I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack Becker of Element Advertising (http://www.elementadvertising.com) which is located in downtown Asheville, NC. Jack is part owner of Element Advertising, as well as the principal brand strategist, creative director and senior copy writer. He is humble and has a great sense of humor. I hope you enjoy my interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing Jack!
Tell me a little about yourself.
Somewhere along the way to cobbling together a collection of short stories and wanting to write something really important (READ: self-important), I guess you could say I was diverted into the world of advertising and brand strategy. By my mother. How embarrassing to admit that. But truthfully, it was she who first suggested that trying to get published in The New Yorker might not be as easy as writing a bra ad for JC Penny. And she was right. I think.
For the record: I never wrote that bra ad, but still, I’m convinced she was right.
Eventually, I found myself in Asheville, having plied my trade far and wide all the way to the polar (well, both can be quite chilly) opposites of Salt Lake City and San Francisco. In those places, I created brand strategies, creative direction, copy, short films, interactive campaigns, multi-million dollar international brands for Sony PlayStation, Intel, Sundance, MGM Motion Pictures, and more.
It was Asheville’s uniquely earthy character, however, that first inspired me to take up orchid growing and resuscitation. Just bear with me; there’s a point coming up. The difficulty of their care, their very specific needs, their delicacy and their strengths all remind me that they make an apt metaphor for brand building and stewardship. I like to write. I’m ever-curious about human nature and what makes us all do what we do. And I like to build exciting, creative, weirdly surprising brands.
How would you define Marketing?
Marketing is simply the “strategic influence” that connects the dots or forms a relationship between a business’s goods or services (I WANT TO SELL YOU NIKES), their particular messaging needs or desired results (I WANT YOU TO BUY NIKES. WATCH MICHAEL JORDAN. JUST DO IT.) and their target audiences (YOU.).
Tell me about your job – what do you do?
I’m a small business owner, I suppose, first and foremost. I’m part of a three-person partnership at Element, so there’s certainly a good portion of my responsibilities that are devoted to running a business and managing our staff of about ten folks.
Beyond that, I’m a Brand Strategist, a Creative Director, and a Senior Copywriter. In my role as a Brand Strategist, I consult with clients who need to build a new brand or perhaps gauge their current brand’s health or effectiveness against the impressions its making (or not making) against their desired targets. There’s generally a research phase, a discovery phase, a development phase, and a testing phase. In Creative Direction, I manage a small creative department as the supervisor, and a lot of my role there is to create, guide, inspire and ensure that strategic insights from creative briefs wind up in final executions on behalf of our clients. If the client also has a set of defined brand or graphic standards, I must ensure we “color inside the lines” where those are concerned. And last, as a Senior Copywriter, I draft copy for each of our clients, often working hand-in-hand with an Art Director as a creative team to develop conceptual ideas, then building everything from complete website copy decks to something as short and sweet as a tagline.
What made you go into Marketing?
The best answer for this one is likely addressed above in the first question…but to help you find it quickly, this section:
I guess you could say I was diverted into the world of advertising and brand strategy. By my mother. How embarrassing to admit that. But truthfully, it was she who first suggested that trying to get published in The New Yorker might not be as easy as writing a bra ad for JC Penny. And she was right. I think.
For the record: I never wrote that bra ad, but still, I’m convinced she was right.
To expand…I was accepted at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. But the summer before I was supposed start in the fall, my Mom asked if I’d do a summer internship at Price McNabb, then an Asheville-based ad firm.
The deal was, if I hated it, she’d help pay for school. If I loved it…well…she’d be satisfied I was on my way to being able to afford to eat something besides cat food. And voila! I loved it. I loved working with photographers, art directors, designers, strategists…and suddenly realized how lonely and solitary being a novelist or short story writer would be.
What advice do you have for people who want to go into marketing?
Develop your intellectual curiosity in as many ways as possible. Learn, constantly. Seek out fields you know nothing about, like cultural anthropology, psychology, political science, etc. and immerse. While marketing classes taught in most universities will offer some generally good theory or perhaps even some practicality if taught by marketing professionals, it’s been my experience that the best minds I’ve met in marketing come from other fields of endeavor.
What is the most valuable skill a new-to-marketing candidate can have to succeed in this business?
Beyond the intellectual curiosity I noted above…I’d say it helps to be brave, and become your own brand strategist. You often have to begin in marketing by developing your own brand.
That requires bravery. You have to be willing to sell yourself, be confident, even when you don’t have a ton of real-world experience. If you want a job with an agency or you’d like to be hired an an “in house” marketing professional (Marketing Director for Company X) understand that you’re going to be hired as a Junior first, and you’ll want to really do your homework about the company you’re applying to vs. sending out generic resumes, cover letters, etc. BE SPECIFIC about how your skill sets dovetail with a need within Company X you’ve identified.
What does your typical day involve?
I probably have between 5 and 15 distinct deadlines I must meet in a given day. So I guess you could jokingly say my day also involves a lot of adrenaline, and that near constant battle between “fight or flight!”
While no two days are exactly alike, my deadlines might range from reviewing a campaign that’s about to be presented to having a meeting where I have to present new strategy or creative, to perhaps a new business pitch, or likely ones in which I’m providing copy for a set of digital banners, etc.. It’s intense, exciting, often exhausting, and occasionally, when the planets align, thrilling. If there’s a raise to give or I have to course correct with an employee, that might also be part of my day, but I have to slide that in somewhere around deadlines, as those tend to be “can’t miss, or risk losing a client” in their importance.
What is the most valuable marketing research tool in your opinion?
That seems to change nearly constantly. At one point, I might have answered “focus group research.” Now, online tools like Survata.com or Survey Monkey are invaluable, as are other research tools like Prizm or Claritas market segmentation research tools. We use Mendelssohn Affluence surveys, Nielsen, etc. They’re all data driven, and often, just collect raw data.
We’re then on tap to provide analysis of that data, find strategic nuggets for our clients, and get busy on creative executions on their behalf…or the development of media plans or other strategic plans.
What was your favorite marketing project you’ve worked on? And why
Well, I guess I have two: The first was a campaign of TV commercials I worked on right after I got out of commercial art school. I was able to live in New York City for about six months on the agency’s dime,
and the work wound up winning awards in One Show, Communication Arts, and other prestigious places. For a kid who was working in Birmingham, Al, at the time…it was a pretty amazing experience.
The second is one I’m currently working on, for a local nonprofit called Homeward Bound. They try to move homeless folks off the streets and into public housing as a first step. Anyway, because they desperately need the help, it’s very satisfying to assist them, and see results on their behalf. We’ve recently launched a new website for them (homewardboundWNC.org), developed an image brochure, redone their logo and tagline, and redefined their graphic standards. They’re a very grateful, appreciative client, and it’s been a sincere thrill to help them.
What do you think about the show “Mad Men” and how does it relate to today’s advertising/marketing business?
I’m a HUGE fan of “Mad Men,” and very sorry its gone! Don Draper’s Kodak pitch for the Carousel is one I virtually have memorized, and refer to often. But beyond some of the presentation tips I’ve gleaned, I can’t say all the drinking and sleeping with secretaries is all that relate-able to the current industry. Well…maybe the drinking part…but I don’t know many ad pros who can sustain three-martini lunches constantly and still be effective!
What book/novel has had the most impact on your life? And why
Again, probably two answers here:
First, James Joyce’s “Dubliners.” It’s simply the best collection of short stories that’s ever been written. Period. And “The Dead” is my favorite from the bunch. It’s the book that made me want to be a writer.
Second, I’d say Jon Steele’s “Truth, Lies, and Advertising.” While it’s now a bit dated, having been written in the 1990’s, it introduced the British discipline of Account Planning, and many of its principles are still very apt today. Our creative brief is based on aspects described in the book.
