ABOUT THE MEDIA GUY
The Media Guy.
Screenwriter.
Photographer.
Emmy Award-winning Dreamer.
Magazine editor.
Ad Exec.
A new breed of Mad Men.
MICHAEL LLOYD aka THE MEDIA GUY honed his campaign skills, writing, and photography on the advertising agency battlefields in Los Angeles and New York. Success in the commercial world followed leading national campaigns for companies and non-profits ranging from the Muscular Dystrophy Association, MCI, Tannery West, The Walt Disney Company to name a few,
Awards don’t define him, but since others choose to use them as a measuring stick, he has earned the upper echelon of industry awards, including two Emmy Awards, two Clio Awards, 17 Telly Awards, three Direct Marketing Association Innovation Awards, along with a Davey Award and a Communicator Award.
He has led international tourism expeditions for countries, ranging from Oman, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. During his tenure as the editor-in-chief for the popular ALO magazine, the municipality of Beirut awarded him the prestigious Honorary Cedars Award, while Syria bestowed him with the Silk Road Media Gold Star.
The Media Guy commutes between his home in Los Angeles and exotic locales in the Middle East and Europe, constantly finding new ways to validate his knack for capturing the moment.
THE BIG IDEA
NAVIGATING LIFE
In the beginning of advertising, it was all about The Big Idea. The goal was to be talked about, from the playground to the bar. To be a cultural icon. Viral before viral was viral. The goal now? I have no idea. We’re not talking about commercials, jingles, and magazine ads anymore. They aren’t about us.
A long time ago, the goal of advertising was to connect. Now it’s numbers. Adtech. Data. Internet. Machines. Why? Because ads are created and clicked on and measured by machines. Engagement is an algorithm, not a feeling.
Where did the message go?
ADVERTISING
THE SECRET FORMULA
Okay, so where am I?I’m on a conference call with the big bosses of Strong Zero based in Tokyo trying to get them to change the radio ad that I penned. Why should I campaign for change?
Take a look at the television version they made.This is definitely NOT what I had in mind when they said they would float me an extra $800 in royalties for the added exposure on TV…Ugh…
All of this got me thinking about what makes a great radio ad. I have written nearly 100 radio commercials over the years. Some were great. Some were smart. Some were schlock. Nearly all worked and the clients were happy. Why were they good?
COPYWRITING
INK ON THE SOUL
Okay, so where am I?
I am sitting in my hotel room staring at a keyboard that doesn’t move and won’t move as a wrestle with my inadequacies that only copy can deliver to an imperfect mind. It is both frightening and paralyzing. I have four books in print, countless commercials still on air, and a straight from Korean theater to DVD movie I’ve penned, and yet one client shakes her head at some ad copy and I freeze up…
But why?
TOURISM
HAIL THE KING
Tourism is in my blood. Promoting it at least. They used to say “Hail the Public Relations King of the Middle East” when I landed at the airport. In the not so distant past, my tourism work netted a would-be $5 million dollar contract with the Syria Department of Tourism. Yeah, I know when you are saying: There are two words that do not belong in the same sentence: Syria and Tourism. That turned out to be true, because as soon as the ink was dry, civil war broke out and the contract evaporated in the abyss known as Isis. But in 2010, I was the PR King of the Middle East. I convinced The New York Times to pop Damascus into their 31 Places to Go in 2010 as their #7 selection…
