BCP Mag

Great ads solve advertising problems. Great ad agencies solve business problems.

Not my words, but those of Lee Clow, the advertising guru behind the phenomenally successful Apple brand. Itʼs a sentiment I agree with–the idea that our charge is to help the client navigate an intensely competitive, often confusing sea of commerce.

Hereʼs another way to put it: Good advertising is one thing, good advertising that actually works is often something entirely different.

Our job is to help nurture that part of the conversation which begins and ends with the sentence “Why are we doing this?” Itʼs one of the reasons ad agencies exist–to provide the client with hard-to-come-by perspective, void of politics, board room pressures and personal bias.

Note that our job is to nurture the conversation, not dominate it. The client will always know more about their business than we do, no matter how many web pages we visit or competitors we study.

If commerce is a sea, then we should do our best to temper the wind gusts we ad folks are too often known for.

Only then will we all catch that perfect sail.

It’s hard to get Dustin to step into the limelight, but we’re going to nudge him there for a minute.

Dustin was recently “drafted” to Dribbble, a private beta internet community of designers created by Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett. Dribbble “players”–who work in a variety of graphic design-related areas, but are mostly web and interface designers–post tiny screenshots of work in progress. Other players can then comment on the “shots” (are you sensing a theme here?). It’s a great way for designers to get high-quality feedback from top people in the industry. And we obviously agree that Dustin should be included in that group! read more

The changes around BCP go beyond the logo refresh. We have added a new staff member this month, Lynda White. She comes to us with over 25 years of marketing experience (so yes she is OLD). Most recently Lynda worked at Michigan State University as the Director of Marketing for the College of Engineering and even though she does not work there now, she is a Spartan through and through. read more

At the end of January I went to my second Pass It Forward Party and it was wonderful. The concept is a simple one. Get a group of like-minded people together who will go out and initiate random acts of kindness throughout the area and then re-assemble and share their experiences. The idea is the brainchild of Bob Hoffman, and BCP's random act of kindness was to donate a web site dedicated to the group, ePifanyNow.org. The intention is that the site will create an online record of some wonderful ways people have randomly helped their neighbors – and inspire others to do likewise.

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We thought we had come up with a pretty exhaustive list when we embarked on our "What else could BCP stand for?" T-shirt project. Ha. Little did we know.

When we invited our clients and associates to submit ideas and get a shirt, the floodgates opened. Not only did more people respond than we expected, but most of those who did sent multiple ideas. Best of all, there were a lot of great ones....and a few of the "Why didn't WE think of that?" variety, too. (Personal fave: Buncha Crazy People!) Whether it was the chance to be immortalized in silk screen or just to get the free shirt, people unleashed their inner copywriter for this one. read more

I was watching the History Channel this week and there was an interesting program about the likely origins of the Wolfman myth. As part of the investigation an actual silver bullet was tested, using ballistic jelly and high speed cameras. It was conclusively found to not be a better and more deadly projectile than a common lead bullet. The scientists determined that a silver bullet was actually less likely to kill a wolf than a regular bullet.

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We have the good fortune of having a number of branding jobs in house at the moment. The challenge and the pleasure comes from trying to unearth the authentic nature of each brand and accurately convey its unique voice.

I believe it is a task that is needed now more than ever. The unavoidable truth is that we live in a branded world. According to Scott Davis, in his book Brand Asset Management, the average consumer is exposed to roughly 6,000 ads a day and to more than 25,000 new products a year! As competition proliferates, it is imperative that companies connect deeply with customers and become the brand of choice. The trust and loyalty enjoyed by a strong brand lies at the very heart of a company (or a product’s) success. read more

It seems appropriate that our first blog entry commemorate a milestone. Jeff, the B of BCP, turned 50 on July 27. By longstanding tradition, he spends his actual birthday in remote reaches of the state, which tends to limit our efforts to harrass him.

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