Inspiration: 100 Advertising Blogs

Google is my BFF. Yall should meet if you haven't yet. Came across this epic list of ad blogs and wanted to share.

I wish I could bookmark them all and add them to my daily reading routine. But, alas, I have work to do.

Remember - you should be a student of advertising. So keep this list from BlogRank handy when you need inspiration and information and make sure you stay up to date on what's hot and what's not in this crazy biz.

Happy Inspiration Hunting!

Advertising Blogs: The ultimate rank

#	Blog Title						RSS	Site Score	Badge
1st	Adverblog	37,802	727,212	53,597	2,010	6		100
2nd	Scary Ideas	4,264	756,770	403,839	18	4		98.13
3rd	Adrants	18,013	57,954	62,643	3,330	6		97.89
4th	Adland	28,412	n/a	122,240	17	6		97.81
5th	AdPulp	6,261	1,035,929	313,334	10	6		97.36
6th	ReveNews	3,678	716,292	88,415	16	5		96.99
7th	The Inspiration Room Daily	9,312	n/a	n/a	2,030	5		96.96
8th	Influential Marketing Blog	16,800	n/a	269,747	10	6		96.62
9th	I believe in adv	n/a	212,024	48,348	2,310	6		96.61
10th	Advertising Lab	39,720	n/a	1,022,398	8	5		96.35
11th	Search Engine People Blog	6,220	n/a	n/a	29	5		95.91
12th	aimClear Blog	3,464	318,201	76,665	13	5		95.82
13th	the blog herald	n/a	237,075	31,219	24	7		95.44
14th	Dreamgrow Social Media	2,188	231,403	25,018	15	4		95.39
15th	Bannerblog	n/a	n/a	n/a	19	5		95.36
16th	Osocio	n/a	743,275	276,914	2,150	6		95.3
17th	AdverBox	n/a	442,538	356,786	12	5		94.84
18th	Joe La Pompe	n/a	1,320,223	340,508	7	5		94.66
19th	VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog	3,152	n/a	n/a	12	6		94.62
20th	gapingvoid	n/a	148,452	134,779	3,860	6		94.14
21st	Nick Burcher	2,732	1,021,780	510,002	10	4		94.01
22nd	adfreak	n/a	n/a	n/a	18	6		93.81
23rd	Only Dead Fish	3,402	n/a	602,148	8	5		93.76
24th	The Denver Egotist	n/a	299,827	122,984	11	5		93.53
25th	Ads of the World	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	5		93.35
26th	Optimize and Prophesize	3,115	1,452,451	974,573	9	5		93.22
27th	The Ad Mad	1,347	1,091,533	2,033,362	48	4		93.01
28th	Very Official Blog	2,494	1,394,662	899,845	5	4		92.93
29th	Make The Logo Bigger	2,518	n/a	2,359,322	74	5		92.9
30th	copyranter	n/a	n/a	910,545	12	5		92.79
31st	adverlicio.us	n/a	n/a	1,678,427	4,910	5		92.66
32nd	5 Blogs Before Lunch	n/a	n/a	n/a	305	4		92.62
33rd	MusiqueDePub.TV	n/a	n/a	331,514	15	4		92.49
34th	Groundswell	n/a	n/a	n/a	8	6		92.49
35th	advergirl	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		92.47
36th	Hooked On Ads	328	2,168,622	1,113,575	9	3		92.28
37th	adliterate	n/a	2,605,479	1,120,049	12,600	5		92.2
38th	PPC dot BZ	675	n/a	91,465	12	3		92.13
39th	Crackunit	n/a	1,545,506	1,396,909	21	5		92.05
40th	Mastercom Advertising and Communication Blog	515	n/a	481,646	9	4		91.98
41st	So Good	n/a	274,977	542,513	13	5		91.86
42nd	ContextWeb Internet Advertising Blog	623	n/a	n/a	2	5		91.77
43rd	AdOfDaMonth.com	n/a	2,183,682	1,101,920	11	4		91.76
44th	Mommy's Hangout	214	341,850	114,951	10	3		91.65
45th	Blog of Ronnestam - Innovative Communication from Sweden with Love	n/a	3,326,808	468,264	12	5		91.63
46th	Marketing Practice	2,905	n/a	2,275,932	4,320	3		91.56
47th	AdScam/The Horror!	n/a	n/a	479,220	11	5		91.35
48th	PostAdvertising	n/a	598,155	418,459	17,800	4		91.35
49th	The Ad Contrarian	n/a	n/a	728,269	6	5		91.24
50th	Off Madison AVe	n/a	1,394,431	579,432	12	5		91.11
51st	MisEntropy	931	2,315,468	1,270,982	46	4		90.97
52nd	Tom H. C. Anderson - More Than Market Research	n/a	2,505,857	853,898	9	5		90.89
53rd	Experience Manifesto	n/a	n/a	n/a	31	n/a		90.88
54th	London Calling	n/a	n/a	n/a	2	4		90.7
55th	gaduman	1,051	n/a	1,601,774	14,200	4		90.7
56th	Small Agency Diary	n/a	n/a	n/a	3	6		90.69
57th	FADS	n/a	238,598	68,827	18	5		90.62
58th	Ad Operations Online	n/a	1,176,003	223,555	10	4		90.5
59th	Media Hunter	n/a	n/a	242,988	8	5		90.48
60th	FreshNetworks Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	9	4		90.45
61st	Great Ads	1,280	n/a	1,604,739	12,000	4		90.38
62nd	Quietglover	1,159	3,099,554	3,051,299	10	4		90.3
63rd	The Marketing Fresh Peel	n/a	2,850,721	871,818	7,300	4		90.16
64th	THINKing	n/a	n/a	n/a	32	3		90.15
65th	The Praized Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	13	5		90.11
66th	Mommy Goggles	n/a	353,877	275,249	9	3		90.01
67th	Garfield: The Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	6		89.83
68th	ThirdWay Advertising Blog	529	872,669	4,350,707	9	4		89.77
69th	IABlog	n/a	n/a	n/a	13	6		89.77
70th	Advertising for Peanuts	n/a	n/a	4,241,334	8	4		89.73
71st	BNET Industry	n/a	n/a	n/a	7	5		89.7
72nd	KeySplash Creative	73	n/a	n/a	5	4		89.58
73rd	Adages: The Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	7	6		89.56
74th	Tribble Ad Agency	n/a	1,106,861	906,520	7	3		89.24
75th	This Aint No Disco	n/a	3,160,885	10,529,337	64	4		89.22
76th	Please Feed The Animals	n/a	1,509,646	5,231,311	5	5		89.2
77th	Leo Burnett Toronto	835	n/a	2,041,819	2	4		89.12
78th	The Big Tent	n/a	n/a	n/a	3	6		89.08
79th	IZEA Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		89.05
80th	Whole Brain Marketing	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	2		89.04
81st	Songs for Soap: Advertising Age	n/a	n/a	n/a	32	3		88.98
82nd	The hubbub	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		88.97
83rd	Digital Examples	n/a	n/a	2,827,350	12	4		88.95
84th	Profectio	840	4,530,523	1,249,386	8,810	4		88.95
85th	Everythings Better With Brentter	n/a	2,189,000	2,257,993	14	4		88.88
86th	15-Seconds	n/a	n/a	n/a	8	3		88.86
87th	Reklam 2.0	n/a	n/a	n/a	9	4		88.86
88th	Sigma Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	3		88.75
89th	How To Break Anything	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	2		88.75
90th	Small Business Marketing Blog	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		88.74
91st	PJA Blog: The Complex Brand	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		88.71
92nd	idio	n/a	n/a	n/a	1	4		88.67
93rd	American Copywriter	n/a	n/a	5,286,051	3	4		88.63
94th	Hearken Creative Services	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	3		88.55
95th	JLT Creative	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	2		88.5
96th	Gods of Advertising	n/a	n/a	889,965	43	4		88.48
97th	Berbagi Kenikmatan	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	2		88.45
98th	The House of Marketing	n/a	n/a	2,912,536	13	2		88.45
99th	Click for Clients	n/a	n/a	n/a	3	n/a		88.43
100th	Right Brain Waves	n/a	n/a	n/a	4	1		88.4

I Love/Hate Advertising

stephen0493

A friend recently asked "What makes you stay in love with advertising? What makes you come back month after month?"

I pondered and then responded:

"Because I'm good at it and I like doing it.
Being an artist in a corporate environment is difficult.
Creatives always go through this love/hate relationship with advertising.
On one hand, it's a lucrative way to channel our creativity.
On the other, it sometimes stifles our creativity.
I don't expect every day to be great. Or every project, coworker or client to be awesome.
Life is full of ups and downs.
But, as with any healthy relationship, the ups should outweigh the downs.
The ups make it worth it. The in-betweens, too.
(The downs make me an alcoholic.)
But as long as I feel challenged and supported, and know that I'm using my skills and growing and making a difference in some way, I'll be okay."

I wrote about it last year, here is a refresher.

Falling In and Out With Your Love
Originally posted 9/19/12

Great creative are students of advertising, art and culture. They are always soaking up new information and insights, hunting inspiration and coming up with different ways to merge the two to create something that will move people.

If you don’t feel that way about advertising, feel free to exit this blog, drop out of whatever ad program you’re in, delete your portfolio, and find something you genuinely love and enjoy doing to pursue. You will be miserable in this industry if you are not truly passionate about it. (Like this adgeek.)

Granted you won’t be in love with advertising every day. There will be those days when you’re not in the mood for advertising. Or advertising is being annoying and needy. Or it messes up your plans for the long weekend. Or it’s being difficult to deal with.

It’s not always a bed of roses. (If you haven’t read Don’t Get a Job in Advertising yet, read it and run little pony.) It’s easy to get burnt out, frustrated, drained and derailed.

Every working creative will tell you, sometimes you just fall out of love with advertising.

The problem is, advertising isn’t going to try to win you back. There will be no love letters or song dedications on the radio to you. You either have to actively work to reignite the fire or go look for a teaching job.

Ways to keep the passion alive:

·
Look at award show entries. Seeing the great ideas and campaigns out there always reminds refuels me. If someone else could create this, then what awesomeness can I create? Check out Cannes Lion Winners or One Show Awards

· Look at what new campaigns are coming out. Sometimes this makes me feel the way looking at award-winning stuff does. Sometimes it makes me feel like “Shoot, I can do waaay better than that.” But either way, it pushes me to start thinking and creating. Which is all that matters. Try Ads of the World or Creativity Online

· Take a break. Go on vacation. Go out of town for the weekend. Change your pace and switch up your environment so you can properly relax, relate and release. Well since I started this precedent of giving sample sites, hmm, how about Kayak or Last Minute?

·
Talk to your friends who are brokers, lawyers, nurses and unemployed. Advertising doesn’t see so bad after all, does it? Crabs, I don't know what to link this to. Um. Here. Article: 1/3 of companies block social media

·
Enter a competition. There are ad competitions going on all the time. Find one and put your all into it. It’s not necessary about winning (though who doesn't love winning?) but it’s more about getting that unfettered, unfiltered creative process going again. No clients, no budget, no account people, no limitations. Fly little bird, fly free! (I don’t know why I’m fixated on little animals today.) Check out the YoungGuns and Student ADDYs.

Every relationship takes work and your relationship with your career is no different. How successful and happy you are depends on you.

Get to work.

Icebreaking 105: Following Up Online

This is the most crucial step. You've met them. You have their business card. Now what?

Start emailing.

Make sure you write unique emails for each person you're following up to and include a tidbit about who you are, how you two met and where as reminders. Same for if you send a LinkedIn request.

Keep the emails short and sweet and action-oriented. Do you want to meet for coffee? Do you want to show them your book? Let them know what you want to happen next at the end of the message.

I've written about this a lot, in much more detail, so here are links to get you going.

Email Dos & Don'ts
The Art of Emailing
I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar
How Formal Should Your Email Be?
Keep in Touch
7 Things You're Doing Wrong on Linkedin
How to Get Ignored on LinkedIn

Icebreaking 104: How to Introduce Yourself

This may sound like elementary, but stop for a second and pretend like you’re meeting me for the first time at a big event, what would you say?

Then, pretend like 6 people came up to me within the past hour and said just about the same thing with a different name, different state.

Now what?

Let’s talk about some of the more effective ways to introduce yourself so you can effectively sell yourself and, most importantly, be remembered. (Remember, 80% of the people you meet at ad events probably won’t remember you. Especially the higher up they are on the totem pole – the less likely they are to care for the little guy. Sadly.)

These aren’t hard and fast rules, just some tips I’ve learned along the way that have helped me.

How To Introduce Yourself

· You don’t always have to start with a formal “Hi, my name is…” Sometimes you can start by making an observation, small joke or asking a question. This is an easy and unintimidating way to test the waters before you launch into your life story.

· Don’t launch into your life story. Say who you are, what you do and, if necessary, why you’re here or what you and he/she have in common. Focus on three key points you want to get across early so they get an overview of you and are intrigued to talk to you more.

· Shake the person’s hand, look them in the eye and repeat their name. And don’t get those weak, flimsy shakes. I hate hate hate awful handshakes. Be firm, full-handed and not too rough or strong. Practice on your friends to get feedback on what you’re doing right/wrong.

· Watch your body language. Stand up straight. Make eye contact. Lean into the speaker. Smile. Make sure they know that you’re listening, engaged and interested. Similarly, watch their body language, if they look like they’re itching to go – let them go.

· Have something to say. Whether it’s a question, observation or small story, find some interesting tidbit or common ground that you can share a few sentences, and maybe a laugh or two, over.

· End the conversation early. Don’t wait until their eye starts wandering or someone else snatches them a way. Be concise, get in, leave an impression and then keep it moving. If you want, you can always go back and talk to them again later.

· Close to the end of the conversation, ask for their business card and if you can contact them later. Don’t ask for the business card too early because that feels more like a closer and they'll hand it to you and say goodbye. (Tip: take their card so the responsibility to connect is in your hand, not theirs.)

Icebreaking 103: 5 Questions To Get You Going

Today's lesson is from an article on Fast Company that was really helpful to me and my small talk-hating ways. I'm getting less awkward and I hope you are too.

Hate Small Talk? These 5 Questions Will Help You Work Any Room

By Allison Graham

Do you love going to events, but find yourself stranded during happy hour, tongue-tied and tucked in a corner? Initiating and maintaining conversations while networking is a necessary skill, and one you can easily improve with these simple tips.

Mastering small talk will help you find common ground to create a mini-bond with new contacts. Small talk may feel trite and unimportant, but it's the small talk that leads to the big talk.
Ideally small talk will uncover common interests, business alignments, the six degrees that separate you, potential need for your product or service, and basically whether or not you enjoy each other's company. The goal is not to become best friends or a new client on the spot. Although it's nice when those instant connections happen, usually that's not the case.

The goal of conversation at functions is to establish enough common ground to determine a reason to connect again.

Getting To Hello...And Beyond

Tongue-tied and standing in a corner? Use these easy tips for working a room.

When looking for a conversation partner in a crowded room, there are three likely scnarioes that make it easy to initiate dialogue:

--Fun, inviting groups
--White-knuckled loners who look uncomfortable and will welcome your attempt to initiate dialogue
--Familiar faces

Questions to get the conversations flowing:

"What’s your connection to the event?" This question can uncover mutual contacts and usually leads to a more robust answer than if you asked the typical “Have you been to this event before?”

"What’s keeping you busy when you’re not at events like this or at work?" This question gives the encouragement necessary for the person to share his/her passions and outside interests. It is an excellent way to add some enthusiasm into a conversation that has hit a lull, especially if he/she would prefer to be doing that activity at that moment.

"Are you getting away this summer?" This question can lead to conversations about family, reveal special interests and, if you like talking about travel, it’s a sure-fire way to keep a conversation interesting.

"Are you working on any charity initiatives?" This question makes it easy to launch into a deeper connection. If they’re not involved with any projects, they often share reasons which is usually revealing, and if they are doing something of value they will be more than happy to share.

"How did you come to be in your line of work?" For some, the path to where they are today can be quite an interesting ordeal. Having a chance to revisit their story to success can leave helpful clues along the way as to who they are and what makes them tick.

Keeping a conversation rolling is simple when you learn to listen and ask appropriate probing questions that naturally grow from the dialogue. You only need to prepare a couple of questions in advance. If there is a genuine connection then you can proactively engage in conversation.

When a person doesn't participate actively in a conversation with you, that's a red flag to say to yourself, "Okay, this is not one of my quality contacts, it's time to move on and meet someone else."

Ultimately, the decision each person has to make during this initial contact is whether or not there is enough connection to warrant future interaction. It's during these small conversations that people form their opinions about whether they like you, trust you, and believe you're competent.

Actual business talk is quite limited at functions. Learning what people do and perhaps about some of their big developments or projects is about the extent of the business talk expected. Deeper connections are formed through finding common ground that is not work related.

There is a balance between too much and too little business talk. If you don't talk business at all you may miss an opportunity to communicate who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer and that you are competent in your field. There are some people who you can know for years and never hear them talk about work. You just assume they are retired or not interested in more clients.

However, if you talk about your work too much you run the risk of boring others. Too much "shoptalk" can easily put a damper on an evening. Watch for cues from your conversation partners.

How are they responding to the conversation with you? Are they engaged? Are they obviously looking for a new conversation partner? Are they listening to and understanding what you are saying?
Are you giving them more information than they expect, want, or need? Are you monopolizing the conversation and not giving others a chance to share ideas or ask questions?

Match the depth of dialogue to the environment.

You don't want to let people overhear confidential or inappropriate information. Plus, talk that is too deep at business functions can lead to heated conversations. New contacts could be put on edge.

Over-heated conversations can quickly be subdued by simply making a closing agreeable statement that offers little room for a rhetorical comment. This tactic will diffuse the situation quickly and without incident.

For example, say with a smile, "Well, that's one issue we're not going to solve tonight," or simply close the conversation with "I certainly understand your perspective," minus the "but" that is sitting on the tip of your tongue.

You won't win points for always having to be right. You may win the debate while making someone else look bad, but in the end, you'll make yourself look worse. You will, however, win points for having social graces if you are the bigger person and cool potentially fiery situations.

You have to know when to let go and kill the discussion even if you believe you are correct on the issue. In the grand scheme of things, we must value the opinions of others and accept that it is not important to win every debate. The last thing you want to do is to appear as the know-it-all who must end conversations as the perceived winner.

Your words may be forgotten, but how you make people feel will be remembered.

When it comes to small talk, don't think you must say something strikingly intelligent each time you speak. Your words may be forgotten, but how you make people feel will be remembered.

No doubt small talk can get a little dull after a while. So, take it upon yourself to make it interesting.

To prepare for conversations, choose your five favorite safe topics. These will make it easy for you to swing an otherwise stale conversation into one that makes you a genuinely enthusiastic conversationalist.

Have you ever been in a conversation that just wasn't clicking, then suddenly the mood changes and you both have a smile on your face as the conversation starts firing on all cylinders? That's because you found common ground. It occurs when two people have an interest in the same topic.

By determining in advance what interests you, half of the equation for stimulating conversation is complete. Now your job is to guide the conversation from topic to topic until you solve the other important half of the equation: What's of interest to your new contact?

Finally, it's about your attitude.

I must admit, after attending hundreds of events and interacting with thousands of people, there are times when I feel small talk is simply a dreaded requirement. I'm writing this so you know that I completely understand if you're reading this and thinking, "I don't care about all this superficial conversation."
When I get in those moods, I remind myself that the person I'm meeting has the potential to be my next big client or a newfound friend. If those thoughts don't shift my attitude, I'll set a personal challenge to create a super-duper fantastic conversation with a new contact. For some reason, this additional challenge seems to inspire me to get enthusiasm back into the small talk. If that doesn't work, I just remind myself that the person I'm talking with deserves my respect.
The real key to great conversations is to relax. Let the conversation flow naturally. That's easiest to do when you're fully engaged and genuinely interested in the conversation topic and the person with whom you are talking.

Do you have questions you typically use to break the ice and form lasting connections? Tell us about it in the comments.

Reprinted by permission of the publisher, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd., from From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Personal Branding and Profitable Networking Made Easy, 2nd Edition [2], by Allison Graham. Copyright © 2012 by Allison Graham.
Allison Graham is a corporate trainer and keynote speaker specializing in effective networking and business development strategies for professional service providers and small business entrepreneurs. Visit her at Elevate Seminars + Strategic Development, Inc. [3]
[Image: Flickr user Aquila [4]]

Icebreaking 102: Use the News

Continuing on my Ice Breaking series aka How to use Small Talk to Lead to Bigger Things aka how to talk to strangers without sounding like an idiot.

TIP 2: Use the News.

Be up-to-date on the latest industry news and trends so you can come off educated and excited.

It’s easier to start a convo with a stranger in advertising when the conversation is about advertising.

“This Samsung-Apple situation is heating up, huh?” beats “This weather’s crazy, huh?” any day.

Here are some ways to be in-the-know so you have enough conversational lubricant when you are out and about with ad folk.

· Read advertising magazines and blogs (AdAge, AdWeek, ComArts, Creativity, Archive, AdFreak, Adverblog, The Denver Egoist, etc, etc) daily. You need to know what’s going on in every aspect of this business.

· Follow thought-leaders on Twitter. (Who knows, you may get a RT or spark up a conversation.)

Try AdFreak’s TweetFreak: 50 to Follow

· Like agencies and ad organisations on Facebook. They share what’s up with them and the industry. (Also great to keep up with who’s winning and losing accounts – meaning, who is hiring.)

Try: 5 Agency Facebook Pages With Personality

· Google agencies and their leaders. Find out who is going to be where you are and check out their LinkedIn and their work. (Who doesn’t like talking about themselves?)

Try: Google. Ha. And Agency Compile.

· Immerse yourself in real advertising. Actually watch commercials, listen to radio spots, look at the banners around you, grab a magazine and check out the print work. Look at the history, look at the trends. (Whether they love it or hate it (especially if they hate it) ad people love talking about advertising.)

Try: Ads of the World and Creativity

Icebreaking 101: Small Talking Tips

What do you have to talk about?

You're at an industry event (Let's say Advertising Week ) and you're in the presence of all these advertising greats you want to meet. What next?

I've written in the past about it before and this week I'm going to spend a bit more time on that. I'm going to call this series: How to use Small Talk to Lead to Bigger Things.

Part 1: Learn how to make Small Talk

Originally posted 10/3/11

One of my goals here is to be honest and direct with you at all times. Lying, coddling and misleading you won't get you anywhere in life. And puts me on a one-way, nonstop train to Hell. (aka front row at The View.) So let me get this out of the way before I go any further into this post. I hate small talk.

I hate it.

Most people are boring and/or poor conversationalists and I'd rather not force banter and waste my wit on them. And yes, you may be my best friend's boyfriend or the CEO of my company, but if I try and find we genuinely have nothing to talk about or you can't grasp the basic dynamics of a dialogue then I quit.

Then there are those people, people I admire in this realm, who are able to push past the awkward silence, the short responses and paragraphs about laundry, weather systems or teething. (Situations in which I usually find myself trying to come up with ways to frame other people for my suicide, you know, just to keep NYPD busy.)

Making small talk is a skill. And a valuable asset to have as a creative. Don't get me wrong, I'm a social butterfly. I've had conversations with homeless men and head honchos, however, I can't force it or fake it. If I'm not interested, I'm just not interested (why do people always want to talk when I've got my headphones in and it's before 9 AM. What do we have to talk about before 9 AM?) And if you're not interesting, I probably hate you.

You, my precious grasshoppers, should master small talk. Advertising is full of the most random group of attention seeking, socially awkward triviaphiles out there. (Is there a word for people who know a lot of random trivia? I made up triviaphiles.)

You should be able to own an elevator and make a client see your personality. (These are the two main times it matters: When you're stuck on the elevator with your boss's boss or before or after a client meeting, at a client dinner, on a shoot or out at a networking event.)

Here are some tips I gathered (aka copied and pasted) from these articles for us (I definitely need to learn) to get better at making small talk:

10 tips for making small talk

1. As you prepare for a function, come up with three things to talk about as well as four generic questions that will get others talking. If you've met the host before, try to remember things about her, such as her passion for a sport or a charity you're both involved in.

2. Be the first to say "Hello." If you're not sure the other person will remember you, offer your name to ease the pressure. For example, "Charles Bartlett? Lynn Schmidt -- good to see you again." Smile first and always shake hands when you meet someone.

3. Pay attention to what they're saying. When you're making small talk, follow up on phrases; for instance, if they say they're "excellent", ask why – ask where you can get some. If they mention that they're exhausted, follow up on it. When you're making small talk, remember that great conversations and good connections can be just around the corner.

4. Get the other person talking by leading with a common ground statement regarding the event or location and then asking a related open-ended question. For example, "Attendance looks higher than last year, how long have you been coming to these conventions?" You can also ask them about their trip in or how they know the host.

5. Stay focused on your conversational partner by actively listening and giving feedback. Maintain eye contact. Never glance around the room while they are talking to you.

6. Have something interesting to contribute. Keeping abreast of current events and culture will provide you with great conversation builders, leading with "What do you think of ...?" "Have you heard ...?" "What is your take on ...?" Stay away from negative or controversial topics, and refrain from long-winded stories or giving a lot of detail in casual conversation.

7. Ask what movies or books they've seen or read recently. Someone once asked me that at a party. Admittedly, at first it felt contrived, but then we had a fantastic conversation about the book I was reading! Making small talk is about trying new conversations.

8. Talk about TV. Share your favourite TV shows - whether it's Oprah's revelation of The Secret or the your favorite sitcom. If you're Canadian, Little Mosque on the Prairie might be interesting to discuss! Making small talk about pop culture is easy and fun.

9. Share an anecdote about your day. Did you lose your keys or find $10? Maybe you ate at a new restaurant recently, or found a great new CD. Making small talk is about sharing the little things.

10. Watch your body language. People who look ill at ease make others uncomfortable. Act confident and comfortable, even when you're not.

The weirder you are, the better

All creatives were the weird kids in school.

That's what makes us creative. We see things differently. We look for alternate solutions. We create a new solution when there is none. And now we get paid to do it.

There are no new ideas, but there are new ways of putting together things to creative something innovative and interesting.

That's what a creative's job is.

So keep going on that quest to learn, experience and create "weird" things.

Be different with a purpose.

Cheers to all the weirdos!

Creativity: Why You Should Seek Out Unusual or Downright Weird Experiences

From PSYBlog

"Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience." ~Masaru Ibuka

Creative people can be a little weird. Great artists are often outsiders: they don't behave like us, they don't look like us and they don't think like us.

True creativity is not the preserve of people who think the same as everyone else. Frequently (but not always) this is the result of lots of weird things happening to them:

"...highly creative individuals often experience a disproportionate number of unusual and unexpected events, such as early parental loss (Martindale, 1972) or having an immigrant status (Goertzel, Goertzel, & Goertzel, 1978). Furthermore, living abroad is linked to creativity in the general population (Leung, Maddux, Galinsky, & Chiu, 2008)." (Ritter et al., 2012)

So perhaps:

"...diversifying experiences help people break their cognitive patterns and thus lead them to think more flexibly and creatively." (Ritter et al., 2012)

Now there's experimental support for this idea. In two experiments Ritter et al. found that:

"...comparisons with various control groups showed that a diversifying experience—defined as the active (but not vicarious) involvement in an unusual event—increased cognitive flexibility more than active (or vicarious) involvement in normal experiences."

So go out this weekend and do something weird: it'll make you a more creative person (probably!). As former Beatle Paul McCartney said:

"I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird"

Just make sure you take an active part in the weirdness and you don't let the weirdness go too far.
We've all met people who are weird-bad rather than weird-good. A creative person may be intentionally weird, but only at times when weird is good.
Have fun!
Image credit: Norma Desmond

Morning Wake Up Call

Couldn't have said it better myself:

Go forth and be great!

Inspiration: Unconventional Ads

Think outside of a full-bleed print or mobile app and you'll find a world of creative options for executions that win.

The Four Best Unconventional Ads From The Last Four Years
Via Copyranter

The Four Best Unconventional Ads From The Last Four Years

Inspired ambient advertising that perfectly combined medium and message.

In March, 2009, this 225 square meter sticker promoting Frontline flea and tick spray was placed on the main floor of three shopping malls in Jakarta, Indonesia. Brilliant. Ad agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Jakarta.

Last Fall, in Toronto, a real street scene with blurred billboard, sidewalk, street sign, mailboxes, and fire hydrant was erected. It was promoting the Mercedes-Benz 2012 C-350 Coupe, and got lots of press. Ad agency: BBDO Toronto.

December 2009. Taking advantage of a country-wide snow storm in England, Polo mints, through their ad agency, JWT London, produced stamps that perfectly replicated the candy in snow, and hit the streets. Big return on free media. This is my favorite. So simple.

2009, via China, for Supor non-stick pans. The Shanghai office of Leo Burnett set up a giant wok outside shopping malls in the city. A ramp was placed behind it where skater boys and girls dressed as prawns, fish, pork, eggs, and carrots created the illusion of cooking non-stickiness. Pretty cool. Video below.

How to Copy Write: A detailed guide

Copywriting is a skill, an art in certain ways. It really hurts my feelings when students say they picked copywriting because it's easier.

It's not.

It's different.

You don't need to master programs, but you do need to master words. You need to know how to take boring client mandatories and turn them into an intriguing and enticing conversation with the target.

You need to know how to tease, excite and motivate people in an interesting way. Without cliches. Without being boring. Without saying too much. Without lying and getting sued/boycotted. Without saying something that's already been said. Without being confusing.Without snapping after going through 32 revisions of ONE line.

It's a lot.

It takes work. Practice. Talent. Resilience.

I was sent this gem last week and couldn't wait to share it with you.

The Copywriting Infographic

It's huge, so you'll have to click/download to view all of it (Try this link). But it's great. I love infographics (have you seen Awesome-or-Awful.com?) and this chart is full of tips, tricks and how-tos.

Also these great quotes:

"A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer." - Karl Kraus

"When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip." - Elmore Leonard (!!!)

Save it. Print it. Study it.
(Try this link)

Praise vs Criticism

My co-worker has this on his wall (apparently he created it. He must be some sort of creative or something.)

I love it because people (*ahem* especially younger folks) are always looking for praise and pats on the back and not as readily open and receptive to criticism and negative feedback.

I've written about Dealing with Death and Accepting Feedback. But let's talk about it a bit more.

Throughout school, working on your book, your first few years and your ENTIRE advertising career, people are going to tell you what you're doing wrong. Teachers, coworkers, creative directors, clients - everyone has an opinion about what's wrong and what could be better.

I'm not saying you have to do whatever they say, but you should be able to listen to them.

Being humble, accepting, understanding and, most importantly, being able to learn from your mistakes and become better will keep you employed. And keep your portfolio growing.

Don't be mad because so-and-so didn't have anything good to say. Be thankful they cared enough to be honest with you about where you're falling short.

A lot of other people would just sit and watch you fail. Or say "Never mind, she doesn't get it. Bring in What's His Face to do it instead."

You don't want this.

Try. Fail. Then try again. (Read: Fail Big and Fear of Failure)

You're going to make mistakes. You're going to get it wrong. You're going to have to make revisions.

Find out what you're doing wrong. Find out how to fix it. Learn from it. Grow for it. Get better.

Cheers to being torn to shreds.

The only way to go from there is up.

Type Star: Creative You Should Know

Closing out the week with another post on typography. And creativity. And someone who creates type. It's a cycle. Hopefully it inspires you to create something great - like the logo for a social networking site.

In case you missed the other posts on typography: Become a Type Snob and Type Snobbery Part II

Creatives You Should Know: Juan Carlos Pagan
from Creativity Online

Self-professed typeface geek Juan Carlos Pagan had already made a name for himself long before he joined DDB, New York as a designer six months ago. The Parsons grad was busy indulging his love for typography at the inaugural Type@Cooper postgrad class at Cooper Union, when his friend and fellow designer Mike Deal called him to collaborate on a project. Little did they know, they were working on what would become, arguably, the creative industry's logo dujour, for Pinterest.

Pagan says the brief from Pinterest founders Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp called for a logo with a custom typeface. The original featured Bello Script by Underware, "which is a beautiful typeface, but it's something that anyone license," he explains. "They wanted something that was nostalgic, but not overly nostalgic. It had to work on really small screens because most of the interaction with the logo would be on a mobile device or screens."

The process of creating the logo came naturally, and the pair was free to take creative risks, Pagan says. "Ben and Evan were really great at expressing what they were looking for and they have a high level of respect for craft and design. They see it and feel it and understand the significance of it.

That's the only reason we were able to do some of the things we did, like using a discretionary ligature, for instance." For non-typography geeks out there, he's referring to the ornamental connection of the logo's "s" and "t." Says Pagan, "That not only helped the logo feel right, but it adds that bit of craft and quality I think they were looking for."

The Problem with P
The biggest challenge? "We had this ongoing joke of getting the right degree of 'P-ness,'" he laughs, bringing out the twelve-year-old boy in all of us. Initially the pair believed that having the P mimic a pin would be a "little too obvious," he says. "The whole entire time, we were like, 'No, no pin. Let's just make a beautiful P and that's it.'" But toward the end of the project, they decided to give it a go.

"We didn't want to make it too sharp because that's evil. And we didn't want to make it too soft because then it would be a nub. It was really about nuancing the right degree of suggestion of 'pin,' and we got to a place where we were like okay, maybe it's a little obvious but it's okay because it feels right. If this P is going to have to live by itself, then maybe it should be a little more conceptual in that sense. I'm really happy with that decision because it really helps people interact with the logo."

Beyond Pinterest, Pagan has also worked as a designer at G2 and MTV, where he worked on the identity for MTV Scratch. Now at DDB, he's has applied his smart design and typography sense to the agency's work for the Art Directors Club, the New York Lottery, Hertz, including the latter's a standout poster campaign with a fun, art deco vibe, featuring a variety of slightly tweaked typefaces, courtesy of Pagan.

The posters featured illustrations from Studio AKA designer Chris Gray. "I took Chris' work and started really developing the individual typographical language for each poster. It could have been easy, you could have just had him do it and slap type on top, and that would have been fine. But I really felt that even though it was a campaign, each ad deserved a unique typographical voice. The typography relates to the art."

At Creativity, we've noticed that the work out of the agency has gotten a lot more interesting over the last several months. CCO Matt Eastwood and ECD Menno Kluin say Pagan is one of the factors behind the shop's creative renewal. An unusual creative process also helps. "Menno and I have weekly, if not daily conversations about the things we want to create, the people we want to work with and how that fits into our clients' needs," says Pagan. "And out of those conversations we approach creating stuff and proposing things to our clients. If they like them and if they're on par with strategy, we'll move forward with it. It's unique. We're a global agency, but here in New York, we act really nimbly. We act like a small design studio and I love that. We approach projects with this idea that we can make them.

When asked about his thoughts the state of design in advertising, "I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people think," he says. "The truth is I think a lot of things lie within mediocre. It's like a microcosm for society and people--10% are exceptional, there's 80% in the middle, and then 10% that's horrible. Design, in terms of advertising, a lot of it you're seeing is in that 80%. You're seeing it, but you're not really seeing it. You're not really engaged. I think we're striving here to do the top 10%."

Which, he believes, can not be reached on talent alone. "It's tough to excel to the top," he says. That's hard work. There are a lot of talented people in the industry, but I think the people who get to that 10% are people who have an extremely high aptitude for hard work."

When he's not killing himself over ads, Pagan tends to another outlet for his letter-driven obsessions, his own foundry Pagan & Sharp, launched with fellow designer Lucas Sharp.

Juan Carlos Pagan--More to Know:

If not doing advertising:
I'd be designing something. If I wasn't designing for advertising, I'd be designing something. I have a type foundry on the side with Lucas Sharp so on weekends and nights I'm designing typefaces and licensing them. I'd be doing that full time, or I'd be designing a building. I need to be making something on some level.

On what his family thinks of his career:
I had an interesting experience explaining to my grandparents what I do, but they don't quite get it. They get that I work in advertising, but they think typography just exists, that it's like air, which most people should, and it's fine.

On his favorite typeface:
I go through momentary fits of things I'm really drawn to. Right now, I'm really interested in Fleischmann and William Addison Dwiggins and his M Formula, which kind of informed my latest typeface. It involves really sharp points on the inside, the counterforms, and these really round smooth points on the outside, and the tension and contrast they create and how they read when they get really small. That's really fascinating to me.

Little known fact: I have a pretty extensive library of books. I read a lot of philosophy, whether it's pre-Socratic Greek or postmodern existentialism--that sounds shitty, but I read a lot of philosophy. Maybe that's weird for a designer.

E-reader, or book?
I like books-- a lot. I romanticize reading a book. I love holding the book, smelling it. I love being on the train on a cold Winter's day with a cup of coffee and a book. I can just ride the train back and forth. There's something soothing about that.
My roommate has an iPad and he reads on it and it seems wonderful. I'm not hardened. I have an iPhone, I read and write emails on it, but I do enjoy the book, the page flipping, making creases. My room is books, it's like my bed, my computer and books.

Skin Colour Does Matter

Art directors, designers, photographers and retouchers REJOICE! Pantone now has a skin tone guide.

Hint: Be sure to include people of different cultural backgrounds in your work. It's not 1952 anymore. America is full of colour and your creative should reflect that.

Official: PANTONE Unveils A Collection Of 110 Skin Shades

From Kiss My Black Ads

Global color authority PANTONE has unveiled the ‘PANTONE SkinTone Guide’, an official collection of 110 shades of nude.

The collection hopes to be a standard for matching skin color, and can be used where skin tone needs to be accurately matched to a color standard.

According to PANTONE, the guide can be of many uses, such as in: Product design, to develop and control natural skin tones for toys and a variety of products and accessories; Photography, to easily match skin tones for accurate photo editing and retouching; Print/Packaging/Graphic Design, for quality control standards for consistent and appealing skin tone reproduction.

“The guide will help take some of the guesswork out of the color correction process by providing our experts with a defined system for reaching skin tone color targets, saving us time and eliminating costly mistakes,” Victor Basile, senior vice president, director of print graphic services at Publicis Groupe, said in a statement.

The SkinTone Guide has 110 pages, each dedicated to its own SkinTone shade for accurate visualization—each page has a small circular cut-out for users to compare the sample to the PANTONE color.

To create the guide, several high-end spectrophotometers were used to ensure precision, and more than 1,000 human skin tones were scientifically measured and collected from a diverse range of ethnicities and age groups.

“The semi-translucent nature of skin makes measuring and reproducing skin tones in print and manufacturing an extremely challenging process,” Giovanni Marra, director of corporate marketing at PANTONE, said in a statement. “By starting with actual skin tones and working back to define a SkinTone color space, we were able to catalog the most realistic and reproducible skin tones.”

“In most other color palettes, the color ‘nude’ is unfortunately relegated to a few skin colors, but in reality, nature has given us a multitude of beautiful shades of skin,” Marra added.

The guide is arranged from light to dark and utilizes a four-digit alpha-numeric system: the first two digits reflect the hue or undertone of the skin; while the second two reflect the tone or lightness and darkness of skin.

The PANTONE SkinTone Guide is available on Amazon at US$89.

BABY FOOD FOR CREATIVES