The Official
Moosylvania Blog

For a brief moment today, we imagined What The World Would Be Like Without Photo Rights.

So let’s get the story straight. Instagram originally said over the next three weeks, they were going to shoplift our photo rights.

Initial Thoughts

First of all, if you need to figure out how to monetize, maybe you could ask us or any of 2,000 other agencies for ideas. But shoplifting is pretty easy when you’re a popular kid in school. You figure, who is going to prosecute a kid for stealing a candy bar? Then, you get caught and thrown out of the store. They call your parents. You kind of learn your lesson, do your homework and get an education.

You learn to think of value-driven ideas – because that’s what the world demands.

Unless, you already have millions of users who thought they were posting photos on your site for their friends and family. Let’s get into the photo library business. Great idea. There’s nothing anyone can do – we’ll be rich!!!  We’ll steal their photos. Sell them over again and again. What a riot. Open up the calculator on the iPhone and let’s check our Facebook stock prices. It went up already!

Life is sweet.

Unless you actually care about where your personal or brand photos show up.
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For many agencies, the first week in June marks the start of “intern season.”

As you get settled in, I think it’s appropriate to push out a little POV, and teach you what I’ve learned after 30+ years of watching this show.

No coffee orders for these guys. At Camp Moose, our interns get to business straight from the get-go.

First of all, if you are in an agency environment that thinks your job is to get lunch or make coffee and copies, you’ve learned your first lesson in business: Always ask what is expected and what you can expect before you take the job.

Next, if this seems like a “cool” place to hang out while you’re thinking about law school or something loftier than our humble profession, you will hate this summer, and the agency will consider you a waste of space. Lesson two: Don’t pretend to be something just for show.

For those of you who really like the advertising business – and want to understand it, there is no better opportunity than an internship where you can participate and learn from a variety of agency types.

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Between smartphones and tablets, our society is constantly connected. The cultural impact of mobile technology is evident, and as marketers we need to understand how it is affecting consumer buying decisions.

So we commissioned a study in partnership with First Choice research facilities to find out, and we want to share the results with you.

Our free study on Mobile Usage Trends & the Path to Purchase is now available for download.

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We know that average American checks their phone more than 125 times a day.  That’s the average.  Quick look at your phone – unless you’re reading this on your phone, in which case, never mind.

Distractions are the norm – and that’s why I’m advocating to all of our team that they spend just a few minutes using very a simple piece of paper – the 3×5 index card.  Then keep it handy in between explosions of info and data.

I started with all of our senior managers before the holidays in December with my scrawl on it.  I told them to be back in January with their card filled out.

• “Your goals.
• “Your goals for your team.”
• “Your goals for Moose.”

This system has worked for me the past few years and I’m hoping they try it.  Just get the basics down on a basic 3 x 5 card.    (more…)

Everything there is to know about running an ad agency was ingrained into my psyche at an early age. Our family spent a lot of time playing the game of Monopoly – and there were good times – but also many two am nights in which I threw the board at my sisters and brother.

Monopoly like life – has some hard lessons. But as I look back on the last couple of decades of agency management – I think they’re one and the same. (more…)

If you’ve been in this business for some time, you learn to love change.  Every day we wake up to some new tech release or partnership or concept that didn’t exist the day before.  How’d you like to be in a business that gives you a four-day seminar on continuing education every year?  Our business requires continuing education every day. (more…)