, language, forgiveness and morality and religion.”

Cognitive biology proves that assholes are just underdeveloped human beings

USE EMPATHY TO YOUR OWN ADVANTAGE

* MIT’s Agnes technology

9 SPEND MORE TIME WITH PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF THE AD INDUSTRY.

IT’S EASY TO FORGET THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT YOUR AUDIENCE.

THESE PEOPLE ARE.

ADVERTISEMENTS ARE LIKE THE SPECIAL EFFECTS IN MOVIES. YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW MUCH ABOUT HOW THEY ARE MADE TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT THEY SUCK.

10 DON’T BELIEVE PEOPLE WHO TELL YOU THAT THERE IS A 10-STEP LIST TO BECOMING SUCCESSFUL IN ADVERTISING.

Not even me.

TEN THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: 1. You’ll always be a student 2. Watch the work. 3. Become a wonder junkie. 4. Question everything. 5. Pick a boss, not an agency. 6. Ideas, not ads. 7. Abandon perfection. 8. Don’t be a dick. 9. Spend more time with people outside of the ad industry 10. Don’t believe anyone who tells you there is a simple 10-point list

YOU ARE THE FUTURE.

ME

THANKS!