Since earning a degree in Communications and Advertising from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, I've worked in virtually every aspect of the advertising business.
I got my start at WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vermont, working as an account executive. The beauty of working in a small market station like WCAX was that I could stay involved in production while actively growing my book of business. One day I'd be at a conference table with an agency media buyer; the next I might be on location, helping produce a spot I'd written for a local retailer. I had a blast!
Four years later, I went to work for one of my clients who was starting up an office furniture business. It was a ground floor opportunity that, alas, never got off the ground. After a year, we all realized that Northern Vermont needed only so much office furniture...
About this time, my wife was offered a position in Paris working for GE. We were young and mobile, so we said, "Why not?"
Actually, there were a number of logical reasons "why not", but come on - it's Paris!
While in Paris, I got a gig writing English language promotional videos for a French production company, but mostly worked on a screenplay (completed and shopped, but never sold), learned French, and fell in love with the city. Spend a year on the Ile St. Louis, and you will too!
We returned in December of the following year, and by January I was working at French & Partners (now French/Blitzer/Scott) in New York City.
At F&P I worked with Ted French, one of the best teachers of old-school B2B basics. Ted had spent much of his career at Marsteller, the premier B2B agency. Prior to founding F&P, he was a senior ad guy at GE. Ted was smart, direct and fast. And expected the same of his people.
He also expected his account guys to be copywriters, or Copy/Contacts.
I was back to using everything I had, and was happy using it to manage the International Herald Tribune and Aviation Week & Space Technology trade accounts for the agency.
In 1994, I gave up the daily commute into New York and started my own business providing copywriting and consulting services to ad agencies and corporate clients.
Now, over a decade later, I've relocated to Seattle, Washington where I continue to freelance for agency, corporate and industrial accounts while searching for a permanent agency or corporate position here in my new home town.
|
