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creative product

The Ancient Secret of Great Creative

Second Wind
12/3/2025


Bill Bernbach, the founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach, once said that for advertising to work, it has to leave the recipient of the message a little happier. In other words ...

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The Agency’s New Job Is to “Hack” Human Behavior

Second Wind
11/13/2025


We need to "hack" human behavior to succeed in advertising.

It's a word that gets thrown around in creative circles, and for good reason. "Hack" in this context doesn ...

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How to Recognize Great Creative

Second Wind
10/15/2025


Here is a method you can apply in your own agency and with your clients. It will allow you to set some trackable standards. To produce great creative, you must ...

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Can Your Smaller Agency Do Really Great Creative?

Second Wind
1/16/2024

Jeff Welch, principal of Mercury Advertising in Bozeman, MT, tells us how his agency started very, very small (just Jeff and co-founder Jamie Hurd) and grew to 25+ employees largely ...

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Hitting the Wall

Second Wind
1/1/2024

If you are a marathoner, “hitting the wall” can be very bad. But in reference to the creative community, the “wall” we refer to is a tool for brainstorming.

The ...

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How Smaller Agencies Attract Bigger Clients

Deborah Budd
8/8/2023

Small agencies and marketing firms have a fighting chance at winning big-name accounts. Smaller agencies are considered more agile, more innovative in thinking and execution, and possessed of skill sets ...

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“S-E-L-L” is Not a Four-Letter Word

Jack Henke
5/3/2022

Well, SELL, like, literally is, by the law of the letter, four letters long, but figuratively, it’s just the opposite. In my mind, “like” has become a four-letter word ...

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10 Ways to Make Your Ideas More Innovative

Deborah Budd
4/4/2022

Being innovative is seen as a way to distinguish an agency from its more routine competition. But agency owners need to dig deeper to decide if they can claim innovation ...

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Account Planning Serves Clients and Designers

Second Wind
3/23/2020

The debate rages on… should design be a tool of marketing and sales, or should it pursue purer, more aesthetic goals? As agency creatives from way back, we have to ...

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