Your marketing message: Does it connect?

Barrett Rossie

From 25 years ago, the words of David Kennedy, co-founder of Wieden + Kennedy: ”We’re really not in the business of making ads. Our job is to make a connection.”  Today you could add websites, Facebook pages, YouTube channels, email and much more to his list of stuff we’re not really in the business of making. It’s always about the connection.

Nike Fashion Thumbnail, Gretsky Kabira ThumbnailSee's thumbnailBurton-Ching thumbnailChevron Base Oils thumbnailSpeedoRineyClarity05 Flash thumbnailConnoisseur thumbnailRigNet thumbnailWorldTelemetry thumbnail Air LogoKink-FMCal ScottBarkley TV stillPiedmont thumbnail



Sometimes you can tell right away if the marketing effort connects. It hits you in the gut.

Other times, you can only tell something about the quality of the design and writing.

And yet well-written, well-designed work often misses the mark. Sometimes terribly. (Just look at two-thirds of Super Bowl commercials, and four-fifths of all websites.) So for each of these samples from my portfolio, I’ve given some context. To view the work, click the images above or the links on the left.

Related posts:

  1. More on the Chrysler “Imported From America” ad
  2. The hardest-working Super Bowl commercial was…
  3. The death of (bad) advertising
  4. When raving fans spread your message
  5. The “vision thing”: Who needs it?

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.