Ring the Bell

Bob and I are of a similar vintage we grew up on different sides of the Atlantic during an era when advertising was driven by original ideas generated by ad agencies run by people who believed who knew that their ideas contributed to their clientsamp8217 successesThe ads ruled agency principals would resign business rather than pass through poor work In my case the legendary Norman Berry once fired a client for daring to question his judgement on a professional trade magazine adYes they sometimes went to extremes but the reputation of their agencies mattered and what made those reputations were the adsBack then clients hired agencies because they the client couldnamp8217t do what the agencies did These clients didnamp8217t want a nodding dog nor did they want a glorified note taker nor a numerate technocratThey wanted ideas great ideas beautifully executed by people who knew how to deliverThey were right to want these things and to believe in their agencyamp8217s abilityItamp8217s often forgotten that there were brave clients behind those great ads Imagine selling the Sony Board on spending tens of millions throwing hundreds of thousands of colored balls down a San Francisco hill in order to sell your TVs All the time knowing it was one take or bustTodayamp8217s marketing geniuses would be cutting that ad into pieces personalizing each oneBob was a writer and creative director I was a media planner and geek One of my bosses once described me as being a media guy who quotcared about the creative workquot I took that as a compliment and a sign that heamp8217d been mixing with the wrong type of media person I wasnamp8217t that unusual Some of us preferred ads to dealsI knew full well that I couldnamp8217t do what the creatives did but then again they were hopeless at audience measurementWe worked together to deliver something that workedSometimesIt would be quite wrong to look back on some sort of golden age where everything we did was genius Of course it wasnamp8217tBobamp8217s valedictory blog makes the point that amp8220During my many years in the business advertising was overwhelmingly crap There were however instances of excellence among the dross amp8230 there were moments when video audio print and poster advertising strived to provide new and stimulating ideas to the world I don39t think any serious person today considers advertising anything much more than a constant annoyanceamp8221And it was fun Today it really isnamp8217t And that shows in the workBob has stopped his blog because in his own words quotamp8230 in 2022 the big news in the advertising world was not about anything remotely interesting It was about some of the world39s biggest assholes Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk Writing about advertising is one thing Writing about creeps like that is quite anotherquotAs an antidote Bob told a David Ogilvy tale which he was then kind enough to send me in the original from quotConfessions of an Advertising ManquotquotI was once invited to a corporate meeting to compete for a major account When I entered the board room the chairman said thisquotMr Ogilvy we are interviewing several agencies You have exactly fifteen minutes to plead your case Then I will ring this bell and the next agency waiting outside will follow youquotI asked How many people will be involved in the decisionquotThe chairman replied The twelve members of the Committee here todayquotquotI responded Ring the bell And rose from my chairquotRing the bell or to bastardize another line from Ogilvy this time from an ad that certainly did run quotYou can hear the clock tickingquotTo be continued Selfpublished at MediaVillage through the wwwAvrioB2Bcom platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Ring the Bell

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Jon Miller | Cofounder Marketo, Engagio | The Gumball Machine is Broken - Rethinking B2B Marketing - By Mike Linton

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