Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but one thing we can all agree on is that it's great to have Brian back and active in The Ad Agency community! But where'd he go? First off, thank you @Mike Farley for keeping this place going while I was away. Secondly, if you were checking the arrest records for a handsome 5'11" 26-year-old with brown hair and hazel eyes, you wouldn't see my mug shot because I wasn't arrested (though there might be a warrant from when I was 7 years old and my brother convinced me to eat a dog biscuit from the treat station at Petco) -- figured I'd make that clear right away. So here's an update: - February, got down on one knee and asked my beautiful girlfriend to marry me - March, began freelancing for a notable Wisconsin boating company - Also March, helped design and put together some marketing collateral for the USA Hockey National Youth Tournament for my hometown rink - April, accepted a full-time position with the notable Wisconsin boating company and will be starting next week There was a point in there where it felt like I was working three jobs at once, pulling all-nighters to meet deadlines, and getting a bit overwhelmed with workload. But I just took a step back, really focused on organization and setting priorities, and I was able to get through it all unscathed! But I'm back, and have some really cool things I can't wait to share with you all! Brian

From Demand Curves Growth Newsletter (#322) _ _ _ _ TRY SOMETHING RIGHT NOW... Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini and type in a query your ideal customer would ask before buying your product. Something like: "What's the best project management tool for a 15-person startup?" Look at the answer. Not the ads. Not the search results. The answer. If you're not in it, your potential customers aren't finding you in the fastest-growing discovery channel in the world. And unlike traditional search, there's no page 2 to scroll to. There's no page at all. AI gives them three to five options. They pick from the list. If you're not on it, you don't exist. HOW AI ACTUALLY WORKS (and why it's nothing like Google) - - - Traditional SEO trained us to think about rankings. Position 1 through 10. Blue links. Click-through rates. AI search doesn't rank. It recommends. When someone asks ChatGPT for a project management tool, it doesn't crawl the web in real time and score pages. It synthesizes everything it's absorbed about your brand, your competitors, your reviews, your content, your presence across the internet, and generates a curated shortlist. This means the game has changed in three fundamental ways: 1. It's a reputation game, not a ranking game. Google rewarded pages. AI rewards brands. The model's "opinion" of you is built from thousands of signals across your entire web presence, not a single optimized page. 2. Every model sees a different internet. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude each train on different data, weight sources differently, and update on different cycles. A study of 100,000 prompts across ChatGPT and Perplexity found only 11% overlap in the domains they cited. You might be visible in one model and invisible in another. 3. Size matters less than you think. In traditional search, domain authority gave big brands an almost unbeatable advantage. In AI search, the playing field is more open. Models care about consistency and specificity. A startup that shows up clearly and consistently across niche sources can outperform a Fortune 500 company that has a scattered, generic presence.

He led all community members this past month... and all it took was +7 to win! What will he receive? Past winners have received $25 gift cards, old CA's, even a 1970's sci-fi squirt gun! Since @Joe Hausch is a friend and not far away... Joe wins a free lunch to any one of Milwaukee's fine Custard Stands... of his choosing! Where to, Joe?

Stop whining that you don't have anything good to show in your portfolio. If you don't like what you have because the clients or counterparts that you've worked with have: • no budget • no sense of humor • no vision Then create your own, for literally anyone. (See the cluster of ads below - all spec - why should I care?) As a CD, it's nice to know that you've done outstanding work, for real clients with real budgets on the line.... but if you had 5 really good spec ads that shows me: • how you think • how creative your are • how quick a reaction you can cause Then most likely, you'll get the promotion, the job, the gig... or at the very least, my attention. I've been known to pass on a talent, only to refer that person to someone I know.

EVERY creative who's ever won an award has also been in the meeting where their ideas got shot down by the client, or their own agency, with the words, "I have a concern..." There are only five things (three, sir) you can do: 1) Succumb to the nay-sayers and make the safe-version (also known as "dreck") they want. 2) Stick to your guns and risk getting booted — from the pitch or your job. 3) Re-frame the problem with your solution to be the obvious answer. Perhaps the best VIRAL AD agency in the world is THE HARMON BROTHERS. You know, the guys who made the rainbow-ice-cream-pooping-unicorn ads on social media a few years back? We are in the ATTENTION AGE... I guess we always have been, but if you can't get the right eyeballs on your brand, you're kinda screwed. YOU HAVE TO RISK BY STANDING OUT. Being the same is being invisible. But standing out in a way that converts eyeballs to action... AND BRAND MEMORABILITY. Tell me, if you wanted to get a new client, or a new job and you had this 25 second YouTube Short for TRUE CLASSIC in your portfolio, that you wouldn't get the job? But I have "concerns"... • I don't think his name should be "Brendan" • the guy slaps his face • can we show a man's 6-pack? • they're drinking beer • they're all dude-bros • you're putting a baby carriage into the street • while they're laughing • who makes a 25 second spot? Your come back... "Tell me, do you think guys with dad-bods AND perfect bods, will be more likely to buy our shirts after viewing this spot?" 5M+ views suggests that it does. ...little baby hand, out of the stroller, drops the mic. 🎤🖐️👶