Five questions; five answers: Marc Lefton
Lest there be any question regarding my anti-social skills, I’m now an official columnist at Adholes.com, the ad industry’s largest and oldest social network. In celebration of this, the founder of Adholes.com, Marc Lefton, was kind enough to let me interview him.
1. From your perspective, what is it that gets in the way of truly great marketing?
The consumer’s lack of education or ability to take a joke, and/or a client’s perception of said consumer to be even 200% more totally stupid, humorless and easily offended than they already are. Since I’ve entered the industry, ads have gotten worse and worse. It used to be a marketer was willing to take a risk and offend a few people to please many. Now you have the most loved brands admired more because of their products and customer service than anything advertising agencies are doing for them. All the great talent got sucked out of the industry in the last recession and now even more will leave or get booted in this one. And, add to that further cuts to the education and arts and we’re on a downward spiral to the dumb marketing to the dumber in the next 10 years.
2. How do you define “truly great marketing”?
Truly great marketing fires on all cylinders. It starts with a great product. Without a great product, great marketing just makes people hate you faster. From there, God is in the details. It’s easy enough to write a great print spot or a TV commercial, but finding an idea with enough legs to make it through every channel there is - from your Twitter account to a matchbook cover to that “Sorry, we were unable to hold your reservation” letter has to have the same consistent tone, attitude, spark and zing. They all have to emanate from the same thought process. And finally, having the ability to listen and respond to consumers instead of just talking at people which is SO 1900’s.
I don’t think ZipCar makes great ads - I’ve honestly never seen one. But from the copy on the website to their emails to the fact that they responded to me on Twitter within an hour of complaining about them shows they are firing on all cylinders so well that traditional marketing may not even be necessary.
3. Let’s say America becomes communist. What career do you want the government to shove down your throat?
I’ve always been a fan of Russian propaganda posters. I don’t fear communism, I will gladly join our Dear Leaders in manipulating your dead-insect-filled brains to do our bidding.
4. What do you think sets you apart from other folks in your line of work?
I’m not a clone. I never went to college. Which means as a creative person in the industry no one can say “Oh, your portfolio makes me think you went to SVA” which is what I can say about most others graduating today. Schools are churning out clones who all think creative in the same way. I’m a unique combination of being passionate, having high expectations and goals, and yet not really caring how far I go or if I fail. I was told by family and teachers growing up I was going to pump gas for a living. When you have that type of expectation it removes the fear from trying new things. If I always wanted to be a creative director, I might have stopped half way and said good enough. Or, I might have just joined an ad industry social network instead of asking myself “How can I make my own?” before anyone else did. I don’t know where I’m going so I guess I just keep going up. If I screw up and wind up pumping gas then so be it. It was my destiny! I’m going to keep trying to be different and do what I believe in, not what others insist I do.
5. What do you think sets you apart from other humans?
True brilliance is not in being smart but in knowing how you are not smart. I know how to not only play my strengths but embrace and cover up my weaknesses. You need to be kind of zen about your ego to do this - because on one hand you want to be confident about yourself, yet at the same time be humble enough to know when you’re not good enough at something. I’ve found very few people who have this balance - most have a false ego and only concentrate on how good they are. I worry about how bad I am at things and how not to let those things undermine what I’m good at.
By now, you probably understand why Marc and I get along.
Click here to check out Marc’s blog.
