What benefits working with a full-service agency can offer over a project shop.

In the end, designating an advertising Agency of Record (AOR) for your organization should be a decision based on the strategic, long-term marketing and communication needs of your stakeholders in your marketplace.

I know what you’re thinking. My conclusion may sound biased, since I am employed by a full-service ad agency, I can also offer this opinion from the perspective of a CMO with more than 25 years of experience from the client side in healthcare, higher education, and professional services institutions.Read full post...

You have three approaches to choose from when deciding on media planning and buying for your organization: centralized, decentralized or a hybrid.

Reorganization. If your organization is going through it, you’re also going to have to deal with reorganizing a very important marketing function: media buying.

You have three approaches to choose from, each with merits and disadvantages: centralized, decentralized or a hybrid.Read full post...

While business owners keep the doors open, change agents do that and more. They constantly challenge the status quo and find new ways to achieve greater success—and then work tirelessly to ensure that success.

These driven people share four traits:Read full post...

Twenty years ago, I crammed into the Philadelphia Civic Center with more than 6,000 of my fellow Temple University classmates to receive my journalism degree. After a few years spent working for a newspaper, I came over to the “dark side” and joined the agency world. I’ve never looked back.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how different my job is today from when I was a junior account executive all those years ago. For starters, we now have Internet that doesn’t require one of those AOL CDs. But aside from that, I’ve also been thinking about all the great advice I’ve gotten over the course of my career. Here are a few of my favorite tips:Read full post...

Celebrating AB&C’s 40th anniversary at a Mad Men themed party.

Many have heard me talk about how lucky I was to “fall into” the advertising business. Not sure it was pure luck—my dad owned an advertising/PR shop for many years that was located, coincidentally, about two blocks from my office today.

My entry into this business was pretty much accidental. I had given notice at my other job and told the agency I had been working with as a client that I was “talking to some folks.” To this day, I swear I had no appointments lined up, but the agency said, “Well, would you talk to us?” Three meetings later, I was in the advertising/PR world!Read full post...

Shawn Kessler talks recruitment strategy with ASPR 2015 attendees.

This year I attended my fifth ASPR (Association of Staff Physician Recruiters) conference. My biggest takeaway: The physician shortage has truly become a real, living, breathing thing that, understandably, has a lot of recruiters terrified.

Rewind to 2011. Chicago. The conference was smaller with fewer attendees and vendors.  You would hear “The physician shortage is coming” and “Take these steps so your health system is prepared” or “These are the recruiters you should be using.” The term “recruitment marketing” was hardly known at that point.Read full post...

The Oakland A’s announced they are hosting their very first LGBT Pride Night.

Indiana could learn something from California, or at least from a member of the Oakland Athletics.

Diversity has been on the minds of everyone in the country this week. Obviously, we have all heard about the religious-freedom law that Indiana just “secretly” not-so-secretly passed. I am positive that if you did not have an opinion one way or the other about LGBTQ rights, you do now. It saddens me that this is where this country is at, and these are the stories in the headlines. I also recognize that even bad publicity is good publicity or at least is creating awareness. Read full post...

Whether you’re the old pro bringing in a new client or you’re the newbie at your agency, you quickly realize how important relationships are. How do you build trust quickly? And how do you sustain and strengthen the client/agency relationship? Who better to ask than AB&C’s CEO John Hawkins and Director of Client Services Mike Gallagher? John and Mike have been working in the wonderful world of advertising for more than 60 years combined. Together they prescribed four simple steps to build strong, long-lasting client relationships:Read full post...

The budget tango – the precious dance clients and agencies do around the marketing budget.

Budgets.

There, I said it. I’ve never been a fan of surprises.

There’s a silly little dance that takes place in most client-agency relationships around the subject of budgets. I call it the budget tango.Read full post...

Happiness is the new ROI.

Really? What an intriguing thought. But whose happiness are we talking about? Employees’? Management’s? The entire company’s?

I’ve heard a lot of sentences begin with the words “happiness is.” Most of the definitions are so simple and “inspirational” that I don’t give them a second thought. But this one made me stop and click through to the video presentation given by Centro CEO Shawn Riegsecker at the 4A’s Talent 2030 Conference.Read full post...

Good teamwork means cooperating and collaborating.

Growing up I remember every weekend watching ABC’s “The Wide World of Sports.” It was 1961 when Wimbledon was broadcast for the first time. I decided then tennis would be my sport. I’ve played since high school and have been playing competitive team tennis for the last 20-plus years. About a year ago I was given a book called “Tennis and the Meaning of Life.” It’s a literary anthology of the game, spanning many years, including short stories and poetry from the likes of Somerset Maugham and E.B. White. It got me thinking about what tennis has meant to me.Read full post...

We all know that good advertising and branding are important parts of selling products. But did you ever wonder what that really fancy logo and packaging are hiding? I’m talking about the major brands we trust to feed ourselves and our children. They say they use all-natural ingredients: whole grains, organic vegetables — you know, the good-for-you stuff. But what most of us don’t know is that the main ingredients used in most foods are grown from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are now known to cause a slew of health problems and illnesses, including cancer — and that’s just the beginning.Read full post...

Bottom line: I feel better about the Walgreens brand based simply on this seemingly minor customer service tweak.

I’m about to place a national brand in a positive light. But in the interest of full disclosure, our agency has not, and never has had, any relationship with this brand. In other words, we have nothing to gain by pumping up this brand within the hallowed halls of the AB&C blog-a-teria. So now that we have that straight, let the games begin!

The other night, I visited my local Walgreen’s pharmacy. I bought two greeting cards and a gallon of 2% milk. As the clerk handed me my receipt she said, “Thanks — and be well.” On my way out I thought, “Did she just say ‘be well’?” Suddenly, a warm, life-affirming feeling washed over me — just as it does when those cute little yorkies scamper across the floor at the Westminster dog show. What happened to the standard “Have a nice day,” I thought. Or even the beloved “Take ‘er easy”?Read full post...

People will complain about privacy even as they don their Google glasses and other wearable computers.

It’s January, and everyone’s fancy turns to predicting the future. Okay, maybe not everyone’s, but that’s what you’ll hear a lot about this time of year. December is for looking backwards and January is the forward-looking month.

JWT, a division WPP Group (formerly known as J. Walter Thompson), always makes predictions about marketing communications in the new year.

This year, JWT writes that people have been motivated by what’s called FOMO (fear of missing out). And it has been one of the main drivers (besides convenience) in our adoption of communications technology. We have also given up a great deal of privacy in exchange for always being in the know. It’s not that we wanted to give it up; it was just part of the bargain. JWT thinks this is the year we the consumers will take some of our privacy back. It’s what tech blogger Anil Dash calls JOMO (joy of missing out).Read full post...

Spending time with family and friends is the greatest perk of all.

Not so long ago, a company would lure a potential employee with a competitive salary and medical benefits. These days, companies have new ammunition — perks. Perks represent the “value” employers put on their employees. But they also have a potentially darker side.

Salary.com recently posted an article about 14 companies that offer incredible employee perks. At first blush, they all sounded amazing and of course my employer should adopt all of them immediately. But it became clear that these perks were about keeping the employee onsite. Free lunches and dinners, yoga, a playroom, childcare, on-site gyms, on-site concierges to handle life’s chores — everything a working stiff might need to get through the day, right outside his or her office door.Read full post...