Growing Destinations

CCF’s Rob Rankin on Advertising Trends and Industry Transformation

• Experience Rochester • Episode 73

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What if the key to breaking through the relentless "sea of sameness" in advertising lies in the vibrant arts and culture of Minneapolis? Join us as we sit down with Rob Rankin, President and CEO of CCF Advertising, who brings over 35 years of industry experience to the table. Rob unravels how the creative energy of this city fuels innovative advertising strategies. We explore CCF's holistic approach to campaigns, focusing on emotional connections and how they drive behavior change amidst today's digital overload. Rob offers a unique perspective on balancing traditional and digital methods, ensuring that creativity remains at the forefront of impactful advertising.

Bill Von Bank:

The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.

Rob Rankin:

AI is no different than social was 15, 20 years ago. It's no different than television was 50, 70 years ago. It's a new tool that's available to us and the question is will you or won't you take advantage of it? What I don't know, and what the crystal ball should really be we should be looking at in the crystal ball is what's next.

Bill Von Bank:

Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, bill Von Bank. Minneapolis stands as a powerhouse in the advertising industry, celebrated for its dynamic and thriving creative community. Today, we explore the world of advertising with a distinguished guest, rob Rankin, president and CEO of CCF Advertising. With decades of experience in a portfolio featuring some impressive and innovative campaigns, rob joins us to share his experience on building successful brands, the transformative role of advertising in our lives and the future of the industry, especially as AI takes center stage in the creative process. Rob Rankin, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast. Thanks, bill.

Rob Rankin:

Very excited to be here and appreciate the invite.

Bill Von Bank:

Rob, what initially drew you into the advertising industry. You've been doing this quite a while.

Rob Rankin:

Yeah, I have. You know, it was an informational interview at Fallon and it was one of those things where I walked in the door. There was just a vibe and I knew it right then and there, and it became a passion right at that moment and I just started to pursue it each and every day after that, how many years ago, was that?

Bill Von Bank:

Oh golly, am I dating you? You are, yeah, that's a solid 35 years Bill. You've done well in the industry. I've known you quite a few years. I've worked with you on several campaigns, which maybe we'll get into a few of those, from the time that we worked together. And you've been with CCF for how many years now?

Rob Rankin:

Since 1998, so over 25 years. Tell us more about CCF, based right downtown Minneapolis. Clarity added Jerry Fury to the name and the door about five, six years later, and we've been focused on world-class, creative and world-class strategy and leveraging the power of emotion ever since.

Bill Von Bank:

I mentioned in my intro just how powerful of a creative community Minneapolis is. Tell me a little bit more about that aspect of the world in which you live.

Rob Rankin:

Sure. Well, I think the fact of the matter is Minneapolis itself happens to be a hotbed for culture and arts and entertainment, right. So there's just such a strong foundation here within the artistic community and advertising and creativity falls out of that. But if you think of the music that has come out of Minneapolis alone, the art that has come out of Minneapolis alone, you art that has come out of Minneapolis alone, you know that feeds into what we do in creative communications.

Bill Von Bank:

Rob, CCF is not a one-trick pony when it comes to clients or the type of advertising you do Tell us about your portfolio a bit.

Rob Rankin:

We do a lot of our book and businesses is in health care and what we call health care from all angles. So if you think of state public health manufacturer, payer, provider, we do all of that. But we also work in other verticals as well. We work in insurance. We work in banking with our great client Wings, financial Wings, credit Union and other verticals as well.

Bill Von Bank:

CCF emphasizes an integrated approach to driving behavior change. What unique strategies does the agency implement to achieve this? First of all, tell us about your approach to behavior change as an agency.

Rob Rankin:

Yeah, so it all has to do with driving the power of emotion and capturing the power of emotion. When you can find that sweet spot of what a brand offers and what a consumer is looking for and you connect emotionally with a consumer, you drive loyalty and that really is the foundation of it and that's been kind of your mantra for.

Rob Rankin:

Yeah, what started it? We now call it an emotional catalyst. So it's had its iterations over the years, but it started as a simple emotional touchstone. That's what we branded it. It then became what we referred to as a connector and more recently we rebranded it and call it now the emotional catalyst, but foundationally it's the same.

Bill Von Bank:

How do you balance traditional advertising with non-traditional? And, of course, digital is so important right now in the industry.

Rob Rankin:

It really comes down to having the right message at the right moment. Right now more so than ever, media fragmentation and how you can reach your audiences is just so widespread. You really have to have the right message and then be sure you're communicating it at the right moment. So it's less about where you're at and making sure you're at the right place at the right time, but I would imagine creativity is still incredibly important.

Rob Rankin:

We think it is and we believe it is, and I think part of the danger of our industry is when we lean on new technologies like AI technology and you lose the emotional connection or you lose the creativity. You run the risk of becoming everybody else and going into a sea of sameness and it can be pretty easy to do as people start to use those tools more and more often, lean on them more and more often and lose those original skill sets and crafts that really made the business what it is.

Bill Von Bank:

Let's talk about audience targeting and persona development, and how does that differ today compared to when you first started in the industry?

Rob Rankin:

It has to do with data. So there's so much more data available today, from credit card information, purchase information. Back in the day, it used to be just MRI Simmons, which is survey-based information, which is still used, and used a lot, and very credible. But now you're combining that with actual behavior, whether it's website cookies that are trafficking where people go and following people where they go, or credit card purchase information, where you actually know what people bought, and it's now combining all those things. So it's really about having more data but then still being able to filter that into a persona.

Bill Von Bank:

that's actionable, because some of that data is just bad data or you need to kind of clean it up.

Rob Rankin:

We rely on subscription-based things where we know we're getting credible data. So the partnerships that we form and that we align ourselves with, we make sure that we're getting credible data.

Bill Von Bank:

Advertising has seen dramatic shifts in recent years due to economic pressures, evolving consumer preferences and, of course, the digital transformation which we've just been speaking about. What trends do you believe are most defining the industry right now?

Rob Rankin:

You know, AI is certainly up there, but then also, as I already mentioned, media fragmentation. You know it's just harder and harder to get a captive audience. That's why sports programming and awards programming is so important to advertisers today. There are few places where you can get a captive audience at one time anymore, because of media fragmentation, and so the one-to-many opportunities are fewer than they ever have been, and they're only going to shrink the one-to-one. They're plentiful, and so that's a big big thing. And then, of course, AI, as you mentioned earlier.

Bill Von Bank:

I have AI on our list to talk about in just a bit. Okay, with a growing focus on privacy and data ethics, how can advertisers continue to deliver personalized preferences without compromising trust? And I know you mentioned you have subscriptions with solid organizations for that.

Rob Rankin:

Yeah, there are a couple things there. Organizations for that yeah, there are a couple of things there, and I think one of the things is just being sure that advertisers are crystal clear with their audiences on how they're going to use their data, what they're collecting and why they're collecting it. But beyond that, it has a lot more to do with just being sure that you as an enterprise whatever the advertiser is or even the agency you're protecting yourself from hackers, so making sure you're not falling to phishing scams. I think consumers are less concerned about someone following their cookies or placing cookies and following them, and more about having their data exposed to someone that's a nefarious player.

Bill Von Bank:

We spoke about AI a couple of times already, so I have a few questions for you. So let's just take the deep dive, because it is all the rage, it's at age and many other publications and organizations have constant articles or information about this. It's revolutionizing industries, of course, including advertising. How is CCF leveraging AI in areas like audience targeting or creative development, campaign optimization or other?

Rob Rankin:

Yeah, what's interesting to me and to us is that AI is not new, although it feels new. Ai has been around. If you think of programmatic media buying, that's AI. If you go to simple things like Google search, it's just been around for 20 years. That, at some level, is AI as well, so this has been around for a long time.

Rob Rankin:

What happened within the last two years is that OpenAI launched ChatGPT and has democratized it, so now everybody has access to it. Just like when the big PCs went down to laptops, went to phones, now everyone has their hands on it or has the ability to have their hands on it. So it's really about getting in there and trying and testing things, not being afraid to fail, doing those things internally and learning, and we're really at that early adopter stage of AI. So waiting for people to do it and then following them and being a fast follower probably isn't going to work. You've got to get your hands dirty and you've got to roll up your sleeves and try some things and develop things that work for you and work for your clients.

Bill Von Bank:

Do you think AI tools such as generative content or predictive analytics pose a risk to creativity or enhance it?

Rob Rankin:

I think they can do either, and I think it depends on whoever the practitioner is. So if you allow those things to do your job for you, they will not enhance it, they will drive it and they will take it away from you. However, if you get a good, prompt engineer, if you work actively in it, if you allow it to complement your craft, then you'll be able to enhance creativity with it. My concern is that as we go on in our world not just in creative communications is that the more we lean on those things, the more mundane, the more boring, the more sea of sameness we'll get and the more people will lose skill sets that they once had.

Bill Von Bank:

That's interesting Looking ahead. How do you see AI shaping the next five to 10 years?

Rob Rankin:

in advertising, I think within five to 10 years it'll be shaped. My larger question is what's next? You know AI is no different than social was 15, 20 years ago. It's no different than television was 50, 70 years ago. It's a new tool that's available to us and the question is will you or won't you take advantage of it? What I don't know, and what the crystal ball should really be, we should be looking at in the crystal ball, is what's next, and then being sure that we're adopting those things quickly and leveraging them.

Bill Von Bank:

I've always, you know, I've dabbled in it, primarily from the content management side, with chat, gpt, for example, and some people said, well, don't you worry about losing people? I said no, if used right as a tool, and that's how I view it as a tool, it should allow us to be better or maybe do more creative work, because it can help us maybe research, I mean, it still needs editing process.

Rob Rankin:

It's interesting too, because you can also look at AI today. Whether it's a photography on Instagram that you can tell is AI driven or even copy, there are clues, you know when you can tell is AI driven or even copy. There are clues, you know, when you're getting an AI generated newsletter versus something that's crafted or something that has been maybe initially generated by AI but then polished by an individual.

Bill Von Bank:

So let's get into the creative process specifically around campaigns and I guess I shouldn't say creative process, because campaigns have more than just creative strategy. They have media, they have media. They have so many different pieces, but I'm thinking more of like an end result to a campaign and campaigns that you're really proud of, and oftentimes it's the creative that people refer to. So let's talk about some of the campaigns over the years that you've been involved with and maybe some of your favorites.

Rob Rankin:

I think probably my favorite is the work that we did in tobacco control. We very quickly, working with Clearway Minnesota, became one of the top two agencies in the world when it came to creative communications tied to tobacco control, which was smoking cessation and then policy. It was really Arnold out of Boston who did fantastic work and continues to do fantastic work in that space, and then ourselves. And I guess a milestone, if you will or maybe not a milestone, but a hallmark moment was when we were actually written into this, into a script for Friends, really, and Monica is scolding Chandler for smoking. She says haven't you seen that commercial where the little kid walks through grandpa, it's chilling, you need to stop smoking. And serendipitously our spot ghost was seen by someone who was working on Friends and probably the script and the casting there and, lo and behold, we ended up written into the TV show. So we had kind of achieved the Shangri-La of marketing communications where we became part of the public nomenclature.

Bill Von Bank:

That's so cool. I mentioned earlier, I've worked with you over the years, and specifically at the Minnesota Zoo, and I'm a jingle guy. I mean, I've always enjoyed the jingles. I still love the retro jingles. When we retained you at the Minnesota Zoo we were debuting a penguin exhibit and CCF created a jingle called Do the Waddle, which then became a song and a music video, and that was just a really fun way to take something a 30 second jingle for radio TV and like just spread it out and into the public through various other means. Talk us through a little bit about how you do something like that as an agency.

Rob Rankin:

Well, with that specifically and I'll go back to that emotional connection, that emotional catalyst, the emotional catalyst there was smile. And it was smile because when you see a penguin, at that point in time and you very well know the Minnesota Zoo was launching the Penguins of the African Coast exhibit and the penguins were brand new but when you think of a penguin it's one of those things where it's hard not to smile. And so that became the emotional catalyst and from that the jingle happened. But I think, as you touched on, what was great is we didn't just stop at like a TV spot. I mean, we were in parades. I remember when my daughter at the time was probably eight or 10 years old, somewhere like that, and she and I were in in 4th of July parades and in summer parades out in Burnsville and throughout the Twin Cities area, handing out swag from the Minnesota zoo.

Rob Rankin:

As you mentioned, it became, it became a music video. We had dancers that would. We would go do pop-ups on Nicollet Mall and other places where our dancers did the waddle in front of a crowd and they popped up. They were there for five minutes and, poof, then they were gone. And what's interesting too, is that a little bit of the backstory of that is, the choreograph was actually done by one of the Timberwolves dance team members, and so we literally partnered with people in the community, pulled others in the dance team included and developed not just a jingle but a real dance, a music video. We were in parades and, as you may remember, that was also coming off of the state shutdown. I do remember that. So that was tough for you guys out at the zoo. But what was great was we were able to quickly activate three weeks later than anyone had hoped, and I think, if I'm remembering correctly, at the end of the year you saw record attendance for that exhibit.

Bill Von Bank:

It did lead into a record year at that time for the Minnesota Zoo, and what was so cool about it is it was locally produced and it was such an integrated approach to marketing. Yeah, so let's talk about you as a leader in this industry. How do you foster innovation and adaptability in your team amidst constant industry change?

Rob Rankin:

You know, my job is to hire good people and then stay out of their way. I'm here to support them, I'm sure. I'm here to make sure they have the tools that they need to win, the tools that they need to win, the tools that they need to grow. My job is to encourage, sometimes nudge forward a little bit and challenge them, but really my job is also not to meddle and to stay out of their way. We've got a great team. They're super talented people, whether that's in media account service strategy or creative services, and I need to let them do their job because they're all very talented and, again, I need to hire good people and just stay out of their way.

Bill Von Bank:

What principles have guided your leadership throughout your career?

Rob Rankin:

You know I'm the son of a college football coach, so I've got a little bit of Tony Robbins and a little bit of Lou Holtz in me. So just that organic or natural optimism and positivity I'd like to bring forward, but then also some hustle. I mean, good things don't happen with hard work. I had a good friend of mine who once said show up, work hard, have fun and good things will happen and I believe in that.

Bill Von Bank:

What excites you most about the future of advertising?

Rob Rankin:

I think what excites me most is I had a mentor early on, very early on, my first mentor who said no two days will ever be the same. Here we are, 35 years later and no two days have ever been the same, and so I expect that moving forward.

Bill Von Bank:

Rob Rankin. Great conversation today, Fascinating to learn about CCF, the current state of advertising, the future of advertising and, of course, all the work that you've done in the creative community over the years. So thanks for being our guest. Well, thanks for having me, Bill, and it's great to catch up with you. Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experiencerochestermncom.

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