Jeff Manning

Biography

Jeff Manning is nationally acclaimed marketing leader, specializing in reigniting and revitalizing mature brands and categories. He is best known for GOT MILK?, transforming the now famous phrase from a local tag line into one of the best known, most influential campaigns in advertising history.

Jeff is a powerful and highly entertaining speaker who uses witty, often hilarious commercials to drive home serious, pivotal points about innovation and iconic brand building. He has engaged and enlightened audiences internationally and presented "Building Brand Potency" to companies such as Clorox, General Mills and Hewlett-Packard. Jeff is equally comfortable discussing branding and creative issues in financial services, retailing, consumer electronics, food and destination marketing.

Jeff is intensely competitive and applies his 40+ years of experience to each and every audience. His stated objective is simply ... to help generate one decent idea that will build brand sales and share.

Prior to GOT MILK?, and his position as Executive Director of the California Milk Processor Board, Jeff had extensive ad agency experience with Grey, Ted Bates, JWT, McCann Erickson and Ketchum.

Jeff is a prolific writer. He authored GOT MILK? The Book, and continues to write numerous articles on subjects ranging from managing creative resources to marketing non-profits to getting the best service from the service sector"

In addition to his category marketing experience with milk, beef, cold cereal and consumer electronics, Jeff`s branded clients have included Procter & Gamble, Con Agra, Clorox, Warner Lambert, Safeway, and Bank of America.

In late 2005, Jeff launched Got Manning?, a consultancy focused on innovation and brand potency. His clients include companies in consumer-packaged goods, quick service restaurants and healthcare.

Manning lives near Berkeley California, fishes, plays competitive soccer and travels extensively.

Publications

got milk?: the book takes you behind the scenes on an eye-opening, laugh-out-loud journey through one of the greatest ad campaigns ever conceived. Although the success of the ads is undeniable -- almost single-handedly they stemmed the decline of milk sales -- the creative process that gave birth to them was not always pretty. Along the way, there were missteps, frustrating dead ends, and late nights fruitlessly searching for inspiration. But there was also the indescribable joy of an idea evolving, gradually crystallizing into something brilliant -- as well as a little risky: building a multimillion-dollar campaign around the absence of the product. In other words, selling milk by taking it away.

Handsomely illustrated with the most memorable ads, including scripts of the funniest commercials, got milk?: the book takes you on an incredible ride through the strange world of modern advertising and inside the heads of some of the best marketing wizards in the world. It`s a ride you won`t forget.

Titles

Reigniting Mature Brands and Categories

Category Marketing: A Breed Apart

Managing and Motivating Creative People

Collaboration Marketing: Building Bridges