Bob Hoffman’s 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising

January 24, 2012

An ad agency principal who is an example on how to use content marketing and social media to build awareness and new business opportunities for your agency.

I am a Bob Hoffman fan. I have read everything he has written, from his book The Ad Contrarian, to every ADWEEK and blog post article and now his new book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising.

Bob is the CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising located in San Francisco and St. Louis. He has created marketing strategies and advertising for some of the world’s most successful companies: McDonald’s, Toyota, Shell, NBC, Pepsico, Bank of America, Nestle, AT&T, Chevrolet, Dole, Blue Cross, Seagrams, Fairmont Hotels, Pebble Beach and others.

I was first introduced to Bob Hoffman through a cbsnews.com article, “Hoffman/Lewis CEO Can’t Stop Cursing and Swearing on His Blog”

Hoffman/Lewis in San Francisco and St. Louis promises on its website to “get beyond the fleeting trends, false goals, and dreadful jargon of contemporary advertising.” But a look at the blog of its CEO, Bob Hoffman(pictured), shows that ‘getting beyond the jargon’ seems to mean dropping the F-bomb as much as possible. The blog is titled “The Ad Contrarian; Cranky opinions and advice from the CEO of a pretty big ad agency.”

Hoffman has a created a large online following as one fan recently wrote, “Your no b.s., take-no-prisoners approach to our business is entertaining, informative, and spot-on…”

Bob’s blog puts a face to the Hoffman/Lewis agency. He comes across as being transparent and blatantly honest. He’s not going to appeal to everyone but those who find him appealing they become ardent fans. They know that Bob will tell it like it is and cut through all the agency B.S. He’s not afraid to tell his readers what he really thinks. 

Even though Hoffman often berates social media, he has wisely used it to build awareness for his agency.  He has experimented again with a self-published book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising: The strange world of advertising in 101 delicious bite-size pieces. This is a collection of some of his best blog post articles that have been repurposed in a convenient Kindle eBook.

This was very smart of Bob. With a little bit of work, he gets an even greater return on the time he originally invested in writing these blog post articles. His new book is already a best seller within its category.  

The Kindle version is a great buy. Only $2.99, You will also find it to be an excellent, entertaining read.

Hoffman’s take on the advertising industry is refreshing, insightful, amusing and discerning. With the advertising industry in such a state of flux and upheaval, he will keep you grounded. I highly recommend it. 

Here’s some additional reviews:

“Bob Hoffman’s perspective is terrific because he continually digs into various heaping piles of advertising hype to discover nuggets of truth. And if he doesn’t find any, he’s not afraid to say how bad it stinks.”

“I just love the way Bob thinks and writes about our crazy business and even more crazy world. This is take no prisoners kind of stuff that is just superbly written always.”

“Bob is one of the smartest guys in the business. His thoughts are not obscured by fads, what’s au courant or quotidian bs. He is a straight-shooter. Honest, to the point and fact-based. Qualities sorely missing in the world today.”

“This book is an insightful, hilarious look at what’s wrong with advertising agencies, with marketing in general, and maybe even the world overall. But it isn’t just for people who work in ad agencies. It’s for anybody who ever saw an ad that sucked and wondered how it got that way. It’s for anybody who works in any kind of job involving generation of new ideas. And yes, it’s for anybody who enjoys “Mad Men.” Bob Hoffman is smarter than Don Draper. He’s funnier than Don Draper. And he’s better looking than… Okay, like I said, Bob Hoffman is definitely smarter and funnier than Don Draper.”

“A funny, enlightening, clear-eyed look at advertising and marketing. Pleasantly didactic and cheerfully challenging of the fables and fantasies that pass for advertising principles.”

Bob shares some insights on the process of writing and promoting his book that I think you will find helpful:

101 contrarian ideas about advertising, Bob Hoffman

Click Here to review on Amazon.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Leadership, Content Marketing, Promotion, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad Agency CEO’s Blog – The Ad Contrarian

December 8, 2010

Social Media = transparency and you can’t be more transparent than ad agency CEO Bob Hoffman

Recently I was introduced to the blog, The Ad Contrarian, cranky opinions and advice from the CEO of a pretty big ad agency. Bob Hoffman the author is CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. He is the author of the book by the same name, The Ad Contrarian. Bob has a growing following as one fan recently wrote, “Your no b.s., take-no-prisoners approach to our business is entertaining, informative, and spot-on…”

You see a personal side of Bob through his blog.  Blogging has given him a platform to express himself like non other.  Bob is blatantly honest about our industry. He doesn’t hold back on his opinions.

The Ad Contrarian Says: 

“In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management.”

“We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product.”

“Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes.”

“If the message is right, who cares what screen people see it on? If the message is wrong, what difference does it make?”

“Account planning has gotten way out of control. We’ve got to kill them all and start over.”

“In the entire history of civilization, nothing good ever happened to a teenager after midnight.”

“There’s no bigger sucker than a gullible marketer convinced he’s missing a trend.”

“All ad campaigns are branding campaigns. Whether you intend it to be a branding campaign is irrelevant. It will create an impression of your brand regardless of your intent.”

“Nobody ever got famous predicting that things would stay pretty much the same.”

The more I read his post the more I like him. If I were on the client side, Bob’s blog would go a long way to winning my business. People want to work with people they know, people they like and people they can trust. This is what The Ad Contrarian does for Bob.

If I were developing new business for Hoffman/Lewis advertising I guarantee I would be using Bob’s blog as the “gateway” to the agency. I would introduce prospective clients to Bob first. He is the face of the agency. He wont be appealing to everyone but to a great number of prospective clients he will have a strong appeal.

If you are an agency CEO and don’t have a blog, you are missing a prime opportunity to develop a following of loyal fans, ready to do business with you and your agency.

bhr1

A sampling of Bob’s blog posts:

2 Comments | New Business Talents, New Business Tools, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

It’s Usually the Best Sign When Ad Agencies are Hiring!

February 11, 2010

In the midst of such a long drawn out recession, it’s always good news when you hear of an ad agency that is hiring.

The best “tell-tale” sign that an agency is doing well is when they are having to fill staff positions due to new business.  Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis Advertising in San Francisco sent me a heads-up on a new post he had written for his blog, The Ad Contrarian.

Instead of using a “head-hunter” Hoffman/Lewis Advertising  is using Bob’s social media network to fill the following 12 positions:

  • Creative Director/Group CD (2)
  • Junior Copywriter
  • Junior Art Director
  • Edit Suite Assistant
  • Account Executive
  • Account Coordinator (2)
  • Director, Brand Strategy
  • Data Analyst
  • Sr. Media Planner
  • Administrative Assistant

Before you flood Bob’s inbox with email or tie up the agency’s phone lines, to be considered, there are some particulars to follow. Check out The Ad Contrarian’s article, “Yes, Someone is Hiring,” for the details. Tell them Michael sent you!

If you want to check out the Hoffman/Lewis website, it’s here.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

Share

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Fuel for Thought, New Business Talents, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Expand Your Agency By Narrowing Your Focus

August 6, 2009

Most ad agencies have an unfocused new business strategy. They try to be everything to everybody. Tim Williams, in a recent article titled, “Focus to Grow”, says,

“In turbulent times … The natural response is to “try a little bit of everything”; to expand your services, broaden your capabilities, and try to appeal to more clients. It seems like common sense, but it’s exactly the wrong response. The best growth strategy — in good economies or bad — is to decide what not to do.”

Tim sites these five benefits for the agencies that are willing to expand by narrowing their focus:

  1. The greatest earning power. It is a no brainer, a specialist will always earn more than the generalist.
  2. The largest geographical market area. “Focused firms draw clients from all over the globe, not just from their own Zip code.”  
  3. The fewest competitors. ”The easiest way to narrow your competition is to narrow your focus.”
  4. The greatest degree of respect from clients. ”Knowledge and expertise = respect.”
  5. The most sophisticated clients. “A quality value proposition attracts a quality client.”

There are a lot of agency principals that agree with this thinking but are afraid to take the initial step-out. I understand their hesitation. But there is a way to take the initial steps without the perceived risks through the use of social media. Social media allows an agency to:

  • “Easily” target a specific audience (i.e. Locomotion Creative, Blue Collar Branding)
  • Discover its most appealing point of differentiation through an active engagement with its best prospective clients (i.e. Stephanie Holland, She-conomy)
  • Be positioned as an expert (i.e. Park Howell, A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing)
  • Affordably build a national awareness among your best prospects (ie. Jaci Russo, The Russo Group)
  • Allow your prospects to better understand how you think, your philosophy and strong points of view (i.e. Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian, )

These are some helpful articles to get started. I would also encourage you to read Tim Summer’s book Take a Stand for Your Brand

Share

6 Comments | New Business Trends, Recession, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Bob Hoffman’s Blog, An Example for Ad Agency CEOs?

June 18, 2009

Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman, CEO Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis and author of The Ad Contrarian blog provides a excellent example of an agency’s blog that has potential as a great tool for new business. 

I was first introduced to Bob through the not so flattering AdAge article above. What the author viewed as a negative I saw as positive, particularly for an opportunity to generate new business for Bob’s agency.

Social media is suppose to be transparent, but Bob is beyond transparent. You either love him or despise him but you certainly wont forget him.

He wont appeal to everyone but to those he does appeal to, it will be a strong a appeal.

If I were a prospective client I would be drawn to Bob as a straight shooter when it comes to the advertising industry. Someone who will cut through all of the BS and tell me like it really is. He’ll speak in a language that I will understand and not agency speak. I would feel he would be a person that I could trust.

All Bob needs to do to turn his blog into a new business lead generation pipeline is focus and write to his agency’s best target audience, not to those of us within the ad industry. We all have a natural tendency to want to work with people that we know, like and trust. The Ad Contrarian gives us a rare personal look at an agency CEO who writes what he thinks and will even emphasize his thoughts with a few expletives.  Okay, maybe lots of expletives. I’m sure that Bob’s partners would want him to tone it down, but from a new business perspective I think Bob’s blog is pure gold.

A sampling of Bob’s posts:

    THE AD CONTRARIAN SAYS:

    “In American business, there is nothing stupider than the previous generation of management.”

    “We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product.”

    “Brand studies last for months, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and generally have less impact on business than cleaning the drapes.”

    “Marketers always overestimate the attraction of new things and underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior.”

    “As an advertising medium, the web is like communism. It’s never very good right now, but it’s always going to be great some day.”

     

    DDog.5-5 

      Follow Bob on Twitter

     

     

    Share

    16 Comments | Agency Blogs, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    8 Benefits to Writing A Book and Six Ways to Publish It Online

    March 31, 2009

    Writing a book a book can put your agency on the map. It benefits new business.

    When I started my blog I tried to be strategic and think further down the road. Surely there were ways to reuse the content. One of the ways that I identified was a book. I actually outlined a book prior to starting my blog and 290+ blog posts later I’m almost there.

    I’ve identified  8 benefits to writing a book feel free to ad some of your own:

    1. It positions you as an expert
    2. It allows you to reach more people
    3. It provides you with the “ultimate” business card
    4. It makes you more money
    5. It benefits business
    6. It ranks you as a credible source
    7. It gives you a personal sense of accomplishment
    8. It enables you to leave a legacy

    Here are a few of examples of agency principals that have written a book.

    Linda Kaplan Thayer, the ceo of Kaplan Thayler Group, wrote a book, The Power of Nice, that put her agency, on the map. Linda has been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, Nightline, The Today Show, Inside Edition and Fox News to name just a few. There is also the Power of Nice website and Nice Blog.

    Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland agency recently had his first book published, When Growth Stalls. Steve also has a column for BusinessWeek.com and other articles published in the New York Times, USA Today, Advertising Age, Business Daily, just to name a few.

    Bob Hoffman, ceo of Hoffman/Lewis ad agency, is the author of the book, The Ad Contrarian and the blog of the same name. Bob offers his book as a free download on his blog. Click here to download your free copy.

    I’m exploring options for publishing my book and as I find good resources I’ll be sure and pass those on to you.  

    One such resource that I found couple of weeks ago is “6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book,” written by Shevonne Polastre.  She writes,

    “Online self-publishing services have given users the tools they need to create, publish and promote their work. These sites allow authors to bypass the process of finding an agent and pitching to publishing houses, a venture that can take months, if not years.”

    Shevonne identifies six great online sites that will help you publish your work, guaranteeing you a published book that can be sold via different outlets, such as Amazon.

    Read her post: 6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

    11 Comments | New Business Tactics, New Business Tips | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    How Social Media Impacts Advertising and Marketing

    March 6, 2009

    Social media provides such a great platform for collaboration. I’ve gained a lot of insight by listening and by engaging in online conversations particularly through my blog, Twitter. I love that it is still evolving and all of us are figuring it out as we go. I’m appreciative to the early social media adopters and for their continued influence within this new space. My interest in social media is from a communications, marketing and new business perspective. I saw the potential for social media early on and have been evangelistic in my encouragement to my audience, small-to midsize ad agencies, to get involved.

    I’ve already written about social media’s impact upon ad agency new business: Four Ways Social Media is Changing Advertising Agencies New Business. I also believe that social is having great impact upon advertising and marketing. 

    Broadcast, outdoor, print, direct mail, radio are not going to go away. If you don’t believe me, along with people like Seth Godin, you should also be reading Bob Hoffman’s blog, The Ad Contrarian. Advertising already is and will continue to be greatly influenced by social media.

    How?

    We’ve all ran into difficulty with clients not willing to spend the time and money for the kind of qualitative and quantitative research that is often necessary for a advertising/marketing campaign to be successful. Measurement has also been a problem.

    From my experience some of the best campaigns agencies created often came from a nugget from the research that caused an epiphany  that “ah-ha” moment when they knew they had it. That great idea that would drive the entire campaign.

    I see that as one of the primary benefits to social media. It is not what a brand means to the company or what your agency’s brand means to you, it’s what it means to the consumer, to your prospective clients. Perhaps the reason so many agency’s have difficulty with their own branding is that they are in their own silo without the point of view from their prospective clients.

    Social media is time intensive but it is affordable and allows us to learn so much from our audiences. I’ve conducted numerous surveys and polls this past year. My hard cost totaled $72. The information that I gleaned has been priceless. Social allows us to tap into the minds of our audiences like anything I have ever seen before.

    Social media provides agencies/clients with affordable research on an even grander scale than we’ve ever been able to conduct in the past and it is almost instant feedback. It is affordable, timely and easier to measure than traditional  media. 

    This is why I believe social media will be the hub to all of our advertising/marketing. From broadcast to direct. We can engage our audience and know what messages are appealing, what resonates. We can do it quickly and that info will provide the epiphanies  and “ah-ha” moments when we know we have that valuable nugget for a successful campaign.

    Social media is not only important for our clients and their brands. It is important for an agency’s brands. I encourage you to understand and use it for your agency before attempting to use it for clients.

    It is the best tool I have ever used in helping agencies with their own branding.

    It compels us to do new business the way we should have been doing it all along. It forces us to lead with benefits, to create an appealing brand from our clients perspective. To be successful with social each agency will have to narrow its focus, declare who they are, how they are different.

    I don’t claim to be a social media expert. But I have immersed myself into it in a big way and have been professionally enriched beyond my initial comprehension. From a new business perspective for small-to midsize ad agencies social media is the greatest tool you will ever use. I hope you’ll get on board and find out for yourself.

    A note to loyal readers: you are so gracious to overlook my typos, bad spelling and grammar (especially when it is 5 am). Thank you for your appreciation and encouragement in spite of them.

    Social media helps agencies create a more clearly defined focus and differentiating business strategy that will give them a competitive advantage for new business, a higher-profile reputation, and an improved ability to attract and win the clients they really want.

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

    7 Comments | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    10 Tips to Help Ad Agency CEOs Develop a Blog

    January 27, 2009

    These are my personal opinions, observations and tips that have been honed and refined over this past year.  They are part of my overall philosophy of incorporating social media into an agency’s new business program.

    Social media “teaches” agencies to promote themselves the way they should have been doing it all along. Agencies need a differentiated and appealing position to a particular target audience. The should always lead with the benefits to their target audience rather than agency capabilities. By enlarging the agency’s online footprint they can be found by their best prospective clients that match up with the core strengths of the agency.

    Through social media, you build relationships, trust and a position of expertise. People always prefer to work with people that they know and trust. Through an agency blog your audience gets to know you and your agency. They have an opportunity to check under the hood, kick the tires, examine the upholstery on their own timetable. When the need arises, when they are ready to do business, prospective clients will even initiate the call. Your initial conversation is going to be much further down the road than if you had made a  cold call. The prospective client is ready to engage you, ready to do business.

    The central platform for developing new business through social media is an agency blog. As important as it was for your agency to have a website it is becoming essential that your agency have a blog. Your agency’s website is becoming more like an online static brochure. A blog provides better SEO, fresh content rich content, is more personable, easier to update, provides a reason for your prospective clients to visit often.

    The following 10 tips are my suggestions for creating an ad agency new blog with the objective of generating new business for small-to midsize agencies.  These are some of the lessons that I’ve learned that I hope will be of help to you.

    1. I recommend that you do not incorporate your blog into your agency’s website

    Most agency blogs that are incorporated into their agency’s website, in my opinion, look too corporate and less personal. If it is tied into your agency’s website and branding it immediately constricted and has no room to breathe and grow.  As you build your online community, your blog will evolve from your own personal enrichment and growth by having a narrower focus to a particular target audience. It will also be enhanced through the feedback received from your audience and from a depth of  information gleaned from your blogs analytics. You will come to better understand your audience and, what topics and posts they are most attracted to that in turn generates more traffic.

    These are two examples of relatively new ad agency blogs that are following this philosophy:

    2. The agency’s blog should be reflective of the agency’s principals

    Agency  principals are the least likely to leave the agency.  If you lose a staff member you can also lose a portion of  your audience. Plus prospective clients always want to know how involved the agency owners will be with their account.  You are the visionary of the agency. The only way you are going to “get” social media is to participate. If it isn’t a priority for you it wont be for your agency.

    The Ad Contrarian is an example of a an agency’s blog that is reflective of the agency’s CEO, Bob Hoffman. There are others who contribute ideas and resources for his blog and even provide guest posts, but there is not doubt that it is Bob’s blog and is reflective of his personality.

    3. Keep the design simple.

    I would recommend that you utilize WordPress, TypePad, Blogger blog platforms. My favorite is WordPress. Remember that it’s content that is king. Keep the design clean, simple and easy to maneuver . If you want to slooowww down the process involve your creative and digital staff! You should be able to have your blog up and running in a matter of hours not days, weeks or months.

    4. Own your domain name

    If you ever want  to change blog platforms you can easily do so without losing traffic if you own your domain name. Instead of a blog address like www.michaelgass.wordpress.com  I own the URLs www.michaelgass.com and www.fuelingnewbusiness.com. I began blogging through Blogger before making the switch to WordPress.

    5. Before you begin to write learn to listen

    Learn from the early adopters of social media. You need to know about social media etiquette, understand the importance of transparency and motive when using emerging media. Ad agencies have a tougher and sometimes rougher beginning with social media. I find that even digital shops struggle with its use. PR firms tend to “get it” quickly because social media is most like the work they are use to.

    Chris Brogan was a huge help to me when I first started blogging. Here are a few of his articles that will be of help to you too: 10 Best Resource Articles for Ad Agency Blogs.

    With an open mind and a willingness to learn it wont take long to get a feel for how to write your blog posts. You’ll learn lessons like writing for  SEO so that your articles can be found by your best target audience. Copywriters tend to have the most difficult time making the transition from writing for print to writing for a blog. It doesn’t matter how great your article is or how clever the post title if your audience can’t find it.

    6. Develop creative brief for your blog

    This will provide clear direction for the “tone-ality” of your blog and keep you focused on your primary objectives. Identify your target audience. My good friend Scott Nelson, president of Nelson Creative, has a excellent outline for a creative brief that you can easily adapt for your blog.

    Creative Brief Outline

    7. Create an outline for your blog

    I actually created an outline for a book regarding ad agency new business and have used that outline for my blog. After over a year of writing I have almost 300 blog post and drafts. I have a clear focus and direction for my blog. I know the specific categories that I am writing to. Having an outline has been a tremendous time saver.

    How to write a book through your WordPress Blog

    8. Keep a list of blog post ideas

    I keep a Word document on my laptop’s desktop with a running list of ideas. Checking through the list I have over 100 possible topics, subjects, examples, tools, tips, current trends, resources, etc.

    I religiously check my blog analytics to see what posts generate the most traffic. You learn a lot as you see what key words were used that led others to your blog site.

    When I’m reading the RSS feeds of blogs I have subscribed to I get new ideas daily that I can incorporate into my blog.

    9. Set a goal for the number of posts to write per week

    I saw a dramatic change in my blog traffic and audience interaction after I reached my first 50 posts. I encourage agency’s to get to fifty within the first thirty to sixty days. It establishes a habit for writing and helps them to find their voice. Beyond this initial phase I encourage agency’s to keep fresh content on their blog by making it a goal to posts at least five times per week. That doesn’t mean that you are providing all original content for each post that you write. I usually recommend that one post per week be original content, other blog post are highlighting other information, resources, research that will be of help to your target audience.

    10. Repurpose your blog content

    Working with agency principals I have them do one thing – write. If they will provide the content anyone can be trained to repurpose that content online such as email newsletters that take only minutes to assemble, EzineArticles, PR releases of opinion pieces, white papers, ebooks, etc.

    Having written over 250 blog posts I have lots of material that I can use in many other ways. Using tools like Twitter, even my older posts are constantly being introduced to new people. The content has a much greater shelf life than even magazines.

    I checked my analytics for my blog last night and had over 1,127 page views. Most of the traffic was referred to blog posts on my site through Twitter.  I now have over 2,000 followers on Twitter. It’s fairly easy for lots of my post to become viral and passed on to others. One my post yesterday generated 521 hits as it was passed on by other Twitter users.

    As you’ve read this piece you are perhaps thinking, this  is great, something else for me to do and I’m swamped already.

    I’m reminded of a blog post title that I came across yesterday, ““Social media is scary. Not doing social media is scarier – iMediaConnection.com” within a few minutes someone Twittered me this article title

    twitter

    Hopefully enough said.

    Additional articles that may be of interest:

    Share

    7 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Fuel for Thought: Brand Babblers

    December 19, 2008

    Branding

    Excerpts from The Ad Contrarian … Bad Days for Brand Babblers

    “In these times, clients expect their advertising to actually sellsomething. When it doesn’t, they get cranky.

    Some years ago the ad industry decided that it no longer had to bother itself with the mundane task of selling. Instead, advertising could focus on the much more civilized practice of branding — whatever the hell that means.

    The most effective, in fact, the only way to build a brand is to sell someone something.

    It often comes as a shock to ad people when we find out how little the marketplace cares about our cleverness and our hipness. Apparently, consumers are more concerned with their own self-interest than with our brilliance.”

    Bob Hoffman, ceo of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. Author of the blog, The Ad Contrarian

    Leave a Comment » | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass

    Fuel for Thought: Ad Agencies Need to Specialize

    December 3, 2008

    “Go against the grain. Every agency is trying to convince clients that they can do it all. Instead, be an agency that does only one thing really well. Specialize in retail, or become expert in marketing to Mid-Westerners, or only work on luxury brands, or only do creative work. Find something you can be famous for.”

    Bob Hoffman, ceo of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. Author of the blog, The Ad Contrarian

    1 Comment | Fuel for Thought | Tagged: , , | Permalink
    Posted by Michael Gass