The Fourth Estate: An Open Discourse

[aboutthefourthestate]

Blast from the Past: The Perfect Agency

One gem I pulled from David Ogilvy’s little red book of philosophies - and one I will unabashedly cite in any relevant discussion - is the importance of autonomy among employees.

In any communications house, i think it is imperative that employees maintain a sense of individuality and the ability to elect what, when and how they do their jobs with little to no interference from the company itself.

I always said, from 11am to 7pm, I do my best work. I would love to have the mornings to myself - to run errands, eat breakfast with my family, exercise and gather my thoughts for the day. A 7pm relief works just fine for me.

Imagine working collectively as teams, planning each week just one week in advance, electing to work from home and in the office on a company-mandated three-day minimum out of the week. Imagine the notion of putting yourself on your own calendar being an essential part of what you get paid to do every day. Your company’s retention rate would skyrocket if adults were trusted to be adults, junior CEOs of the company for which they help run every single day.

My adopted philosophy - a bit laissez faire, I’ll admit - could make all the difference between good work and great work.

When the ad industry took a financial hit, somehow, the culture took a shift from fun to firm. Advertising has always been cutthroat, demanding and effortlessly fickle. But there was also a huge level of importance that surrounded the simple notion of fun. The parties were endless, the perks just the same. Clients knew what to expect from agencies - free-spirited fun, great concepts, exceptional work and professionalism that dared to color outside the lines of the everyday black-and-white suit and tie, briefcase in-hand.

Nowadays, with the focus embedded in snatching whatever dollars can be found, communications has been watered down to astronomically low levels. We’re back to suits and ties, 30-minute lunches, boring upfront seasons and “parties” with teeny-tiny guest lists of EVPs and above. That’s not media - that’s mush.

Building company morale starts and ends with a true interest in your constituents. A truly valued member of a company should be able to perform his or her job from anywhere with Wi-Fi access, barring client presentations and internal meetings. Scheduling and open communication should be key. But that’s just my idea of the perfect agency.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Job Force: Paging 1-2-3

Hello? Is anybody out there?

CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?

The search for a job in the Atlanta area has been a lackluster experience, to say the least. I've gone through dozens of interviews, sent hundreds of emails and filled out so many applications I've lost count. 

I would say I'm growing frustrated, but at least I'm growing. 

Who knew leaving for maternity purposes and relocating to build a better life for my new family would leave me jobless, on the market and facing so many slammed doors in my face? I certainly did not.

Still, I love media. I love advertising, the profession, the backstabbing, the sneakiness, the deception and the expensive perks. I'm a great talent, with awesome ideas and a work ethic that almost supersedes my domesticity  - yes, I enjoy working more than I enjoy cooking dinner and cleaning the bathrooms in my home. 

This is what I do, new wife, new mommy and all. 

The perfect opportunity is on its way, and hopefully I can use my voice to influence the maternity leave policy at my new place of work so that the next new mommy, wife and media maven has a fair chance at having it all.

[aboutthefourthestate]

An Open Letter to McDonald's

The Fall From Grace

Ahh, the Golden Arches. Shiny yellow gateways to fast food heaven beckon children all around the world - it's a privilege, indeed. Crispy french fries, cheeseburgers made the perfect size to fit in between their tiny hands. If they could, they would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Can their parents explain what it really is that they're eating? Probably not. Do their parents eat it? Not a chance. But it's what the babies want.

Then the babies grow up and realize the items on the menu of their favorite place are made up of everything they never want their own children to consume. But it's what the babies want, so the cycle continues.

Until now. The babies are now millennials: that tiny little melting pot of a demographic that has been driving nearly every market in the industry since they took out their first student loans. They have become totally disenfranchised from the franchise they once called their favorite. Along with questionable ingredients comes a host of other interferences: sketchy kitchen photos, strange YouTube videos that claim to show the process by which the menu items are processed, the creepy-crawly illustrations of pink slime and the endless stories from the employees themselves who say they wouldn't feed McDonald's food to their enemy's dog.

It's bad.

Efforts to sway the consumer perspective came earlier this year by way of a transparency campaign, a host of advertisements intended to put just a tiny dent in a sea of concerns. Commercials began to pop up, with everyday consumers posing questions to the Corporation through some sort of bus stop camera. It was a nice try, an effort that deserved an A+ for it's mere existence. But it was also, above all things, too late. Consumers inhaled it and spit it right back out. One of the many intentions of the campaign was to spark the conversation, but it seems Mickey D's missed the mark.

The skepticism surrounding McDonald's and its methods, combined with the growing popularity of healthy eating as witnessed by the sonic boom of beloved kale and quinoa, began a downward spiral for the brand around 2009. McDonald's went from the college student's familiar food choice to the neighborhood outcast. "I'm not eating that" is probably the most popular response one will hear in regards to anything on the menu. This whole transparency initiative should have started some time back then. 

Picking Up The Pieces

Now, here we are. McDonald's has thrown millions of advertising dollars into an awareness campaign that has done little to shift the consumer mindset. Until now. I have an idea that just might work.

Let's take a trip back to 2013. Lays kicked off a campaign allowing consumers - some who were Lays constituents and some who were not - to enter a contest to create their very own potato chip flavors. The contest was a hit. People entered numerous flavor ideas, both as individuals and in groups. The reward for the winning flavor? A million dollars. Consumers went back again and again. It was like the lottery. 

What if McDonald's took a page out of Lays' book and put the choices back into the consumers' hands? If you've done your homework on millennials, you know that offering choices and - dare I say it - control, are two of the best ways to get them back into your good graces. 

Imagine a contest that allowed consumers to recreate the McDonald's menu. The winning menu could offer a payout of $1 million, or perhaps a seat on a board within the Corporation (millennials tend to like positions of power). The possibilities are endless, but three key takeaways for the Corporation would be: 

A first-hand collection of key consumer insights around the main thing the Company has to offer: their food.

A sense of where the consumer mindset is regarding exactly what they want to eat. 

APPEAL! The public relations appeal surrounding an initiative such as this really can go as far as McDonald's wants it to go. 

The main flaw in the current transparency campaign is the notion that the Corporation's voice is the only one that matters. You cannot have a transparent campaign on the behalf of the Company and an opaque window for your constituents. Allow them to talk back in a way that is 100 percent on their terms, while still controlling the environment to keep your critical feedback (because it will be critical) as positive as possible. Consumers will be forthcoming with their thoughts - and for $1 million or a chance to sit on the food board (if there is such a thing), they will be pleasant. 

Try it out! It's what the babies want.

[aboutthefourthestate]

The Perfect Agency

One gem I pulled from David Ogilvy’s little red book of philosophies - and one I will unabashedly cite in any relevant discussion - is the importance of autonomy among employees. 

In any communications house, I think it is imperative that employees maintain a sense of individuality and the ability to elect what, when and how they do their jobs with little to no interference from the company itself. 

I always said, from 11am to 7pm, I do my best work. I would love to have the mornings to myself - to run errands, eat breakfast with my family, exercise and gather my thoughts for the day. A 7pm relief works just fine for me. 

Imagine working collectively as teams, planning each week just one week in advance, electing to work from home and in the office on a company-mandated three-day minimum out of the week. Imagine the notion of putting yourself on your own calendar being an essential part of what you get paid to do every day. Your company’s retention rate would skyrocket if adults were trusted to be adults, junior CEOs of the companies they help run every single day. 

My adopted philosophy - a bit laissez faire, I’ll admit - could make all the difference between good work and great work. 

When the ad industry took a financial hit, somehow, the culture took a shift from fun to firm. Advertising has always been cutthroat, demanding and effortlessly fickle. But there was also a huge level of importance that surrounded the simple notion of fun. The parties were endless, the perks just the same. Clients knew what to expect from agencies - free-spirited fun, great concepts, exceptional work and professionalism that dared to color outside the lines of the everyday black-and-white suit and tie, briefcase in-hand. 

And to top it all off, the work was great. 

Nowadays, with the focus embedded in snatching whatever dollars can be found, communications has been watered down to astronomically low levels. We’re back to suits and ties, 30-minute lunches, boring upfront seasons and “parties” with teeny-tiny guest lists of EVPs and above. That’s not media - that’s mush. 

In return, we have mediocre campaigns and a follow-the-leader culture that continues to perpetuate the same excuses and run the same ideas into the ground. We are due for an earthquake; this industry is begging for a revival, thirsty for change.

Building company morale starts and ends with a true interest in your constituents. A truly valued member of a company should be able to perform their job from anywhere with Wi-Fi access, barring client presentations and internal meetings. Scheduling and open communication should be key. But that’s just my idea of the perfect agency.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Gone 'til November

On a quest for my best self, I've been roaming from state to state. I've been in a yoga camp all year, hoping that my next pose will be the one that centers me and puts me in touch with my inner id. Or whatever it's called. 

Ok, I'm kidding. I just got married and had a baby a few months later. Needless to say, my life has been a wonderful whirlwind and I did briefly step away from my blogging duties - but, for good reason. I promise. 

Now a mom and wife, i can assure you that my insightful entries will only blossom from here. My son, Noah, is a beautiful little boy; I should be the envy of all women for the dream my husband is and has been thus far.

At this point in my professional journey, I'm at a fork in the road - I never thought the forced decision between family vs. career would come so soon. I went from a young media maven living in NYC to a faux housewife of Atlanta. With my team being nonexistent in this region of the country, I have found myself on the job hunt for the first time in nearly three years. I'm nervous, anxious and excited to see where the Universe puts me next. 

My combined experiences show themselves as the quintessential full-service integrated marketing agency. I've got some PR, some media strategy and buying, some community management/social media, some creative and some account management to boot. I feel good about where I could possibly go next. 

As for you and I, I've observed a lot throughout these past few months. I will return to give you my opinions, per usual.

I'll be back! Mommy duty calls.

Wish me luck! 

[aboutthefourthestate]

African-American Strategy: This is a Pseudo Rant

The biggest, baddest wolves of media planning and strategy turn into kittens when it's time to develop AA strategies. With Hispanic, they know exactly what to do. All Ts are crossed, Is are dotted; strategy is specific and to-the-point, all-encompassing and steered with confidence and experience. 

African-American strategy? Not so much.

I'm currently at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the decision-making for the client here at my company - but, I'm the only African-American woman on my team, which makes me the expert, the researcher and the one-person focus group all in one. Basically, I become an integral part of the team.

And so I bring my first-hand experiences, preferences and day-to-day hobbies to the table and somehow represent an entire demographic of movers and shakers, mommies and professionals who share a similar bloodline. Innately, my investment level is already sky-high; couple that with the fact that I've been following the ongoing cultural campaign for African-American advertising dollars and overall ad equality, and you get a butt-load of passion. I'm passionate. I want to make a difference. 

In my prior research, I've found that one justification for lack of Black ad spending that has been accepted by advertisers for so long is the notion that "Black consumers will buy anyway." To a certain degree, this point is valid. We are the ultimate consumers of things we both can and cannot afford.

But is it enough? Is the one-size-fits-all, we'll-get-them-through-general-market-spend strategy enough to grab and maintain the attention of Black consumers in a manner that is respectable and says, "You matter?"

I don't think so. 

Yet, this excuse (as I like to call it) has been perpetuated for some years now. It's the go-to answer for higher-ups who just don't know how else to respond to that question - and I think it's becoming a cover-up. 

From what I have seen with this latest African-American initiative coming out of a huge consumer packaged goods (CPG) client's budget, the problem also lies within the strategy. 

It is only logical to assume that, for global brands and major corporations, what makes dollars makes perfect sense. When we step back and consider the spending power of the Black consumer, we see the dollars are there; so where is the disconnect? 

It's in the strategy. 

Media planners and strategists are being trusted with millions of dollars to invest in outlets and vehicles that make the most sense. However, when it comes to African-American strategy, the problem is:

Not enough of us are present in the board meetings, among the decision-makers and influencers, to state facts and drive the discussion

Personal interests over-shadow the real facts

People don't know what the hell they're doing 

It is no secret that with African-American vehicles and outlets come African-American talent. Here lies another problem: White America has always been skeptical and - dare I say it - afraid of the Black community. The clients know this, consumers know this, strategists and planners know this, buyers know this. It's the white elephant in the room; it's what causes strategists to bite their tongues in client meetings and tip-toe around the fact that the dollars are usually found in the more "risky" path - not the safe route. No one wants to say it.

And so everyone comes out of the meeting singing zippidy doo da, flawed strategy in-hand, happy that everyone is still smiling and they still have jobs. 

The next fiscal year comes, the strategy is implemented, it tanks (of course) and what happens? The client decides to pull back dollars on AA strategy and reinvest them into General Market - back to square one. 

The moral of the story here: be the expert. Know what you're talking about and be confident in your recommendations. The client will always lean toward a safe route - it doesn't mean that way is right. If you were trusted to be the expert, it's for a reason. Stand tall and firm in your recommendations, beliefs and strategies (the ones that make sense). Be the expert.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Holiday Greetings

It's the holidays, a time of Christmas cheer, family, love, all that good stuff. 

We get it. 

Please, please, please do not contribute to the inundation of holiday greetings in your clients' and constituents' inboxes. Please put in the effort -- be original and, for God's sake, do something else! 

Send a pastry to the office! Send gift cards, even. If you really want to make a lasting impression, set up a domain just for your client and recap through some sort of creative visual all the great things you've done together throughout the past 12 months. This idea is free. 

Just try to put in the effort. We don't need your non-HTML-friendly greetings that take up all our inbox space, if they don't get deleted before we even open them. Give it some thought, again, if mediocrity isn't really your thing.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday season! Be great. 

xx

C.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Social Media Tracking

Social media is not going anywhere anytime soon. If your brand exists anywhere within a 1,000,000-mile radius of planet Earth, you may want to get with the program. 

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, for those of us who are participating in the social media madness, kudos to you; you've won half the battle. 

The next step is measurement, tracking your efforts to ensure -- for yours and your clients' sakes -- that your efforts (and dollars) have not gone to naught. But! If you're going to conduct social media tracking, please, please, your company begs of you, do it right.

There are three major players in any successful social media measurement tool or system. Sure, you can have one or two of these key features. Be average. But, for those of us who want to be the best, read on. 

Geography. Remember in your middle school Spanish class your teacher would say "location, location, location" to explain conjugation? Well, it applies here as well. Your tool should offer data broken down to the local level -- at least state by state. Geography is key when developing plans overall, and especially key when developing for niche audiences. 

Language. Linguistic breakdowns are awesome. What a joy it would be to open up your business, with this feature alone, to true Hispanic social media targeting? Your tool should track the language of tweets being distributed by community managers and followers alike. This idea is free.

Culture. Culturally relevant content is just as important as language. If your tool is able to track not only in-language but in-culture, you could possibly have the Internet wrapped around your finger -- or it could just do the following:

Bridge the gap between content for General Market and any other niche audience, such as Millennials or Multiculturals

Create trackable results as far as message/content resonance among your audiences, which can ultimately be applied across all social media and translated back into actual creative and copy for ads.

This could also help to make the push for increased spending and overall messaging toward under-served audiences such as African Americans and Asians.

Now that I've picked my own brain, I'm done for the day.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Kunyae.

You know, for someone who employs such a minimalist point of view and rams it down our throats every chance he gets, our dear friend and champion Kanye West is consistently proving that he truly is anything but a minimalist. He's actually been doing the most, as of late. So, there's that.

You want to know how to convince the world that you're capable of everything you set out to do, Kunyae? (Note: I'm spelling his name the same way I pronounce it -- which is the same way his in-laws pronounce his name as well. Which is uber hilarious to me.)

Anyway, it's simple: just do it.

Please don't mistake this for pun.

                  I have never been able to convince anyone of anything while trying to convince them. Instead, I had to turn my focus from trying to convince them to simply making them believers. The strategy works effortlessly each time, without fail. Beyonce's "Out of the Blue" strategy (please, don't mistake that for pun, either; though, it is cute) employed the "put up or shut up" tactic. Granted, Beyonce's power and overall reach is far beyond the normal brand or business, but you get my drift. And to be completely honest, it's a page out of Kanye's book already -- it is the exact method by which he rose to stardom and glory. He proved the haters wrong through his hit-after-hit run with Roc-A-Fella and so many others. And it worked. 

The real issue here is that he hasn't yet closed his chapter with music, and so he's unable to transcend that level of perfection to his other ventures. Although it seems, for us, that Kanye the Producer has reached his peak, too many perfect songs, albums and performances are just not enough for Kanye the Artist.

Be all you can be, Kunyae! We love you, Kunyae! 

Editor's Note: 

kun·YAE

/ˈkunyay/

noun

a creative artist, legendary producer from the Southside of Chicago who has inspired us all to be our best, to never let it rest, and to always make our goods better and our betters best.

[aboutthefourthestate]

Archetypes

The whole archetype model for planning is a bit outdated and, honestly, does nothing for our clients or employees except wastes everyone's time. 

I feel much obliged to simply state, for the record, that archetypes are so last year. Overall, total market and genius strategies, which every marketer should aspire to achieve, should stray away from the boxed thinking that archetypes tend to promote.

The truth is, there is no archetype. I'm sure you're probably reading this, having some type of brain fart. 

                  Again, there is no archetype.

There is no one size to fit all of our consumers, and there is no cookie-cutter outline to illustrate one set way that our consumers take in their media. Archetypes put stereotypes and consumer profile-building at the forefront of a market strategy as if one profile could reflect an entire audience or consumer segment. With the oncoming boom of a new concept called Total Market strategy, marketers will soon find that this is not the case. And naturally, those who are not willing to adapt will be weeded out of the competition and eaten by the proverbial ad dragons that have chomped away at so many businesses before us. OK, I'm getting long-winded.

Moral of the story: try to stay away from boxes or methods that promote box-like ideation. 

[aboutthefourthestate]

About the Fourth Estate

I created this page for my own splashing about, wondering and brainstorming. When I was first hired at Ogilvy, back in 2011, I was given a little red book. Therein lied the many philosophies of the advertising extraordinaire, Mr. David Ogilvy. I read. I pondered. I read some more. And then, albeit two and a half years and a new job later, it dawned on me. 

I, too, could make a collection of all my many philosophies, both within and about the advertising space. I could expand those thoughts, develop ideas right here, on the web, about how to run a media firm from a bottom-heavy approach. I, of course, would be the anchor to keep these philosophies grounded and embroidered in humility. It could be fun.

So, here it is: my little red book of philosophies. Just like David Ogilvy's compilation, only it's not. These are my ideals and thoughts about the fourth estate.