adverve_socialnerdia_angelanatividad_billgreenOn the most recent “The Social Nerdia Show!” I had a conversation with  Angela Natividad and Bill Green, the podcasters behind AdVerve.

Angela’s Twitter profile tells us that she is “VP-Marketing, hypios. Ad scribe, Culture Buzz. Hostess, AdVerve. And yes, still the wholesale purveyor of The Sass™.” Bill Green blogs at MTLB (Make the Logo Bigger), a personal favorite, and  has worked with lots of great brands. You might also know them from their work with AdRants and their appearances on The BeanCast.

Listen to the entire conversation with A &B on the Flash player below. Please subscribe to us on iTunes, stream from mobiles on Stitcher, and listen to upcoming LIVE shows on blogtalkradio.

Angela and Bill told me that they started AdVerve because they wanted to take ad podcasting in a new direction, to a place where every topic is welcome. “Every topic is about advertising. Advertising surrounds everything, all of the nuances from our culture,” Angela told me. Bill added that they wanted to have a “conversational (podcast) and see where things go, the way ad agencies are, the way creatives actually talk about situations.”

While the show is quite open-ended, both of them emphasized the importance of honesty and respect. “We’re careful about what we talk about on the show. We’re honest but respectful of anything that is confidential,” Bill explained. He told me a story that reflects just how much some advertisers and marketers are still not sure what do do with bloggers and podcasters: “There was an incident on the BeanCast where one of the guests on the show was fired, even though he didn’t say anything incendiary.. It was just a very nervous employer.”

adrants_socialnerdiaAngela and Bill met through AdRants, a blog and email newsletter that provides “marketing and advertising news with attitude,” published by Steve Hall. “I knew Angela had a style that could transform into a different form,” Bill explained. Today, AdVerve already has 15 shows and its first episode was downloaded over 2,400 times. Regarding the future of the show, Angela told me that they “do see an opportunity for AdVerve to expand.”

The world is full of bloggers and podcasters that are all theory and no practice, but A & B have done their fair share of work. “We bring a working perspective from brands from both sides, agency and client sides.. We’ve won business, lost business, dealt with the whole process,” Bill said.

socialmediaglue_socialnerdiaHe added, “what we talk about is a reflection of what we’d like to be done differently and now with the push of social media, the strength of the industry is moving to smaller shops. You’re never gonna walk away from traditional, but social media is the glue that makes all of that work together, work holistically.”

I asked Angela about the rise of the super niche small agencies (ie. focused on crowdsourcing, viral, social media) and Angela thinks these are good acquisition targets for larger companies. “You’re going to have rock stars but in the end it doesn’t matter if you’re narrow, you always need to have a full perspective, full context; you always have to have an understand about what’s going to fit your brand best.” Bill added, “there are a lot of big companies and agencies that don’t know how to use social media beyond sending a message.”

cmyk_socialnerdiaBoth ad agencies and companies need to think beyond what they’ve thought about in the past. With rapidly changing technologies and shifts in customer behavior, creativity continues to be very important. “Enjoying what you’re doing makes you creative. Creative people are always looking for ways to play with things,” Angela said. Bill added that “for creatives, there’s a sense of ‘what if,’ All great agencies needs a sense of ‘what if.’”

Angela and Bill were kind enough to chat for much more than an hour (even with the various technical problems we had), so there is much more you’ll just have to listen to on the podcast..

Other topics we talked about:

  • The rapidly changing roles of people at agencies: Art director + copywriter + producer + blogger + etc.
  • The importance of mobile and the mainstreamization (is that a word?) of Augmented Reality
  • Ad agencies and product design/development (Was CP+B involved in the decision of recreating the Domino’s turnaround recipe?)
  • Automated press release vs. the busy blogger dilemma
  • Snack culture and the mass consumption of compelling content
  • Online, everyone is a marketer
  • The impact of technology on music, film, and pop culture
  • Why we think of Nike, Puma, Adidas, and TOMS before we think about Reebok (Reebok who?)
  • Survival of the design-fittest (Target vs. Walmart)
  • American and global perspectives on the Super Bowl’s impact on the ad industry
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