Ad Club Speaker: Drew Lewis

(Photos coming soon!)

Today's Ad Club Speaker, Drew Lewis, came to us from Wunderman and his own company, FusionCorp, to talk to us about his job as a new media director. Drew had a lot of interesting stories to tell us about his time at Y & R, his origins in art and the grasp he has (thus far) on the industry. He stayed almost three hours, chatting with us well after the meeting had ended. Unfortunately the turnout was dismal today, but Drew didn't seem to care. I really love the interactive Ad Club and PRSSA meetings because it's nice to get face time with the speaker and hear more about his or her climb experience on a personal level.

Another thing I love about Ad Club? The things that get me thinking. As Drew was talking, there were two points I jotted down on my iPod touch (or iPad Nano, as I so lamely jested earlier) for blogging purposes.

First of all, Drew brought up the impact of brand ambassadors. I had to admit, the power of brand ambassadors has always been something that I never really lent importance to, but now see the error of my ways. I mean, I never used to be an Apple fan. I had my Creative Zen Touch and my Toshiba laptop and Apple wasn't even on my radar. As I grew up, more and more people had iPods. I held off for a long time... my iPod Classic, now my sister's, is actually only three years old. But the power of the brand ambassadors, the hardcore Apple fans that had their products and told me that I needed them, have pretty much fueled my desire for both a Macbook and for the latest Apple gadgets - and thus why I traded for my iPod Touch. One of the biggest challenges with brand ambassadors is to get them vocal, and once vocal, keep them talking. For every person with a massive penchant for Apple, there are fans who keep quiet and may use the gadgets, but don't tell every PC user they see that, "You should really get a Mac." I see social media as the perfect venue to reach the brand ambassadors and not only elicit their help, but reward them for their loyalty and willingness to communicate about the devices. Like in Chris Brogan's "Trust Agents," people will listen to the Average Joe much more intently than they will Joe Marketer.

Another point that Drew brought up was his interaction with creative people and the effect on his own creativity. I'm by no means a creative person - I can come up with big ideas, but they aren't by any means the winning one. However, therein liesthe beauty of it: you don't have to come up with the winning one, if you depend upon others to help you develop it. By coming up with one mediocre idea, you might be providing the springboard for the winning idea. Drew said, "Being around smart people makes me feel smarter," which I absolutely agree with. When I sat in on Creative meetings during NSAC, I felt more creative; when I sat in on Media, I felt like I knew more and more about Media. Working in a collaborative environment is essential to success.

Drew was just great. As we were leaving for the night, a few people were talking about how listening to speakers like Drew, they just felt even more excited about advertising. It was a welcome shot of adrenaline to the heart after the last exhausting nine months and a good boost for the week before regional NSAC competition.

Since my #FF article earlier about recommending rather than just spurting names has somewhat sunk in, it's Friday in Idaho and therefore time for me to make my suggestions:

Here's a link to Drew's website! http://www.drewmichaellewis.com/
You already know the insights I've received from him, now go look into his work.

Also, here's a link to one of my friend's websites: http://www.howtomworks.com

Tom Arthur is one of those smart people that makes you feel smarter from being around him. He's brilliant when it comes to details - you can always see the cogs in his mind turning, even when you're just getting dinner with him. He's always on the cutting edge of technology, telling me about all of the apps I should be downloading and social media I should be using (I usually hold out for a while, but he eventually sucks me into it).