It’s advertising award season, everybody!
That’s right — you too can win an award, as long as the production value for your submission makes the work look like the best thing since sliced bread… even if the work features a moldy hamburger bun.
When ads featuring moldy bread somehow win awards, the industry seems detached from the world in which actual consumers (aka people) live. The last time advertising made me this nauseous, I was strapped into Samsung’s virtual reality rig at Mobile World Congress.
To that end, here is a list of industry awards I would like to see offered.
I wanted to say that these are the Cannes Lions award categories that I’d like to see, but I checked with my lawyer* and she** claimed*** that I cannot refer to that brand name in this context.
So, let’s try another version…
Here are the Aluminum Jaguar awards I’d like to see:
Best brand that gives credit to relevant agencies for their work.
Best solicitation on LinkedIn that asks a relevant question and doesn’t feel like it was spammed to 89 million people.
Best example of a creative not putting work in their portfolio because they had absolutely nothing to do with it even if they were technically on the team that did it.
Best manager who does not bombard direct reports on nights or weekends — or who at least sets expectations that no one should respond outside normal business hours unless it is clearly an emergency.
Best use of a phone call or audio-only chat when Zoom wasn’t needed.
Most accurate timesheet.
Best creative campaign idea inspired by something that a parent stumbled on in their kid’s Google Classroom feed.
Best managerial advocate for taking mental health days, personal days, and family time.
Best improvement to a campaign idea made by someone who said, “We have no one remotely identifying with the target audience on this team, so let’s bring such people into this group so we can make sure these ideas have a shot at being relevant and speaking their language.”
Best ally.
Best corporate email newsletter that feels like a publication that someone outside the company publishing it would ever read.
Best example of a brand campaign where you can actually recall the name of the product being advertised. Ads with Ryan Reynolds don’t count because how is he that handsome, charming, and good at advertising?
Best decision not to tie up half of an agency’s hardest-working teams on a longshot of a pitch because the teams are so stretched thin as is and the goal is to deliver the best work for existing clients.
Best publisher that opts for a crisp, clean, consumer-first experience maximizing the visibility for both content and limited ad inventory instead of cramming text, image, and video ads in every possible corner, denigrating the experience for all parties that the publisher is trying to serve.
Best use of optimizing creativity in a wait a sec, sorry, I got distracted thinking about that latest Ryan Reynolds ad but if you want this award, go ahead, take it.
Best TV ad that no one on the brand or agency team saw because everyone streams ad-free TV.
Best job description for a marketer that focuses on the two or three key priorities and skill sets that are most important to the hiring firm rather than listing every single possible skill set a marketer may have learned and hoping to find that magical creature who is a 10 out of 10 in 100 marketing disciplines.
Best example of any ad a marketer saw in the wild (e.g., through regular media consumption, not shared in the ad industry echo chamber) and actually remembers. I’ll wait a minute.
Best… actually, let’s give you a few more minutes.
Best use of retargeting that retargets people who haven’t bought the product already.
Best jingle. Can we make those a thing again? Audio’s a thing now. Jingles should be too.
Best contender to be the industry’s next Ryan Reynolds.
Who would you nominate for any of these awards? And what other Aluminum Jaguar categories are missing? Let me know so we can take these Aluminum Jaguars on the road, or a seaborne vehicle of choice. I won’t even charge you a submission fee.
David
*Doesn’t exist
**My made-up, non-binary lawyer still defaults to female pronouns
***Didn’t happen
PS: Our first $CMO drop is LIVE! We’ll be giving away up to 500 $CMO coins. If you want to claim one, visit the Bonfire page this week. Just for holding the coin, you’re eligible for continued rewards, as those are distributed to all coinholders weekly. You can also earn rewards from referrals. Thanks for supporting our community!
PS 2: This month’s First Wednesday (7/7) in NYC is brought to you by… an amazing cause. Our friend Peter Shankman (@petershankman) is racing the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii to raise $150k for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Why not help him achieve his goal and donate to a good cause? shankman.com/ironman
|
- Google Delays Cookie Removal to Late 2023 by P. Haggin, S. Schechner and S. Vranica
- 378 Startup Failure Post-Mortems by CB Insights Team
- Data Privacy Laws and Marketing: How to Stay Ahead of Changes by WITHIN Staff
- Recap: My climate fellowship by Garrett Johnson
- Your Guide Through the Wilderness by Madeline Schwarz
——————————
HOW TO SHARE
——————————
Thanks to Mat Zucker, Nancy Harhut, E.B. Moss, Praveen Mishra, Amy Gittelman, Matthew Silverman, Jeremy Woolf, and Jason Gardner for spreading the word about the newsletter recently.
Share it with five others who subscribe and receive 10 $CMO coins, along with other rewards. Even one referral will net you a coin (try it out).
Here’s your own personalized link, with more referral rewards for sharing the newsletter. Visit https://
Share via: Email | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn——————————
EVENTS
——————————
Please submit any events you’re hosting to our calendar at https://serialmarketers.net/
Upcoming Serial Marketers events:
Starting this week, Salons are back to their full 1-hour format. All events are on Wednesdays at 5 pm ET. First Wednesdays of the month are in person. Starting from 7/28, last Wednesdays will be Upstream SpeedUps.
- 7/7: First Wednesday Co-Hosted with Peter Shankman – in-person social chat in NYC
- 7/14: Salon with Chris Fronda, founder, Logictry [ZOOM]
- 7/21: Top DIY PR Tips to Get Noticed with Sandy Sloane [ZOOM]
- 7/28: UPSTREAM MIXER
FIRST WEDNESDAY (NYC) CO-HOSTED WITH PETER SHANKMAN
July 7, 5 pm
First Wednesday, our fun NYC tradition led by Zack Rosenberg, keeps going strong. This month’s event is brought to you by… an amazing cause. Our insane and generous friend Peter Shankman (@petershankman) is racing the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii to raise $150k for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Why not help him achieve his goal and donate to a good cause? http://shankman.com/ironman
RSVP on Meetup.
FIRST WEDNESDAY (SEATTLE)
July 7, 5 pm PDT
Via Zachary Rozga in the community:
“Seattle has reached the 70% Vaccination threshold. And now it is time to shed the virtual happy hour networking event. Instead of recreating the wheel we are adopting a long standing very successful model from the New York advertising/marketing/media community called First Wednesday. This is bring a friend, grab a drink and talk shop.”
https://www.linkedin.com/
DIGIDAY PUBLISHER GOLF OUTING
July 15
“Digiday’s first-ever publisher golf outing will bring together publishing executives for a unique day of golf and mingling. Hosted at the beautiful Galloping Hill Golf Course, you’ll have the chance to connect with peers over a casual round of golf and networking functions.”
https://digiday.com/digiday-
SALES AND SCALE LIVE
July 15-18
Via Mike Volkin in the community
“This event has been created for one thing only: to help you scale your business now. That’s why I’m bringing in some of the top business people from around the world. People who have taken companies from $1 million dollar valuations to $500 million dollar valuations and taken companies public.”
https://www.salesandscale-
——————————
JOBS
——————————
Keep checking out the #jobs channel in Serial Marketers for more. Here are some great opportunities shared there or sent to me directly.
NXT ASCENT LLC
Chief Growth Officer
United States
“Collaborative, tenacious, can-do-attitude and a strong willingness to work, the future Chief Growth Officer has the following:
* Analytical & Data first – must structure and process qualitative and quantitative data and draw insightful conclusions to make sound recommendations.
* Highly efficient & organized – Efficiently plans, organizes, schedules, and budgets to produce significant outputs while focusing on key priorities.
* Strategic thinking/visioning – Understands the big picture and can communicate it in an inspiring way. Determines opportunities and threats through a comprehensive analysis of current and future trends.
* Competitiveness – Moves quickly and demonstrates tenacity and willingness to go the distance to get something done (…)
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/
FANCY SPRINKLES
Brand Manager
Los Angeles, CA
“Self-starter who moves quickly, yet strategically with an affinity for product, and is excited about continuing to scale Fancy Sprinkles Products, the future Brand Manager has:
* 4-6 years proven track record in driving strategic brand management for DTC eCommerce brands
* Expertise with food, beauty, jewelry, personal care, spirits — DTC ecomm in house or relevant agency experience
* Works hands-on in campaign management from briefing, to ideation, to execution. Content background with strong storytelling and project management skills. Ability to be successful with marketing budgets in 1MM-5MM range.
* Results driven mentality with track record of value creation in previous roles, and passion to innovate in the category”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/
BBOT
VP Marketing
Head of Customer and Partner Marketing
United States
“Bbot is a rapidly growing startup that makes contactless ordering technology for bars, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality establishments. This position is full-time and is remote work from home.”
WITHIN
Influencer Marketing Manager,
Influencer Marketing Strategist,
other roles
Long Island City, New York, remote options
“We are Performance Branding experts, working with scalable and enterprise brands including Nike, Spanx, and Shake Shack. We leverage digital channels and creative to grow our clients. Data drives our decision making and enables us to operate like trusted business partners. WITHIN works with brands to collapse the funnel between performance and brand marketing unifying objectives, targets, strategy, and implementation.”
SEVERALNINES
Director of Marketing
Remote
Via Dwight Griesman in the community
“The Director of Marketing at Severalnines will be expected to craft and execute strategies that drive traffic of high-quality leads to our website to contribute to the growth of our community user and customer base. The Director will also develop the strategy to craft content that both acquires, converts, and educates our current and potential customers before, during, and after the sales process.”
https://severalnines.com/
POWER DIGITAL MARKETING
Various agency roles
Via Rachel Hirshl in the community
A ton of jobs and new hires needed for my agency Power Digital Marketing. 5 year winner of INC best places to work! Amazing shop, clients & leadership. If you are in paid social, paid media, Amazon or content dev, check us out and DM me your resume!
www.powerdigitalmarketing.com
TEMBO HEALTH
Marketing Director / Manager
Remote
Via Alyssa Petersel in the community
“We are seeking a Director of Marketing to help revolutionize how health care is delivered to millions of seniors across America. As the lead of our marketing efforts, you will work with the CEO to develop and execute go-to-market strategies, partner with the sales team to target C-Suite executives, and collaborate with Customer Success to brand the experience of clinicians, patients and family members.”
https://tembo.freshteam.com/
MIZZEN+MAIN
Director of Growth Marketing
Dallas, TX, Open to remote
“Entrepreneurial and driven growth marketing professional with strong communication skills, the future Director of Growth Marketing has:
* 6-8+ years of experience in growth marketing driving both new and existing customers online & offline
* DTC Retail, Ecommerce industry experience (ideally apparel or beauty)
* Collaborated closely with agencies to develop, validate, test and refine customer acquisition and retention strategy utilizing A/B testing and data analysis to optimize each stage of customer journey touchpoints across platforms to drive growth.”
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/
CAPTIVATEIQ
Demand Marketing Manager
Product Marketing Manager
San Fransisco, CA, Open to remote
“CaptivateIQ is on a journey to modernize the world of incentive compensation. Our hope is that people will feel more connected at work if there is greater transparency in how they are rewarded for their efforts. We partner with amazing companies like Carta, Intercom, Gong, and Newfront Insurance to simplify their commissions. Since launching in 2017, we have raised $63M and are backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Accel, S28 Capital, Amity Ventures, and Y Combinator.”
SERVICECHANNEL
Senior Director of Product Marketing
San Francisco, CA
“A tactile marketer with experience creating product marketing content and tools including website pages, use-cases, product sheets, etc., the future Senior Director of Product Marketing has:
* 6-10 years of experience in a product marketing function in the B2B Enterprise SaaS industry
* Hyper-growth startup background with experience in GTM strategy and leading / hiring successful product marketing teams
* Proven success building the content marketing strategy to build the lead funnel
* Experience working with sales enablement to ensure internal and external stakeholder success
https://app.huntclub.com/jobs/
More via Hunt Club
* Stealth Mode Marketing Agency: Head of Brand Strategy/Founding Partner (United States)
Other job resources:
- Advisable: Get instant access to top marketing freelancers
- AMA Job Board: Listings from the American Marketing Association (maybe you can also ask them anything)
- Beeler.Tech: Job listings for ad operations, programmatic account management, sales operations, and more.
- Built in NYC: Jobs at a range of levels and functions, as long as you’re okay working in this quaint, backwater hamlet.
- CareerList: Here’s a form for companies hiring and a form for job seekers; here’s the public list with tabs for both
- Content Writing Jobs: Content marketers, enjoy
- Creative Women of Color: List yourself in the database and find talent, via Women Who Create
- Demand Curve: Growth and marketing jobs
- DiscoverTheTalent: An initiative designed to build partnerships with businesses to advocate, train, and hire military spouses
- ExecThread: Senior roles spanning a range of verticals and cities; membership is free but fully vetted (this uses my referral ID to get you in faster)
- Gently Ventures: Helps scale businesses by finding the right talent
- GLG: Get paid to share your topical expertise; it can lead to some interesting conversations at a potentially decent hourly rate
- Growth Collective: Apply to join this network of notable freelance marketers
- Grace Blue Transitions: A portal for hirers and seekers with resources from this exec recruiting firm
- The Hired Guns: An array of jobs in marketing and related fields at brands, agencies, and media companies
- Hue: Amplifying voices of people in color working in marketing
- Hunterz: A way for connectors to get paid to introduce startups to large enterprises
- Lead5: A paid service for executive roles, plus intel on changes with companies and PE investments; you can try a risk-free weeklong trial to see if it’s any good for your needs
- Lunch Club: Match 1:1 around predetermined goals with accomplished professionals (free)
- NYC Ad Jobs & Networking: A popular Facebook group
- One Club for Creativity: COVID-19 jobs Board
- #OpenToWork: There’s a channel in Serial Marketers where you can share what you’re looking for
- Pangea: Where you can hire college freelancers (and college students can get gigs)
- Pocit: A platform connecting people of color with jobs in the tech industry
- Questions to Ask for a Marketing Role: What questions should you ask when starting a new marketing role or job?
- Remotists: Remote startup jobs, chronicled weekly
- Sales Hustle Stack: Find platform-based gigs and other creative ways to earn some extra cash
- Startup.Jobs: There’s a section for marketing jobs
- Teal Job Tracker: A free Chrome extension to manage and enhance your job search
- TechNY Daily: While more technical, there are also some sales and marketing jobs at NY startups.
- VC Job Boards: Aleph, Eniac Ventures, Pear, Sequoia, Union Square Ventures
- VentureLoop: Free startup job listings; their paid option is $15/month and might surface more leads (but it might not).
- Venwise: Submit your job interests here and get in front of their roster of hiring leads; select “Serial Marketers” under “How did you find us”
- Wanted: Wanted helps top talent in tech and marketing find a job at your desired pay.
Do you run or enjoy other job listing sites? Let me know, and I’ll share them.
——————————
OFFERS
——————————
Below are offers extended to the Serial Marketers community. To share your own or access the Premium member discounts, review membership options here.
Markman Speaker Management: Get 15% off the half-day customized virtual training session “Get Speaking Engagements” for individuals or corporate staff through Sept. 30, 2021. Contact Steve Markman to redeem.
Thece: Get 10% off their Getting Started Kit — just let them know Serial Marketers sent you.
FocusedFounder
Get 5% back on any bookings of the Focus, Growth, and ReFocus plan. To receive your rebate, please contact me after you book the course.
My Software Tutor
Get a 15% discount on live online classes that teach practical, functional, business-centric Microsoft Office software skills (Excel today, PowerPoint coming soon). Use code SERIAL15 to redeem. Premium members get a 25% discount.
ReverseAds
Get 10% discounts on campaigns. ReverseAds reverses the search ad process, outperforming Google at a fraction of the cost. To redeem, contact Thom Feltz by email.
Northarc Media
Marc Lefton is offering brands a free one-hour consultation on your media mix to show how you can integrate programmatic. For agencies, you can get a free one-hour consultation on how to add programmatic to your service offerings. To redeem, contact Marc by email.
Secret
Sign up and use the promo code SERIALMARKETERS to get 20% off on any membership plan. Membership enables you to access all deals with unlimited usage. One deal should more than pay for itself.
Marpipe
Create an account and start a 7-day free trial for $125 in ad spend credit toward your first experiment with this multivariate testing platform. Redeem here. (Premium members get $175 in credit with a custom code)
Copysmith
Following a 7-day trial of this AI-powered marketing tool to generate ads, product descriptions, and more, use code SERIALMARKETERS for 35% off any plan for 3 months (premium subscribers get 50% off for 4 months).
Dokkio
Get lifetime access to this file management tech with three seats, all free. (Premium members get five seats; see the Slack channel for details and a custom link.)
