Joe Jaffe Rides to Maine And Back In Adrants' Ear

Since we were so far behind in listening to American Copywriter and Joe Jaffe's Across the Sound, we took the opportunity to catch up on the long drive to Maine this weekend to catch the Annual Lobstermen's Daughters Bait Pocket Stuffing Contest. Tug and John of American Copywriter continue to amuse but since it took soooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch looooooooooooooonger to listen to Joe Jaffe's very looooooooooong Across the Sound, consuming almost the entire round trip, we'll concentrate on that.

In Joe's most recent podcast, he spends a lengthy amount of time reviewing the Agency.com Debacle (btw, to answer your question, Joe, a link was emailed to us and we wrote our piece before we saw AdFreak's equally harsh review) making some interesting points that, while it was, indeed, an embarrassment to the industry - not to mention horridly off strategy - are not all negative. It's an interesting analysis. In reviewing the situation, Joe also calls to our attention the backstabbing, insecure nature of our industry as indicated by the many negative comments about Agency.com's work both here on Adrants and over at AdFreak. It's as if we gleefully revel in kicking the dog while it's down. The most important point Joe made was that in creating the video, Agency.com did something many other agencies would never dream of doing. They took a risk. They gambled. They didn't play it safe. Despite how we may all have felt about the video, some amount of fist bump shou;d be given to Agency.com for helping to crack the tired, old mold of agency new business.

That's just a small bit of the insightful nuggest you will find on Across the Sound. Wonderful as the podcast is, there are a few negatives and since Joe is always asking for open and honest feedback, here's ours. The goofy and overly long intro to the Letters segment: lose it or dramatically shorten it. The goofy and overly long intro to the Winners and Losers segment: lose it or dramatically shorten it. The second half of the double introduction which is a carry over from the podcast's early day: lose it. Dump it. Get rid of it. It takes two minutes to get to the actual content of the podcast some weeks.

Because part of the purpose of Across the Sound podcast is to explore new media, of which podcasting is a part, it's natural to discuss the behind the scenes topics that go into the creation of the podcast. However, for anyone who's listened to more than two Across the Sounds, yet another discussion of whether Castblaster or Audacity is a better platform through which to produce a podcast grates heavily on the nerves. There's way too much man behind the curtain crap. Joe, we want to hear the brilliance that lives inside your head. We don't care how it gets from your head to our ears. You could cut 15 minutes off every one of your podcasts by following these suggestions. Of course, these are just suggestions and you can take them or leave them. Either way, likely, I'll still listen.