Call of the Ad in the Wild.

There are many woes that come with running your own small agency. There's the loneliness--most days I work completely alone. There's the constant hunt for new business--retainer accounts these days are as scarce as politicians with ethics. There are the clients who seem to think Net90 is an acceptable way of doing business. Ouch.

Also painful is how infrequently you see your work making it from your computer to production to paid media. From my earliest days in the business, my favorite moments have always been when I get to see my work in situ. You know, in the wild.

(Not wild postings btw, which allow people to make fake work look like it ran.)

Just about 90 minutes ago I got a note from a client. GeorgeCo., LLC, a Delaware Company has an offering I call "the Nifty Fifty." It's 50 headlines for one (not-inconsiderable) price. My tagline for the Nifty Fifty, which is my third most-popular offering, is "A year's worth of ads for a week's worth of pay." IMHO, it's just want clients need in the Insta era--in an era where you have to be always on, always topical and always fresh.

The Nifty Fifty cost more than el car wash (a collection of 80 car washes in southern Florida) wanted to pay. We settled on something I named "the Dirty Thirty." That is 30 ads, in this case billboards, for three days wages.

I love doing work like this. 

For one, when you have to write 30 of 'em, or '50, or even
"the Century," (100 ads) you don't have time to be precious. Also, at that level of ubiquity, every ad doesn't have to do every thing. Basically, as a copywriter, you're just telling a joke, or making a copy point, and showing a logo. You're reminding people your client is there. And giving them a reason to visit.

For most of my life, Tiffany's ran on page A3 of the "Times" what we used to call a 300-line ad. (That's an ad about the size of an index card. In standard newspaper "lineage," it was 1/9th of a page.) Tiffany's weren't really selling what the ad featured. They we're just saying to readers, "hey, we're here. Don't forget about us."

And maybe, "oh, and we're likable, too."

That was my thinking about the Nifty Fifty. A lot of what brands need to do is simply remind people they exist in a way that doesn't annoy the shit out of people. Most brands forget about that last part. So, they annoy the shit out of people.

I saw this a few moments ago. 
The diametric to "The Nifty Fifty."

Also, I realized--in conceiving of this offering--that clients have websites and emails that need lines. And powerpoints and holiday cards, too. Having a panoply of lines is like having ammo in your arsenal. It's better than shooting blanks. And getting blank stares.

These usually aren't ads you have to spend a great deal of time thinking about if you're a viewer. They're not asking for a lot from you. We're just trying to "stop the scroll," and give you a smile, and maybe implant something in your already too busy head.

My client just sent me the iPhone photo below from somewhere in West Palm Beach. It's just one of many billboards we did together.

I've written thousands of ads in my time. I used to write 500 a year when I was working in-house at Bloomingdale's. Seemingly I wrote almost as many when I was head of copy at Ogilvy on IBM. I probably write 250 a year for my own business. They work for me. They get me clients. Which gets me money. Which I like.

Here's one my client just sent me.

As I like to say, "advertising ain't rocket surgery."

Sometimes it's as simple as handing someone a laugh. And getting a check for it.

Halavai.