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We think agencies are the best. But sometimes they need a little help.
Top 14 Ways Agency Account Managers Can Build Client Relationships
As an agency account manager, your ultimate goal is to foster a successful and long-lasting relationship with your clients. One way to achieve this is by continuously growing the size of your account, which can bring additional revenue and opportunities for your...
The Sociology Behind The Walking Dead
“We bury the ones we love and burn the rest,” says Andrea, a survivor, after she impales a zombie’s skull with a scythe and then nonchalantly picks up a severed arm and tosses it to the side.
The Fear of Being Found Out
We keep quiet. In meetings. Around the dinner table. At the bar. We keep quiet. We talk, of course we talk, but we hold back. We don’t venture to offer those visceral responses or truest of true feelings we hold dear. Instead we filter them out and suppress them down in hopes to remain in the […]
I Worked For a Start Up. And It Failed.
When I first left the agency world, I wanted to do something different, something better, more fulfilling, and more meaningful. After a brief stint as a substitute teacher (don’t ask), I joined a promising young startup company with a vision of making the internet a safer place for kids. Sounded like an adventure, and maybe, […]
Decisions. Decisions. How To Move Forward.
We have an endless world of data and research resources at our finger tips. And sometimes we’re paralyzed by it. Unable to move forward until all available information has been thoroughly considered. We delay decisions, telling ourselves we need to more thoroughly vet all possible alternatives. Sometimes this is called due diligence, but sometimes this […]
Three Things I (Don’t) Know By Now
Some posts don’t come out easy. I start and stop them. Over and over again. I may have more posts in draft than are published. I came across a prompt that said “what are three things you should know by now?” and this is what came out.
Cover-Your-Ass Marketing
Have you ever seen an ad with too many bullet points? Or a powerpoint? Or web page? Who decided to throw every possible brand attribute onto one page? What happened during the creative process that left the customer with so much reading to do?
Complexity Is Easy
We often think of complex systems as something to be admired. And in some cases, they should be (like Google’s algorithms or The Wire). But too often we make our lives and work unnecessarily complex.
Increasing Conversion With Dressing Rooms
Why are dressing rooms always in the back of stores? They can be hard to find (looking at you J.C. Penny), usually on the periphery. In past posts we’ve looked at how in-store sampling increases sales (free samples in grocery stores). So aren’t dressing rooms essentially a vehicle for in-store sampling…of clothes?
Creating Observable Behavior
Here’s the challenge: taking a product or service that most people consume in a non-public way and making it publicly visible. If you’re Ford Motor Company, then the cars you make are mobile billboards for your brand. But what if you’re the local car dealership who sells those cars? How do you take the sales […]
Canned Laugh Tracks: 5 Examples of Social Proof
People imitate what others do. We do this because the actions of others provide us with intel on a given situation. Psychologists call this “social proof,” which is a phenomenon where people imitate the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. We follow suit because it reduces our […]
We Were Promised Jetpacks …
If you graduated from college between 2006 and today, you’re part of a generation dealing with a new normal. With freshly pressed college degrees in hand, we walked optimistically into the great recession. It was/is hard. Today our cherished college degrees aren’t getting us the jobs we want, to pay for the houses we can’t […]
Honesty and Connection
The content creation machine is out of control. With corporate blogs cranking out pages of seemingly innocuous content, choking the internet to the gills with re-purposed “Top 5” lists, we’re losing sight of what quality writing is. What’s missing in this flood of content is risk, the risk of being disagreed with, the risk of […]
The Power of Stories: 3 Examples
Facts, data, and statistics are great. They help to root claims in reality. However, they’re just cold numbers, and numbers are hard to put into context. But stories are vivid and memorable and our brains are hardwired to recall and react to them. Here are three examples of how storytelling can be used to positively […]
The Medium Is The Message
It’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it. In fact the “how” significantly impacts the “what.” Don’t tell me how cool you are, show me. The choice of medium plays an important role in how your story is told.
Ship It Like SNL
Perfection is impossible. And worse still, it’s subjective. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Saturday Night Live thrives on shipping what is good this week. The format of the show does not allow for the pursuit of perfection. It improvises in the face of bad material. Some sketches are hilarious […]