How the American Advertising Federation is Shaping the Future of Advertising

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Steve Pacheco with American Advertising Federation. Welcome.

Steve Pacheco: Hey Lee, thanks for having us. Really happy to be spending some time with you today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about your association and tell us about AAF. How are you serving folks?

Steve Pacheco: Yeah, it’s it’s the American Advertising Federation. We shorthand that often to AAF and it’s the it’s the world’s longest standing advertising trade organization in existence. We’ve been around since 1915, and it’s a grassroots network of about 150 AD clubs, spread evenly across the United States coast to coast. About 35,000 members, probably 5 or 6000 student members in college at either the junior or senior level. And then we’ve got about 60 corporate members that help us run the show as well. So a full perspective of the American advertising industry is represented through our, uh, connections. And and we’re out to protect and promote the profession of advertising.

Lee Kantor: So how have you seen advertising evolve over the years? It seems like nowadays I have a degree in advertising. Just full disclosure. So I’ve been involved with advertising for my entire career and it seems like the industry, the activities are similar, but there’s just a blurring of the lines of where media begins and where advertising and marketing ends and and how they all play together. So how have you, as an association that serves that? How have you kind of evolved along with it?

Steve Pacheco: Well, that’s great insight, Lee, and congratulations on your degree in advertising. It’s it’s a great career decision for a lot of people. It’s not for everybody, but for those people that want to pursue it, a dynamic career is in store for you. We’re out, honestly to tell the good news stories about advertising. It bothers me greatly that some people’s only reference point for professional advertising is Mad Men or something of that ilk. It’s also not an appreciated profession in a lot of cases. So we’re out to change those perceptions as well. And to answer your question specifically, you know, advertising has become an incredibly sophisticated, disciplined business. Uh, always has been. And I’ve always been drawn to intellectually curious people. But nowadays you’ve got to be incredibly smart to have a great career in advertising, because you have to know about everything, not only technology and innovation, but you have to know about the persuasive arts, about psychology, about how to convince people. Uh, I think the biggest thing is that there’s so many tech tools available to us and so much opportunity, uh, to make that work for you.

Lee Kantor: Now, over my time in the industry, it’s been this kind of a balance of art and science. So there’s an element of advertising that believes it’s not creative unless it sells. And then there’s another side that wants it to be very creative and wants things to go viral. Um, where a lot of things go viral and you don’t even know what the brand is associated with what the ad was, how do you, um. Kind of evangelized for threading that kind of a needle.

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. Great question, Lee. And I think, you know, each case is an individualized case, and different people are trying to accomplish different things through their advertising, media and marketing programs. And no two campaigns have the same ultimate end result. So that’s where the strategy of advertising comes in. And that’s where a smart practitioner can really help you get down to exactly what you need to accomplish and what your goals and objectives are. Um, you watch something like the Super Bowl, which is the Super Bowl of advertising as well, and you scratch your head after some of those commercials because, you know, they’re either not intended for you, you’re not the target audience, or they went above your head or sailed beneath your your range of being able to understand it and convert them. So something different for everyone. I agree that it is art and science combined, but more and more increasingly there’s performance marketing and things that are trying to drive commerce. And so don’t ever look past the fact that advertising can be one of the greatest economic drivers of businesses of all sizes. By putting things out there and helping persuade people to try and buy the product or service.

Lee Kantor: Now, as an organization, how do you help you call them clubs and in all in all these different markets or as some people call it, chapters like why? How do you, um, as an organization kind of, um, help the people in the local market kind of foster that community within the, uh, their area that they live in?

Steve Pacheco: Sure. Uh, and we’re a national grassroots network. We’re headquartered in Washington, DC because of a lot of the lobbying and advocacy work that we do for the entire advertising industry across the nation. But but the infrastructure that we provide for the club and chapter network is is vital because it helps them understand programing, bringing in the best speakers, bringing in, uh, awards programs, recognition programs, diversity, equity and inclusion programs. So we give we give the framework of which there is a great deal of flexibility for each market area to personalize and make those programs specific to that market area. So we drive the infrastructure for all the club network. We helped them with counsel and content and curation, and then we leave it up to the local leaders to personalize and customize that any way that they need to.

Lee Kantor: And how do you play with the universities, or does it start at the university level, or does some of the work trickle down even into the high school or even earlier?

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. Um, you know, my first connection with the AAF was way back when I was in college, uh, at the University of Memphis. And, and I got introduced to the AAF because they have a thing called the National Student AD Competition. We shorthand that to nSac. It’s in progress right now. Uh, the client this year is tied from Procter and Gamble. And so we’ve had about 105 colleges and universities competing for the national championship. I’m doing a campaign for tide, and the Procter and Gamble marketing team will judge that work here in about two weeks. So very exciting opportunity. I got to compete in that when I was in college, and it helped me understand that the advertising business was something that I wanted to pursue. We do dip down into high school level, and for high school juniors and seniors, we offer a program called At Camp, and it’s an immersive experience that takes place in the summer that helps young people understand more about the business of advertising and the different disciplines within that business that they may want to pursue as a career goal.

Lee Kantor: Now, how is it trending as a career goal? Is it something that’s growing because it seems like there’s so many opportunities for folks to, um, you know, kind of go their own path and leverage advertising and marketing skills to do that.

Steve Pacheco: Yeah, I think, Lee, I like to say that there’s never been a more exciting time to join the advertising business. It’s it’s a really, really important inflection point for the business because as you mentioned earlier, it’s art and science combined. Right. And so whether you’ve got a highly creative skill set that allows you to be on the creative side or you’re a brainiac and really like to understand, uh, how things are built and why they’re why they’re constructed the way they are on on the left brain side of things. Um, there is a place for you in advertising. There’s a position now that’s in high demand for programmatic and a lot of other advertising, uh, practices, which is called a data scientist, that that title didn’t even exist three years ago, and now it’s one of the hottest titles for a young person looking to get into advertising. And it obviously requires science and math and that type of educational track. So it’s a and then social media, everybody you meet and see as a social media expert that can convert over to, uh, advertising skill set that will help you be highly marketable and, uh, and help you have a great career ahead.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of at the AAF? How can we help you?

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. Appreciate that Lee. You know we’re a 500 and 1C6. So most of the money that we raise goes back into a specific program. We’re a pretty lean organization. We don’t have a lot of full time employees. We rely on our volunteer leadership across the network. So those are local club presidents, uh, district chairs. And then also in the regions, uh, we have chairs and volunteer leaders that help us, uh, enact all the programs that we do. There’s three ways that your listeners can help. One is to join a local RAAF club. Uh, and those are all listed at RAAF. Org on the website, so you can find out if your local market has a club. And if not, you can start one. We’ll help you with that. So become an active and engaged member of a club in your area is the first step. And you’ll meet other like minded people. You’ll get exposed to some really great opportunities for career development and personal development as well. Uh, the second area is on programing and content. If you have, uh, information that’s important and vital to the advertising industry, we can help amplify that and get that out through our networks. And we’re always looking for thought leadership pieces, mostly from our corporate members, but also from our professional and student members. Uh, any type of new industry, uh, information or knowledge that might be important for people who are still learning their craft is very helpful for us. And then the third area is, you know, fundraising and bringing in money to help us support these programs. There’s a ton of ways you can do that at the local level, also at the regional and the national level. So again, all the websites, uh, info is there at RAAF org and a ton of useful information in there. Um, of particular importance is getting young people on the track to have a great career in advertising. And that’s a lot of our high school and college outreach work.

Lee Kantor: Now, from a membership standpoint, if you’re a college student and you’re thinking about getting like I did have a degree in advertising and getting a degree in advertising or in whatever major you want, but want to learn more about advertising? How like what what’s the student experience at the AAF in a local chapter?

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. You know, uh, I mentioned we have about 105 schools competing right now in national competition. There’s about 115 or 20 schools that are in our roster right now. So they don’t all compete. Most of them do. Um, and different colleges and chapters have different activations. They all bring in speakers not only at their career day, but also throughout the class year. They also, uh, give you an opportunity and exposure to the local ad club so that you can go and see the American Advertising Awards at those local clubs. You can go and hear the professional speakers at those local clubs. Most all of our local clubs hold seats available for students at either, uh, no fee or reduced fee to encourage their activation and involvement in the mainstream advertising business that the clubs are behind in each market. So different, different schools will, uh, organize themselves in different ways. The student leaders help develop those clubs and bring in new, uh, young people as well. You know, at age 18, I became the local president of AAF Memphis University of Memphis chapter. That was a really great leadership opportunity for me, uh, and a great opportunity to learn and meet people who were making it happen in the advertising business. And I think that was more valuable than the classroom credit that I got for the classes that I took, because it just really helped me understand the business dynamics of the business. And also just relationship building.

Lee Kantor: Now, are the are the corporate members of a local club? Are they all like ad agencies or marketing agencies, or are they anybody that uses advertising like, like who’s a good fit for being a corporate member.

Steve Pacheco: Yeah, it’s it’s really interestingly I know you’re calling from Atlanta. So the Atlanta AD Club has a ton of, uh, professional members. And they’re the entire gamut of people that make up the advertising profession. So unlike some organizations that are just ad agencies or just clients and brands, the American Advertising Federation, you can be a member if you’re just involved in the profession of advertising at any stage or level. So we’ve got a lot of vendors and suppliers to the industry. Uh, that could be printers, that could be people that develop advertising specialties, things like that. Content creators, search engine marketers, social media experts, you name it. We do have our fair share of ad agencies and of clients and brands. And for some reason, a lot of the local clubs really do a great job of bringing in people that are very involved in decision makers in the local market area, either for the Convention and Visitors Bureau or the trade tourism groups, because they’re constantly wanting to learn how to market their own cities better and their own events better. So experiential marketing to your opening point, a lot of the lines are blurring between advertising, sports marketing, experiential marketing. All the different disciplines of advertising, uh, can be represented through your AAF membership.

Lee Kantor: And including public relations.

Steve Pacheco: Yes, absolutely. We have a lot of there’s also a prssa organization that is a collaborator of ours, and they do a great job with public relations chapters and a lot of their cities. But increasingly those lines are blurring. And we’ve got PR pros that are members of the AAF. Um, and Richard Edelman, who started Edelman PR, as is in our Advertising Hall of Fame. So we open up the doors there and consider PR and allied, uh, discipline to what we do in the advertising field. Uh, and so we, we often cross paths with them and try to do some collaborative work.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned being involved with the AAF at such a young age. 18 where has your career always been in associations or uh, did you get into the corporate world and then jump back into associations?

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. You know, I started, uh, I knew I wanted to be in advertising since I was a very small kid, and I can’t explain how I was drawn to it, but it just intrigued me from the standpoint of the meaning behind the actual work itself. And so I always knew I was going to wind up that way. I got a degree in journalism because they didn’t offer a degree in advertising when I was coming up, and so journalism was the closest thing, uh, and I thought I was a decent writer, but it turned out I was a really good relationship builder and communicator. And so I started working at the local daily newspaper was my first job. And from that I went on to work for a local ad agency in Memphis. And then corporate America came calling. And I spent 30 years of my career in corporate America for two fortune 500 companies and learned an awful lot about the corporate needs for advertising, media and marketing, uh, how to build a brand, how to maintain a brand, and how to, uh, work in all the other different, different disciplines. So had a great run in corporate America. And then five years ago this month, uh, I joined the American Advertising Federation as my second act because, uh, corporate America and I were done with each other. I wanted to find a. Way to give back to the industry that’s been so good to me, and also help young people who are looking for a way to get into the business, just like I was way back when. Uh, have an easier time and more connectivity to the business.

Lee Kantor: And then one more time if somebody wants to connect and learn more. Uh, the website.

Steve Pacheco: Yeah. Uh, search at RF. Org, which is our main website, and it has a list of the clubs there. And then also see if your own market typically it’s RF and then the market name. So check and see if there’s a local ad club in your area. If there’s not reach out and contact us and we’ll uh, we’ll help you get one started and set up. It’s a lot easier to do than you might think. And we’re always looking for new clubs and new markets where we’re not already entrenched. Uh, RF org is the best place to go for all that information and reach out, and somebody will get right back with you.

Lee Kantor: Well, Steve, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Steve Pacheco: Thank you, Lee, and I appreciate your audience. Uh, have a great day.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.