Succeeding in Advertising

One of the main keys to successful advertising is a really sound understanding of the role it plays in business and the relationship it has to basic business principles. Advertising is a small part of a very large solution, of helping to add value to an organization. Having the business underpinnings and understanding the role advertising plays is critical. Other important skills are understanding the target audience and their needs, and how the products you’re marketing can help them, enrich their lives, or be the solution to a problem.

Most advertising is done in a vacuum, often to support enormous egos, but it’s more effective to take ego out of the equation and just see things as they are – as opposed to how we want them to be or how the client thinks they should be. So there is an enormous amount of honesty that needs to be involved in any evaluation or decision.

A lot of the art in advertising involves taste – and advertising is an art, because you’re dealing with creative and being able to evaluate things on an artistic/emotional level as well as on an intellectual level. You have to be open and cognizant of what makes something tasteful or not, or what’s cool or not cool. You can satisfy all the prerequisites of any campaign once you sit down and decide what it needs to accomplish. But there are many different ways in which that can be solved, and choosing the right one is the art of advertising.

If you want to be successful, it’s important to be yourself. Don’t try to be something you’re not, because the consumer can sniff out a phony. Another key is that it’s about not being elite; it’s about embracing mass America for the juggernaut it is. Never underestimate the consuming public.

We have a little saying here: “Do good work. God’s watching.” It means having a conscience about doing the right thing and making sure the client understands we’re doing the right thing: People in the organization know we’re committed to doing the right thing. We also have what we call “forethoughts,” which are four keys to success: know the consumer, know the client, think of things through the client’s eyes, then anticipate problems and be prepared to address them.

From a college football player to creative director behind one of this century’s most successful branding stories, Tommy Hilfiger, Mike Toth has led a diverse life. Raised in Texas, Toth graduated from the College of the Holy Cross earning a B.A. in Fine Arts. A varsity football player, Toth was named an All East middle linebacker in 1975.

After graduation Toth moved to Paris to pursue a career as an artist. In 1977 on a flight back to the United States, a fellow passenger offered him a job in the ad department of a New Orleans-based apparel manufacturer, Wembley Industries (now Wemco). He spent a year traveling the United States with the sales team, building and breaking down presentations for road show demonstrations company salesmen presented to store buyers. This experience amounted to what he describes as “a master’s degree in branding and the elements that create commerce.”

In five years later Toth amassed a collection of awards and in 1982 opened his design studio in New Orleans. One of his first clients, named J. Crew at Toth’s suggestion, earned national acclaim by presenting the first lifestyle catalogue – a groundbreaking concept that defined the J. Crew brand, restructured the catalogue business and established Toth’s reputation as one of the most creative, image-oriented design agencies in the country that specializes in defining American lifestyles.

Toth supports the Fresh Air Fund, offering the organization pro-bono creative services, and advocates for the Special Olympics. In 1984, Toth moved his headquarters to Concord, Massachusetts.