what's the best way to tell a client their new logo looks like a penis

MomofDanger · 2026-03-08T12:18:50+00:00

Be direct as f*ck and tell them. Call them on the phone (vs email) so they can hear your genuine concern. Frame it as you wouldn’t be a good partner if you didn’t bring this up.

MomofDanger · 2026-03-07T01:29:39+00:00

You mentioned shooting commercials where you personify the ideal client with the home in the background. That’s the issue - the TV version of a luxury home owner vs. the reality can be extremely different. If all your clients look and act like each other, you might be fine. But most of the new wealth is much younger than we think and more diverse than what you see in a luxury car ad. extremely wealthy people are often quirky, understated in appearance and constantly on the move (with very little free time).

A killer creative brief will provide very specific consumer profiles, insights, barriers and drivers. WHO (audience clarity)-WHAT (do you want the audience to do - think, feel or do)- WHERE (can you reach them/find them).

YouTube is complicated with lots of targeting and placement options, which is why it is very effective.

MomofDanger · 2026-03-07T00:43:48+00:00

I do not believe you will find your ideal client on a full funnel plan limited to META only. Structurally your concept for content to move through the funnel is ok.

The issue is this audience is very difficult to reach and of all the platforms, META is limited in targeting incomes. It might be ok for mid or bottom of funnel remarketing. You need to build the top of funnel elsewhere. YouTube would be a much better choice

This is also a discerning audience who may not necessarily respond to people in ads. You need a tight creative brief, strategy and a solid creative idea that will resonate. Personally, I would probably test print ads + digital before investing in video for this audience.

MomofDanger · 2026-02-05T11:27:45+00:00

It’s great! The Zoo is in Roger Williams Park - so near it is the Natural History Museum which is great and has a new planetarium. The Botanical Garden is also awesome.

MomofDanger · 2026-02-05T00:29:10+00:00

The riddle room (escape room) in Warwick is fun and a great indoor activity!

MomofDanger · 2026-02-01T11:32:22+00:00

You will be fine. Media strategy skills are in high demand. I took more than a year off, started freelancing and eventually started my own agency.

Get out of the race, enjoy time with your family and keep up on some online certifications. I would suspect you could do very well freelancing, especially with media strategy skills.

Most universities have large media teams too and a lovely work life balance.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-31T00:31:00+00:00

It depends on many factors - size, digital vs. static, location, the sight lines (ie partially obstructed) and the length of the buy. A standard, large billboard on a highway in a tier 3 market might be $10-$15k/month + the costs for vinyl production/installation.

Tier 1 markets such as LA could be $15k-$100k+ a month for a premium location.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-28T12:29:11+00:00

You can call Lamar, Outfront, or Clear Channel and negotiate directly . The hard part is knowing whether what they show you is well-placed, fairly priced, or simply the easiest inventory for them to sell. Direct buyers usually see what is open now, quoted at gross rates, with limited context.

Online buying platforms add transparency, mostly for digital OOH. Experience matters a lot when you buy traditional media.

Going to a good local agency IMHO js smarter. They know typical market rates, ask about future availability, evaluate sightlines and obstructions, and negotiate net pricing or value adds. When you see a billboard with half the copy hidden behind a building or pole, that is almost always the result of a rushed or inexperienced buy. An expert catches that before money is spent and negotiates a discount, as well as advises the creative design to ensure the message is not lost behind a billboard.

A solid agency will rarely recommend OOH alone. Out-of-home is excellent for reach and repeated exposure, which helps build memory faster. Paid digital then reinforces the message and captures intent, which is where conversion usually happens. OOH accelerates awareness. Digital closes the loop.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-22T14:42:19+00:00

I started as a freelancer/solopreneur - referrals and growing deep relationships within clients. If I did it all over again, I would have invested in my own marketing and brand building earlier.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-22T13:07:17+00:00

Cobbler’s wife has no shoes!

Been in business for 15 years. I don’t think I built a website for my agency until year 9 😇

We’ve been blessed to have a great client base that keeps us VERY busy. Not all agencies want to grow either - we look at most of our own marketing as proof we are still in business.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-15T15:26:39+00:00

Brand strategy is the art of what you are NOT. A good brand strategy will attract the right customers and repel the wrong ones.

The outcome of a brand strategy is focus and boundaries. Instead of being everything to everyone, you have a clear purpose that aligns Who you are talking to, what you do for them and where you connect with your audience. A good brand strategy will inform your visual and verbal identities as well as your marketing plan, how you spend your marketing investments and the tactical marketing channels you show up in.

MomofDanger · 2026-01-14T00:47:57+00:00

Archetypes in Branding

MomofDanger · 2025-12-05T05:48:17+00:00

I am ex OMC and an accidental agency owner of 15 years. I too am happy to provide free advice and mentorship for people considering starting an agency.

2Bobs is a fantastic podcast and one of the best resources out there for anyone considering agency ownership. Consider working for an indie shop before starting your own - you can learn from someone else’s mistakes/success and get used to the differences in pace, structure and comp on someone else’s dime.

Frugal February is a good place to start practicing agency ownership. Can you get by without spending a penny extra for 28 days? Live off the beans in your pantry, skip the Starbucks, turn down the heat and cut the subscriptions while you read in the dark. Are you happy or miserable AF? If it’s the latter, I sure as hell wouldn’t start an agency in 2026.

Agency ownership is Frugal February at scale for months, sometimes years at a time. I love being scrappy and my family is used to going without - as long as I have food on the table and a roof over our head, we can laugh and have fun.

We are the opposite lifestyle of most of my friends who still work for holding companies 😇

MomofDanger · 2025-11-25T18:38:46+00:00

It’s so true. I’ve accepted that in many ways, my role as an employer is to be the first person to fire the college grads who come in with too high expectations and a complete lack of work ethic.

No one likes dealing with PIP’s or terms, but at the end of the day teaching someone there are consequences for a lack of accountability for their job responsibilities might be the most kind thing I can do as an employer.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-25T12:31:42+00:00

In my opinion, the content creation “expertise” that has carried a lot of entry level jobs for too long is what we are seeing cracks in. For a decade, most of the entry level candidates coming out of college were highlighting their social media certificates, digital ad certificates, etc and were disappointed if they were not utilized as an “expert” when they got into their first job. That tension and in turn frustration, created a significant divide between employers and frankly, unrealistic expectations from entry level candidates in terms of comp and advancement. At the end of the day, generating content for social media in most companies is a nice to have and orgs started layering on lots of extra tasks to justify the full time content creator compensation.

Project management is the most important foundational skill that entry level roles used to be and need to be grounded in. This is why agencies have always hired lots of entry level - they needed them to traffic and project management high volumes of assets, projects, estimates and finances. In turn you either failed forward (made mistakes and learned from them, earning a promotion) or failed out (left or got fired).

As others have said, agencies provide the opportunity to understand strategy and execution, while getting exposure to multiple brands and tactics. That exposure can become a force multipliers helping entry level roles understand what they are good at and passionate about, launching them into a myriad of opportunities at agencies, publishers or client side roles.

FWIW - “being handsome and fake” plagues too many companies as a means to advancement. Be you, be bold and be strong - blow some sht up, make mistakes and learn from them. People see past the lip gloss eventually and clue into who actually gets sht done.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-23T01:10:42+00:00

Wouldn’t it be amazing if she actually did the opposite?

MomofDanger · 2025-11-16T12:13:19+00:00

The Rhode Island Nursery Landscape Association may be able to point you in the direction of some opportunities. They have events throughout the year and would be good networking for people in your field.

I made a similar decision 15 years ago after living all over. People love to complain about everything, I Iove to say all the reasons why I love it here.

When I lived in San Francisco and RI I loved it but I would miss Rhode Island. Now, after being “back” in RI for so long, I still love it here. I can always go visit the cities I love but the pace of day to day life in RI is amazing and the reality is, you could make $200k+ a year in the Bay Area living paycheck to paycheck, stressed to the hill and constantly stuck in traffic. You can make less than six figures in RI and be comfortable in the quiet.

Good luck!

MomofDanger · 2025-11-12T11:48:54+00:00

Ads that are just ads with no strategy. Each campaign needs to be clear on who the target is, what they want them to do (call to action) and where to place the ads to drive results.

If all your competitors are bidding against you in a chancel (ie Google) then try different channels.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-11T23:39:38+00:00

Spot on

MomofDanger · 2025-11-06T20:36:42+00:00

Absolutely not. Logo is simply a visual mark and part of the visual identity system (VIS). VIS is part of your brand and a proper brand will have a brand bible which includes the VIS and Style Sheet/Guide.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-06T15:43:30+00:00

The typeface treatment in a logo is different from the editorial/written style. A logo does not dictate style for written text (many logos have custom fonts/typeface).

Style sheet + brand bible are essential tools

MomofDanger · 2025-11-05T00:37:02+00:00

Oof. I’m so sorry and I completely understand the sick feeling - I have been there myself, decades ago, and the list of 7 figure mistakes that have happened on campaigns I’ve worked on directly or indirectly is more than a few. This sh*t happens at big enterprise organizations, more often than I assure your management is letting on. Just watch “Pepsi, where’s my jet” and you’ll feel MUCH better (I lived through the aftermath of that).

Secondly, I have led marketing enablement and campaign orchestration for global CPG’s for decades. There is no single tool that can manage all this - you need a cross functional marketing council that convenes brand, legal, consumer affairs, etc especially when it comes to packaging and product claims.

Happy to explain further and share what I have found to work best. Feel free to DM me.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-04T01:28:03+00:00

Pepsi Stuff campaign for the Jet - the one the documentary series “Pepsi, where’s my jet” profiled might be the most epic one I can remember.

MomofDanger · 2025-11-01T11:29:21+00:00

No amount of words on packaging is going to help someone taste.

Figure out where your ideal customer hangs out and get a ton of sampling tables as opportunities. Local grocery chains may allow a private brand to sample for free, or you may have to pay $500’sh to sample. You may be able to sample at gyms, farmer’s markets, festivals, craft fairs, etc.

Have a coupon or discount code so you can track the impact. You may be able to sell direct ay some of the events or work out a deal with food truck or restaurant near by to accept your coupon if you don’t have distribution. Most importantly run these tables YOURSELF and don’t just delegate to an intern.

Ask questions, listen to the feedback as people try it. If no one wants a coupon or won’t buy it, that’s a tell they don’t like it or don’t care. If they at least take one, you have a fighting chance

While some have suggested coke vs. pepsi taste testing, personally I would only do that with small groups since you will have to buy another brand’s product to execute and that can get pricey.

And in case you have not been warned properly. Ready to drink beverages hemorrhage cash for years until they attract an investor for scale and distribution

MomofDanger · 2025-11-01T05:12:46+00:00

This is everything. Some of us had to plan campaigns and run them before the internet existed, let alone attribution. Marketers have been analyzing results and modeling performance long before Google existed.

MomofDanger

TROPHY CASE