May 8, 2025 • 19 mins
This week on Cocktails, Tangents & Answers, we’re handing the mic to Rich Mackey, President and Owner of Antidote 71. He’ll talk with Catelin to discuss his career journey and other awesome perspectives on the industry. Tune in now!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
It is another episode of Cocktails, tangents and
Answers.
As you know, I am Caitlin, thedesignated office extrovert and
our resident asker of intrusivewith well-meaningly intrusive
questions.
How's that Today?
Today we are switching up theformat a little bit.
We have my standard co-host, uh, in the hot seat, as opposed to
(00:33):
in the co-host role, so you canget to know him.
And we'll keep going with thisseries.
So you get to know all of thefolks, uh, at antidote 71, and I
am ready to get started.
Buckle up, kids, it's going tobe a wild one.
Great Rich, thank you for doingthis thing.
That was your idea and that youdon't have a choice to opt out
(00:56):
of.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I feel like it was Zach's idea.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
That's probably true.
Zach is the idea man.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Anyway, because he was like hey, personal stuff
gets traction no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Zach is the idea man.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Anyway, because he was like hey, personal stuff
gets traction, like let's talkabout our backgrounds and I'm
like, okay, I'll go first.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I would like to know you are at a bar and it's like
it could be a dive bar or you'retrying to be efficient what is
the thing that you order whenyou are trying not to be high
maintenance and you know thatthe bar will have it?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I lived on these in my younger days in my 20s and
30s Vodka soda.
So no calories, super simple,everybody's got it.
As long as you're not inEngland, then you've got to get
a vodka tonic because theydidn't.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Which is really weird , that they didn't have soda
water, because it was inventedby the English right.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I don't know anything about the vodka.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Nobody really cares about the background of vodka
soda.
It's pretty standard, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know if I'm in italy it's a spritz, but
anywhere, uh, it's generally avodka soda, because I know I'll
enjoy it.
A little bit of lime, a littlebit of lemon.
I've had it with an orange peeloh, cute, okay, I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
yeah, that's one and a half ounces of vodka and some
soda and a twist.
I mean, let's be honest, don'tstir it, because the bubbles
will go away.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
A little bit of ice in a glass.
You pour in however much vodkayou want, you top it off with
soda, you sip it.
If it's nasty, you sip a littlebit more and just hold your
breath, and then you add moresoda, yeah, and squeeze a lime
into it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's very easy, very easy, we've done yeah that's
easy and I like it, and Iactually had a vodka soda over
the weekend for the reason of itwas easy and did not give me
heartburn.
So it wouldn't be my firstchoice, but I knew that it would
be a safe drink.
(02:37):
I would like to know if youcould be instantly amazing at
something totally unrelated toyour job.
What would it be?
Deep sea diving InterestingDeep sea diving.
Okay, I have to know why.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I love to swim, I love being in the water.
Okay, I've never taken a divingcourse, oddly enough, even when
I lived in San Diego, I justnever did one.
But I think if I could justinstantly be able to do it and
know it and not have to gothrough all the training and
because it's a lot of training,I think that would be it,
because I would love to beunderwater for like hours and be
(03:16):
able to breathe and see fish.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That is fascinating.
I think drowning is like myworst fear.
I think like the claustrophobiafeeling of drowning is it ranks
up there for like things I ammost afraid of yeah, or like
falling from a high height, so Idon't yeah, I don't share those
.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I'm okay with both of those.
Like I mean, I don't think thatI'm gonna.
I don't know how I'm gonna die,who knows how they're gonna die
, but um, I'm just socomfortable in the water, um,
and also, very like, respectfulof the water.
I understand the power,especially the ocean has been
Even a lake or a swimming pool.
Nature can kill us, that'scorrect More.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
If you're in Australia, probably will All of
nature wants to kill you.
Yes, okay, so I know theanswers to most of these
questions.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
But our listeners may not.
So can you give me your let'scall it a 30-second background?
How did you start?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
How did you end up here?
Yeah, so I was a radio DJ whenI was younger, that was my kind
of cool high school and collegejob.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I wanted that job.
I wanted to be a DJ.
It was great.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It doesn't pay worth crap, which is why I kind of
shifted.
So I was a corporatecommunications major because I
wanted to go into PR and blah,blah blah and I had this is so
stupid but I had basically likefinished my major and my minor
and still had my senior yearleft.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I had a full scholarship so I was like why
would I waste that money?
So, I went to my advisor whopointed me to another advisor
who's Pam Mickelson, who I knowyou know, We'll just shout out
to Pam she's just one of thegreats.
And she looked at my list ofeverything I'd done and then
looked at the businessadministration major with a
(04:54):
marketing emphasis, and I had somuch overlap between the
courses I had to take thebusiness course, I had to take
accounting, I had to takeeconomics Hated, both of those
Economics was actually my worstgrade.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But it got me into the advertising campaigns class
as well, where you actually do acampaign and we did ours.
I want to say it was.
Was it Kodak that year?
Is that the year I was doing it?
Yeah, I think it was Kodak.
Anyway, got into that, loved it, so got into that, loved it,
loved the whole thing, lovedmedia, loved doing strategy and
all of that.
And then when I got out ofcollege I got a job at an agency
(05:29):
.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So I'm on my plan A, which is really that's wild,
because I think I'm on plan likeF.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, you've had look at you, but not today.
That's not today.
Yeah, yeah, not today.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I admire somebody who's who sticks to the original
plan, cause that's not a that'snot a skill.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I have Not vodka, by the way.
Got it Not vodka?
That's too bad.
Could be, you never know.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When did you know it sounds?
Did you know it sounds?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
like pretty early on that this was your jam Marketing
and advertising, was it?
Yeah, I mean that first agencyjob.
I was a writer slash accountexecutive and I've gone back and
forth with writing throughoutmy career and now I don't do
much writing, but I did an ad,for it was First Federal Savings
Bank at the time which has gonethrough multiple name changes
and my friend Cheryl was theaccount person and we did an ad
that was you could beg or steal,we recommend borrow or we
(06:22):
suggest borrow was the headline.
So we got a bank to put beg andsteal, and they ran it too,
because they had loan rates.
They were like a local bank sothey were able to go lower on
rates and they were reallycompeting with credit unions.
And they ran it and it was asuccess and that was really fun.
So that was like a creativething getting that writing
(06:42):
because it was just the headlineand like four lines, a copy and
a big percent.
So that was really fun.
We also did another one.
We did the ATM 500.
So we took they had justlaunched, this is like so, like
late 90s they just launched anew ATM at a big new branch that
(07:06):
they'd opened that I don'tthink is even a branch anymore
for a bank and they wantedpeople to use it and they didn't
charge a fee.
But what I didn't realize isbanks get fees from other banks
when the other bank's customersuse theirs.
So they wanted non-customers touse it.
So we took in the fives.
We put in 10 $20 bills, so now10, yeah, so $200 just
(07:33):
interspersed with the fives whenyou got a thing.
And then in the twenties we putwhatever it would be, one to
six fifties, Okay.
So essentially there was anextra $500 in cash.
So if you took out a 20, youmight get a 50.
If you took out a five, youmight get a 20.
And so it's called the ATM 500.
And it just ran until the moneyran out and it was really fun.
We had like a racing theme andit was a little cheesy, but like
(07:54):
the idea that you could getfree money and they were like.
They were like so this justcost us an ad that we would
normally do and five hundreddollars.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I'm like yeah and I'm like they got so much buzz.
It was really great yeah well,and they probably made it back
in the fees too.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
If there were a hundred percent, it was
profitable yeah because, because, think about it they loaded it
in when they filled the atm withall of the money so like I
don't know how many 20s or howmany 5s were in there.
There's not even 5s in ATMsanymore.
I don't think just.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Some do, our bank does Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That's nice of them, but they loaded it in so you
didn't know it could have beenthe first one coming out, it
could have been the last, butyeah, their ATMs had lines.
It was really fun.
That's wild.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It was really fun.
That's wild.
It was so fun.
I'm trying to think how often,because one of my previous plans
was working at a bank and I'mwondering how often we filled
the ATM, Maybe once or twice aweek.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I wish I had additional details.
Did they have to fill it faster?
How fast did that ATM clear?
Out, yeah, but yeah, people hadlimits too.
Right, you had limits back then.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You could only get like 200 a day out or I think
those are.
Those are still in place.
You can still only take like acertain amount from the atm up.
I think probably is like 600 ora thousand, with one of the
banks.
I think my credit union is likea thousand dollars a day.
But in a atm.
I wouldn't, I don't ever takecash out anyway.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Like the idea of having a thousand dollars in day
, but in a atm I wouldn't Idon't ever take cash out anyway.
Like the idea of having athousand dollars in cash on my
person that I'm not immediatelygoing to hand to someone else
for it to be theirresponsibility makes me want to
hurl, that's like when I traveland people are like, oh, you
need to get like a thousanddollars in the local currency
out, and I'm like, first of all,I'm gonna pay through the nose.
Second of all, my atm cardworks there no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I'll just be using the american express.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thank you also chip and pin.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Chip and pin, yeah, all right, yikes yeah, um, this
I mean like that might you mighthave answered my next question,
but over the course of 20 plusyears in the industry, is there
another project or campaign thatstands out for you yeah oh yeah
, just choose one out of 20there's like three that I could
(10:03):
think, so one of them that Ireally love and I'm still
friends with this creativedirector today we talk on
facebook cute.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
but it was for Orchard Supply Hardware in
California.
So it was owned by Sears Likethink, local hardware chain only
in California, huge specialtyin plants and everything.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's a Wilms, do it best hardware.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's the language you're speaking to me right now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's my local hardware store with a great
greenhouse.
Yep, they are spectacular.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
They had the God.
What was it it called?
I'm blanking on some of theterminology.
This was probably 2003, maybe2004 okay, a long time ago, um,
they had um a lifetime plantguarantee.
So if your plant died at anypoint, that wasn't you, like you
(10:53):
know negligence like.
Well, even if you neglected towater it completely dead plant,
you could bring it in.
So we did this campaign thatwas print and TV.
The TV was one simple tip.
I still have these adssomewhere.
I think they're on VHS, thoughI can go to the do space and
transfer them to digital.
But anyway, the idea was like soone of them was you just close
(11:14):
up on a woman cutting a carrotand she cuts the carrot and then
looks at the end of it and thengoes into the living room, gets
on a ladder and sticks it in abroken light bulb and twists it.
So the carrot just had to bethe size of the broken light
bulb.
Hold, you know the littleholder, Okay, and she stuck it
in there and twisted it and thecarrot doesn't conduct
(11:34):
electricity.
I mean you should have the.
You should still turn off thebreaker.
Let me don't get me wrong yeahand I think she did that in the
ad, but anyway, so like it wasall these little tips of things
that you could do, that you hadno idea you could do like way
before, like tiktok or anything,the broken light bulb out.
Yeah, so the light bulb hadbroken and it was just the end
(11:54):
of it was still in the socket.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Why is she putting a carrot in a light socket.
It's the potato trick from homeimprovement.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So then, but the print ads were all like super
long form narrative, like thewhole page was filled with text,
with an image in the middle but, they were also tips, but they
also gave you history, and sofor me it was that.
One we got a client to do longform print ads as digital was
emerging.
Two it tied into a TV campaignthat was so much fun and so easy
(12:26):
and simple to shoot.
The idea was just so simple andChristian was just a genius
with all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
He was also a little bit difficult.
At that time I think I wasfairly new.
I don't think he'd worked withme and really understood kind of
where I was coming from.
But just being able to supportthat kind of creative, because I
was just an account person,just an account person.
So I know I have the print adshere still.
One of them was aboutpoinsettia leaves not being
poisonous and about a study.
(12:55):
The whole thing was about astudy that was actually done at
the University of Ohio, where aprofessor a biology professor
had his five-year-old child eatpoinsettia leaves until he got a
stomach ache and he ate like itwas like 50 or 100 poinsettia
leaves it was a lot and he didnot get the least bit sick.
Well, he got a little bit sick.
He got a little bit nauseated.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, if you're eating a hundred leaves of, yeah
, if you're eating a hundredleaves of lettuce.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm going to feel like, honestly anyway, that was
one of my all-time favorites,which would probably surprise a
lot of people who've known meover the years, but it was it
was just so cool.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That's one also I've never heard of, because you've
talked about some other stuffthat you've done I don't talk
about.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Osh.
No, I talk about Aretha a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, if you get me drunk.
I hear about Smart Water oftenas well.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Oh, you mean Propel Fitness Water.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Sorry, yep, whatever.
Yeah, that was my big time move.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And then like the cricket stuff, like we did a
rebrand for cricket.
It was really neat my favorites.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's really cool.
I am curious what your perfectday off is.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh, perfect, I'm choosing things that I don't
know about you.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I know, my perfect day off.
I didn't actually, like I did,look at the prep document
because, you know, spoiler, weget the question so that we can
have an idea and I had a thoughton some of these that Osh then
came out of left field, though Itotally forgot about that and
just brought it up here Perfectday off.
I did not think about this one.
I mean, I am a homebody and anintrovert.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah.
So like hanging out by, thepool and reading a book is great
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Alone or with other people.
If other people are there, theyneed to shut the hell up.
I don't want it to be like I'mnot gonna go to a hotel pool or
like a like no, san diego, theyhad those a lot like the club
pools in the hotels.
Like got it like a club.
I'm not gonna go there and hangout.
If I'm gonna go there and hangout, I'm gonna be with friends.
I'm gonna drink, I'm gonna eatand I'm gonna exhaust my battery
(14:54):
.
No, I'm talking like loungechair by my pool shade umbrella.
Or on a work trip, once, at theend of the trip, I stayed an
extra day.
We were in Maui and I was juststaying at the Marriott
Courtyard.
But the Marriott Courtyard inWailea, which is the south part
of Maui, is amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Like I.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Maui is amazing.
I think it's the south part, isit south or north?
I never know what direction I'mgoing when I'm over there, but
anyway, they had cabanas and sowe just rented a cabana and it
had like a shade thing and satthere all day.
We ordered food, we ordereddrinks, got in the pool
occasionally, didn't realizethere was not a lot of UV
protection in the cabana top andI was a lobster.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
French fry.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I had a great time just sitting there reading my
book and chatting with a friendand watching things.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Okay, I have two final questions, so I don't know
if that makes it final.
The one marketing hill that youwill die on.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Oh my god, the marketing hill.
I will die on um, I think it'syour brand matters yeah so I
worked at ogilvy amather earlyon.
That's where I was, was for theash thing and some of the
craftsman stuff and so just, andI'd been a a fan of David
Ogilvie for a long time and hewas very big on brand no matter
(16:18):
what you do, and it's not justyour logo that and you've heard
me say this a million times.
It's your voice, it's your styleit's your look, it's your feel,
it's brand is the experience Iget when.
I engage with your company oryour product Like that's and it
has all those things that colorand all those things do play
into it.
But anyone who says, oh, justslap a logo on it, the brand
(16:40):
doesn't matter, I will go afterthem.
And honestly, I would give up aclient that was like that.
If they were like, yeah, ourbrand doesn't matter, just
whatever it's like, yeah, thengo somewhere else because we're
not for you, I we're not for you.
Um, I think that's big like.
And people doing gimmicky stuff, like that's outside of their
brand I know we've talked aboutthis on other episodes where,
like, does your brand belong inthat space?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
brand as a filter for everything you do is so
important yeah, I love that youknow I think that's the perfect
place to leave it, as I'mthinking about this series.
This is part of our brand right, Our people and how we work and
the way that we work togetheris really important to us and
(17:24):
important to how we interactwith our clients.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So, I think that's the essence I always say like,
oh God, with a client, what'syour main point of difference?
Our people, okay, that's great.
Everybody says our people.
How do you demonstrate that?
Show me why it's your people.
What do they bring to the table?
Are you like above and beyondon customer service?
Are they a hundred timessmarter than everybody else?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think for us it's when we get together.
I mean, I just solved a hugeproblem for a new client with
Jessica this morning and I waslike so elated I gave her a jump
scare, though I didn't realizeI wasn't on camera, and I like
shouted and clapped my handsreally loud right in front of
the microphone and she's likeokay.
And I'm like, oh my God, I'm sosorry, I didn't know that I
wasn't on camera and you'tseeing, like you weren't
(18:12):
prepared for my enthusiasm.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Our best stuff happens when we're all together.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
That's for sure, and I'm looking forward to like how
these all pan out.
Yeah, Because I think we'regoing to try to do them with
everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
We, I want to.
Yeah, it's my.
It's my way, isaac, if you'relistening.
It's my way to get you toanswer the questions that I have
wanted to ask you for the lastfive and a half years.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
There's a good point.
We'll learn.
If Isaac is listening to thepodcast, He'll suddenly be on
vacation for six months.
He's like I'm working remotelyfrom Morocco.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
The sound quality.
I'm so sorry.
Yeah, rich, thank you forsubjecting yourself to this
specific brand of torture, andthank you all for listening.
You can connect with us onLinkedIn.
You can also connect with Richon LinkedIn if you so choose.
Occasionally has some snarkyremarks and some really good
professional insights there.
And, as always, you can findour agency at antidote,
(19:07):
underscore 71 on social.
Or you can visit ctapodcastliveto send us a question or leave
us a voicemail at 402-718-9971.
And we will be back with moreof this employee spotlight
series in the weeks to come.
It is another episode of Cocktails, tangents and
Answers.
As you know, I am Caitlin, thedesignated office extrovert and
our resident asker of intrusivewith well-meaningly intrusive
questions.
How's that Today?
Today we are switching up theformat a little bit.
We have my standard co-host, uh, in the hot seat, as opposed to
(00:33):
in the co-host role, so you canget to know him.
And we'll keep going with thisseries.
So you get to know all of thefolks, uh, at antidote 71, and I
am ready to get started.
Buckle up, kids, it's going tobe a wild one.
Great Rich, thank you for doingthis thing.
That was your idea and that youdon't have a choice to opt out
(00:56):
of.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I feel like it was Zach's idea.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
That's probably true.
Zach is the idea man.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Anyway, because he was like hey, personal stuff
gets traction no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Zach is the idea man.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Anyway, because he was like hey, personal stuff
gets traction, like let's talkabout our backgrounds and I'm
like, okay, I'll go first.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I would like to know you are at a bar and it's like
it could be a dive bar or you'retrying to be efficient what is
the thing that you order whenyou are trying not to be high
maintenance and you know thatthe bar will have it?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I lived on these in my younger days in my 20s and
30s Vodka soda.
So no calories, super simple,everybody's got it.
As long as you're not inEngland, then you've got to get
a vodka tonic because theydidn't.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Which is really weird , that they didn't have soda
water, because it was inventedby the English right.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I don't know anything about the vodka.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Nobody really cares about the background of vodka
soda.
It's pretty standard, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know if I'm in italy it's a spritz, but
anywhere, uh, it's generally avodka soda, because I know I'll
enjoy it.
A little bit of lime, a littlebit of lemon.
I've had it with an orange peeloh, cute, okay, I love that.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
yeah, that's one and a half ounces of vodka and some
soda and a twist.
I mean, let's be honest, don'tstir it, because the bubbles
will go away.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
A little bit of ice in a glass.
You pour in however much vodkayou want, you top it off with
soda, you sip it.
If it's nasty, you sip a littlebit more and just hold your
breath, and then you add moresoda, yeah, and squeeze a lime
into it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's very easy, very easy, we've done yeah that's
easy and I like it, and Iactually had a vodka soda over
the weekend for the reason of itwas easy and did not give me
heartburn.
So it wouldn't be my firstchoice, but I knew that it would
be a safe drink.
(02:37):
I would like to know if youcould be instantly amazing at
something totally unrelated toyour job.
What would it be?
Deep sea diving InterestingDeep sea diving.
Okay, I have to know why.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I love to swim, I love being in the water.
Okay, I've never taken a divingcourse, oddly enough, even when
I lived in San Diego, I justnever did one.
But I think if I could justinstantly be able to do it and
know it and not have to gothrough all the training and
because it's a lot of training,I think that would be it,
because I would love to beunderwater for like hours and be
(03:16):
able to breathe and see fish.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That is fascinating.
I think drowning is like myworst fear.
I think like the claustrophobiafeeling of drowning is it ranks
up there for like things I ammost afraid of yeah, or like
falling from a high height, so Idon't yeah, I don't share those
.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I'm okay with both of those.
Like I mean, I don't think thatI'm gonna.
I don't know how I'm gonna die,who knows how they're gonna die
, but um, I'm just socomfortable in the water, um,
and also, very like, respectfulof the water.
I understand the power,especially the ocean has been
Even a lake or a swimming pool.
Nature can kill us, that'scorrect More.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
If you're in Australia, probably will All of
nature wants to kill you.
Yes, okay, so I know theanswers to most of these
questions.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
But our listeners may not.
So can you give me your let'scall it a 30-second background?
How did you start?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
How did you end up here?
Yeah, so I was a radio DJ whenI was younger, that was my kind
of cool high school and collegejob.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I wanted that job.
I wanted to be a DJ.
It was great.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It doesn't pay worth crap, which is why I kind of
shifted.
So I was a corporatecommunications major because I
wanted to go into PR and blah,blah blah and I had this is so
stupid but I had basically likefinished my major and my minor
and still had my senior yearleft.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I had a full scholarship so I was like why
would I waste that money?
So, I went to my advisor whopointed me to another advisor
who's Pam Mickelson, who I knowyou know, We'll just shout out
to Pam she's just one of thegreats.
And she looked at my list ofeverything I'd done and then
looked at the businessadministration major with a
(04:54):
marketing emphasis, and I had somuch overlap between the
courses I had to take thebusiness course, I had to take
accounting, I had to takeeconomics Hated, both of those
Economics was actually my worstgrade.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But it got me into the advertising campaigns class
as well, where you actually do acampaign and we did ours.
I want to say it was.
Was it Kodak that year?
Is that the year I was doing it?
Yeah, I think it was Kodak.
Anyway, got into that, loved it, so got into that, loved it,
loved the whole thing, lovedmedia, loved doing strategy and
all of that.
And then when I got out ofcollege I got a job at an agency
(05:29):
.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So I'm on my plan A, which is really that's wild,
because I think I'm on plan likeF.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, you've had look at you, but not today.
That's not today.
Yeah, yeah, not today.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I admire somebody who's who sticks to the original
plan, cause that's not a that'snot a skill.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
I have Not vodka, by the way.
Got it Not vodka?
That's too bad.
Could be, you never know.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
When did you know it sounds?
Did you know it sounds?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
like pretty early on that this was your jam Marketing
and advertising, was it?
Yeah, I mean that first agencyjob.
I was a writer slash accountexecutive and I've gone back and
forth with writing throughoutmy career and now I don't do
much writing, but I did an ad,for it was First Federal Savings
Bank at the time which has gonethrough multiple name changes
and my friend Cheryl was theaccount person and we did an ad
that was you could beg or steal,we recommend borrow or we
(06:22):
suggest borrow was the headline.
So we got a bank to put beg andsteal, and they ran it too,
because they had loan rates.
They were like a local bank sothey were able to go lower on
rates and they were reallycompeting with credit unions.
And they ran it and it was asuccess and that was really fun.
So that was like a creativething getting that writing
(06:42):
because it was just the headlineand like four lines, a copy and
a big percent.
So that was really fun.
We also did another one.
We did the ATM 500.
So we took they had justlaunched, this is like so, like
late 90s they just launched anew ATM at a big new branch that
(07:06):
they'd opened that I don'tthink is even a branch anymore
for a bank and they wantedpeople to use it and they didn't
charge a fee.
But what I didn't realize isbanks get fees from other banks
when the other bank's customersuse theirs.
So they wanted non-customers touse it.
So we took in the fives.
We put in 10 $20 bills, so now10, yeah, so $200 just
(07:33):
interspersed with the fives whenyou got a thing.
And then in the twenties we putwhatever it would be, one to
six fifties, Okay.
So essentially there was anextra $500 in cash.
So if you took out a 20, youmight get a 50.
If you took out a five, youmight get a 20.
And so it's called the ATM 500.
And it just ran until the moneyran out and it was really fun.
We had like a racing theme andit was a little cheesy, but like
(07:54):
the idea that you could getfree money and they were like.
They were like so this justcost us an ad that we would
normally do and five hundreddollars.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I'm like yeah and I'm like they got so much buzz.
It was really great yeah well,and they probably made it back
in the fees too.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
If there were a hundred percent, it was
profitable yeah because, because, think about it they loaded it
in when they filled the atm withall of the money so like I
don't know how many 20s or howmany 5s were in there.
There's not even 5s in ATMsanymore.
I don't think just.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Some do, our bank does Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That's nice of them, but they loaded it in so you
didn't know it could have beenthe first one coming out, it
could have been the last, butyeah, their ATMs had lines.
It was really fun.
That's wild.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It was really fun.
That's wild.
It was so fun.
I'm trying to think how often,because one of my previous plans
was working at a bank and I'mwondering how often we filled
the ATM, Maybe once or twice aweek.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I wish I had additional details.
Did they have to fill it faster?
How fast did that ATM clear?
Out, yeah, but yeah, people hadlimits too.
Right, you had limits back then.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You could only get like 200 a day out or I think
those are.
Those are still in place.
You can still only take like acertain amount from the atm up.
I think probably is like 600 ora thousand, with one of the
banks.
I think my credit union is likea thousand dollars a day.
But in a atm.
I wouldn't, I don't ever takecash out anyway.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Like the idea of having a thousand dollars in day
, but in a atm I wouldn't Idon't ever take cash out anyway.
Like the idea of having athousand dollars in cash on my
person that I'm not immediatelygoing to hand to someone else
for it to be theirresponsibility makes me want to
hurl, that's like when I traveland people are like, oh, you
need to get like a thousanddollars in the local currency
out, and I'm like, first of all,I'm gonna pay through the nose.
Second of all, my atm cardworks there no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I'll just be using the american express.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thank you also chip and pin.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Chip and pin, yeah, all right, yikes yeah, um, this
I mean like that might you mighthave answered my next question,
but over the course of 20 plusyears in the industry, is there
another project or campaign thatstands out for you yeah oh yeah
, just choose one out of 20there's like three that I could
(10:03):
think, so one of them that Ireally love and I'm still
friends with this creativedirector today we talk on
facebook cute.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
but it was for Orchard Supply Hardware in
California.
So it was owned by Sears Likethink, local hardware chain only
in California, huge specialtyin plants and everything.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's a Wilms, do it best hardware.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
That's the language you're speaking to me right now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
That's my local hardware store with a great
greenhouse.
Yep, they are spectacular.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
They had the God.
What was it it called?
I'm blanking on some of theterminology.
This was probably 2003, maybe2004 okay, a long time ago, um,
they had um a lifetime plantguarantee.
So if your plant died at anypoint, that wasn't you, like you
(10:53):
know negligence like.
Well, even if you neglected towater it completely dead plant,
you could bring it in.
So we did this campaign thatwas print and TV.
The TV was one simple tip.
I still have these adssomewhere.
I think they're on VHS, thoughI can go to the do space and
transfer them to digital.
But anyway, the idea was like soone of them was you just close
(11:14):
up on a woman cutting a carrotand she cuts the carrot and then
looks at the end of it and thengoes into the living room, gets
on a ladder and sticks it in abroken light bulb and twists it.
So the carrot just had to bethe size of the broken light
bulb.
Hold, you know the littleholder, Okay, and she stuck it
in there and twisted it and thecarrot doesn't conduct
(11:34):
electricity.
I mean you should have the.
You should still turn off thebreaker.
Let me don't get me wrong yeahand I think she did that in the
ad, but anyway, so like it wasall these little tips of things
that you could do, that you hadno idea you could do like way
before, like tiktok or anything,the broken light bulb out.
Yeah, so the light bulb hadbroken and it was just the end
(11:54):
of it was still in the socket.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Why is she putting a carrot in a light socket.
It's the potato trick from homeimprovement.
I know exactly what you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So then, but the print ads were all like super
long form narrative, like thewhole page was filled with text,
with an image in the middle but, they were also tips, but they
also gave you history, and sofor me it was that.
One we got a client to do longform print ads as digital was
emerging.
Two it tied into a TV campaignthat was so much fun and so easy
(12:26):
and simple to shoot.
The idea was just so simple andChristian was just a genius
with all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
He was also a little bit difficult.
At that time I think I wasfairly new.
I don't think he'd worked withme and really understood kind of
where I was coming from.
But just being able to supportthat kind of creative, because I
was just an account person,just an account person.
So I know I have the print adshere still.
One of them was aboutpoinsettia leaves not being
poisonous and about a study.
(12:55):
The whole thing was about astudy that was actually done at
the University of Ohio, where aprofessor a biology professor
had his five-year-old child eatpoinsettia leaves until he got a
stomach ache and he ate like itwas like 50 or 100 poinsettia
leaves it was a lot and he didnot get the least bit sick.
Well, he got a little bit sick.
He got a little bit nauseated.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I mean, if you're eating a hundred leaves of, yeah
, if you're eating a hundredleaves of lettuce.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm going to feel like, honestly anyway, that was
one of my all-time favorites,which would probably surprise a
lot of people who've known meover the years, but it was it
was just so cool.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That's one also I've never heard of, because you've
talked about some other stuffthat you've done I don't talk
about.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Osh.
No, I talk about Aretha a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, if you get me drunk.
I hear about Smart Water oftenas well.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Oh, you mean Propel Fitness Water.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Sorry, yep, whatever.
Yeah, that was my big time move.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And then like the cricket stuff, like we did a
rebrand for cricket.
It was really neat my favorites.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
That's really cool.
I am curious what your perfectday off is.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh, perfect, I'm choosing things that I don't
know about you.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I know, my perfect day off.
I didn't actually, like I did,look at the prep document
because, you know, spoiler, weget the question so that we can
have an idea and I had a thoughton some of these that Osh then
came out of left field, though Itotally forgot about that and
just brought it up here Perfectday off.
I did not think about this one.
I mean, I am a homebody and anintrovert.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah.
So like hanging out by, thepool and reading a book is great
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Alone or with other people.
If other people are there, theyneed to shut the hell up.
I don't want it to be like I'mnot gonna go to a hotel pool or
like a like no, san diego, theyhad those a lot like the club
pools in the hotels.
Like got it like a club.
I'm not gonna go there and hangout.
If I'm gonna go there and hangout, I'm gonna be with friends.
I'm gonna drink, I'm gonna eatand I'm gonna exhaust my battery
(14:54):
.
No, I'm talking like loungechair by my pool shade umbrella.
Or on a work trip, once, at theend of the trip, I stayed an
extra day.
We were in Maui and I was juststaying at the Marriott
Courtyard.
But the Marriott Courtyard inWailea, which is the south part
of Maui, is amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Like I.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Maui is amazing.
I think it's the south part, isit south or north?
I never know what direction I'mgoing when I'm over there, but
anyway, they had cabanas and sowe just rented a cabana and it
had like a shade thing and satthere all day.
We ordered food, we ordereddrinks, got in the pool
occasionally, didn't realizethere was not a lot of UV
protection in the cabana top andI was a lobster.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
French fry.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I had a great time just sitting there reading my
book and chatting with a friendand watching things.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Okay, I have two final questions, so I don't know
if that makes it final.
The one marketing hill that youwill die on.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Oh my god, the marketing hill.
I will die on um, I think it'syour brand matters yeah so I
worked at ogilvy amather earlyon.
That's where I was, was for theash thing and some of the
craftsman stuff and so just, andI'd been a a fan of David
Ogilvie for a long time and hewas very big on brand no matter
(16:18):
what you do, and it's not justyour logo that and you've heard
me say this a million times.
It's your voice, it's your styleit's your look, it's your feel,
it's brand is the experience Iget when.
I engage with your company oryour product Like that's and it
has all those things that colorand all those things do play
into it.
But anyone who says, oh, justslap a logo on it, the brand
(16:40):
doesn't matter, I will go afterthem.
And honestly, I would give up aclient that was like that.
If they were like, yeah, ourbrand doesn't matter, just
whatever it's like, yeah, thengo somewhere else because we're
not for you, I we're not for you.
Um, I think that's big like.
And people doing gimmicky stuff, like that's outside of their
brand I know we've talked aboutthis on other episodes where,
like, does your brand belong inthat space?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
brand as a filter for everything you do is so
important yeah, I love that youknow I think that's the perfect
place to leave it, as I'mthinking about this series.
This is part of our brand right, Our people and how we work and
the way that we work togetheris really important to us and
(17:24):
important to how we interactwith our clients.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So, I think that's the essence I always say like,
oh God, with a client, what'syour main point of difference?
Our people, okay, that's great.
Everybody says our people.
How do you demonstrate that?
Show me why it's your people.
What do they bring to the table?
Are you like above and beyondon customer service?
Are they a hundred timessmarter than everybody else?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think for us it's when we get together.
I mean, I just solved a hugeproblem for a new client with
Jessica this morning and I waslike so elated I gave her a jump
scare, though I didn't realizeI wasn't on camera, and I like
shouted and clapped my handsreally loud right in front of
the microphone and she's likeokay.
And I'm like, oh my God, I'm sosorry, I didn't know that I
wasn't on camera and you'tseeing, like you weren't
(18:12):
prepared for my enthusiasm.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Our best stuff happens when we're all together.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
That's for sure, and I'm looking forward to like how
these all pan out.
Yeah, Because I think we'regoing to try to do them with
everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
We, I want to.
Yeah, it's my.
It's my way, isaac, if you'relistening.
It's my way to get you toanswer the questions that I have
wanted to ask you for the lastfive and a half years.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
There's a good point.
We'll learn.
If Isaac is listening to thepodcast, He'll suddenly be on
vacation for six months.
He's like I'm working remotelyfrom Morocco.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
The sound quality.
I'm so sorry.
Yeah, rich, thank you forsubjecting yourself to this
specific brand of torture, andthank you all for listening.
You can connect with us onLinkedIn.
You can also connect with Richon LinkedIn if you so choose.
Occasionally has some snarkyremarks and some really good
professional insights there.
And, as always, you can findour agency at antidote,
(19:07):
underscore 71 on social.
Or you can visit ctapodcastliveto send us a question or leave
us a voicemail at 402-718-9971.
And we will be back with moreof this employee spotlight
series in the weeks to come.
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