What We've Learned (So Far) This Year

Also, that Simpsons Memes = You Are Old

M&AD's business is, as I write this, up over 20% at this time from 2021. (Go us!) We've also got a pivot movement happening right now, as an old major client offboards for business reasons, and a new significant player hops on. So I thought I'd take a moment, as we've got time enough to write and share, to explain what we've been working on, and more of what we've learned.

> Sustainability is the new hotness.

Our pivot involves consulting and SEO work for folks in this space, which just makes all the sense in the world, really. It's a perfect marriage of channel and purpose, and what's encouraging here is that the prospect base aren't just skim and click folks. You have to write for brains as well as thumbs. Just a better place to be when it comes to the work.

This sector was always highly interesting to us from our historic position as a resource for first movers (prior: augmented reality, cannabis, remote learning), but it has special urgency with +$5 gasoline, not to mention the fresh incentive to not buy fossil fuels from terrible people. More of this, please -- and not just for M&AD.

> B2C tactics continue to work on niche audiences.

Some clients in special and highly regulated markets seem surprised when tactics from outside of their industry bear fruit, but the plain and simple of it is that marketing is about offer, list and creative... and the same eyes that looked at that e-commerce play five minutes ago are looking at this B2B one now. We don't magically ratchet up our attention spans, lose our preference for headlines that snap, or put our brain's desire to look at pictures over text away just because it's Business Time. Execute accordingly, while protecting brand.

> Small universal big levers still work and hold their value.

Consider the humble Sender Name in a commercial email. It rarely gets testing focus, and it's a hard thing to test very often for branding reasons -- but when you can if/then test to a winning one? You dine at the +10-15% table for a really long time after that. (Similar bonus point: waterfalling ads by placement to increase fill rates.) Some in this industry scoff at incremental improvements, but at M&AD, it's against our religious business faith to leave money on the table. Especially money from weak execution.

> People see through bells and whistles, even in a recovery.

A recent client was enamored of animation in their decks, all while missing the blocking and tackling required to make a major account feel secure in a commitment. This has been proven over and over again in our 20+ years in the business, but sizzle is a powerful spice. Use rarely and with great care, or risk arousing (justified!) suspicion from your prospect. If every slide is animated, no slide is.

> New holiday, who dis?

Twice in the past 14 months, Wal-Mart got resoundingly slapped down on social media for trying to monetize Juneteenth in a remarkably tone-deaf fashion. We are reasonably certain that at some point in our lifetime, the newest federal holiday will safely and positively celebrate Black Excellence (and, well, capitalism) in a way that won't induce cringing and social media disdain. This is America, after all.

We're also very certain that the movement will not be led via a special ice cream flavor or cookout section at a big box store. (And yes, I'm leaving some things unsaid in this note, and yes, you can ask me about it offline...)