The “Big Fish, Small Pond. Don’t Drown” panel, organized by the American Advertising Federation Metro Phoenix, addressed Valley advertising professionals doing business in the Phoenix market who face unique challenges in gaining national recognition.
Panelist Bill Lavidge, president of the Lavidge Company, said the most serious challenge Phoenix faces right now is the economy. Its second biggest problem, he said, is its client pool.
“We don’t have a lot of big hub companies,” he said, stating that Arizona has only five Fortune 500 companies while Denver, a similarly sized market to Phoenix, has 11.
Arizona itself has had “really, really bad” publicity, said panelist Tim Riester, president and CEO of Riester, an advertising and public relations firm.
“We gain more clients by telling them we’re from Los Angeles instead of Phoenix,” he said.
Riester added that the state needs to improve its image by creating alliances that share his vision, and advertisers need to take responsibility for getting out there and generating better publicity for the state of Arizona.
The future of advertising depends on the education of those applying, according to panelist Park Howell, president of Park & Co. With that in mind, Howell said he was shocked and appalled by the fact that one in three Arizona teenagers will not graduate from high school. Arizona needs to attract a talent base and keep that talent base here, Howell said.
Panelist Carrie Martz, CEO of The Martz Agency, said that she had to downsize with the state of the economy and cross-trained her staff, teaching them new marketing and technological skills.
“This time has been wonderful (for) great talent,” she said. “From an employer standpoint, this has been a great opportunity to get the best talent.”
For professionals interviewing for jobs in the advertising industry, panelist Dan Santy of Air Marketing suggested getting more training to become more qualified.
“Be adaptive to the style of your community,” said Santy, adding that that is fundamental to landing a job.
Another message for future advertising professionals is to have chemistry and charisma with their clients, the panelists agreed. Jos Anshell, CEO of the Moses Anshell agency, said to have ideas based on really understanding the consumer.
“Have ideas and have relationships, and then you’ll get the business,” he said.
Moderator Nancy Stephens, associate professor of marketing from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU, said the best advice she got from the panel was that great ideas come from anywhere.
“Do something that you do and do it the best” was a great piece of advice from the panel, Stephens said. “Do a narrow thing because generalists die.”
At the same time, she said, don’t specialize too much at a young age. She said her advice to students is to be open and broad without limiting themselves, but it is a fine line to be able to do it all.
“The key to success in this field is to be curious about everything,” she said.
Mike Miller of Jack Nadel International spoke with optimistic enthusiasm about the business. He expressed his excitement to come work in Phoenix after living in Culver City, Calif., for many years.
“One of the many things that keeps me in this business is the constant innovation of new products,” he said. “There’s always somebody out there making something new.”
Contact the reporter at ssteffan@asu.edu
