Creative inspiration for the modern marketer from the past six months — Each Friday, Agency SOS puts out a short email newsletter with three things that caught our eye that week — campaigns, PR stunts, art installations, branded entertainment, and other inspiring bits. Most marketers are so mired in the day-to-day on their own brands, they often miss interesting ideas from other…

Whether your love or hate ad awards, these case studies are a masterclass in business storytelling — Let’s get this out of the way: I think advertising awards shows are a huge waste of time and resources. And Cannes Lions is the most bloated, crassest money-grab of them all. This year, they received 26,992 entries. My back-of-the-envelope math suggests that’s north of $40M on entry fees, alone…

Thinking about opening your own shop? Here’s some food for thought. — Two years ago, in the midst of the pandemic, I quit my job and opened my own small ad agency. It’s been quite a ride (see the video update below) and I’m proud of our success. But success is boring! 😀 I’m more interested in what can be learned from…

9 pull-no-punches tips for securing your first gig in ad land — “Do you want the feel-good version…or the tough love truth?”’ I had an informational interview with a college student this week and that’s how I opened the conversation. To his credit, he said, “Give me the truth.” …

The game was great, but great ads were harder to find this year — The Super Bowl is a big frickin’ deal for the advertising world. It’s a high-visibility stage, it requires a massive investment to play ball, and the stakes are huge. It’s also spawned an entire industry of critics — anybody who’s ever spent 5 minutes inside of an ad agency…

13 years ago I pitched an idea for a “Big Game” ad that still haunts me. This is that spot. — If you work as an advertising copywriter or art director, 99.9% of your ideas never see the light of day. It’s the nature of the gig. You come up with a million ideas, you share the best with your creative director, and they kill many of them. Others get whittled…

Put yourself at the center of your career. Put your prospective employer at the center of your job search. — The recent spate of layoffs has been brutal and doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon, especially if you’re in tech, advertising, media, or adjacent fields. It’s been heartbreaking to read so many posts on LinkedIn from people who were blindsided. While I wish we weren’t in the midst…

So I asked AI to create a bunch more with the same formula — This headline in AdAge caught my eye this week: Rami Malek Meets Catherine Deneuve in Cartier’s Glossy Ad Directed by Guy Ritchie Merit of the spot aside (it struck me as sort of meh), the headline made me laugh. It’s the sort of lazy Mad Libs let’s-throw-a-bunch-of-celebs-together that passes as…

What I learned from my year-long 2022 New Year’s Resolution — Eight years ago, at the beginning of 2015, I made a New Year’s resolution to write a personal note to every one of my LinkedIn contacts. It was a giant pain in the butt AND oddly rewarding. Plus, the article I wrote about that experience got a lot of attention. …