Recently, I was reminiscing about the many bad clients I’ve had over the past 20 years in advertising, recounting some of the stories of the great ads that could have been. To my surprise, my writer friend Tom blurts out, “Yeah, but there are no bad clients. Only bad agencies.” 

“Huh? Ridiculous,” I said. “I’ve got loads of examples of bad clients.” 

Like the time I was working on a luxury car brand and the writer and I were presenting print ad headlines for a new, high performance, beast-of-a-car with a 5.0 liter, 390-hp engine, targeting a strictly male audience. Our recommended headline was, “A wolf in wolf’s clothing.” We thought it was a pretty clever line and embodied the spirit of the car perfectly. The client said, “Nah, we don’t want to be associated with a wolf. They’re dangerous and it seems negative. We want something positive. And something that conveys sophisticated luxury.” We were stunned by his response. 

“But...” we said, “this car is practically made from testosterone. And what guy wouldn’t want to be associated with a wolf? We’re confident that car enthusiasts will find it amusing and memorable.” We debated back and forth but he didn’t budge. We were unable to convince him to reconsider.

I’d had many experiences like this and was thoroughly convinced that there were definitely “bad clients” in the world—who just didn’t get it. I even added that most clients were bad clients. 

But my friend Tom had a different point of view and it really made me stop and reconsider why I blamed failed attempts at great advertising on bad clients.  

His reasoning was this: All clients are difficult. Nothing great comes easy. The notion of an easy client who just approves everything is an illusion.

He had worked at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland and discovered that the clients there were just as difficult as any other place he had worked. The key difference was, Wieden had a culture of pushing for great work. Creative was king. If a client refused to approve something great, the creatives would re-concept and bring back something different but equally great. They never brought a “safe” option. 

So his experience had taught him that it’s not the client’s fault. It’s the agency’s fault every time. 

Then he asked, “Why did you sell safe work to your ‘bad’ clients?” My answer revealed the real truth. “Well...” I said, “whenever I refused to give a client the safe work they wanted, I was considered ‘difficult’ and failing to ‘service’ my client, which would prompt a complaint to my superiors.” 

“Then what would happen?” he asked. “I’d be pressured, or directly ordered, to comply with the client’s demands,” I said.

“There you have it,” he concluded. “A bad agency! They didn’t support you in your effort to sell great work. At Wieden, it doesn’t work like that. As a creative, you’ll never be reprimanded for refusing to present safe work. Even if the client threatens to fire the agency, they will back you up 100%.”

“Okay, bad work is the fault of bad agencies,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t mean the clients are not bad. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say, there are no easy clients.” 

In the end, I was forced to acknowledge that we cannot blame clients for producing bad work. And Tom’s assertion that, “There are no bad clients”—as outrageous as it sounds—points us to the real problem: fearful ad agency executives who are more concerned about making money than building a reputation, and therefore don’t support creatives in pushing for great work. 

Very simply, when our work isn’t great, we can only blame ourselves.

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Clients

9:06 AM

Increasingly, big companies are bringing their marketing efforts in-house. It usually starts with a small, internal design group or a new Chief Creative Officer, which evolves into a whole department full of talented creatives. Inevitably, they ask themselves, “Why do we need an ad agency?” 

I’ll tell you why.

First, let me disclose that I’ve worked in advertising agencies for most of my 20 year career. But, lest you think I’m biased, you should know that I’ve also worked as a freelancer for a number of years, often directly for in-house marketing departments. So I’ve experienced both worlds. 

For years I dealt with this question, mostly in response to clients who wanted to dictate creative ideas. Or change the ones we developed for them. It was frustrating because we were the ones with the expertise. But more importantly, we had something they couldn’t acquire: objectivity.

Expertise is one important reason why a company should have an ad agency on retainer. But since agencies can’t corner the market on talent, I’ll focus on the importance of objectivity. This is a critical attribute that is totally unobtainable by in-house marketing teams.

Every company is like a new mother who thinks their baby is the most beautiful child in the world. Even though everyone else can see it is not. If you work in-house, no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to distance yourself from your brand in order to really see things objectively. 

Why am I so sure? Because, ultimately, your allegiance is to your paycheck. Which means it’s virtually impossible to take risks that will enable your brand to be surprising and innovative.

Pretty much all company men (and women) are bobbleheads. Even when they think they’re independent, analytical, contrarian thinkers, who aren’t afraid to disagree with their bosses, they eventually conform to senior management. Especially when their job is on the line.  

I know because it takes a former bobblehead to know a bobblehead. I’m a creative person by trade and we creatives are anti-conformists by nature. However, when you come home at night and look into your toddler’s eyes or kick back on your designer sofa with a fifty dollar bottle of wine, you get an eye-full of what you’re risking if you push senior management beyond their comfort zone. And so you ease up. I don’t like to admit it, but it’s true. It’s human nature.  

There are only a handful of people on the planet that are seemingly immune to the fear of getting fired or making a mistake. These people are rarely ever employed as company men. They work for themselves as entrepreneurs. Everything they do is risky. It’s a way of life. 

You might ask, since an ad agency is essentially employed by a company as well, aren’t they just as much afraid of getting fired and therefore less apt to push their clients into an uncomfortable place? Well, yes, the bad advertising agencies do whatever their clients want.

However, the good ones don’t. For this reason: their reputation is more important than the monthly retainer. In the long run, clients will come and go. But an agency’s reputation is their livelihood. That’s why the best ad agencies say the tough things. They argue with clients. They push them. They even resign accounts. All because they have integrity. 

You’re welcome to disagree with me, but you’d be wrong. Ask yourself, do you respect a “yes man”? If you can honestly answer yes, I don’t believe you.  

Nobody respects a yes man. We all value the truth, even when it hurts our ego. Because after the sting wears off we appreciate the critical comments and can make strides to improve ourselves and correct our course. That’s the power of objectivity.

When you’re an in-house company man, you’re staunchly loyal to your company. Er, um, your paycheck. So the only way to benefit from true objectivity is to retain an ad agency. If they’re good, they’ll tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. And that is worth much more than what you pay them.

Long live great ad agencies that have the courage to stand for something. And long live great clients that are brave and trusting. Together they can move mountains.

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Clients

6:55 PM

It happens all the time. A person or company invents something that changes the world. They enjoy great success and perhaps even follow it up with another big thing. But a few years pass and their ability to innovate dwindles. How does this happen? What transforms a visionary into a has-been?

Innovation is essentially problem solving. We see something broken and we are compelled to try and fix it. It could be a sluggish system, an obsolete product, a void in the marketplace, you name it.

Many people believe innovation is for the young. This may be true for many internet start-ups but generally age has nothing to do with it. Henry Ford was in his 40’s when his company launched the Model T. Martha Stewart was 41 when she published her first book and 49 when she launched her magazine. Frank Lloyd Wright was 70 years old when he experienced his surge of success.

In fact, innovators are increasingly getting older. A study of Nobel prize winners over the last 100 years shows average ages on the rise.* 

So what are the factors that diminish our ability to innovate? Is it because we run out of ideas? Not likely. Ideas are infinite. I believe it’s primarily three things: loyalty, fear and focus. 

1) Loyalty

When you introduce something innovative into the world and achieve great success, you become immovably loyal to your formula. You might even repeat it a few times to greater success. 

The problem is, the world will copy you. Soon your cherished formula is commonplace and no longer innovative. However, this doesn’t stop you from using it over and over because you are hopelessly loyal. You tell yourself, “It worked before and it will work again!”

Some people and corporations are so loyal to their proven formulas, they are like captains who go down with a sinking ship, stubbornly refusing to believe what’s happening. 

Why is it so difficult to abandon formulas and reinvent? Why are brands so loyal to their established image, even when it becomes stale? Why does every great musician seem to become boring and irrelevant over time?

Very few innovators and artists seem to successfully reinvent themselves after a period of ten or twenty years. They are simply too loyal to the past. But there are additional factors.

2) Fear

When you are young and scrappy and broke, you take bigger risks because you don’t have far to fall. With success comes financial security. But also altitude. The ground looks very far away and you begin to worry about making a misstep. So you fearfully play it safe and stick to your proven formula. Which almost always fails.

Avoiding these two pitfalls is easier said than done. The obvious answer is to stay reckless and abandon stale formulas. And realize that everyone experiences fear—that it’s only threatening if you let it paralyze you.

3) Focus

Following your initial success you try to grow your audience. That means shifting away from your early-adopting, passionate, core audience in order to appeal to the masses. Which usually requires dumbing down your product. Which grows your base but alienates your core. 

This shift in audience focus can bring financial success but can result in eventual disaster. The masses are fickle. They’re not loyal. They are easily drawn away by a lower cost product. So you react by making it cheaper to keep them buying. And so begins a downward spiral. 

That might be an oversimplification, but it’s essentially what happens. Companies get big, then get bad, then fall apart.

These are three powerful forces which cause us to fail. So how do we avoid becoming victims of our own success?

There is one approach which I believe can cure all three ills. There are other names for it, but I call it, The Discomfort Factor. 

The more innovative and unfamiliar something is, the more difficult it is to predict how well it will be received. It could be a huge success or a giant flop. But since there’s no precedent, your uncertainty creates an incredibly uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach. This is The Discomfort Factor. (Or, as someone else put it, “Dance with the fear.”**)

Discomfort might just be the key to continued success. If you learn to thrive on it, you are more likely to continually innovate. And if you stick to your passionate, core audience and grow slowly instead of chasing after the fickle masses, you will help ensure longevity.

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*Age and Great Invention by Benjamin F. Jones

http://www.nber.org/papers/w11359

**Quote by Seth Godin

http://bit.ly/1jWvVuJ

Clients

1:37 PM

Ahh, the allure of a client with deep pockets. Winning their business would give you an incredible rush, fuel your agency growth, triple your staff and hold the promise of a fat, year-end bonus. But beware. They might just trap you in a cycle of addiction and abuse.

There are so many different analogies to draw upon, such as “the golden shackles,” the “poisoned apple,” or “selling your soul to the devil.” But I think the best analogy is simply, prostitution. 

Anyone who has worked in advertising long enough and in some of the larger agencies knows what I mean. The top agency execs talk about pushing for “great work” and the “big opportunity” at hand, but they roll over at the first sign of client resistance. They promise clients quick turnarounds, annoying brand mnemonics and horrible ads overloaded with features. Just whatever keeps the waters calm and the sailing smooth.

However, before we underlings go around pointing fingers and spitting venom, consider this: the C-level execs are not the only ones guilty of compromising their integrity for a few bucks. We workers are just as guilty. We moan and complain about life in the trenches but we keep on slogging through, collecting our paychecks and fearful of getting fired for rocking the boat. It’s all about fear and greed, no matter what your place in the pecking order. 

Fear and greed are the two greatest forces at work in advertising today. Perhaps 95% of ad agencies fall prey to them. The other 5%—the Wieden’s, the BBH’s and the Droga’s of the world—don’t. And they deserve much respect.

For years I came to accept the fact that, in the business world, mediocrity is simply more profitable. Most agencies took the path of least resistance by building their businesses through “client service,” not creative leadership. They gave clients what they wanted—not what they needed—in exchange for a chunky retainer fee. 

But Apple changed my opinion about mediocrity being more profitable. 

Steve Jobs reviled mediocrity and wouldn’t settle for less than perfect art. Sure, he produced a few stinkers (like the Apple III and the Newton) but his heart was in the right place. He never compromised his integrity. Eventually, Apple grew to have the largest market capitalization on the planet, proving to me that mediocrity is not always more profitable. 

In this, I’ve discovered one fundamental truth of building an advertising agency with real integrity: you must accept slower growth.

Apple did not grow big and strong overnight. It took many years. Likewise, agencies who want to be the very best in everything they do, must turn down RFP’s, must swiftly fire bad clients, must not take “no” for an answer and must empower everyone in their companies to exercise backbone. This almost certainly means they will grow slowly. 

The more discerning and picky you are, the longer it takes. Whether you’re trying to select the perfect avocado at the supermarket or building the perfect racing yacht, you can’t rush it. You have to seek out the great clients. The ones who trust your leadership, who buy remarkable work and have the courage to navigate uncharted waters.

Top agency execs often defend their decision to take on high-paying bad clients, claiming to use the income to fund smaller, more creative ventures. And that sounds good. The problem is, it rarely happens. That’s because, when you create a culture “yes” and an army of “yes men” it’s difficult to suddenly get tough. The tough guys you might have had didn’t stick around. It has to be all or nothing, right from the start. You’re either a pirate or a pushover. You can’t be both.

Bad clients demoralize. They oppress. They demand last minute, quick turnaround work. They lack respect and appreciation. They re-write scripts. They carry tweezers and get into the minutiae. They just don’t get it. Why hire an expert and then dictate everything to them? Would you hire a top-notch tax accountant and then proceed to tell him how to do his job? How about a surgeon? Of course not. But clients do it to agencies every day and the agencies bend over backward to please. (Or forward, to be more accurate.)

The worst part is, the business world suffers. It suffers from unrealized potential. Billions of ad dollars go up in smoke because clueless, distrusting marketing clients are demanding their way—which is almost always wrong and totally ineffective. Sadly, agencies can’t say no. The money is too good.

I distinctly remember three separate occasions in my career when rumors started flying around that a high-paying client was unhappy with our agency’s work. The client had grown increasingly demanding and prescriptive while the agency grew increasingly soft. Each time the client got their way, the work suffered. And the agency always got the blame. It just snowballed and eventually rumors of an imminent pitch review began spreading. To avert a potential account loss, the agency got desperate and gave the client absolutely everything they wanted. No resistance, no leadership, just yes, yes and more yes. In all three cases the account went into review and we lost it. Three self-fulfilling prophecies. Naturally, nobody respects a “yes man.”

It’s a little bit like being in a relationship when a woman is losing interest and the man tries everything in desperation to keep her, literally throwing himself at her feet, clutching her ankles, making big promises. Which makes him look like a pathetic loser with no shame. If she was the least bit hesitant to break up with him, now she’s sure of it. He helped her make the decision. 

So what’s the solution to handling your abusive, high-paying clients? 

Fire them. You didn’t get into this business to compromise your integrity and prostitute yourself. You got into this business to change the world and make art. And you will never do it with a bad client. So fire them. You shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.

However, prepare yourself for something unexpected. It’s quite possible that when you approach your client and tell them the relationship is unhealthy and you don’t believe they’re a good fit because they don’t listen to your expert advice. . . they’ll chase after you. 

It’s simple psychology. Like being in that shaky relationship, you’re considering breaking up when your boyfriend beats you to it and breaks up with you first. It’s like a knife in the heart. “Wait, you don’t need me? Let’s talk about this.”

And if they don’t chase after you? Good riddance. Go find another client that will appreciate your best work. If you take this approach, eventually only good clients will come knocking, wanting you for you. After all, your reputation is your absolute best new business tool. The better your reputation, the more clients want you. So fire the bad clients and attract some good ones. 

It might hurt a little but think of it like removing cancer. The surgery will be painful and set you back for a while. But when you heal, you’ll be better off. Much better off. And the employees you’ll have to lay off? What will they think? They won’t like it, but they’ll respect it. Just be honest with them.

I leave you with a great story to prove this approach works. It’s taken from The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. (Perhaps in the future I’ll compile some more true stories of agencies firing bad clients and post them here, just for inspiration.) 

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt from Seth’s book: 

“At the dawn of the internet age, I took what felt like a huge risk: I bootstrapped an online marketing company (we invented ethical online direct mail) and grew it—thanks to some outside funding—to about 70 employees. We were big. We were doing significant projects with good clients. And we were barely breaking even, in a good month. Our investment money was running out and if we didn’t make some sales soon, we were going to have to either go beg for more money or fold. And a lot of good people would lose their jobs. This was our moment of maximum risk. 

“As founder, inventor and rainmaker, I felt a huge burden. I needed to make sales. And now. At a sales call in New York, with a famous brand, the usual was happening. The account execs and marketing guys, having nothing better to do, were beating my colleague and me up. They were criticizing our work, talking about how expensive we were, and riffing about how smart the competition appeared to be. 

“In that moment, the reality of the infinite game came to me. If saving this company meant doing this every single day, I didn’t want to do it. If I was so desperate to make each and every sale, then those sales would not reflect what we were able to do. They would merely be what the client was willing to buy that day. This wasn’t art. It was a perversion of it. While it would have been tragic and painful to have this business fail, I decided in that moment that it was better to fail than it was to lead my team down a path of mediocrity and abuse. Ten minutes into the hour-long meeting, I turned to the people we were pitching, closed my laptop and said, ‘You know, it seems as though we’re not the right company for you. We do what we do and we’re proud of how we do it. If this isn’t for you, I’m sorry to have wasted your time.’ And then I got up to leave. My stunned colleague stood up and started to follow.  

“You can probably guess what happened. The minute it was clear that we weren’t desperate—the moment we started to lead instead of beg—the sale was made. We made more sales in the eight weeks that followed than we did in the two years before. The game is infinite if you play it that way. You get to keep making your art as long as you are willing to make the choices that let you make your art.”

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(Amended 21 Jan 2014)

Career Clients

10:43 AM

The overwhelming consensus among my many advertising friends and associates is that clients located in middle America are the least savvy when it comes to marketing and advertising. If you’re in advertising, particularly agency-side, you’re likely nodding your head right now.

No doubt this subject could stir a passionate debate, maybe even offend some people. But it’s something that is rarely (if ever) discussed and it needs to be.

Over the years we’ve seen many companies relocate their operations—including their marketing departments—away from the coasts and into middle America in an effort to save money. Tax incentives and the promise of a better quality of life offered by some states has succeeded in attracting the attention of CEO’s who are always looking for ways to reduce costs.

But if I could speak directly to all the CEO’s in America, I would tell them, “Whatever you do, do not move your marketing department to middle America. If you do, your brand will suffer.”

Most CEO’s would scoff at this notion simply because it makes more sense to have all your employees located in one place, rather than sprinkled here and there. The problem is, they aren’t considering the downside, which could end up costing them more money in the long run.

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT MIDDLE AMERICA?

Overall there is nothing wrong with middle America. Whether it’s Kansas City or Nashville, Cincinnati or Boise, these places are less congested, less polluted, more peaceful and more quiet. Great places to raise a family. People who live in middle America are by and large more genuine and family-oriented. They seem to have a better work-life balance, which makes for happier families. The quality of character of people in middle America is outstanding. Chances are you have even relatives who live there and you know they’d give the shirt off their back to help someone.

But what makes for a friendly, balanced society does not make for a savvy marketing department.

THE REALITY TODAY

Business today is fiercely competitive. Consumers are more fickle than ever. Trends in the marketplace come and go overnight. Fortunes are made and lost daily. What’s hot one day is cold the next. Everything is moving at the speed of light and accelerating by the minute. Small, local brands are going national, then global, then getting bought up by larger brands. Consumers are being bombarded with more and more advertising, which creates more noise. This in turn evokes a consumer’s overload defense mechanism—which is to block it all out.

This is the reality.

To stay competitive in business, brands have to stand out. They can’t afford to be blocked out by consumers. They must break through the clutter, break down defensive barriers and reach their audience. If they fail, they’ll simply be ignored and fade away.

THE CULTURE OF NOW

When it comes to marketing and advertising—let’s just call it branding—culture is extremely important. What I mean by culture is that giant, ever-evolving, multifaceted, multicolored spectrum of human creativity and lifestyle. From which new and exciting innovations emerge. Things that have their own gravity. Things that fuel conversation and become viral. Things that make millionaires and celebrities overnight. Culture is a living, breathing thing. And in order to truly capitalize on it, you have to be swimming in it. Preferably in the deep end.

It just so happens that cultural epicenters are located in large, diverse, coastal cities and not in rural towns and middle American cities. Often, what’s hot right now in New York doesn’t even reach middle America for weeks, months or years—despite our digital age populated by tweets and posts.

A TALE OF ONE CITY

What people in middle America—and therefore marketing clients—lack most is an adventurous spirit. They generally don’t stray far from familiar surroundings. They prefer suburban neighborhoods and drive-throughs, cineplexes and department stores, large SUV’s and Costco. Their communities are mostly devoid of museums, wine bars, ethnic foods, artist communities, music venues, gourmet restaurants and symphony halls. They have little or no ‘cafe culture,’ where passionate people meet after hours to exchange ideas and inspire each other—where they can branch out into the unknown and unfamiliar. Their world is essentially homogeneous.

They also tend to be more risk averse. They have a greater fear of making a mistake which could threaten their job. After all, they’re likely to remain in their community for a lifetime and have no interest in shaking things up. This compels them to play it safe most of the time.

Living in middle America also tends to warp a marketing executive’s view of his or her brand’s audience. They’re more inclined to think that middle America is where to focus their messaging. In other words, people that look, talk, dress and act just like them. The mistake here is that innovations and trends work from the coasts inward, so it’s better to be unexpected and provocative, appealing to those on the coasts first, then let it permeate inward toward middle America. Coverage will be stronger and adoption will be longer lasting if it starts this way.

A TALE OF ANOTHER CITY

Conversely, a modern, coastal city is a rich spawning ground for new and exciting cultural shifts. It’s where passionate people flock. Places like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and others (and perhaps Chicago). Only cities like these can feed cravings for technology, innovation, art, fashion, architecture, music, ethnic foods and diversity. People here crave new experiences, new insights and new adventures. They seek out the latest fads and trends. They are more ambitious. They are more vocal. They socialize more and have larger social networks. They act on spontaneity and pride themselves on having an open mind. They eat healthier and are more active. They pursue individuality and self-expression rather than conformity. In short, they are more passionate in their pursuit of a textured, dynamic life.

These epicenters are where influences from Europe, Asia and South America permeate society. Where a strong cafe culture thrives. Where entrepreneurialism thrives. Where knowledge increases through the exchange of ideas. Where it’s common to become engrossed in a two-hour conversation about camera lenses, mobile apps or music, after midnight on a Tuesday, and come away totally invigorated.

On the coasts anything seems possible.

CULTURAL CRASH AND BURN

In the past decade, numerous companies have moved their marketing departments from the coasts to middle America. In each instance, the company culture changed significantly. The vast majority of people in those marketing departments refused to move out of state and resigned. Those positions were then filled by locals from the community to which the company moved, with disastrous results. That’s because the marketing department mindset became safe, bland and corporate. The bold, savvy risk-takers were gone.

To illustrate this, I’ll share a couple of real world examples.

Example 1: A few years back, some marketing executives at a large automaker (who had previously moved their marketing department from California to Nashville) needed to take a last-minute international trip to an automotive event to gain insight into the category. It was deemed vital that all the marketing people attend. The advertising agency folks (from LA) were quickly making arrangements when it was suddenly revealed that the majority of the clients that were expected to make the trip from Nashville did not even have passports. So they were unable to attend the event.

Now stop and think about this for a moment.

It is absolutely imperative that marketing executives—whether agency side or client side—are cultured. They must have their finger on the pulse of society, especially if they manage international brands. This means marketing executives must have a comprehensive world view. No true marketing executive can be savvy and well-rounded if he or she has never even ventured beyond the borders of their own country.

This incident spoke volumes about these automaker marketing clients. They should not have been in marketing. Perhaps accounting, manufacturing or operations would have been a better place for them.

Example 2: A dog food manufacturer located in Nashville was approached by a very popular rock band known for interestingly choreographed YouTube music videos that commonly went viral and received tens of millions of hits. This rock band was preparing to make another video, but this time with dogs. They approached the dog food manufacturer to be the sole sponsor of their new music video. The advertising agency of record was absolutely ecstatic that this rock band had approached them and very strongly advised the client to take the offer. Especially considering the price was a fraction of what a TV spot would cost. But the client lacked interest. First, they weren’t exactly sure who this rock band was. Second, they weren’t convinced that their core audience knew who this rock band was. Third, they weren’t convinced that their brand could benefit from merely sponsoring a YouTube video. After weeks of pleading by the advertising agency—and even with proposals by the rock band to dress the music video backdrop in the dog food brand’s signature brand color—the client still declined. So the deal never happened. Naturally, the rock band went on to produce the video without them. To date, the video has received over 13 million views on YouTube. Something the dog food brand could never hope to achieve on its own.

It’s pretty obvious that any savvy marketer would have leaped at the chance to partner with a well-known rock band for a few measly dollars. Sadly, this dog food brand in Nashville did not have a savvy marketing department, so they lost out on huge branding potential. Especially considering that these YouTube videos live on forever and continue to get more hits over time, like a gift that keeps on giving. They should have trusted their advertising agency and followed their recommendation, but they trusted their own gut instinct instead—which was dead wrong. They were simply out of touch.

These are just two examples but these types of things happen every day, keeping brands bland and invisible.

PLEASE

Moving your corporate marketing department from the coast to middle America is like trying to transplant a tree from sunny California to the arctic circle. Even if it does survive, it’s not going to flower.

If any CEO’s happen to be reading this, I implore you to please keep your marketing department in a major city on the coast. You can still have the rest your operations in middle America but you should keep your marketing department in a vibrant, innovative coastal community. Otherwise you’re doing a huge disservice to your brand image (and ultimately your shareholder value).

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Clients

8:22 PM