You Need A Project Manager

You need a Project Manager to organize your work. You know, the person who knows what comes next and can prepare for it (planning). To remind everyone there is an end date (deliverable). And to keep everyone on task (not a taskmaster, mind you).

The keeper of progress. Moving forward. Keeping your agency or department from losing its way.

Why? So you all don’t look stupid (negative).

Or, so the Senior Director of Account, the Executive Creative Director, or the Senior VP of Marketing look like heroes (positive). Or at the very least, you don’t have to answer to your superiors because something, very simple, was executed in a very lame way.

No one wants to look bad. But when the daily routine gets done with a lot of internal strife, or delays, or at extraordinary cost (waaaayyy above estimate, or department budget) – it gets noticed. The CFO, CEO, Owner, Partner – the folks who make the decision as to whether that Director or VP is actually worth the big money they are paid – they notice.

In other words, the bottom line is that a Project Manager will save your strategic, creative ass.

This isn’t about telling you what to do, although it can be (if you’re lazy, or off on The Next Big Thing, or golfing, or at yet another conference on how to make your agency more awesome) while active projects languish.

A Project Manager keeps things organized for those who find organization a pain in the ass. Or worse, unnecessary (you are doomed to fail if you think this way).

A Project Manager keeps the team – your team – on task. And that indispensable individual is forever aware of the things that can derail a project (these are risks): an AE who has to have this now (resources). Client changes that affect scope (time + dollars). A creative director who doesn’t know what he wants until he sees it (unimaginative). An Art Director/Designer who keeps tweaking a project until it’s ‘perfect’ – and wrung-dry of available dollars (unsupervised).

If you don’t have a Project Manager, then Account, Creative, Production – and yes you, Management/Owner – are doing the work.

Or actually, doing the cleanup.

Messy. And a huge waste of time.

If you cared about your Agency or Marketing Department, you’d run out and poach the best Project Manager you could find.

Now ditch that personal assistant or life coach and put those dollars to work.

So you can do great work – and keep your job.

Who Knew That Meth-Resistant Would Be A Selling Feature?

I can only imagine the creative sessions for the ad I saw last night. The one for Zephrex-D. I saw the spot twice, and the first time I really didn’t pay attention. Then the second time I stopped – whoa!

And in a touch of irony, the spot featured a teacher, in a science class no less. 

How original.

You can check out the spot here.

Meth-resistant was the selling feature. Safety in your community too - oh, that's a by-product of meth-resistance. I can’t remember exactly what they said, but yes, that was the crux of it. Wow, and I didn’t know this was something that was high on the list of pharma development - like vaccines or antibiotics.

What the heck is meth-resistant?

Intrigued by this notion, I had to Google it. So I found this article on MarketWired. (they write about Nexafed which is the same thing (in my super-educated opinion) - Zephrex-D is from a different pharmaceutical company and has a snappy name.

So the drug does what Sudafed® does (keeps our sinuses clear), but the bad guys can’t turn it into meth.

Evidently, in order to make meth, the stuff in Sudafed crystalizes (which is good) but Zephrex-D turns into a goo (which is bad).

From MarketWired:

“The study measured the ability of NEXAFED's IMPEDE technology to disrupt the extraction and conversion of PSE by meth cooks using common clandestine meth lab processes. When simulating large scale manufacturing to extract and convert pure PSE into meth, researchers found that NEXAFED's IMPEDE technology yielded no measurable PSE extraction, representing a significant impediment compared to the control Sudafed(R) tablets (Sudafed(R) is a registered trademark and product of Johnson & Johnson). When tested under the "one-pot" conversion method, the study indicated that current IMPEDE technology tablets had an approximate 38 percent yield, nearly half the average meth recovered compared to the control. Currently, Acura Pharmaceuticals is improving its present formulation and developing new IMPEDE 2.0 technology, which yielded no measurable amount of meth with the one-pot conversion method in initial testing of a prototype formulation by an outside laboratory.”

This all makes perfect sense to me. So now I guess we should look forward to IMPEDE 2.0 technology. I already feel safer. No more one-pot meth on the streets. Well to be accurate, Zephrex-D® uses Tarex® technology. I'm sure they're all the same thing that keeps us safe.

I wonder how the ad guys will translate that?

I don’t know, it seems like a whole lot of work to buy enough Sudafed to make meth. I guess I don’t have enough initiative to do drugs. Or buy drugs.

Well, I’m not exactly their target market.

So I have to ask: WWHD?

Wishing I Weren't Here

I used to feel that way.

So I love the new (and brilliant) campaign for British Airways – it just rings true for me. Digital billboards where a little boy points out the (real) plane flying overhead, and the destination with fares are displayed.

The premise (of course you know) is that we (well some of us) look up and wonder where that plane is headed.

I used to do a lot of that.

I lived in Portland, Oregon – where there are a lot of cloudy, dark, rainy days.

Yeah I know it’s a cool, hip place – full of creativity, great bands, awesome food, big trees, a terrific transit system, The Best Micro Brews, friends and family, and rain. It just didn’t provide me enough sunny days to survive. Really.

So I moved to the desert.

Way back, when I lived in Bonny Slope (which is now mostly homes squished together), I cherished summer. I spent the sunny days outside working in the yard, fixing some weird thing on the house (which always seemed to need something done), or my favorite thing: sitting in the sun reading.

Then

Now

I was located on a flight path – don’t know where the planes were going to, or coming from – but I always looked up and wondered if they were on their way to some wonderful, perennially sunny destination.

So, yeah. I did look at planes in the sky and wonder where they’d been and where they were going.

These days, I’m on a flight path that heads out of town. People on planes leaving Vegas.

But now, I just look up and think, ‘thank you for leaving your money.’

When an economy depends on others who need their time in the sun I am thankful. Oh yeah, and that gambling thing helps too.

Time Changes Things

When we go through difficult situations, things change. Well, our outlook on things change.

We are heading home today after five weeks in New York, two of which spent at New York Presbyterian.

All those issues related to work, daily life, The Affordable Care Act – all that stuff – is just stuff - filler.

We come out on the other side with a better perspective, putting what’s important ahead of the insignificant.

Less reaction, and just letting certain things . . . go.

We have a long road ahead and couldn’t have done this without the massive support of family, friends, nurses, doctors, specialists, cabbies and the café down the street.

My husband will recover, I’ll keep on working, and eventually we’ll settle into our new routine.

I will continue to take care of my clients while remaining mindful of what’s really important. Because in the end, they too need to eliminate the daily ‘stuff’ that trips up their day.

Recovery just takes time. Allow it to happen.

Pass The Kool Aid®

How sad, the very first entry on Google. When a brand is linked to tragedy.

What a shame that something that (for us who were allowed to drink stuff with sugar and fake color a long time ago) was so iconic and happy, has such a sad legacy.

So it goes with your agency.

Drinking the Kool Aid®

I see it every day. I hear it all the time. If you’re in Advertising and you have a pulse, can hear or read, then you know that digital Is Where It’s At. 

Digital is exciting. And it’s given a wide berth, both in consumption of client dollars and in agency resources.

The Adcontrarian calls out the questionable data, and the folks who worship it like the latest markdown at Filene’s Basement.

I agree with the Adcontrarian, because I too hear it every day and find it remarkable that intelligent folks actually buy in - hook, line and click-through - that because what they do is so important that following rules isn't for them.

I see it on the operational side, and it makes me wince.

I believe in the power of digital, mobile, viral – but advertising, whatever form (channel) used – it still has to sell stuff (eyeballs aren't conversions). And agencies that produce it have to make money so they can keep their doors open.

Your clients have to make money so they can pay you. If your digital wizardry doesn't work for them, then they go on to the next bestest Rainmaker. Basic business.

But digital is different, you say.

Yeah, and so are the people who do digital.

They run faster and jump higher than your average (traditional) ad team.

They have metrics, optics, engagement, conversations, insights, Big Data, on and on. (Frankly I can’t keep up with the language of digital.)

But what I can keep up with is this: you still have to run your agency as a business.

Yes you can have great strategy, planning, creative, execution and whatever else. But you have to know where things are at any given time; how much that project you just finished cost your agency (and you’re only worried about metrics for the client); how much more work you can bring on – and why you can do that.

I don’t usually drink Kool Aid®, but when I do, I drink cherry.

Now go forth, and create a profitable legacy.

Opinions On Healthcare

In the process of sitting around watching my husband recover, I had a lot of time to be productive.

Time where I couldn’t really focus. Therefore I had plenty of time to watch a lot of TV.

So during the two week stay in the hospital, I watched the news as the Healthcare site launched – and then imploded.

Talking heads.

Whether it was cable – MSNBC, CNN, Fox; or network – who watches that?; The talking heads all had opinions.

Politicians decried / defended.

How many hours a day can you fill with talk of Healthcare.gov?

Twenty-four. Exactly.

But what are the facts?

Well, the federal site didn’t work well. States’ sites worked better. Some people are signed up. Some people lost their insurance.

What is my opinion on healthcare?

I just witnessed what awesome healthcare coverage can provide.

Hopefully, everyone will have access to healthcare.

I just have no idea when that will happen. And I can bet my guess is as good as anyone’s.

Leading The Horse To Water

It’s true, you can’t make them drink.

It takes magical thinking and a sparkly unicorn to assume that all the best efforts to help an agency make changes – will actually work without the head honchos on board.

Best efforts require the support – and participation – of management.

You, guys and gals, are not exempt.

I do this for a living. Go into an agency, determine what’s wrong, and deliver the (often) brutal reality.

I don’t assume anything, but I do have expectations.

I can deliver, but it’s up to you to make change successful.

You're already successful? OK, let's see of you can translate your creative success to truly managing your business successfully.

Making enough to pay the bills and your employees; or keep the CFO off your back until you figure a way to cut back (or worse hide) staggering out-sourcing costs, isn't being successful. It's just survival.

Having fun? (If you are, then you are clueless and doomed to fail - sorry.)

Everyone – from the kid who picks up food for the all-nighter, to the Awesome Creative Strategists who dream the impossible, to the workers who get it done – have a part in making the whole thing work.

They are all part of the solution – and that means understanding and adopting how process works, defined roles create clear responsibilities, and new systems make things easier.

Even culture will improve.

Agencies who hire me* are making an investment in working better: creating efficiencies, understanding where they’re making a buck, getting their people to whine less.

This isn’t rocket science, or brain surgery, or anything remotely complicated.

It’s simply the realization that things could be better, hiring someone who will review, assist and guide you through the icky stuff you don’t want to think about – and make it happen.

However, it doesn’t really happen unless you – Principal, Partner, Owner, VP, CEO (or your favorite trendy title) – support the changes needed so you have fewer headaches, make your department more functional, and actually make a little more money for you and your company.

Bottom line: If you want to do all that magnificent creative, get your house in order and be a part of keeping it tidy.

Imagine that. Sparkly.

*email me your greatest headache: charlotte@charlotteblauer.com