[gratuitous use of a puppy is within my rights]
i’ve been working in and around advertising for 12 or 13 years. i’ve been a copywriter and a web designer and a planner and a strategic consultant and a qualitative researcher and an innovations lead and a ‘corporate intellectual’. yesterday i was described on a phone call as an ‘expert on brands, strategy, research methodologies and implementation. and she’s a wild blogger.’ practically feral, i’d say.
but wait – “implementation.”
now that takes me back to the beginning, when i was making websites and ads and games. and it reminds me of a really early conversation i had with a client who wanted to get into the e-commerce world. this had to have been 1999, it was Ron Herman, who owns the Fred Segal store on Melrose. he was turned on by Helmut Lang‘s website, but also by the Gap. but he didn’t have the fulfillment capabilities to ship everything anyone wanted, and he didn’t have the inventory system to know what he had and link it to his stores in both a virtual world and a brick-and-mortar one (remember how we all used to say that? i’m so glad it’s gone).
what he did have was a line called RH Vintage – which still exists, though at the time it was basically bedazzled vintage bought out of poundage. the line was comprised of jeans or cords, t-shirts, and belts. no two of anything was alike. the prices were comparatively reasonable for a Fred Segal shopping trip. we thought – let’s experiment: let’s put up your jeans, your cords, your tees and your belts. you have three choices to make as a customer: which of these 4 categories do you want to shop from, are you a guy or a girl, and what’s your size. tick those boxes, and the good people at RH Vintage will pick out your clothes and send it to you. it’ll probably fit. it’ll probably be what you want. it’ll definitely come in a branded bag, with a branded receipt. it’ll make you think that you actually got in your car and went to Fred Segal. you can pretend to your friends at Brown and Wesleyan and Amherst that you shopped there (and you sorta did), and you’ve got the threads to prove it.
Ron loved the idea – i’m not sure what happened next, but here was an answer that wasn’t an ad. it was a micro-model for doing business. it was a branded product line with a branded distribution system and a branded user/shopping experience. yes, it would have a website. probably taglines would need to be written and designs made &c. but it wasn’t an advertising idea – it was a business idea.
the best stuff i’ve ever done in anything related to advertising has always been ‘this is what you should do‘ not ‘this is what you should say‘.
i was talking to Seth Wolk the other day at Saatchi about who in the business is making things. (he’s so great – really smart and candid and clear and open. frankly, a rarity.) but he did cut to the quick: maybe i’m barking up the wrong tree. maybe i’m expecting places who don’t, as a matter of course, do what i do, to want to do what i do – and to know how to package it, sell it, and implement it. maybe people like me need to find a new roof. or build our own house.
it’s really important to not only think about what you do as the definition of who you are, but to make sure you’re in the right place, the place that will not only let you be you, but wants you to be more of you, is hungry for you, is receptive to you. people like me should be in places where people say ‘this is what you should do’ – and then adds, ‘we’ll build it for you.’
and here, then, is my question: where are those places, really? lots of places claim to be doing that, but are at heart still ad agencies or branding companies. is it, as Seth suggested, media properties and platforms? is it tech startups? who are the companies that are looking at brands on a holistic level and then suggesting – and implementing - action instead of talk?