Navigating Risk In Advertising Your Brand with Asterios Kokkinos

Asterios Kokkinos, a freelance creative director and copywriter who works in the advertising industry, joins me on this episode of We Built This Brand to discuss one of the most challenging and critical elements of building a brand - getting people to pay attention to you. Asterios shares how he was able to break into advertising through his stand-up comedy career, and how humor not only helps develop effective content but also drives relationships and projects forward. We discuss the risks brands take when advertising in a highly-politicized culture, and the different strategies brands will take to either mitigate or embrace risk depending on their positioning. Asterios also gives an insightful look into his creative process, including the approach he takes for effective B2B sales copy that makes it the easiest form of content for him to create.

Highlights:

(00:00) Intro

(01:29) Chris introduces Asterios, who is a freelance copywriter and creative director in advertising

(02:53) How Asterios wound up going from stand-up comedy to advertising

(06:42) Asterios explains how creating a viral video comes with inherent risk

(11:06) How positioning can reduce or even eliminate the risk of traditional advertising

(13:23) Chris and Asterios discuss the recent Bud Light controversy and the phenomenon of seeing market leaders struggle in our fast-moving culture

(20:30) Asterios describes how so-called “edgy” brands are using the illusion of edge, but not actually risking controversy

(23:20) Chris and Asterios discuss the political minefields that exist in advertising today and how risk is often avoided by the fact that most advertising ideas don’t come to fruition

(27:01) Asterios’ creative process for coming up with advertising pitches

(31:05) How Asterios approaches sales content writing and why he feels it’s the easiest content to write

(37:08) Asterios’ favorite brand right now and why he feels their advertising strategy strikes a good balance

About Asterios

Asterios Kokkinos is an advertising creative with nearly fifteen years of experience writing for the biggest companies on the planet. He enjoys Babylon 5, yelling at the TV with his elderly father, and naps.

Links Referenced:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asterioskokkinos/
• The Loudest Podcast: https://www.asteriospodcasts.com/
• Loudest Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theloudestpodcast

Transcript

Chris: What’s up, We Built This Brand listeners? This is your host, Chris Hill. And today we’re talking to Asterios Kokkinos. He is a freelance writer who has done a lot of writing in advertising and marketing over the years and worked with some huge brands. He’s worked on viral marketing campaigns—and yes, I do mean actual viral content—and has a very interesting career balance between having a background in comedy and a writing background that has helped him to create some very interesting, influential campaigns.

So unfortunately, we couldn’t talk a lot of detail about the brands he worked with specifically, but, you know, can look him up on LinkedIn, you’ll get a feel for what he does. We’ll include a link here if he’ll let us. This was a great interview with Asterios. It’s very wide-ranging, so be prepared. We go all over the place, we talk about what makes content viral, how he got his start in advertising, if he was a stand-up comic in LA, how did he end up in New York, and everything that happened in between.

It’s quite the journey that he’s had with his career and we talk a little bit about that. We also talk about what it takes to be edgy in this day and age and why it’s better to play things safe or, frankly, why it’s not better to play things safe and when to take risks and when not to within advertising. So overall, I really enjoyed this conversation and I think you will, too, so let’s get into it.

Chris: Welcome to We Built This Brand. I’m excited to be joined today by Asterios Kokkinos.

Asterios: Hello.

Chris: Asterios, thank you for joining me.

Asterios: Thanks for having me.

Chris: Yeah, man. Asterios is a freelance copywriter and creative director, and honestly, he’s an all-around cool guy. I’ve gotten to know him through one of my employees, John Zwick, and we actually share him as an editor. And he’s been great for both of us. And he was like, “You two need to talk. I just think you’d have a fun time talking.”

And Asterios knows a ton about branding. He’s worked for some big brands, and we’ll just—yeah, I’ll just...