Chuck Porter runs one of the most successful advertising agencies in America — and he thinks public relations does the job better.
Porter, co-founder and chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and chief strategist for holding company MDC Partners, spoke at The Holmes Report Press Summit in London in October 2015. He also serves as board chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The message from a career adman who has made millions in the business was blunt.
"PR is typically better than advertising at really manipulating popular culture," Porter said. "And popular culture is currency."
"I Don't Know"
Porter used the phrase repeatedly across his talk and the Q&A that followed. His stated philosophy: do really good work today before going home. Everything else takes care of itself. His firm has the awards to back it up.
Because CP+B started small, the early client work came from newer companies building their brand, not the established giants. Porter's rule from that era still holds: do not emulate the big companies. Move in a different direction. Otherwise the work disappears into the sea of what every other firm is producing.
The Mini Cooper Case
When CP+B took on the Mini Cooper launch in the United States, most car campaigns showed vehicles driving through scenic outdoor landscapes. CP+B strapped a Mini Cooper on top of an SUV and drove it through American cities. A banner across the SUV read: "What are you doing for fun this weekend?"
When executives from Germany traveled with the car to measure results, they said they still did not know how to quantify what they were seeing — except that everywhere they stopped, people took pictures. Nobody was stopping to photograph a billboard. The campaign, they concluded, worked.
Storytelling and Invention
New technology, Porter argued, is a gift to storytellers — a direct connection to consumers. But the story has to be good. Interrupting people does not work anymore. Audiences scroll past or navigate away.
Ads are useful. Inventions are better. Porter's example: CP+B helped develop the Domino's "pizza tracker" — a graphic that ran along the bottom of the customer's screen showing the progress of the order, with visuals matched to whatever program the customer was watching. Simple. People loved it.
Measuring Creativity
Measure everything. Except, Porter said, creativity cannot be pre-measured. CP+B uses the internet to test creative ideas at small scale, find what works, and then build a campaign around the winner.
Because the agency started small, it could not afford to hire people with the full experience set. So it set a priority order. CP+B, Porter said, hires "for brains, talent, passion, curiosity, and experience — in that order."
The Takeaway
Do good work every day. Try new ideas at a small level to find out what sticks. Remember the client and what they came to accomplish, then find a solution that engages people. It is fine not to know the answer — sometimes that is the jumping-off point for the creative work. And it always helps to have people around to think out loud with.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
