Darren Easton

5 years minimum agency experience.

We are looking for an experienced Account Executive fully capable of leading account relationships. The ideal candidate is familiar with all aspects of maintaining and upselling clients and truly enjoys thinking and acting proactively on behalf of clients – and the agency.

A passion for the agency business is important. Solid written and verbal communications skills; experience managing marketing budgets and programs; a passion for marketing strategy and a strong presence in front of clients is critical. Our enthusiastic team works closely together – you’ll be an integral part of every facet of agency work: from creative, social media, brand development and marketing strategy to direct client contact, research, campaign planning and execution.  The proven ability to be both team leader and team member is a must.

To be considered, please include salary range expectations (can be broad). Applications WILL NOT be considered without salary expectations. Submit your cover letter, resume, campaign case studies, marketing plan or any other writing samples to Darren.

When I was in college trying to decide what career path to take, ABC’s TV series “ThirtySomething” pointed the way. Barely in my twenties, I wasn’t thinking much about the importance of family and friends — even if subconsciously it made an impression. But when Michael and Elliot left for work and walked into that agency, something about it excited me. The rest of my career story is history; I’ve been an ad man ever since.

That was the last time advertising as an occupation was successfully portrayed to the masses on the small screen. Then along came “Mad Men”. There once was a time when mindless, “getting to know you” chit-chat started with talking about the weather. Nowadays when someone finds out what I do for a living, I hear “do you watch ‘Mad Men?’”

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A friend of mine once said that advertising doesn’t work. That he’s never bought something because of an ad. I then asked him what mobile phone service he uses and he replied, Verizon Wireless. He went on to say that he had to sign up for Verizon because he travels all over the country and needs to have a good signal. I laughed to myself and thought of the tagline: “It’s the network.”

Many people see a commercial, but don’t rush out to buy the product. Unfortunately for us ad folk, consumers see our ads but don’t act on it as quickly as we’d like. When they finally do act on it, they usually don’t even know why.

My conversation with my friend was quite funny to me. How many products do you think you have bought because of some aspect of marketing? You probably won’t be able to name many. Take a look in your cabinets and closets and see how many store brands you see. Probably not many. You’ll see mostly brand names everywhere you look. But why? Have you ever tasted Safeway store brand mac and cheese? It’s awesome. But you bought Kraft.

There’s no mistaking the power of building a top of mind brand. Even if you won’t admit it.

I say all the time that creating a print ad is so much harder than creating a TV spot. In print, you have 1.2 seconds to nail your point before a page is turned or passed by. With TV, you get 30 seconds. That’s a lifetime to sell something. What is difficult in writing for TV is the temptation to let the bells and whistles of today’s technology take the lead – let the tail wag the dog.

If technology furthers the strategy, use it. But strategy is where the TV commercial begins. Which leads me to the other difficulty in writing for TV. All our lives we’ve learned to tell stories using words. Now you need to tell them with images, with words merely supporting them. So how do we use visuals in strategy to begin?

The big idea. What’s the main message that persuades and makes the product stand out? This is marketing 101. Determining a product’s USP.

The benefit. What is the benefit of the big idea and whom does it benefit? You have your product’s USP determined and you now need to think about how your target audience will want to hear it and what they’ll be interested in seeing.

Create visual elements that stick. Here’s where the personality of the brand shines bright. If the tone of your brand is rugged, dramatize that toughness with like imagery, typography, movement and sound.

Now you take that visual and tone to script. This is what we call a “treatment.” Use a narrative to tell the story. Much like a Cliff’s Notes version or the basic plot line of what happens. e.g. “Guy walks into a bar, gal comes over and says…” Once you’re happy with the scenario, put it in script form. Once you’re finally happy with your script, you’re off to storyboards. Now you can put technology to work for your script. The dog is now wagging the tail and strategy has not been sacrificed for the sake of cool effects.

Effective advertising makes relevant connections with its target audience. To be successful you must understand, respect and embrace the diversity that exists in our wonderful country.

Young or old. Black or white. Sick or healthy. Whatever group you are targeting, remember these things when marketing to them.

Look at the whole person, not one demographic characteristic. Not everyone in your demo will make the same amount of money, live in the same area or have the same values and attitudes. Psychographics can never be stereotyped.

Avoid stereotypes. It seems like a no-brainer but it happens all the time. Mainly because the advertiser fails to put himself in the customer’s shoes. Account Planners in large agencies bridge this gap but many of us out there need to think this way on our own. Remember there are also positive stereotypes. e.g. Not all Asian Americans are good at math.

Laugh with them. Humor does have a place if it doesn’t rely on stereotypes. If you’re too serious, it looks like you’re trying to be safe – as if it’s a different type of advertising category. It’s all just advertising.

Make relevant ties to their personal causes. Suggest to your client that they donate a portion of sales to causes that are important to them.

And at the end of it all, test, test, test. Test your marketing on members of the target audience.