Learn all about Pete Presnal, a.k.a., The Socratic Duck (including some people he admires)
Pete Presnal, a.k.a.,
The Socratic Duck, began his professional career in 1978 on the graveyard shift of a
100,000 watt FM in a town of about 3,500 people (and maybe half a million deer) in Northern
Michigan. For some reason, the glamour of babysitting an automation system loaded with
tapes of the Melachrino Strings and Jackie Gleason records didn't really thrill him and so
he preferred spending time in the production studio across the hall where he could create
sixty-second "movies" and sixty-second "symphonies" entirely on his own.
He soon realized that clients were paying real money to the radio station and only
cared about Pete's movies and symphonies to the extent that they sold cars and jewelry and
gallons of milk. In other words, what good was a really good commercial if it didn't sell
goods and services? He immersed himself in the arcana of selling, marketing, advertising
and consumer behavior in order to write and produce commercials that worked for the client
in a tangible, measurable way.
Pete is dedicated to the proposition that everything communicates. Therefore,
advertising, as the expression of the core
selling idea that drives the company, is not simply an activity separate from the
business or line item on the profit and loss statement. Pete believes great advertising is
born of great companies and can send them soaring. He also believes just as surely that
great advertising will destroy lousy companies -- if for no other reason than the company
may not be able to live up to the promise its ads make. In other words, unless you're
running a great company, don't expect your advertising to save your behind. As the late,
great management and marketing guru
Peter Drucker (a personal hero of Pete's) said, "The purpose of a
Business is to create a customer; [therefore] Business has only two functions --
innovation and
marketing."
Pete created The Socratic Duck to help small businesses market their innovative
ideas.
The "Socratic" part comes from Presnal's love of the Socratic Method (or at least the
idea of never being satisfied with surface answers in the pursuit of a client's sales and
marketing aims). The "Duck" part comes from a certain radio station general manager's habit
of referring to her sales people as "sales ducks."
And of course, except for this bio, Pete doesn't generally refer to himself in the third person.
People, places and resources I really like
|
Absolute Website Design is owned and run by a guy in little Romeo, Michigan (in the far northeastern suburbs of Detroit) who happens to do great work. He does all of his Web designs from scratch (no pre-built templates), which means that all of his clients have sites that don't look like any others one may happen across on the Web. Larry can also host your site. E-mail inquiries to absolutewebsitedesign@sbcglobal.net. |
|
|
|
|
Gayle Conroy is arguably my favorite female voice talent.
|
|
|
|
|
A great resource for radio stuff is well known programming and production guru Dan O'Day's website. This LA-based radio authority offers all sorts of material, some free, some for a price, including teleseminars, self-teaching materials, books, and a free newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter. It's a million bucks worth of advice for free. |
|
|
|
|
Someone else I've been a fan of for a long time is Roy H. Williams, a.k.a., the Wizard of Ads. His first book was the best seller, The Wizard of Ads , which turned into a series of books, all of which I've read a number of times. Williams is the founder of the Wizard Academy, and offers a free subscription to his weekly e-newsletter, the Monday Morning Memo . |
|
|
|
|
Seth Godin is brilliant. Period.
|
This is free for the taking...
Of course, the place to start is by reading this informative booklet,
called
Great. So now that you've bought the time, what are you going to do for a
spot?
It's written for small business owners who don't have three floors of their world headquarters devoted to marketing, nor are they clients of one of the major ad agencies. It's of great help to those businesses who want to effectively communicate their marketing ideas, speak the language of media, and help their copywriters and producers to create great ads.
You don't have to be an expert, although this guide will show you how it's done. By explaining the best way to plan campaigns, choose stations, write and produce the commercials, you then can talk intelligently in radio people's language about how to best design your radio advertising. The Guide helps you to know the kinds of questions to ask, the kind in information you should be giving to your media reps and the people who will produce your ads, so that all the parts work.
The Guide's emphasis is on the most important, and most overlooked, part of the campaign: what you say, and how you say it. It shows you how to arrive at powerful and compelling selling ideas, and irresistible ways of presenting them on the air. You'll realize that it no longer makes sense to simply give your radio rep your newspaper or Yellow Pages ad.
It's free, and you're more than welcome to pass it around. Go here to get it.
and
Except where otherwise noted, all content © 2011 by Peter K. Presnal. All rights reserved.