The lone car without an E-ZPass® pulls up to the booth entering Manhattan and asks, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The answer, as the old joke goes, is … practice.
I've been thinking about that word lately. Doctors and lawyers don't just practice—they proudly call what they do, and where they work, a practice. One reason is because their work is never truly finished. They're always studying, always learning, always preparing for the case or a patient they've never seen before.
That's advertising too. But few in our industry frame it that way. I think there’s something worth building on here.
Minus the white coat or billing by the quarter-hour, what does a practitioner in advertising at SMZ actually do? We read case studies to review what worked and what didn't. We dive into unfamiliar categories, adapting those outside-the-industry insights right back into our clients' briefs. We stay curious about trends, culture and human behavior. These are the daily reps that we do religiously.
One of my favorite Peloton instructors says, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent.”
I love that thought—and the lifetime experience of being a student of the craft.