Does it connect?

David Kennedy’s golden words: We’re really not in the business of making ads. Our job is to make a connection.

Sometimes you can tell if ads or other marketing materials connect just by looking. More often, all you can judge is the craftsmanship — the quality of the design and writing. So for each portfolio sample, I’ve written about what we were trying to accomplish and why.

To view the work, click the images above or the links on the left. Feel free to send questions or leave a comment.

- Barrett Rossie

New direction for martinagency.com

The Martin Agency has redesigned its website to look like… a blog. A source at Martin says they wanted to force themselves to update the site more often. Isn’t that something a client might have said?

From here to there: Communication strategy

Working with a variety of smaller clients these days, I’m reminded that most business communication strategy problems boil down to three simple questions.

Knowing your competition

Strong branding can preempt or even eliminate competitors. So you have to study your competition — whether you’re building a brand from scratch or reformulating; whether you’re a CEO, marketing executive or an agency creative team.

Going to school: Learning online marketing

Can an old copywriter learn new tricks? One way or another, I’m going to apply what I know about traditional marketing to the fast-changing world of online marketing.

How to know your customer — on a budget

As a young copywriter, I didn’t understand the importance of research. As an agency partner, I learned to love the research — provided I could do it myself. Creative teams exist to make an emotional connection. We must understand the customer’s emotional needs as well as their practical needs. How else can we frame the communication?

The death of (bad) advertising

Joseph Dumont writes a great piece at imediaconnection.com on how interactive is displacing traditional advertising. But in pushing his argument a little too far, he also unintentionally makes a good case for truly great broadcast creative, versus the less compelling kind.

Do you know your brand?

Over the past few years, dealing with business owners and marketing directors, I’ve found that about half my clients don’t really know their brand. Their own conception doesn’t match the market reality.

The “vision thing”: Who needs it?

Most “vision statements” end up as self-serving, wishful thinking with questionable value. But a client of mine recently learned how valuable a vision statement can be — when created with the right purpose in mind.

Teamwork: the essential ingredient

I met John Robideaux of Robideaux Strategic Marketing this morning. Nick Murto and Tyler Lafferty of interactive shop Seven2 said “you have to meet John” and “he knows everybody worth knowing around here — he knows where the bodies are buried.” He didn’t show me any bodies. But what a pleasure to meet him. 

John was totally generous in telling me about his business. Which leads to the point of this post: unselfishness and teamwork are damned good values for building a business, especially in the advertising/marketing world.