Principal/writer with the Young & Laramore ad agency enjoys making people think about something familiar in a new and different way.
Charlie Hopper knows how to grab your attention, particularly when it comes to food.
A principal/writer with Young & Laramore, Hopper's been in the business of restaurant marketing for more than 20 years.
He has authored two books along the way - "Selling Eating: Restaurant Marketing Beyond the Word 'Delicious' " and "Nuggets, Nibbles, Morsels, Crumbs: Selected Restaurant Marketing Columns," a compilation of his writing from Food & Drink magazine.
Hopper joined forces, for the first time, with Young & Laramore three decades ago.
"David Young, Jeff Laramore and ten of their friends in a house in Broad Ripple were doing the best advertising in Indianapolis in the '80s, which attracted those of us who wanted to do that kind of stuff," he said.
After seven years with the company, Hopper felt the itch to pursue opportunities with other agencies, but returned to the Indy ad agency in 1999, where he's been ever since.
"It's just not typical to find this many people you tend to agree with, people you think are smart," he said. "It makes you better to be around smart, charming people."
Through Young & Laramore, Hopper explored a niche working with restaurants.
"From 1990 to 2008, the agency helped a 150-restaurant chain become a 500-restaurant chain," he said. "People believed there was something alive and different and better about the place. That very positive experience kind of permanently turned us into restaurant marketers."
Many of the ideas and observations Hopper gained on the job trickled into his Food & Drink columns, leading eventually to his two books.
"My first book grew out of these columns, but contains other material, such as interviews and how-to lists," he said. "This recent book is sort of the companion piece to the first one, with additional ideas and new topics."
Hopper says the best thing a restaurant can do to promote itself is to figure out why people like it, why it exists and what it stands for in relation to its competition. Then, support a central message through every communication avenue available.
"The worst thing a restaurant can do - as long as their operations are in order and the food is good, safe and well-presented - is blend in and just hope people stumble onto it," he said.
Question: What does the word "leader" mean to you?Answer: "Overall, a leader is a person who manages to convince others he or she knows what's good, and seems to know how we can all get to the good stuff by working together."
Q: What has been the most surprising thing you've learned in your career?A: "The best idea is not always the idea you see in the world. For many reasons, perfectly smart, sane clients tend to choose what's familiar and safe. Unfortunately, familiar, safe advertising disappears, isn't noticed and doesn't work. It's our job to convince people they need to stand out. That scares most people. I'm always surprised when an idea that's obviously fresh, convincing, likable and memorable is difficult to sell."
Q: What's the best part of your job?A: "Making people think something they never thought before, or at least never thought about quite that way. It's extremely rewarding to use the media to charm people into paying attention to something they're eager to dismiss, and to find out later that the client's business has improved as a demonstrably direct result. It's actually a little freaky."
Q: Do you have a personal business philosophy you try to follow?A: "There's a concept one of our clients enunciated one time, and that's the idea of 'restless dissatisfaction with the status quo' - that sense that you're not done, that you can do better than this, that you have to keep trying. As successful as he was, he never gave up trying to improve whatever was in front of him."
Q: What are you most proud of accomplishing so far?A: "One time, a lady called up a client of mine to say she'd had to pull her car over so she wouldn't wreck, she was laughing so hard at a radio ad I wrote. I'm proud of that."
More about Charlie Hopper
Job title: Principal, writer at Young & Laramore.
Education: B.A. in Journalism/English from Indiana University, Phi Beta Kappa.
Prior employment: Martin/Williams in Minneapolis, TBWA Chiat/Day in St. Louis, and a "first tour of duty" at Young & Laramore in the '80s and early 9'0s.
Family: Wife, Marj; kids Molly, Ted and Will.
Favorite pastimes: Family time and walking the dog at night. "Sometimes I play in a rock band, sometimes I write articles for websites, sometimes I teach a copywriting class at Butler, sometimes I drive the family in the minivan hundreds of miles to look at a national park."
Favorite quote: "Nobody reads ads. They read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad." - Howard Gossage, an old ad guy from the 1960s
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