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December 26, 2024 17 mins

What if the key to breaking through the relentless "sea of sameness" in advertising lies in the vibrant arts and culture of Minneapolis? Join us as we sit down with Rob Rankin, President and CEO of CCF Advertising, who brings over 35 years of industry experience to the table. Rob unravels how the creative energy of this city fuels innovative advertising strategies. We explore CCF's holistic approach to campaigns, focusing on emotional connections and how they drive behavior change amidst today's digital overload. Rob offers a unique perspective on balancing traditional and digital methods, ensuring that creativity remains at the forefront of impactful advertising.

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Episode Transcript

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Bill Von Bank (00:00):
The Growing Destinations podcast is brought
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Learn more about Minnesota'sthird largest city, which is
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Rob Rankin (00:16):
AI is no different than social was 15, 20 years ago
.
It's no different thantelevision was 50, 70 years ago.
It's a new tool that'savailable to us and the question
is will you or won't you takeadvantage of it?
What I don't know, and what thecrystal ball should really be
we should be looking at in thecrystal ball is what's next.

Bill Von Bank (00:35):
Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast,
where we take a deep dive intodestination development and
focus on a wide range of topics,from tourism and entertainment
to economic development andentrepreneurism and much more.
I'm your host, bill Von Bank.
Minneapolis stands as apowerhouse in the advertising
industry, celebrated for itsdynamic and thriving creative

(00:59):
community.
Today, we explore the world ofadvertising with a distinguished
guest, rob Rankin, presidentand CEO of CCF Advertising.
With decades of experience in aportfolio featuring some
impressive and innovativecampaigns, rob joins us to share
his experience on buildingsuccessful brands, the

(01:20):
transformative role ofadvertising in our lives and the
future of the industry,especially as AI takes center
stage in the creative process.
Rob Rankin, welcome to theGrowing Destinations podcast.
Thanks, bill.

Rob Rankin (01:34):
Very excited to be here and appreciate the invite.

Bill Von Bank (01:36):
Rob, what initially drew you into the
advertising industry.
You've been doing this quite awhile.

Rob Rankin (01:41):
Yeah, I have.
You know, it was aninformational interview at
Fallon and it was one of thosethings where I walked in the
door.
There was just a vibe and Iknew it right then and there,
and it became a passion right atthat moment and I just started
to pursue it each and every dayafter that, how many years ago,
was that?

Bill Von Bank (01:55):
Oh golly, am I dating you?
You are, yeah, that's a solid35 years Bill.
You've done well in theindustry.
I've known you quite a fewyears.
I've worked with you on severalcampaigns, which maybe we'll
get into a few of those, fromthe time that we worked together
.
And you've been with CCF forhow many years now?

Rob Rankin (02:11):
Since 1998, so over 25 years.
Tell us more about CCF, basedright downtown Minneapolis.
Clarity added Jerry Fury to thename and the door about five,
six years later, and we've beenfocused on world-class, creative
and world-class strategy andleveraging the power of emotion
ever since.

Bill Von Bank (02:32):
I mentioned in my intro just how powerful of a
creative community Minneapolisis.
Tell me a little bit more aboutthat aspect of the world in
which you live.

Rob Rankin (02:42):
Sure.
Well, I think the fact of thematter is Minneapolis itself
happens to be a hotbed forculture and arts and
entertainment, right.
So there's just such a strongfoundation here within the
artistic community andadvertising and creativity falls
out of that.
But if you think of the musicthat has come out of Minneapolis
alone, the art that has comeout of Minneapolis alone, you

(03:05):
art that has come out ofMinneapolis alone, you know that
feeds into what we do increative communications.

Bill Von Bank (03:09):
Rob, CCF is not a one-trick pony when it comes to
clients or the type ofadvertising you do Tell us about
your portfolio a bit.

Rob Rankin (03:17):
We do a lot of our book and businesses is in health
care and what we call healthcare from all angles.
So if you think of state publichealth manufacturer, payer,
provider, we do all of that.
But we also work in otherverticals as well.
We work in insurance.
We work in banking with ourgreat client Wings, financial
Wings, credit Union and otherverticals as well.

Bill Von Bank (03:38):
CCF emphasizes an integrated approach to driving
behavior change.
What unique strategies does theagency implement to achieve
this?
First of all, tell us aboutyour approach to behavior change
as an agency.

Rob Rankin (03:51):
Yeah, so it all has to do with driving the power of
emotion and capturing the powerof emotion.
When you can find that sweetspot of what a brand offers and
what a consumer is looking forand you connect emotionally with
a consumer, you drive loyaltyand that really is the
foundation of it and that's beenkind of your mantra for.
Yeah, what started it?

(04:11):
We now call it an emotionalcatalyst.
So it's had its iterations overthe years, but it started as a
simple emotional touchstone.
That's what we branded it.
It then became what we referredto as a connector and more
recently we rebranded it andcall it now the emotional
catalyst, but foundationallyit's the same.

Bill Von Bank (04:27):
How do you balance traditional advertising
with non-traditional?
And, of course, digital is soimportant right now in the
industry.

Rob Rankin (04:33):
It really comes down to having the right message at
the right moment.
Right now more so than ever,media fragmentation and how you
can reach your audiences is justso widespread.
You really have to have theright message and then be sure
you're communicating it at theright moment.
So it's less about where you'reat and making sure you're at
the right place at the righttime, but I would imagine

(04:54):
creativity is still incrediblyimportant.
We think it is and we believe itis, and I think part of the
danger of our industry is whenwe lean on new technologies like
AI technology and you lose theemotional connection or you lose
the creativity.
You run the risk of becomingeverybody else and going into a
sea of sameness and it can bepretty easy to do as people

(05:16):
start to use those tools moreand more often, lean on them
more and more often and losethose original skill sets and
crafts that really made thebusiness what it is.

Bill Von Bank (05:24):
Let's talk about audience targeting and persona
development, and how does thatdiffer today compared to when
you first started in theindustry?

Rob Rankin (05:32):
It has to do with data.
So there's so much more dataavailable today, from credit
card information, purchaseinformation.
Back in the day, it used to bejust MRI Simmons, which is
survey-based information, whichis still used, and used a lot,
and very credible.
But now you're combining thatwith actual behavior, whether
it's website cookies that aretrafficking where people go and
following people where they go,or credit card purchase

(05:54):
information, where you actuallyknow what people bought, and
it's now combining all thosethings.
So it's really about havingmore data but then still being
able to filter that into apersona.

Bill Von Bank (06:05):
that's actionable , because some of that data is
just bad data or you need tokind of clean it up.

Rob Rankin (06:10):
We rely on subscription-based things where
we know we're getting credibledata.
So the partnerships that weform and that we align ourselves
with, we make sure that we'regetting credible data.

Bill Von Bank (06:22):
Advertising has seen dramatic shifts in recent
years due to economic pressures,evolving consumer preferences
and, of course, the digitaltransformation which we've just
been speaking about.
What trends do you believe aremost defining the industry right
now?

Rob Rankin (06:35):
You know, AI is certainly up there, but then
also, as I already mentioned,media fragmentation.
You know it's just harder andharder to get a captive audience
.
That's why sports programmingand awards programming is so
important to advertisers today.
There are few places where youcan get a captive audience at
one time anymore, because ofmedia fragmentation, and so the

(06:55):
one-to-many opportunities arefewer than they ever have been,
and they're only going to shrinkthe one-to-one.
They're plentiful, and sothat's a big big thing.
And then, of course, AI, as youmentioned earlier.

Bill Von Bank (07:08):
I have AI on our list to talk about in just a bit
.
Okay, with a growing focus onprivacy and data ethics, how can
advertisers continue to deliverpersonalized preferences
without compromising trust?
And I know you mentioned youhave subscriptions with solid
organizations for that.

Rob Rankin (07:25):
Yeah, there are a couple things there.
Organizations for that yeah,there are a couple of things
there, and I think one of thethings is just being sure that
advertisers are crystal clearwith their audiences on how
they're going to use their data,what they're collecting and why
they're collecting it.
But beyond that, it has a lotmore to do with just being sure
that you as an enterprisewhatever the advertiser is or
even the agency you'reprotecting yourself from hackers
, so making sure you're notfalling to phishing scams.

(07:46):
I think consumers are lessconcerned about someone
following their cookies orplacing cookies and following
them, and more about havingtheir data exposed to someone
that's a nefarious player.

Bill Von Bank (07:57):
We spoke about AI a couple of times already, so I
have a few questions for you.
So let's just take the deepdive, because it is all the rage
, it's at age and many otherpublications and organizations
have constant articles orinformation about this.
It's revolutionizing industries, of course, including
advertising.
How is CCF leveraging AI inareas like audience targeting or

(08:19):
creative development, campaignoptimization or other?

Rob Rankin (08:23):
Yeah, what's interesting to me and to us is
that AI is not new, although itfeels new.
Ai has been around.
If you think of programmaticmedia buying, that's AI.
If you go to simple things likeGoogle search, it's just been
around for 20 years.
That, at some level, is AI aswell, so this has been around
for a long time.
What happened within the lasttwo years is that OpenAI
launched ChatGPT and hasdemocratized it, so now

(08:45):
everybody has access to it.
Just like when the big PCs wentdown to laptops, went to phones
, now everyone has their handson it or has the ability to have
their hands on it.
So it's really about getting inthere and trying and testing
things, not being afraid to fail, doing those things internally
and learning, and we're reallyat that early adopter stage of
AI.
So waiting for people to do itand then following them and

(09:07):
being a fast follower probablyisn't going to work.
You've got to get your handsdirty and you've got to roll up
your sleeves and try some thingsand develop things that work
for you and work for yourclients.

Bill Von Bank (09:16):
Do you think AI tools such as generative content
or predictive analytics pose arisk to creativity or enhance it
?

Rob Rankin (09:24):
I think they can do either, and I think it depends
on whoever the practitioner is.
So if you allow those things todo your job for you, they will
not enhance it, they will driveit and they will take it away
from you.
However, if you get a good,prompt engineer, if you work
actively in it, if you allow itto complement your craft, then
you'll be able to enhancecreativity with it.

(09:44):
My concern is that as we go onin our world not just in
creative communications is thatthe more we lean on those things
, the more mundane, the moreboring, the more sea of sameness
we'll get and the more peoplewill lose skill sets that they
once had.

Bill Von Bank (10:00):
That's interesting Looking ahead.
How do you see AI shaping thenext five to 10 years?

Rob Rankin (10:05):
in advertising, I think within five to 10 years
it'll be shaped.
My larger question is what'snext?
You know AI is no differentthan social was 15, 20 years ago
.
It's no different thantelevision was 50, 70 years ago.
It's a new tool that'savailable to us and the question
is will you or won't you takeadvantage of it?
What I don't know, and what thecrystal ball should really be,

(10:28):
we should be looking at in thecrystal ball, is what's next,
and then being sure that we'readopting those things quickly
and leveraging them.

Bill Von Bank (10:35):
I've always, you know, I've dabbled in it,
primarily from the contentmanagement side, with chat, gpt,
for example, and some peoplesaid, well, don't you worry
about losing people?
I said no, if used right as atool, and that's how I view it
as a tool, it should allow us tobe better or maybe do more
creative work, because it canhelp us maybe research, I mean,

(10:58):
it still needs editing process.

Rob Rankin (11:01):
It's interesting too , because you can also look at
AI today.
Whether it's a photography onInstagram that you can tell is
AI driven or even copy, thereare clues, you know when you can
tell is AI driven or even copy.
There are clues, you know, whenyou're getting an AI generated
newsletter versus somethingthat's crafted or something that
has been maybe initiallygenerated by AI but then
polished by an individual.

Bill Von Bank (11:20):
So let's get into the creative process
specifically around campaignsand I guess I shouldn't say
creative process, becausecampaigns have more than just
creative strategy.
They have media, they havemedia.
They have so many differentpieces, but I'm thinking more of
like an end result to acampaign and campaigns that
you're really proud of, andoftentimes it's the creative
that people refer to.
So let's talk about some of thecampaigns over the years that

(11:44):
you've been involved with andmaybe some of your favorites.

Rob Rankin (11:47):
I think probably my favorite is the work that we did
in tobacco control.
We very quickly, working withClearway Minnesota, became one
of the top two agencies in theworld when it came to creative
communications tied to tobaccocontrol, which was smoking
cessation and then policy.
It was really Arnold out ofBoston who did fantastic work
and continues to do fantasticwork in that space, and then
ourselves.
And I guess a milestone, if youwill or maybe not a milestone,

(12:11):
but a hallmark moment was whenwe were actually written into
this, into a script for Friends,really, and Monica is scolding
Chandler for smoking.
She says haven't you seen thatcommercial where the little kid
walks through grandpa, it'schilling, you need to stop
smoking.
And serendipitously our spotghost was seen by someone who

(12:31):
was working on Friends andprobably the script and the
casting there and, lo and behold, we ended up written into the
TV show.
So we had kind of achieved theShangri-La of marketing
communications where we becamepart of the public nomenclature.

Bill Von Bank (12:46):
That's so cool.
I mentioned earlier, I'veworked with you over the years,
and specifically at theMinnesota Zoo, and I'm a jingle
guy.
I mean, I've always enjoyed thejingles.
I still love the retro jingles.
When we retained you at theMinnesota Zoo we were debuting a
penguin exhibit and CCF createda jingle called Do the Waddle,

(13:06):
which then became a song and amusic video, and that was just a
really fun way to takesomething a 30 second jingle for
radio TV and like just spreadit out and into the public
through various other means.
Talk us through a little bitabout how you do something like
that as an agency.

Rob Rankin (13:27):
Well, with that specifically and I'll go back to
that emotional connection, thatemotional catalyst, the
emotional catalyst there wassmile.
And it was smile because whenyou see a penguin, at that point
in time and you very well knowthe Minnesota Zoo was launching
the Penguins of the AfricanCoast exhibit and the penguins
were brand new but when youthink of a penguin it's one of

(13:48):
those things where it's hard notto smile.
And so that became theemotional catalyst and from that
the jingle happened.
But I think, as you touched on,what was great is we didn't
just stop at like a TV spot.
I mean, we were in parades.
I remember when my daughter atthe time was probably eight or
10 years old, somewhere likethat, and she and I were in in
4th of July parades and insummer parades out in Burnsville

(14:09):
and throughout the Twin Citiesarea, handing out swag from the
Minnesota zoo.
As you mentioned, it became, itbecame a music video.
We had dancers that would.
We would go do pop-ups onNicollet Mall and other places
where our dancers did the waddlein front of a crowd and they
popped up.
They were there for fiveminutes and, poof, then they
were gone.
And what's interesting too, isthat a little bit of the

(14:32):
backstory of that is, thechoreograph was actually done by
one of the Timberwolves danceteam members, and so we
literally partnered with peoplein the community, pulled others
in the dance team included anddeveloped not just a jingle but
a real dance, a music video.
We were in parades and, as youmay remember, that was also
coming off of the state shutdown.

(14:52):
I do remember that.
So that was tough for you guysout at the zoo.
But what was great was we wereable to quickly activate three
weeks later than anyone hadhoped, and I think, if I'm
remembering correctly, at theend of the year you saw record
attendance for that exhibit.

Bill Von Bank (15:07):
It did lead into a record year at that time for
the Minnesota Zoo, and what wasso cool about it is it was
locally produced and it was suchan integrated approach to
marketing.
Yeah, so let's talk about youas a leader in this industry.
How do you foster innovationand adaptability in your team

(15:29):
amidst constant industry change?

Rob Rankin (15:32):
You know, my job is to hire good people and then
stay out of their way.
I'm here to support them, I'msure.
I'm here to make sure they havethe tools that they need to win
, the tools that they need towin, the tools that they need to
grow.
My job is to encourage,sometimes nudge forward a little
bit and challenge them, butreally my job is also not to
meddle and to stay out of theirway.
We've got a great team.
They're super talented people,whether that's in media account

(15:55):
service strategy or creativeservices, and I need to let them
do their job because they'reall very talented and, again, I
need to hire good people andjust stay out of their way.

Bill Von Bank (16:04):
What principles have guided your leadership
throughout your career?

Rob Rankin (16:08):
You know I'm the son of a college football coach, so
I've got a little bit of TonyRobbins and a little bit of Lou
Holtz in me.
So just that organic or naturaloptimism and positivity I'd
like to bring forward, but thenalso some hustle.
I mean, good things don'thappen with hard work.
I had a good friend of mine whoonce said show up, work hard,
have fun and good things willhappen and I believe in that.

Bill Von Bank (16:30):
What excites you most about the future of
advertising?

Rob Rankin (16:33):
I think what excites me most is I had a mentor early
on, very early on, my firstmentor who said no two days will
ever be the same.
Here we are, 35 years later andno two days have ever been the
same, and so I expect thatmoving forward.

Bill Von Bank (16:47):
Rob Rankin.
Great conversation today,Fascinating to learn about CCF,
the current state of advertising, the future of advertising and,
of course, all the work thatyou've done in the creative
community over the years.
So thanks for being our guest.
Well, thanks for having me,Bill, and it's great to catch up
with you.
Thank you for tuning in to theGrowing Destinations podcast and

(17:07):
don't forget to subscribe.
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Find out more about Rochester,Minnesota, and its growing arts
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