When I started Meyers + Partners more than 30 years ago, the advertising agency world was in the waning days of the 3-martini lunch. These didn’t happen as often as legend holds, but they were occasions for rambling discussions of creative ideas, media effectiveness, brand strategy and the importance of imagination. (My father’s advice was to always drink gin martinis, never vodka – so that when you returned to the office your colleagues could smell the gin and know you were drunk, not think you were stupid.)
Much about the business has changed – the technology, the overwhelming abundance and availability of information, the new media, the ubiquitous online connectedness, the compression of time – and the pace of change is accelerating. But the foundation has endured – it’s still a business that relies on imagination, marketing discipline, relentlessly crafting good ideas and on storytelling. Telling the right story in the right way to the right people at the right time to persuade the right prospects to become customers. Simple, but not easy to do.
Embrace the new. It’s chaotic, but in the midst of chaos lie opportunities. Learn from experience. But since there is never enough time to gain all the experience we need, learn from the experience of others. Have courage to change – jump off the cliff, build wings on your way down.