The Bad Pod, An Advertising Podcast - Jargon Monoxide with "MC" Melissa Cabral

Jargon Monoxide with "MC" Melissa Cabral

12/09/24 • 61 min

The Bad Pod, An Advertising Podcast

Our favorite stories:

Mass media shaped by sight-sound imagery, inspired by watching a ton of TV and critiquing the commercials as much as watching the programming. Recalling jingles, surgery cartoons, GEICO ads...
On trying research journalism - "something just wasn't clicking, it felt like it drained me of energy."
Part time restaurant job and appliance & repair parts marketing... the perfect recipe for becoming the future Head of Strategy at Sid Lee? JK - it helped with learning how to relate with people. (KEY SKILL)

Big moments from doing the work:

Originally applied to VCU for copywriting, but was identified as a strategist. Found mentorship in Earl Cox, late CSO of The Martin Agency
On trust and taste: critical ingredients for a successful collaboration between strategy and creative. "you have to figure out the references that connect with them... but do not be the Judge Judy in the room"
On working with younger creatives: "get them into the habit of explaining their rationale... it makes for more fruitful working relationships."
Bringing together a high-velocity team: hiring for the right skills, but also leaving room for individuals to surpass their own expectations for themselves.
"I like seeing people's faces" - Earl Cox was great at taking a room and working it... reading it and regurgitating it...

Career advice we'll live with:

On imposter syndrome: "Find people who are going to be your advocates... if you have someone accomplished that thinks you can do XYZ, maybe you can!"
Jargon Monoxide creates a fall sense of competence... folks from non-traditional marketing backgrounds have these razor-sharp minds but don't have that marketing-ese... Cardi B is a brilliant marketer but she does NOT sound like the people I'm in meetings with
"I love a From > To" - the more honest you are with that, the more provocative... that is always a money maker... when you can capture the mood of the clients, in addition to their ambition... reshape it in a way that gets people excited to hear what you have to say.
On setting a vision for success: "all strategy is to get people to take the time to align on where we're going"
"An informed opinion delivered with conviction delivers hope." On helping people find their own 'lightbulb moment'.
"Rigidity is the pitfall of strategy... overconfidence, over complication, too 'inside baseball'... those are all off-ramps."
"If I don't understand this, there's no way the consumer will understand it."

Find us us on Twitter, Instagram, and at The Bad Podcast dot com

Our favorite stories:

Mass media shaped by sight-sound imagery, inspired by watching a ton of TV and critiquing the commercials as much as watching the programming. Recalling jingles, surgery cartoons, GEICO ads...
On trying research journalism - "something just wasn't clicking, it felt like it drained me of energy."
Part time restaurant job and appliance & repair parts marketing... the perfect recipe for becoming the future Head of Strategy at Sid Lee? JK - it helped with learning how to relate with people. (KEY SKILL)

Big moments from doing the work:

Originally applied to VCU for copywriting, but was identified as a strategist. Found mentorship in Earl Cox, late CSO of The Martin Agency
On trust and taste: critical ingredients for a successful collaboration between strategy and creative. "you have to figure out the references that connect with them... but do not be the Judge Judy in the room"
On working with younger creatives: "get them into the habit of explaining their rationale... it makes for more fruitful working relationships."
Bringing together a high-velocity team: hiring for the right skills, but also leaving room for individuals to surpass their own expectations for themselves.
"I like seeing people's faces" - Earl Cox was great at taking a room and working it... reading it and regurgitating it...

Career advice we'll live with:

On imposter syndrome: "Find people who are going to be your advocates... if you have someone accomplished that thinks you can do XYZ, maybe you can!"
Jargon Monoxide creates a fall sense of competence... folks from non-traditional marketing backgrounds have these razor-sharp minds but don't have that marketing-ese... Cardi B is a brilliant marketer but she does NOT sound like the people I'm in meetings with
"I love a From > To" - the more honest you are with that, the more provocative... that is always a money maker... when you can capture the mood of the clients, in addition to their ambition... reshape it in a way that gets people excited to hear what you have to say.
On setting a vision for success: "all strategy is to get people to take the time to align on where we're going"
"An informed opinion delivered with conviction delivers hope." On helping people find their own 'lightbulb moment'.
"Rigidity is the pitfall of strategy... overconfidence, over complication, too 'inside baseball'... those are all off-ramps."
"If I don't understand this, there's no way the consumer will understand it."

Find us us on Twitter, Instagram, and at The Bad Podcast dot com

Previous Episode

From CEO to Psychoanalyst with Tom Doctoroff, ex-JWT Asia

"If you got one foot in tomorrow and one foot in yesterday, then you're squattin' on today." - Brian's grandma
Our favorite stories:

3x author, professor, and agency chief turned clinical therapist
Over 20 years in China leading perhaps the most storied industry-shaper J. Walter Thompson on accounts like Kraft, Nike, and Microsoft.
There was a lot of proud when you saw your work up there... there was a lot of social cache. Investment banking was a big thing and consulting was too, but there was no shame in saying "I went to a business school and went into advertising."
"There was never a CMO... the relationship between agency and client was taken very seriously. Agency reviews were meant to consolidate relationships instead of cracking open fissures that might be helping in reducing fees."
On moving to China: "You could tell very quickly who was going to thrive... I came in and was immediately moved by the aspirational sparkle in their eyes... the willingness to absorb information..."

Big moments from doing the work:

"There was tremendous focus on strategy and creative as the center of gravity... Leo Burnett and JWT had review boards making sure the leadership of the agency was collectively endorsing what was going on. There was no question the decision making was not focused on media."
"I helped launch Lunchables... the marketing head and I were very good friends and I knew his family and we went to multiple football games... cookouts... that relationship was particularly warm but not unheard of at the time."
"Living in the lanes... not a high rise where the ex-pats were... once you learn the language (Chinese), it gives you insight into how the Chinese view their relationship between the individual and society and the cosmos..."

Career advice we'll live with:

People are very frightened about digital technology. The people who have command over the digital ecosystem are the new aspirational characters in the industry.
Down-funnel: a shift in the center of gravity; those who could understand and could harness the power of data vs ideas. Ideas were left by the wayside.
"Clearly there are areas in communication communities that are still brand-centric. The question that I have is, whether people that are part of these part of these functions are ultimately going to scale the ladders of the power structure."
Ask yourself, where can I feel most at home?
The fundamentals of what a good insight is... what a good brand purpose is -- these are not being taught, in fact they are being slightly ridiculed. You fall back on brand guide books that are overly prescriptive.

Find us us on Twitter, Instagram, and at The Bad Podcast dot com

Next Episode

"Straight-A student with a bad mouth" with Chris Eichenseer, Founder & CD at Someoddpilot

Our favorite stories:

From record label & photography studio to ad agency; shaping incredible brands like Lollapalooza and Pitchfork to now Kimberly-Clark and Patagonia
Renting a $700/month, 2,000 sq ft industrial space to make band posters & album art, produce music, and photograph musicians.
Creating Someoddpilot at 25 - "the gusto, the sincerity, the sureness even though I had no idea what I was doing"
"I'm the kid that walked out of art school and wanted to keep that feel going... of critique, of discovery... that's the dream. That's why artists are artists."
The record label was still going but it wasn't working and making money, I considered it a failure. But looking back it was exactly what I should be doing, what I loved doing.
"I never wanted to web design, it was just a giant door for us to walk through in 1999."
Launching the Public Works gallery

Big moments from doing the work:

"I had shown artwork in galleries when I graduated college and thought that was the end all be all... once I had a chance to experience that, and contrast with band shows, and feel the palpable difference of what it was like to be in those environments, it got me thinking that there were other ways to apply my skills... the camaraderie... the art gang that can laugh and pal around and make work, and get excited about something..."
Making a better website for The Empty Bottle and charting a rebrand. T-shirts, flyers, and digital for $3,000 of bar tabs.
"Pitchfork were the only ones who got up five days a week and published 3 articles by 9am" - sending records to Pitchfork and getting an in with the intern up the street. "They do websites too!"
An age-old problem: "I have a legacy brand with a generation of users that treasure and love what we're doing but we need to modernize and bring it forward to the future, expand what it can be, mean something to a new consumer, but not lose the thread on the old"

Career advice we'll live with:

"I've always been a Straight-A student that had a bad mouth... I've always felt good about expressing very honestly and very vulnerably... there's something about cursing or speaking as yourself."
"You didn't know what you were doing... there's no course at that age to explain diplomatic or democratic creative decision making... "
"I didn't know what graphic design was but I knew I needed to make this flyer."
On getting a foot in the door: "How do you get half your body stuck in the door screaming your head off. Even if you know someone, they don't always know."
"Game of Thrones is a great example of a creative property that should be for nerds only. By definition it should be for DnD nerds, but what ended up happening is that everyone in the world loved that show because it was so well done, and the story was so rich."
"You aren't going to pull the wool over anyone's eyes... who you are and the mythology around the work you are doing... it's not going to come from any briefs or approaches, that's going to come from a badass dedication to the heart and soul of what this business is, and going out in the world and communicating it in a way that turns heads, and inspires the shit out of people." - making a friend for life.

Find us us on Twitter, Instagram, and at The Bad Podcast dot com