by Next Wave Team | Mar 2, 2007 | Advertising, Creativity, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency
Hey, it’s good to know that The One Club (those cool cats who hand out Gold Pencils- at around $600 per entry) has discovered advertising can be done by agencies smaller than 3000 people.
Writing in their “One. a Magazine” they say:
One Club / One. a Magazine > Recent Issues/Articles
There’s a new wave of regional creative shops coming to prominence these days, in cities that have never before been associated with strong creative ads: Indianapolis, Madison, Orlando, New Orleans, and a dozen other small-to-midsized markets.
What’s driving this “second regional revolution?” Part of it seems to be the fact that clients, in an age of new media explosion and wide-open marketing possibilities, are looking for fresh thinkers who can experiment and adapt quickly—and they’re finding that, increasingly, by going off the beaten path.
The only thing they got wrong was their first line: There’s The Next Wave, a prominent agency doing strong creative in Dayton OH.
They must have missed that part about you can say anything you want about us- just get the name right…
Now- to be totally serious- the article is a step in the right direction. Great advertising can come from anywhere. Many small agencies would rather invest in their people, instead of high dollar award show entry fees.
by Next Wave Team | Mar 1, 2007 | Ad Agenices in Dayton, OH, Brand Relevancy, Change the world, Creativity, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising, Web strategy
Went to the Dayton Ad Club today- yeah, the people who continually threaten to throw us out- to hear Clint! Runge from Archrival speak.
Very cool insight into the “Millenials” or “GenY”- and a nice presentation. I was excited to go and check out their site- which would of course be web 2.0 to the hilt - since these guys “got it”- well, no joy:
Archrival / We Help Brands Attract Young Consumers
Sure- they have RSS, and a “blog”- but so little content that is actually able to be spread.
Just like the Burger King site- or so many other agency sites, if I find something interesting on the site- I can’t mail it to you. Too bad, because the work they did on the TipTop upscale apartment building is something I’d want to share with others. Luckily, they built the site for the client better than they built for themselves- so you can check it out: http://www.thetiptoplife.com/
Clint! must have seen the branding campaign by Hamilton! Ohio a few years back- which map makers refused to acknowledge. In the days of Google, it’s a cool way to get your google rank up.
Some key concepts that struck home about the millenials:
- Give them experiences to talk about- not products.
- Be optimistic and positive- the days of sarcasm are fading.
- It’s about we- more than me.
- Computer/phone first lines of communication- forget traditional media.
- Recommendations from peers are more powerful than anything you can try to ram down their throat.
Also loved his comment about “Entertainment debt”- where you feel that you are behind when there is too much stuff cued up on your TiVo or in your “to watch” file. I can relate. Also, as MySpace becomes more and more commercialized- we’ll see more people kill their profiles as they move to more specialized and hip communities. As to marketers jumping into MySpace- get your own space- and make it fun- that boat sailed a while back.
As a side note- the woman sitting next to me recognized me as being from the agency that lists all the adveritisng agencies in Dayton on our site. Of course, she had just completed her job search and was working for one of them. Congrats for being a smart job seeker.
by Next Wave Team | Feb 20, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Creativity, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Secrets of Great Advertising, Web strategy
Good content brings good business. At least for The Next Wave. Chief Creative Officer, David Esrati was just interviewed for an hour by Inc. Magazine for their “Smart Questions” column for the May issue.
Our section of this site called “How to select an ad agency” pops up at the top of Google and apparently our insight was more interesting than other results.
There is no magic formula for selecting an ad agency for small to medium sized (Inc. sized) businesses- but there are some do’s and dont’s. Some advice worth taking (as shared with Inc.):
- Read at least a few books on advertising to establish common ground (our booklist should help.)
- Realize advertising is not a silver bullet solution to business problems and that great work takes time to gestate.
- Have a high level of trust and respect for your agency partner.
- Look for passion for your product- David Ogilvy always used his clients products.
- You get what you pay for. “Saving money” by buying your own media, print, trash and trinkets (promotional items) when not specifically spelled out in your retainer agreement might not end up saving your relationship.
- Don’t ever ask for a campaign that “looks just like” your competitors.
- Remember, advertising takes time to get results. Nike has had the same agency from the start (Wieden + Kennedy) - and it took a long time to get from the first ads to “there is no finish line” to “just do it.”
- Make sure both client and agency have shared expectations for the brand/campaign.
- Great advertising can be shown to your mother- without excuses or explaination.
- Don’t separate internet, media buying and creative if you want a consistent brand voice.
There was a lot more, but this is a quick recap. There was no simple answer on what agency compensation should be, we’re still trying to find a balanced solution like every other agency. Look to the May issue of Inc. Magazine to see what made it in.
