All You Need is a Good Idea!: How to Create Marketing Messages that Actually Get Results

INTRODUCTION

During my career in advertising, I've created campaigns for corporations and products such as Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Ralston Purina, and Skippy peanut butter. Everything from television campaigns for the nation's largest advertisers to tabletop signs for a local restaurant. I've been honored with awards, plaques, and trophies. Some of my commercials are in the Paley Center for Media—formerly the Museum of Television and Radio—in New York.

For the past 16 years, as co-founder, creative director and president of my own New York ad agency, I've also created marketing pieces for smaller companies. I've learned that every client—no matter the size—has the same need for powerful creative marketing ideas.

The difference is that smaller businesses like yours—and according to the Small Business Administration, small businesses account for more than 90 percent of all businesses in the United States, so you 're not alone—don't always have the resources and large staff to develop these ideas. Or have the budget to hire an ad agency. Working with a good ad agency—and with the good ones it is always working with—can help you create ideas more quickly, with results that you often could never come up with on your own. (After you read this book, can you imagine the thrilled expression on your advertising agency's face when you knowledgeably critique the creative material it presents to you or ask to see the strategy it worked with? Even better, can you imagine the look of unquestionable ...