Colleen Leddy

HOT TAKE INCOMING!! Look at Liquid Death. Started by an ad creative. Now a billion dollar brand most creatives in advertising wish they could do work for. (Kudos Mike Cessario and Andy Pearson) Jason G. started Illicit Elixirs. Jan Livingston started Gray Whale Gin. (Who else?) Imagine if MORE advertising creatives started a brand and showed the industry what advertising is supposed to be? Maybe then we could get back to making work that's fun and not marketing from a place of fear. We could raise our own creative bar and force clients to play on the level we all know they should. Here's an idea I came up with while writing this: What if we all pitched in $150 a year to help build a brand from nothing to Liquid Death status. (that's one less coffee a week in LA.) We'd all be owners and share in its success. We could call it "Go F This Biz" (Fund) It's a Go Fund Me platform for ad creatives who have ideas for companies and want to get out of advertising but still make great advertising. I'm in. Who's in?? If my network pitched in that'd be 1.3MM to start. Not bad. Just a thought. Have a great holiday weekend ya'll! #Stayhungrymyfriends

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Conquering your fear of flying solo is just the beginning. So many more fears to squish. Crib Notes: Not flying solo was the answer. Thanks ADWEEK for the feature. #adweek #advertising #marketing #startuplife #creativeviolence

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Hawk... you know... Should brands follow trends? As tempting it maybe on the virality of said trend... 1. Only if it fits the brand image and values. 2. Only if it is relevant and also has some value for the target audience. 3. Only if you are not following all trends all the time. 4. Only if you have some clever idea that is different from what other brands are doing in following such trend. Of course the nature of the trend is that we get on and stay as close to it without infringing copyright or open ourselves for lawsuits - but a lazy copy paste is not a good way. Put some effort, come up with a clever idea that taps into the trend. And no, for this particular trend, it's not a good fit for most of the brands. Sure some brands could - I can see a condoms (you know with extra lube), cough medicine (or dry mouth medicine if there is any) or .. I can't think of more, but I'd keep my brand away from this trend - unless we have a clever idea!!! ADWEEK attempts to answer. Check it out.

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This is a great perspective on the "path to purchase." In this latest report, Mars United Commerce presents a new approach to the classic “path to purchase” that starts with shopper mindsets rather than the more traditional focus on behaviors or tactics in this latest report. Download your copy here: https://lnkd.in/gCkj6Ysz #pathtopurchase #ecommerce #commercemarketing #strategy

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The term "non-working dollars" gets thrown around a lot as a way for people to justify production budgets. The basic idea being that money that isn't spent on media (i.e. getting the message in front of people) isn't doing anything beneficial for the advertiser and needs to be minimized as much as possible. Hence non-working. In reality, the WAY you say something is intrinsic to the way its perceived. This visual, originally shown to me by the one and only Michael Fanuele, is a great demonstration of the tight connection between message and delivery. Cheap can mean authentic, but it can also mean untrustworthy. Set budgets accordingly.

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“…So, consider this my plea. To agency leaders, creatives and everyone who still believes in the power of a big idea: It’s time to be bold. It’s time to take risks. It’s time to burn the old playbooks and write a new one. Because the creative people that figure this out? The ones that aren’t afraid to put creativity first, be true partners to their clients and adapt to the way brands operate today? Those will be the creatives that don’t just survive this shift, but thrive in it.” STRAIGHT FROM AN EXPERIENCED CLIENT. UNFILTERED. #creativitymatters

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Today’s modern consumers – especially women – are more multifaceted than ever before. How can brands break through? According to Cristina Wells, SVP Marketing, Subway, it's about delivering content and engaging guests in a much more meaningful way. "Consumer needs must be at the center of everything we do." For more insights check out the full webinar, Women Leaders Redefining Restaurant Marketing: https://okt.to/htPMeG #restaurantmarketing #subway #womeninleadership

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This is backward thinking. Of course, brands and marketers should seek to avoid backlash, but not by incentivizing persons of influence to stay "apolitical." What kind of society are we advancing if political ideas cannot be shared on free and open platforms? I submit that our goal should not be to keep brands away from political discussion but to require that those discussions be civil and responsible if brands are to be present. This is measurable, enforceable, and healthy for democracy. Brands don't suffer backlash because of adjacency to topics or opinions. They suffer backlash when those opinions are delivered in hateful ways or by hateful people. Remove the personal attack and you'll remove the controversy. It's really that simple to address brand safety for brands around political content. Let's help brands reward and celebrate responsible creators who help audiences better understand the most important issues of our day.

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I got that feeling, because Im at Target, Sipping a latte, Shopping for nothing, but buying everything. Isn't this Yargets overall strategy? They want us to stroll, roam, browse, and enjoy being in their store. This ad is absolutely hilarious and brilliant. It highlights the thing about Target that we all love and evokes emotion. While watching this commercial I saw myself in a few of these characters (cough, cough, the latte drinker, and plant enthusiast). 🎵 Perfect song choice. When it feels like a no-brainer that this ad worked.... that means its a real gem and a marketing win. Watch the Ad 👉 https://lnkd.in/gSQ2e9nY #Target #TargetStores #targetCommercial #FunnyCommercial #Marketing #MarketingWin #MarketingSuccess #MarketingInsights

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Read this piece on our own James Brownstein of Poster Child and Brownstein Group.

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Tommy’s Briefs: What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you've ever made? Tom McManimon—Founder of StimulusBrand Communications: “One of the best investments I’ve ever made is working on myself becoming a strong creative director. In that role, I get to influence teams of people and be their mentor, help them rise, and deliver their very best. In my career, I have surrounded myself with accomplished creative directors and learned from them. Another investment I’ve made is in public speaking. It’s one thing to present creative campaigns to CEOs or boards of directors which I have done for years, but another thing to be on a stage in front of a bigger audience—in  service to them. So, I enrolled in professional speaker training (again, from some of the very best) and learned a “thing or two.” I am in a career that requires that you know your target audience. The same holds true in speaking. Creating material that is relevant and meaningful is key. It became important to me to try to share messages and emotional stories that go beyond advertising to lift people and help business leaders have one of those lightbulb moments. To accomplish that, you have to learn to write well, rehearse it, and then deliver it as the authentic you. I was wise enough to surround myself with a team of people who were great at that and they help me every day to be compelling, engaging and on point.

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You might not think that The Penguin show and Joker movie, the Pac-12, and Chick-Fil-A have much much in common, but they all represent the shifting meaning of "brand" in the post-modern media world. All of them are pushing the limits of brand power by attempting to extend well beyond their core reason for being. But the differing ways they are attempting to do it provide some big lessons for brand marketers. #branding #brandmarketing #marketing #strategy #chickfila https://lnkd.in/euWXt_Vj

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Unlocking AI's Full Potential: The Art of Effective Prompting 🎯 Ever heard the saying "Garbage in, garbage out"? It’s a familiar refrain I've often heard in my advertising career while navigating the murky waters of creative briefs and production schedules. The essence? Clear, accurate instructions are key to achieving the desired outcome on time and on budget. The world of AI tools is no different. Every day, I come across articles, posts, and lessons highlighting a significant oversight: many users approach sophisticated AI with the same casualness as a basic Google search. The result? Frustration and dismissive comments like “This tool is so inaccurate.” Prompting is a skill, a method to unlock AI's full potential and investing time in crafting clear, detailed prompts pays significant dividends and bring next-level transformation into our professional workflows. But where to start? The tips and thoughts below might make it easier to get going: 🗓️ Make a commitment & keep it! Carve out 1 hour every week to learn about prompting. It is a small, achievable weekly goal. 📖 Start easy (I know, dah!) Focus on text-to-text basic prompting techniques first. Wanting to cover too much too soon can trigger overwhelm and paralysis. Image and video-based prompting is more complex. (Talking from experience here.) Test & compare output on different platforms ie: ChatGPT / Gemini / Claude and see what works for you most. 🎓 Use free resources to learn. Coursera, DeepLearning.ai, Google, IBM and all the popular learning platforms offer free content. If you search for events on LI, you’ll find a lot of short workshops. I’ve just seen one today by Allie K. Miller that looks 🔥, mark your calendars! - https://buff.ly/3Wz9c1S. And mentioning Allie is a perfect segue to the next point… :-) 🔍 Follow experts, who post regularly and share their knowledge generously. I have learnt SO MUCH on LinkedIN. Happy to share a list of those I follow. Let me know if interested! Spend a few weeks, investing just a little into your AI learning journey, and trust me, by autumn you'll see the difference in confidence and skill. AI is here to augment our efforts, one good prompt at a time! Let's go! #AI #PromptEngineering #Efficiency #Innovation #ProfessionalGrowth #Marketing #AIInfluencers (image generated on Ideogram by me.) ❓ Thoughts? Questions? Let me know in the comments. If you found this useful, please share, so others can learn too.

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"Chaos asks questions of you order never will" The wonderful Colleen DeCourcy retells her experience working with Dan Wieden when she took over as Chief Creative Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Her immediate response to me asking about working with Dan was this quote about chaos. We have a natural reaction against chaos because it can be destructive and unsettling but what if we reframed it as a necessary condition for achieving something truly breakthrough 🌪 Chaos propels you forward while order maintains the status quo 🌪 Chaos creates leaders while order creates managers 🌪 Chaos demands a response while order delays it 🌪 Chaos reveals the cracks while order papers them up 🌪 Chaos forces ownership while order delegates it 🌪 Chaos fosters creativity while order fosters compliance 🌪 Chaos requires trust while order replaces it It got me thinking whether there is an optimal mix of Chaos and order required to achieve breakthrough ideas and momentum? We spend most of our time creating order but what if what we actually needed was an injection of chaos? To hear more from this episode check out the links in the comments John Kearon Kerry Collinge Orlando Wood

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Since its inception, TV ads have been a catalyst for brands to boost ROI. It's basic psychology: the more exposure, the higher the likelihood of purchase. #TV #Advertising

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Groundhog #Lays recognized as one the top 6 breakthrough campaigns in the first half of 2024 and in some great company with CeraVe, E.L.F. BEAUTY and others in this feature from Marketing Dive. For an idea that came together in 2 weeks from a text of "hey I got an idea..." to being on air 75 times in a single day, it was fun to watch the consumers that loved it (or thought they were goin crazy) and turning Groundhog Day into a marketing moment. https://lnkd.in/g_9UQPss This team has talent for days and days and days. "and I'll say it again!" Brett O'Brien Steven Williams Tina Mahal Michelle McAlister Amanda Paluzi Corral Cilla Sutfin Jordan Gilliam George Dewey Isabel Gaeta Katie Anctil Jeanette Zimmer Jenny Allenbaugh Gabrielle Miller Dan Donovan Molly Alesi Nicole Wyand Joey Isip John Campbell Dan Sanborn @Jeffrey Benevides Kathleen Swanson Molly Alves Dan Cohen Noah Goodwyn Young Edith Ortiz Marin Bergman Ilana Shenitzer @Elias Haymandos Jane Alexander Katelyn Muchowski Katherine Angst Monica Wiedemann @Elizabeth Militello OMD USA Ketchum POV Agency Ryan Reynolds Maximum Effort @Jimmy Kimmel's @kimmelot Disney Advertising James Clarke #Lays #magicmakers #joy #groundhogday #marketing #fritolay #marketing #marketingdrive #pepsico #breakthrough #ideas #concepting #advertising #breakthrough

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LinkedIn AI asked me to answer: “Balancing multiple ad projects with tight deadlines in advertising. How can you maintain a work-life balance?” Here’s my response: When this happens, are is always one project that is more pressing than the others. The key here is communication: When that next deadline gets layered onto what you already have, you need to speak up right away. This might mean the timelines get adjusted on your new project, or it could mean that your other project deadlines can get pushed out to accommodate for the new one. This is where project managers meet to discuss how to manage their "resource". It might even come down to brining in additional creative resources in order to meet the deadlines. It's not realistic to expect quality work with no time to do it properly. Good agencies and good project managers understand that and they will advocate for time and resources to do it right.

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If you ever struggled with any of these: - How to determine a good idea? - Defining clarity and simplicity in an idea? - What is a good creative brief? - Finding the right projects to work on? - How to find and hire good people? Have a listen.

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I remember in my early career, digital and traditional spending was right around 50/50 overall. Bottom line is we as strategists need to be sure we are helping clients get the best possible outcomes for their advertising. That means keeping closely in tune with both business outcomes and media performance. Rather than categorizing digital vs. traditional - I like to focus on effectiveness. I don’t care what method of advertising is used, so long as I approach it with the best possible outcomes for my clients.

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