The Gig Economy Only Benefits Companies

Cheap labor made right here in the old U S of A.

I hate gig/freelance/piece work and the way it treats the people who do the work. Always have. Always will.

A new report reminds me why.

Average income from 9 of the largest gig companies is $299/month. That's $3,600 annually.

You'd have to make the average at 6 gig companies to meet the poverty line of ~$22,000.

And these companies are valued at how many billions?

Utter bollocks.

Timesheets Killed Advertising Creativity

The moment you sell your services based on the amount of time it takes, is the moment you lose all ability to control your value.

By reducing ideas and deliverables to a finite number of hours, there was an immediate timetable place on how much longer there would be outstanding creativity and career longevity in the advertising industry.

The pace of that slide was increased by the consolidation of the advertising industry into a few holding companies.

Holding companies beholden to shareholders. Shareholders who like more hours worked at lower wages.

The easiest way to reduce agency overhead—because agencies only really have human capital—is to reduce salaries. That means less experience. And that means less creativity.

Yes, I know. All that youth has been specifically trained in tasks. They know how to run the machines and the widgets and the gizmos.

They don't have the first clue about how to use any of that technical expertise to actually solve a business problem.

They've not been shown what that looks like.

And there are no elder stateswomen/men to serve as mentors.

So the work becomes more technical and less creative.

And we all suffer.

Even Picasso knew that experience was the ultimate master of craft. He stated it simply as, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

Every Company Needs A Copy Chief

Writing, and more specifically copywriting, is more important than most people imagine. To put it bluntly, it is the foundation of every company's growth.

It's the foundation because it's how a company presents itself to customers, constituents and consumers in the world at large.

Yet most people treat it as a fungible item and assume that a basic grasp of speaking the language is enough to qualify someone to weigh in on copy. I've lost count of the number of times I've received feedback that starts with a variation of, "I was showing this to the receptionist/call center/woman who is currently married to me ..."

Oddly though, those same people never have a chance to comment on the creative brief, analyze the data or meet about the marketing strategy. Nope. But a pulse is all that's required to comment on the outcome of all of that input. 

With so many commenting on a company's voice, that voice becomes fragmented. 

Call centers don't have a unified script.

CEOs slip from talking points into narcissistic, company-killing diatribes.

Print ads don't work with TV spots don't work with online video don't work with corporate websites. And that leaves out the wonderful world of social media where there are constant public failures because of the wrong message/tone/moment.

To help ensure that a company's copy (aka The Brand Voice) remains clear and consistent, there should be one person at the top of the food chain who is concerned about every syllable, every comma (regardless of whether it's serial or not) and every call to action.

That's the only way to ensure that a company's most valuable and most undervalued asset can be appropriately handled.

Forget asking the call center/receptionist/spouse-du-jour about the latest email marketing efforts.

Ask the copy chief.

Then pay close attention to the answer. 

Pride Of Authorship

I write a lot of ads.

Some of them aren't ads as most people think of such things. They're direct mail pieces, or emails, or web banners, or web pages, or infographics, or articles (aka content), or brochures, or something else that isn't popping to mind.

I treat each one as crucial.

I take care to craft copy that makes sense, fits the "brand voice" and flows in a way that should interrupt, inform and induce action with the audience.

I am careful with the construction of the words, the flow of the thoughts and the point I'm trying to make.

I am not, however, the sort of copywriter who treats his work as inviolate.

If there are suggestions to improve it, make them. They might be better than what I had written.

What you shouldn't do is rewrite my work and pass it off as mine.

If you rewrite it, own it.

Then deal with the consequences of crappy copy.

Monday Malaise

I forgot.

I forgot how simple it is (when there's nothing catastrophic happening) to choose to be happy. 

I allowed something small and annoying become something huge that fed into some weird sense of anger.

It's not that I was angry for a reason. Or angry with someone in particular. I just allowed myself to be angry. 

At everyone.

For everything.

Stupid of me.

I'm fed. I'm clothed. I have shelter. No one I love is immediate danger or facing some incurable illness.

In short, I chose to not be happy. For no reason. Just because I could. 

What a waste of a beautiful day.

Yes, People Read. They Even Read Ads.

As a copywriter who cares about craft and nuance and style, I'm peeved every day.

Or every work day at least.

"There's so many words."

"Let's make it shorter."

"No one reads copy."

Yes. I get it. You're super busy and simply glanced at it. In a meeting room. With zero sense of context.

It wasn't a direct mail piece waiting in your box.

It wasn't a brochure sitting on a counter at the bank.

It wasn't a headline you stumbled across in your facebook feed.

It was a piece of paper.

Handed to you.

To which you are obligated to respond, because that's how you get paid.

So you glanced at it and gave a canned answer.

That doesn't mean "people don't read copy."

It means you can't be bothered to you.

I take care to make sure that what I write is both well crafted, and meets the business objective.

It's what I've done for 20-something years.

So take that moment when you're formulating your canned response to tell me no one reads, to actually read it.

Then we can have a conversation about the actual work. Not some learned fear of long pieces of prose that was developed as a result of reading too many Russian novels.

My Boss Is 10 Years Old

Yes. Literally. At least for a little while longer. She is almost 11.

No, she isn't my supervisor, or my supervisor's supervisor.

She can't sign my expense report.

She can't approve my vacation days.

She doesn't participate in a 360 review of my work.

She isn't the one signing my paycheck.

She's still the boss.

Why? The work I do is for her.

The work I do pays for food, shelter, clothes and the other necessities. It funds her extra-curricular activities and spur-of-the-moment froyo cravings. It buys her books, and blocks, and soccer balls.

The work I do gives me a chance to be a chauffeur, wanna-be coach, enthusiastic cook, organic gardener, chess partner, and many other things.

There is, however, an inescapable fact: The people to whom I'm accountable from 9 to 5 aren't the ones that really matter at the end of the day.

My job is to provide advertising ideas to my supervisors in exchange for money.

My real boss couldn't care less what I'm paid to do.

And I'm completely comfortable with that.

A Sharp Knife And A Sturdy Pan

Kitchen gadgets come in an endless variety. So many of them appear to have a singular purpose.

Empanada maker. Salad spinner. Spiralizer. Avocado slicer. Watermelon slicer. Tomato slicer. Apple corer.

The list goes on and on and on.

Yet when you begin to cook your own food, read recipes or pick up a book about the craft of cooking, there are invariably just two tools you must have (in addition to a stove/oven)—a sharp knife and a sturdy pan.

That's it. Two items can help you prepare the vast majority of food you'll consume.

Your ability to use those items to create something delicious then relies on the ingredients you use, your skill with them which is often based on experience and practice, and your imagination.

You do know you don't have to stick to a recipe word for word, right? Unless you're baking, and that's when the chemistry involved is more precise.

Advertising is the same.

You need art.

You need copy.

You need attention to craft and the ability to generate mountains of ideas.

Banner ads. Billboards. Brochures. Content marketing stories. Long form print. Online video. Radio. Short form print. Social media ads or posts. TV. Websites. White papers.

The specific medium doesn't matter. If you're a copywriter, you can write ads in any format. If you're an art director, you can design in any format.

The fundamentals don't change.

Only the way the "experts" pitch them to clients and make hiring decisions change.

New Rules Of Work. Same As It Ever Was.

The new rules of work are the same as the old rules.

Show up on time.

Do your best possible work.

Learn something new.

Teach something new.

Be kind, courteous and respectful to everyone with whom you work.

Go home and be with people you love.

Advertising's Golden Age Lies Ahead

Innovate. Disrupt. Pivot.

These are more than the latest business buzzwords.

These are the children of creativity. To bring the results to life, they must be communicated in a compelling way. The golden age of advertising lies ahead of us, not behind us.

To bring forth a Renaissance after the current dark age, we must interrupt, inform and induce action more compellingly than ever.

We must be tenacious and creatively courageous.

We must see opportunity in even the most basic flyer or postcard or email subject line.

We must care about craft.

In essence, we must love what we create.

Availability Is The Most Important Ability

In an increasingly digital world, more and more people work remotely.

I think it's wonderful that we can work from anywhere. I firmly believe, however, that being in the same location as colleagues changes everything.

When you're separated by scores, hundreds or thousands of miles it becomes all to easy to forget that there are people with complementary abilities who can complete and improve upon what you're doing.

We look to those nearby.

We look to those who show up every day.

We look to those who always have their hands raised to answer questions and offer assistance.

If you're not around, you won't have the opportunity to do the work.