Lance Koenig

As influencers of creativity, Account & Client Leaders can directly SUPPORT their creative partners in strengthening their partnership with the client. Here are a few key takeaways from this fabulous piece about business-minded CMOs by Jaime Robinson of JOAN Creative. 1. Join your creative teams in the process of 'living, loving, playing and experimenting' in social media 2. Immerse your teams in the business and sales cycles, leveraging their creativity to solve tough business problems 3. Empower your teams & your client by having a plan that includes experimentation 4. Encourage your teams to openly share their expertise and learning 5. Support your teams in delivering work that drives business outcomes AND makes clients proud

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Sometimes, my job is designing a logo, and sometimes, my job is designing a space. We've created some fun brand experience installations for our partners that I'm really proud of (and have pushed me outside of my comfort zone). Read more about our approach to crafting identity-driven spaces in my latest blog. #BrandScape #DigitalRelativity

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The first Creative Director Masterclass is halfway through, time to sign up for the next one. Why do it? Well, it's lonely when you hit that CD chair, you need to get a lot right and navigate a lot of sh#t. Advice helps. I've done all of that and can guide you through it. In 2019 I wrote a post on LinkedIn called - HOW TO BE A CREATIVE DIRECTOR WITHOUT SUCKING AT IT. That post got 800,00+ views, about 10,000 likes and around 600 comments - it struck a nerve. In the post, I shared around 15 things I believe you need to do to be a better and more effective Creative Director/Leader. Then, I started coaching current Creative Directors/Leaders and those who wanted to grow into the role. If you're keen to get this role right, then get in touch. Limited spots are available - I am a one-person operation. Some more details are in the attached carousel. #creativedirector #creativecoach #creativecareers

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💥 Dynamic duo Theresa Contreras (Design Muse) and Jane Thurmond (Fast Lane Jane), hosts of the High Octane Hustle and industry badasses are dropping strategies for building killer brand partnerships! Their top strategy? Alignment. Make sure your core values and content style align with a brand. 🤝✨🔥 These women are pros! Check out the full episode with Erica Sietsma for more juicy details. Link in comments! #CreatorsAndCoffee #ProTips #EnthusiastEconomy #ContentCreators #Automotive #Aftermarket #Motorsports #CreatorEconomy #Partnerships #DesignMuse #FastLaneJane #TheresaContreras #JaneThurmond #Podcast

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Now more than ever, VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET. 83% say brands should do more than just talk about their values—they should act on them. And consumers will buy the brands that align with those values in action. Now more than ever. #BrandPolitics # #SocialIssues #MakeGoodMoney

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Extraordinary #product imagery comes from respecting the details. See our value proposition here (and some cool visuals too): https://lnkd.in/gs_RY9yP #cgi #render #3d #visualization #marketing #productmarketing #video #animation Made in California with KeyShot

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Speak out on topics that truly matter and authentically align with your brand's values. And do not play the short game of acquiescing to the usual mob of purpose-haters. #SocialJustice #BrandValues #TakeAction

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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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Hard to believe that this continues to be hotly debated and protested by both client and agency slide leaders. The answer seems obvious. I would argue against testing a Brand's positioning strategy with consumers. If the right leaders have the right inputs / data (especially consumer and competitive understanding), I recommend not testing a strategy per se. Rather, I encourage clients to move briskly into creative development and then test the creative. This serves as a disaster check on the strategy and also paves way to getting business building creative in market.

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#8 in a Series: Embrace opposition. Contrast gives your creativity clearer relief. Reread the opening paragraph of Moby Dick, and you’ll see what I mean. 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒 𝐼𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑎𝑒𝑙. Three words set into a 198-word paragraph of streaming prose. Their curtness emphasizing the urgency of the story that slowly unfolds. I have found this to be a reliable creative tool to punctuate our work in creative marketing content as well. A steady diet of the same in execution reduces the power of your idea, no matter how brilliant. Break the pace. A pause makes the speed feel speedier. Dam the stream of consciousness. The period gives the thought flow a memorable form. Dim the lights. Black makes the white feel brighter.  In visual, in editing, in writing, in presenting… When crafting your creative expression, consider what it is set against. Photo: Philadelphia near city hall scene from taxi.

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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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I asked GPT what David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach, Mary Wells Lawrence, and Lee Clow, what they would think of the new Jaguar rebrand and film. No surprises. In sum, Ogilvy might admire the artistic execution but urge Jaguar to include more concrete, benefit-driven messaging to convert viewers into buyers. His advice would likely lean toward blending the glamour with a stronger product-centric narrative. Overall, Bernbach would likely praise the commercial's artistic direction but push Jaguar to ensure that its boldness is coupled with emotional resonance and a stronger product narrative. He’d remind them that creativity should always serve to elevate the brand’s core identity. In essence, Mary Wells Lawrence might admire the ad’s bold vision and stylish execution but encourage Jaguar to add a layer of wit, memorability, and emotional resonance to truly make it stand out. Her philosophy would focus on ensuring the campaign isn’t just visually stunning but also joyfully unforgettable. Clow would likely praise the campaign’s visual elegance and cultural integration but might push for more emotional storytelling to forge a deeper, lasting bond with the audience. His advice would likely be to make Jaguar’s new identity as bold in storytelling as it is in design. I asked for George Lois' opinion. GPT told me he said to EFF off. No surprise. #Jaguar #Advertising #Legends #Clow #Bernbach #Ogilvy #WellsLawrence

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Oh, brilliant advertising, how I miss you so. Part MCCLXXXVIII I can't be the only one who would love to see ABSOLUT revisit/revive this world-famous campaign. The inaugural ad, ABSOLUT RETURN. #whenadvertisingtriedharder #creativitymatters #adsworthsharing #ohbrilliantadvertising

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I'm deeply saddened to hear of the purging of creative talent at a company where several brilliant people I know worked. There's a disheartening belief at some companies that thoughtful, creative, strategic thinking isn't as valuable in an AI and data-driven marketing landscape. Nothing could be further from the truth. My strongest desire is to secure a role as a creative leader at a forward-thinking startup or entrepreneurial-minded growing company that needs exceptional, passionate, inquisitive minds to expand its brand, engage its community, and propel its marketing and creative efforts. If that happens, I could bring a team of people who fit that bill perfectly and immediately transform an in-house creative/marketing team. If you're looking for creative talent — ranging from brand management, design, content development, digital marketing, creative leadership, video marketing, data storytelling, and/or social media marketing, message me. I can direct you to a wide range of talent seeking immediate employment. And I can provide you with the highest recommendation and vouch for their tremendous capabilities.

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"Neglecting measurement is like working ineffectively. If you can't show results, it's hard to justify continuing." Amen to that. Top article from Wavemaker that highlights some myths worth busting: 1) Does measurement stifle creativity? Not if you're measuring emotions. As my colleague Barney Worfolk Smith 🦩 likes to quote, the goal is 'just move me, dude'. We are helping brands understand that emotions felt at a high level moves the consumer to do something because the content becomes sticky, it creates a memory, and that memory creates the desired outcome. And yes, that's the same for B2B. 2) It's just for hero content. It used to be because testing was expensive. But the hero is the tip of the iceberg of what we test today because the model has changed. What used to cost thousands per asset to test is now a fraction of that. This means we're testing everything: static and video created internally and externally. At that price point, it makes sense to know how all of your content/ads are working, not just the hero. Otherwise, how can you truly benchmark your performance or feed the data back into a proper learning agenda? 3) It's too late to make changes. It is if testing is going to take 4 weeks, but what about if it's real-time? Testing can now be iterative not just because it's real-time (but also because of the cost model). You can refine the assets for the chosen media environment to ensure that it hits home. Not so long ago, it was purely a 'tick box' exercise, whereas we can now test multiple edits, not just the top 1-3. We've seen the impact this has: a real-time 11x increase in sales of the original vs. the optimized. 4) Testing is too expensive for MMM. This was true up until the application of AI. It's now completely feasible to add a creative signal into the model. With creative driving almost 50% of the campaign performance, this is a game-changer. 5) It's hard to prove that testing drives outcomes in the real world. The challenge for this is that brands didn't used to have or want to share sales data. This has changed rapidly. We're now working with brands to help model their sales data with our testing to help improve hard outcomes. We can show them what's working and help them use this data to predict future performance and power highly valuable insight that helps improve the content. As pointed out in the article, effectiveness and creativity go hand in hand. This is a fact. Because the data in the creative, when applied to the media mix, is pushing effectiveness through the roof. Creative data improves targeting, powers DCO by explaining not just which creatives to optimise for but why. What does this mean in the real world? As above at DAIVID 🦩 we're seeing improved performance for our clients on their media metrics and importantly, hard sales metrics.

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You get what you measure. And now it's (finally!) time to bring that numbers game to community management. 🤓📈 The newest whitepaper by SAMY Alliance shares the ABCs of CM strategy in the form of CAOS. Community. Advocacy. Outreach. Score. The whitepaper written by Joe Moring, our amazing colleague from London, walks you through the why, what and how. Download it from our website. Let's. 🚀

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The importance of putting brand and consumer relationship on perspective.

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

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