I am many things...a father, a partner, a explorer, a question asker, a marketer, an influencer and most important my father's son. The fruit of my world are five beautiful children.
My partner and I have 5 kids. The oldest child, Rae, is 16 going on 20. She is sweet, a cheerleader, a wonderful woman, and oh so hormonal. The rest of the clan are boys. Cole, 14, Asa, 12, and the twins, Dane and Ty, 10. The boys are all avid athletes...not really sure where they get the skills but love watching them. They are all great kids and a lot of fun. Having twins at the end has served for a lot of comic relief. They do more things as a result of having older brothers. When they learned to ride their bike without training wheels, I almost had a heart attack!
After many years working as a client, I came to my senses and entered the advertising world. Working with large and small companies in helping to solve their business challenges is fascinating. Leveraging changing technology and communication options is just plain exciting. My greatest mentor is my 16 year old. She spent an entire trip to Portland texting to her friend sitting next to her in the car. This made me realize that people are changing...sometimes I wonder if it is for the best. I do not think there is anything more exciting than to find out!
I am heading to the DMA's on Monday to speak on direct response and social media. Besides being a bit nervous, as I am on most speaking engagements, I am eager to have conversations on the topic. So many people are trying to leverage social media as a tactic and that gets me worried. Clients are coming to us left and right asking for a social media tactic (a facebook application, for example) without a clear idea if it is relevant or even wanted by an organic audience that is in control of the environment.
Marc Schwartz
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I am so proud of my daughter. She wrote a paper for her school about the rights of all to marry and be considered equal, respected, and whole. According to my seventeen year old, "The government is supposed to support everybody in the country and not discriminate. People’s opinions on the matter are hard to change; however, is it un-constitutional to put a law saying two individuals can not do something simply because of the people they choose to love. Homosexuality is like a race; it can not be chosen or changed. People who are homosexual should not have to hide who they are because the whole population does not support their personal choices." It made me think that something we are doing is creating a thoughtful young woman.
Marc Schwartz
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One thing that I love about the ways things are is that we do not have to recreate the wheel over and over. If content exists out there, why not tap into it and get the benefits of others interesting thinking. It becomes a two way street...
Marc Schwartz
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I am working on a talk that I will be giving at DMA Days in NY (June 10th at the Javitz center for those attending) concerning the question is social media be used for direct response. My basic thesis is that social media relies on an expanded form of direct response, which I think of as direct engagement. Consumers today want less fluff from a company and more relevant and authentic information from a company. What that is prompting me to explore is the notion that a brand in this socially converse society must stand on its own two feet in order to survive.
Marc Schwartz
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I love Facebook because I was able to reconnect with a long time old friend. Chad and I have always been close but time, kids, moves, relationships, and distance hindered us keeping in touch. Over time we seemed to have lost phone numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses. Our separation ended last week when I invited him to join me as a friend on Facebook, through another mutual friend.
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A comment about Google's being named once again the most valuable brand was very interesting, "Google's brand dominance is further evidence that the traditional advertising model is broken, and companies need to shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing. Build a remarkable product (read "Purple Cow" from Seth Godin) and then create lots of content that is interesting to your audience and publish it on your blog. Make it easy for your best customers to communicate with others, probably using social networks." See entire post here
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That was a question that an interviewee asked me yesterday. She was interested in why I work for an agency and what role does technology play in the future of marketing. We talked about connection and engagement and all of those relevant buzz words. Than she asked me why I cared about technology. It took me only a moment to answer the question...Rae Schwartz
Marc Schwartz
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I was reading an interesting post in the blog in Online Spin by Max Kalehoff (href="http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1276">http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1276) and he posed some great thoughts on what are opportunities for interactive. I was thinking of a few others.
Marc Schwartz
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I was really encouraged to read about OMD topping the 2007 ranking of the world's most creative media agencies, compiled annually by international publisher The Gunn Report For Media. That is encouraging since I get to work day to day with the OMD team on work. However, what was most interesting is that DDB's other sister agency,BBDO, finished third and the commentary was this could "raise some eyebrows" because they are considered a creative agency. It makes me wonder in this media age as to why this could raise eyebrows.
Marc Schwartz
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Sometimes it is fun to be noticed. One last comment about birthdays. I went to my gym last week and when I swiped the my card, the computer piped up "Happy Birthday". While I knew it was only a computer, it made me smile and feel noticed by a company that I visit almost every day (when I disciplined). This prompted me to think about how companies use information to drive engagement.
Marc Schwartz
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My birthday was last week. I am not one to be fearful of birthdays. However, it does make me reflect on the future. I received an inspirational book that had a quote that I loved..."The best way to predict the future is to invent it" (this quote is by Alan Kay). The advertising industry is going through a lot of changes. People are trying to understand the role of interactive, new media, social media, community, advertising, PR, direct response, measurement and metrics, etc. At one point in time it was fine to take a product and express it in as many targeted channels as possible. This approach was based on a culture that was not as connected to technology or information. Now, broad approaches can feel like spam or seem so redundant.
So, what will advertising look like in the future? Will it be based on individuals and user generated content? Will it be based on co-created content between a company and its customers? Or, will it be something totally different? Either way it goes, marketers will need to be different. I will need to be different.
Marc Schwartz
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