GOOD RELATIONSHIPS IS GOOD BUSINESS

… AND VICE VERSA.

People not in the Advertising/Marketing Communications business are constantly asking me: "David, why does a company choose one agency over another?" Now, ostensibly, that’s a simple enough question right?… but the answer proves a tad more complicated… a bit more sophisticated… or is it?

On the surface, you might think that most clients choose an agency based on the agency’s pedigree: their history as an established advertising/marketing communications company; their record in terms of the results they’ve been able to achieve for clients with respect to their ability to move-the-needle by creating incremental revenue with their adroit marketing genius; and of course, naturally, their specific core competency and experience within the industry in which their client's operate on a daily basis, etc. These are all very important and viable reasons for choosing a strategic agency partnership for sure; and of course, as a marketing communications company, we wouldn’t respect our client in the morning if they didn’t base their assessment and ultimate decision-making after doing the necessary due diligence and conducting a thorough vetting process with respect to same. Nevertheless, my experience over the last 25 years at one of the country's leading Advertising/Marketing Communications companies for the Gaming | Hospitality | Entertainment | Retail vertical, THE MEDIA AND MARKETING GROUP ("M&M"); a Division of STAR GROUP COMMUNICATIONS suggests one factor supersedes and eventually trumps (pun intended!) all those in the final analysis.

Did you ever hear of a little paperback book entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. Pick it up… it’ll take you all of about an hour to read (and if you enjoy rereading the same sentence two or three times like me… perhaps two hours!?) … but worth every minute of your precious downtime. But what is it that attracts and more importantly, galvanizes a relationship… personal or professional… readying it for long-term endurance and durability?

Around here, we like to say Good Relationships is Good Business… and vice versa. And, of course, that makes common sense, doesn’t it!? We must always remember it’s called "Relation"-ships for a reason. So, what is a good, solid business relationship based on these days? As it turns out, even Wharton MBA graduates have figured it out: Simply, good business relationships are made of the same stuff that good personal relationships are made of.

Naturally, for sure, there’s the tried and true “your reputation precedes you” motto your grandparents, parents, a Grade School Teacher or High School Coach admonished. Not to mention Empathy and Compassion… which usually shows up after Sincerity, Honesty and Trustworthiness have paid a lengthy visit. These are the fundamental personal virtues that are the time-tested, proven building blocks... the DNA... of true, long-lasting, enduring relationships… are they not?

Let’s face it, most of us in business and in life have a tendency to throw around little niceties, cute little adages and philosophical Yogi Berra-isms to make others (and ourselves) feel good—and we can get caught-in-the-trap of rendering them useful arrows when necessary to win the hearts and minds of clients, prospective clients, family and friends—or even crying toddlers when we're pressed and stressed for relief. But, have you paused… to notice how quickly they roll-off-your-tongue with even your own loved ones, let alone friends and relatives, colleagues and co-workers, business associates and strategic partners (and yes even social media acquaintances) to subtly coerce (that might be too harsh a word… let’s use a gentler one shall we?), persuade them towards your way of thinking!? As a result, are the media pundits right? Are we becoming increasingly jaded and numb to overused, often-heard exchanges of insincere expressions devoid of any substantive meaning and redeeming value—precisely because no qualifiable (those intangible yet meaningful, substantive, enduring emotions) and as a result quantifiable (measurable differences in terms of how they affect our lives) change follows the sophisticated, savvy vernacular we use!? Is Washington the only one trapped in this vicious, self-fulfilling prophecy? (Is it just silver-tongued politicians or are we all trapped in this politically-correct nose dive!?).?

Take the word “love” for a moment. We use it over and over again to the point of diminishing returns: "I just love the brand strategy direction we’re taking!" or "I love the creative your team came up with for this campaign!" or "I just love working with you people!" And let's not forget "I just love dark chocolate, fast cars and baseball!" and "I love ya lots!" We just "love" people and things to death don’t we!? Is it me, or do most of us who think we have a healthy emotional I.Q. cringe every time a rock, movie star or some late night celebrity host zealously retorts “I love you too!!!” when overwhelmed in a moment of public elation precipitated by shouts of applause and accolades that confirm their self-worth!? I mean, really now, how can someone sincerely “love” in the truest Philia sense, millions of people they’ve never met—I have enough trouble "loving" my own family members let alone myself sometimes!? (Is it me? It’s me right? Am I becoming a skeptic in my ripe young age!? And, how is that possible… after all, "50 is the new 40" right? Or is it 30 or 35 now!? Yeah Right! Tell that too my aching back on a gloomy Monday morning in the middle of a New Jersey blizzard!).

Listen, perhaps there's something to this!? Perhaps, just perhaps, indeed our emotional I.Q.'s have suffered some in the last fifty years or so—affected by the comfortable standard of living us Americans have become accustomed too in this day-and-age in which we live!? In fact, Social Scientists and TV Psychiatrists now tell us that us Baby Boomers (and I’m on the tail end of that born in 1961) just don’t want to grow up!? There’s a significant viability to that observation: Most of us Americans have never had to concern ourselves with the daunting personal challenge of seeking refuge from armed Syrian, Iranian or Russian forces right? Am I saying we should stop dreaming and Get Real with the world around us? No! I’m saying we should Dream Bigger…but Get Real with everything and everybody around us! What am I really saying here?

Back to the topic at hand. Listen, we’re not na?ve around here… we’ve been around the block just a few times in the last 30 years. We’re intuitive and (here’s a big word I absolutely love!?) perspicacious enough to fully get the fact that most of us are just tuned into WIIFM (“What’s In It For Me”)… it’s just human nature! And, those same Social Scientists and TV Psychiatrists also tell us we’re all pretty much built about 99.99999 % the same!? (By the way, did you know your unique DNA can wrap around the moon and back, a short cosmic hop, skip and a jump of 250,000 miles away from the earth, a mere 1500 times... and our sun—still in our little cosmic cul-de-sac, only a mere 93, 000,000 miles away—about 4 times and back!? Pretty cool tidbit huh?) In any event, psst... come a little closer. There you go! Listen, don’t leak this out… but, Donald Trump won the election because he "tapped into the American Psyche" and mainstream subconscious … and “Tells Us Like it is!” (What Everybody is Already Thinking Anyway!? And, half of the American populace obviously LOVED him for it!?!) He epitomized what I called the "David Conquering the Goliath of Politics as Usual!" He certainly didn't pull any punches… and told it like it was, precisely, he said, because he wanted to be himself... he wanted to be authentic. So here it is… there’s no political correctness here either (so those with weak stomachs might want to turn back now!?): What you, as an agency client really love is the fact that your talented, skillful business-savvy agency has positioned your company’s brand and/or service using perhaps what they (and hopefully you!?) consider avant-garde, out-of-the-box strategic thinking to ideate, create and then execute superior messaging on your company’s behalf that dwarfs, in fact overshadows, your competition’s messaging—especially when it actually serves to increase incremental revenue!?—thus making you, the CMO, look intelligent (not that you’re not already smart Fredo!) and thus, effectively securing your job a little longer and/or putting you in line for a possible promotion… or a better job down-the-road… and as a result, making your life just a tad easier… for the time being anyway!? OUCH!!! (You should try "living in my head" some time!? LOL!).

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everything we do as human beings is self-centered and self-serving—why all we have to do is look at the incredible stories of sacrifice and charity after 9/11… Sandy... and other more recent tragedies… and that theory proves insolvent. What I am saying is this: that on any given normal day, very few of us reach Mother Theresa and Maximilian Kolbe status when we’re going about our normal, everyday routines… it’s just the way it is. Simply speaking, most of us are just trying to survive another "normal" 24/7 cycle of pressures from work, children, our spouses,?our jobs and aging parents, etc. And that’s OK. (Am I Right or Wrong?) So, enough philosophizing. What’s the point? Well here it is... finally right!?:

Simply, given the seemingly insurmountable daily magnetic pull to remain manipulated into living lives devoid of any substantive, long-lasting meaningful relationships, how do we get beyond our own navels (and noses) to survive (and more importantly thrive!) to create (and, more importantly sustain) substantive, long-lasting personal (and therefore business) relationships through the good times and the bad!? You know, when your… (our!)… campaign potentially falls flat and doesn’t hit-the-mark as intended with regards to resonating with your (our!) prospective constituencies to increase gross revenue to strengthen EBITDA like you… (we!)… planned (i.e. like the 2009 Tropicana packaging redesign that ended up costing them $50 million dollars… or the New Coke fiasco of 1985… and a host of others throughout the last 100 years).

Here’s a little reminder: https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/05/what-to-learn-from-tropicanas-packaging-redesign-failure https://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-new-coke-flop-30-years-ago. And, for more recent crash and burns check out: https://www.adweek.com/adfreak/13-biggest-brand-fails-2014-161978.

Um… to reiterate, it’s the “RELATIONSHIP” silly. With the agency. With your clients and customers. With those intangible, often esoteric connections we create between our family members, relatives and close friends (and now social media acquaintances), colleagues and co-workers, our business associates and strategic partners… and our world at large… including the brands we use on a daily basis… to provide some sense of fulfillment, enjoyment, satisfaction and relevant meaning in our lives and the lives of those we serve—which, and here’s another overused (meaningless) expression — at the end-of-the-day, is why former Coke CEO Donald Keough summed up the New Coke fiasco of 1985 like this: There is a twist to this story which will please every humanist and will probably keep Harvard professors puzzled for years,” said Keough at a press conference. “The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people.

Did you pause... to take in what he was really saying!? Were you (did I mention I absolutely love this word yet!?) perspicacious enough to read-between-the-lines here!? If not, let me stress… “the deep and abiding emotional attachment…” Hello McFly! It’s the CONNECTION (the “relationship”) they felt with and for their Classic Coke. (Why do you think Oprah and Dr. Phil have successful, highly-rated TV shows? They’re successful in creating “connections”—seemingly sincere and honestly meaningful relationships—with people who are desperately in need of establishing those connections—and that’s all of us in one way or another isn’t it!?). One great book says: The Rivers of a Man’s Heart Are Deep Waters… Who Can Know Them? People are seeking connections on national TV and social media platforms because they’re finding it harder and harder to connect at home or with their significant others… or their colleagues, co-workers, employers, business partners (and can we include their agency-of-record without self-incrimination?) because of the immediacy of our world. Futurist Faith Popcorn in her book The Popcorn Report told it like it is: We’re now so connected six-ways-to-Sunday with those we don’t know or truly care about because it’s easy… it doesn’t take any real hard meaningful work!? Sad Commentary isn’t it!? (I don’t know about you, but while life is good for me, I'm quite aware and often overcome by a sudden melancholy as I walk by the homeless I pass on my way to my plush office located across City Hall in The City of Brotherly Love!).

Back in the 90's my colleague of 30 years and I were engaged in producing several of those obnoxious "infomercials" and short-form (2 minute) TV commercials you see at 3am in the morning.?I remember a close friend of mine once observed, perhaps?keenly, that essentially we produce shows that coerce others to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like! (much less love!?)?Am I depressing you yet? (I don’t intend too… because I truly believe there’s HOPE for us all!).

Why do I adhere to the Hope Springs Eternal perspective in life? Well, we all intuitively know we long for those real, solid connections don’t we? We thirst and pant for them like oxygen… like food and water… as we do true unconditional love!? We all know we need these things to survive… to grow… and to prosper… both personally and professionally… as complete healthy human beings… fully alive and engaged in our world… with the people in our lives… both personally and professionally…who help us make sense of our purpose and existence in it (am I getting too deep here?).

I won’t take credit for this as a quick Google search suggests this about “Good Relationships”: A good relationship is more than something we want ... it’s something we need to be our happiest, healthiest, most productive selves. But at home or work, supportive, fulfilling relationships don’t come automatically. They take an investment in time and energy as well as social skills that can be learned.

Hmmm!? Did you catch that? “An Investment in Time and Energy…”

Don’t go away yet… I’m almost done pontificating here. Folks, sadly, it’s become a “four letter word” these days… but it’s called “Hard Work.” It Takes A Lot of Hard Work to Create fulfilling, Long-lasting, Enduring Relationships. Period. Simple Right?

On a personal note, my precious beloved parents have been married for over sixty-four years now; they raised six children on a shoestring government salary; we didn’t have it all… but we truly lacked for nothing… in fact, in my humble opinion, we were dealt the best hand!? Mostly in our mid to late 50’s now, we have managed not to end up in jail—in fact, we’re all doing pretty good these days by most contemporary standards. As a family, while we’re not Ozzie & Harriet (Although, I’ll readily admit, perhaps a smidgeon of The Brady Bunch or Partridge Family may have rubbed off along the way!?) by any stretch of the imagination; but we are indeed fully engaged with each other’s lives to the extent that we all can be—but folks, it takes active, voluntary, daily/weekly/monthly/yearly engagement to stay connected even in the midst of the storms of life. Today, after 64 years of marriage,?my 85 year old, 5 ft tall, Brooklyn-born Italian mother (who works out 3x's a week by the way—in fact, I'm still quite afraid of her! LOL!) is the primary caretaker for our father... an 88 year old suffering from a dreaded disease called Alzheimer's. Being ingenuous and candid, folks, it is the purest form of love I've had the personal blessing to witness in this life.

People are often commenting upon the sincere love (the “relationship”) they’ve witnessed between us when we’re all together for various cousins’ weddings, birthdays, annual ski trips and summer vacations. We intimately care about each other’s personal well being ... and we’ve invested considerable time and energy in each other’s lives over the last 50 plus years! We have each other’s back for sure (and I guess it shows!?). So, on a personal level, both from my parents and with my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, I’ve experienced what it takes to create long-lasting personal relationships. I’m indeed blessed to have many, many close friends (in addition to a growing collection of acquaintances on social media: Um, for the less... here we go again... perspicacious among us, I'm being facetious here guys and gals... those are not real relationships!) as well as good, solid relationships with colleagues and co-workers, bosses and business partners. Likewise, I’ve worked hard to create (and sustain), a relationship with a former agency President & COO for over thirty years now. But, it hasn’t always been peaches and crème mind you—and that goes for family, colleagues, co-workers, bosses or business partners alike. It Takes Work. Hard Work. Sometimes Extremely Hard, Tiring, Frustrating Work. But, I’ll tell you this much, ALL my best relationships have been those I've taken to the mat and back… they’ve been tried in the furnace of time and energy… and frustration… and love… and trust me… I wouldn’t have designed it any other way. America, write this one down and read it to yourself (and your loved ones) every single day:

PRINCIPLE # 1:

Good Relationships take a lot of Hard Work. Period. And, as my beloved mother would say... Get Over It!

So, in my humble opinion (and you know what they say about opinions: They’re like navels… everybody has one) some of the questions you must truly seek and find the answers to before choosing your next agency partner are these:

???Do You Like the Relationship You Currently Have With Your Existing Agency? What is the personal “value-added” you get from your existing agency relationship… over perhaps another agency partner you might be considering!? Do we trade that in because your last campaign fell a little flat? Your agency changed Account Executives, the Creative Director skipped a beat…(or town)… or you and/or a team member are having a bad day, week or month—now 3 months might warrant some serious consideration but there are probably other more important things going on here right!?—whether personal, professional or both!?

???Does Your Agency Offer You More than just solid Brand Strategy, Creative and Account Management? Obviously, these are all pertinent and necessary prerequisite requirements for sure … but is that enough to warrant continual daily engagement in this competitive landscape where so many great options exist today? Simply, do you enjoy engaging with them on a daily basis? (More importantly, do you look forward to engaging with them on a daily basis!?) Simple right?

???What Type of Relationship Are You Seeking from an Agency? Do you want to deal daily with highly engaging, thought-provoking, creative and business-minded types... or are you interested in just "Yes Men" (and women—sorry, we need to be politically-correct don't we!?) and/or "Order Takers"?

AND HERE'S THE MOST CHALLENGING QUESTION OF THEM ALL:

???Have YOU realized the KEY to fulfillment with respect to your agency/client relationship is in the palm of YOUR hands:

If you truly want an outstanding, engaging, longlasting agency/client relationship… are you and your Executive Management and Marketing teams Ready, Willing & Able to Do the Hard Work to Create the type of Relationship you desire with your chosen agency!? It’s truly that simple. Really! (It really is...trust me on this one!).

The bottom line is this: Nothing wrong I presume in jumping from agency-to-agency (I mean, you’d be in vogue right? After all, over 40% of all marriages end up in divorce today in this Throw Away Society). Listen, the only downside is you never fully realize any brand consistency or congruency and you’re constantly having to start over from scratch instead of building on previous brand strategy successes—not too mention the time and cost invested to brief and bring up-to-speed new Account & Creative Teams with respect to your existing brand position and strategy. No big deal right? I mean, all you’re really losing is time and money… right? What’s the big deal!? It’s this:

As Warren Buffet attests, long-term investment success is predominately realized by those who invest for the long-term (versus Day Traders). Pretty simple stuff right?

So, in the final analysis, you might just want to pause a Twitter nanosecond to think about that before you pull the trigger on your existing agency—unless of course, you don’t have a good, solid relationship… or one that you can cultivate, nurture and develop into!? (Don't forget, the best ones sometimes takes long, hard, frustrating work).

And listen, if you don’t, no reason to fret; just give us a call here at THE PRODUCTION NETWORK (TPN) ... as we’re in the relationship-building business—and our Branding/Marketing Communications Partners (you can easily access and download our deck under "Branding" under "Services" from the TPN website) is the one of the best-in-class in terms of brainstorming creative intelligent MarCom strategy and rolling out (ideating/creating/executing) compelling, Award-Winning Creative MarCom Deliverables (from Major Market Broadcast to Digital) across all marketing/media platforms in the within the Marketing Communications industry. And just as importantly, we’ll work hard to create, nourish and sustain an AUTHENTIC, HONEST and ingenuously TRANSPARENT and attractive RELATIONSHIP for our mutual long-term personal and professional growth and benefit.

So, what are you waiting for? Just call me... DAVID B. MOITOZO (i.e. "Toz" or "Tozzy" or "Mo"—as some of my longtime "authentic" friends are allowed to call me!) the-old-fashioned-way (via cell phone that is!) anytime day or night (except roughly 1am - 6am unless it's an emergency please!) @ (856) 912-3830 ... as I WOULD JUST LOVE to talk with you sometime (obviously!)

So you see? (and Kindergarten is so underrated).