Last month, I introduced readers to Roy H. Williams, aka the Wizard of Ads, in announcing his illustration contest. Besides being an enormously talented and effective advertising professional, he is a best selling author, a deep thinker, a provocateur, a teacher, a romantic and a prognosticator. The Wizard Academy he spearheads is a place of learning like no other.
In a couple of recent posts here, you've read my thoughts on the economy with suggestions for adjusting your marketing plans. Katherine Tyrrell, who publishes the heavily trafficked Making a Mark blog. from across the pond in Britain picked up those posts and added her own insights and some other terrific links you will find informative and instructive. Her site is a veritable treasure trove of information for artists.
It seems lately there is a plethora of advice on the economy; then there is the Wizard with his unique, believable take on a 40-year trend shaping society right now. Here is a verbatim transcript of his January 20 Monday Morning Memo:
2008: Year of Transition |
In January of 2004 I launched a public presentation: Society’s 40-year Pendulum. Audiences from Stockholm to Sydney to Vancouver to Myrtle Beach will recall my statement, “2003 was the first year in a 6-year transition from the Idealist perspective to the Civic.” Labels like Baby Boomer and Gen-X and Soccer Mom assume a person’s outlook is determined by when they were born. This is a very foolish assumption. 2008 will be the last year of our transition to a Civic perspective. Naiveté is rare today. Your customer is equipped with a bullshit detector that is highly sensitive and amazingly accurate. And the younger the customer, the more accurate their bullshit detector. When selling, remember: If you don’t admit the downside, they won’t believe the upside. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts gave us an example of “keepin’ it real" when he opened his syndicated column recently with the following lines:
For the record, I consider Leonard Pitts to be one of the greatest living writers in the world today. Read his column and see if you don’t agree. “Winning” has become less important than “belonging.” Have you heard about the Hollywood writer’s strike? Expect to see Wal-Mart unionized in the upcoming years. Hide and watch. See if I’m not right. Viral marketing wasn’t created by the advertising community. It’s simply the result of a horizontally-connected generation (1.) sharing their happy discoveries with each other and (2.) trying to protect one another from mistakes. IN YOUR ADS, do you include “proofs of claim” your reader, listener or viewer can experience for themselves? It’s time to take the advice of Bill Bernbach, “I’ve got a great gimmick. Let’s tell the truth.” By the way, if I ever win a Pulitzer, I’ll immediately start wearing French shirts with 3-inch cuff links that spell out PULITZER PRIZE WINNER in diamonds. But if what I said earlier about “the last, reluctant holdout” is true, I expect my attitude will change approximately one second before midnight on December 31, 2008. PS I'll be making that 90-minute presentation Society's 40-year Pendulum as part of the New Client Orientation on Feb 5. and again during the Free Public Seminar on Feb. 12. My friend in Afghanistan, Wizard Acadgrad (and MBA) Susan Ryan sent me a fascinating email, “Christmas on the Road to Kandahar.” Finally! That new book from Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan! ![]() |
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