"To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage." Georgia O'Keeffe

"...one of the hallmarks of a creative person is the ability to tolerate ambiguity, dissonance, inconsistency, things out of place. But one of the rules of a well-run corporation is that surprise be minimized. Yet if this rule were applied to the creative process, nothing worth reading would get written, nothing worth seeing would get painted, nothing worth living with and using would ever get designed." Ralph Caplan

"The ways of creativity are infinite: the ways of formal learning are numbered. Restless, curious, playful, contriving, the innovative mind feeds on challenge and makes its home in the province of mystery." Robert Grudin

Today's image: Street guardian by Rui Palha. Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!


Something discovered while doing research for an upcoming talk.

David Ogilvy, a memo to the Board, October 1978...

A Teaching Hospital

I have a new metaphor.

Great hospitals do two things: They look after patients, and they teach young doctors.

Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.

Ogilvy & Mather is the teaching hospital of the advertising world. And, as such, to be respected above all other agencies.

I prefer this to Stanley Resor's old saying that J. Walter Thompson was a 'university of advertising.'

Beautiful. Ogilvy was indeed a genius.

Wanted: Teaching hospitals of the 21st century advertising world.

My sense is that project would require another Ogilvy. Leadership!

Bonus: Lee Arnold

"Perspective is worth ten IQ points"

That's wise counsel from Gary Hamel. As we begin another first quarter and another round of earnings calls what we need is some fresh perspective. The #1 challenge facing broadcasters continues to be broadcasters. Captives to history. As a practical matter, incumbency is worthless. Stop thinking about broadcast in the context of broadcast. Start thinking about broadcast in the context of everything else. Focus on the denominator. The most telling stat of all is share. Set aside CAGR, broadcast share is in decline - Danger, Will Robinson. First big important step - find the hunger. Forget about getting better, get pathologically competitive, obsessed about getting different. (My thanks to Thomas P.M. Barnett for the construct. Tom has said the difference between himself and the folks that work at the Pentagon is they think about war in the context of war and he thinks about war in the context of everything else)

Eagle flies in Iowa: Campaign Media Analysis Group estimates Iowa TV stations picked up $45 mil in the run up to yesterday's caucuses.

Congrats & cheers: For the first time, Disney Channel beat all the ad-supported cable networks in prime during 2007, delivering more average viewers than any other #1 network in cable TV history. USA posted second.

Blogging music: Daytrotter. Rock Sellout. My thanks to the Hey Nielsen crew for the tips.

Too soon to tell: Story about GSD&M creative for the HD Radio Alliance breaks in the trade. Gregory Solman writes it up in Ad Week, GSD&M Preps $200 Mil. + HD Radio Push. Meanwhile, Media Monitors proclaims the HD Radio Alliance 2007's #1 radio advertiser (national spot). 1,451,036 spots detected. My thought is those 1.45 mil units were only a part of the 2007 messaging efforts. Promos, IDs, et al by local stations were not insignificant and should be properly credited in any realistic accounting of investments made in the HD Radio initiative. As mentioned here previously 2008 is the third year of this initiative. Alliance members have pledged $230 mil in inventory. This represents an incredible opportunity and one that should not be wasted. The largest single multi-year investment made by and for radio in the history of radio should produce results. The HD Radio campaign should serve as nothing less than a practical demonstration of the power of radio advertising. The evidence must be empirical. Q.E.D.