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.
by Next Wave Team | Feb 14, 2007 | Brand Relevancy, Careers in Advertising, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Marketing & the Web, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Web strategy
If there is one thing the Internet/web 2.0 thing does, it makes connections.
The idea of six degrees of separation is so, like Web 1.0, now if it’s more than 2 degrees, you’ve got a problem. In fact, that’s the new job of marketers and ad agencies- reduce the gap between the consumers and the brand- make them intimate.
So, an official announcement of sorts: The Next Wave is working with Hogshead Media, the biggest small ad agency in the country. We’re helping Sally Hogshead do web 2.0 magic- and to create that intimate connection between her and her markets. For those of you who don’t know Sally, I highly recommend you bop over to read her bio. Besides working at Wieden + Kennedy, Fallon, opening the West Coast office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, having her own shop: Hogshead & Robaire, and winning every award known to advertising, she wrote the book Radical Careering which is a great primer on how to jump start your career.
Working with someone you idolize is one thing. But, to make it even sweeter, I got to write the headline for her post about her podcast with Seth Godin. (Note: If you don’t know who Seth is, and didn’t know who Sally is, you probably shouldn’t be reading this).
[update: Seth posted about Sally’s interview here]
Hog Blog » Bald head & Hogshead: An interview with Seth Godin
For those of you not familiar with Seth- I’ve included a picture at right. Yes, he’s bald.
For those of you not familiar with Sally: she’s sort of famous for writing a lot of headlines just to get one right. See her post about Luke Sullivan (another hero of mine) and the 800 headlines.
The post and podcast should be must reads for anyone in advertising. I particularly like this quote from the interview:
“Style and fashion spread through the ad agency business really fast. But they’re very bad at changing what they do for a living, they’re very bad at any form of new media, they’re bad at pushing clients to really dramatically, fundamentally reinvent themselves. What they’re very good at is adopting a new slogan or a new look or a new image. That’s deckchair re-arranging.”
The reason we’re called The Next Wave, Marketing • Innovation, is because we don’t believe that advertising is the solution to sales problems. While we can help with the slogan or image, what we try to do is reinvent the customer/brand experience. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been so enamored with the web, where you can establish meaningful relationships with your customers. That’s what we’re starting to do for Sally, and what we would like to do for you.
The best part of this collaboration: I only wrote 3 headlines to get to the winner.
Now jump over and listen to the podcast.
by Next Wave Team | Feb 5, 2007 | Advertising, Change the world, Creativity, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Low Budget Advertising, Practical Marketing 101, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world
Guerrilla marketing started out as a way to get attention when a business had no cash to buy traditional media. Now, it’s what big companies look for when they are trying to make up for bad ad strategies.
Turner Broadcast Systems is probably reconsidering the cost effectiveness of a recent “guerrilla marketing” campaign for its Cartoon Network show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” where NY agency Interference placed signs that were mistaken for bombs in major cities including Boston.
FOXNews.com - Turner, Interference to Pay $2 Million for Botched Cartoon Network Ad Campaign in U.S. Cities - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
BOSTON — Turner Broadcasting Systems and Interference Inc. agreed Monday to pay $2 million for an unconventional Cartoon Network advertising campaign last week that caused a widespread bomb scare, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced.
This isn’t the first time that “guerrilla ads” for major corporations have caused more headaches than they were worth. Sony did a graffiti campaign for Playstation portable, and Microsoft plastered a city with static cling decals for a software product with similar bad PR results.
Chalking sidewalks, human billboards, street teams, PR stunts are all pretty harmless and effective tools. And while some may say that this botched campaign got lots of press, it didn’t end up being cheap or positive press for the client. Before considering a “guerrilla campaign” the question one must ask is: how would I feel if someone did this to my mother? My sister? Me? The golden rule applies.
Advertise onto others, as you would have others advertise onto me.
And, if you think you are getting a free lunch- here’s a tip: there is no such thing as a free lunch, just ask Turner Broadcast Systems.
by Next Wave Team | Jan 31, 2007 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Change the world, Creativity, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Minorities in Advertising
First off, I have to plug one of my favorite guerrilla marketing websites: In Bubble Wrap- www.inbubblewrap.com where a small bookseller, 800 CEO Read, www.800ceoread.com is competing with Amzon.com and Barnes and Nobel, on a shoestring. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, they give away 20 copies of a business book each day to an audience interested in business books. Considering the cost of the books (which they may get as a promotional copies anyway) and the cost of the site and postage, they are getting huge exposure for minimal dollars.
Not only do I have the opportunity to win, I learn something each day about a current business book. Today, the book talked about how Pepsi added marketshare by being the more politically correct marketer, in a day when all the people in ads were lily white.
InBubbleWrap: Pepsi Gave Us Some Jackie Robinsons
In the late 40’s and early 50’s, while Coca-Cola was visibly and enthusiastically supporting Georgia’s racist governor Herman Talmadge, Pepsi’s progressive CEO, Walter Mack, saw a way to make his uphill battle with Coke even out. And to be clear on this, yes, his primary motivation was the pursuit of profit. So, he decided to approve a campaign targeted at black consumers, and at the same time, hired someone to put together a team of all black sales people to push Pepsi on the African-American community. It worked. Pepsi soon became known as a “liberal” soft drink, inspiring entire communities to favor their beverages. Pepsi basically revolutionized the strategies of niche marketing.
Compare this with today’s attempts to connect with “new” markets. Dove has made a lot of noise and gotten a lot of attention with their Campaign for real beauty where they attempt to use models that look more like real women than waifs.
With Pepsi, it’s an example of a company going against prevailing social policy looking for profit. Corporate America now regularly enters political battles by supporting lobbyists and giving to political campaigns- and many hedge their bets giving to both sides. Being more “Green” is a marketing strategy with a political bent, and Toyota and Nissan have campaigned to tell us that many times their products have more American made content than American cars. Looking at “The Pepsi Challenge” I’m wondering if a company is going to position itself as an anti-war company to cash in on the growing displeasure with the war?
The best advertising creates an emotional response within the potential customer- we’ve seen companies wrap themselves in the flag for years- who will be the bold one to question the war first? Or has it been done?
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | Jan 12, 2007 | Advertising, BMW Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Minorities in Advertising, Secrets of Great Advertising
Ad Age is looking for innovative strategies for the next advertising agency model. In their first article, “How Toyota got in touch with the heartland” they look at how mega-agency Saatchi & Saatchi partnered with 4 small agencies and 5 freelance creative consultants to work on the new Toyota Tundra campaign.
Now why would Saatchi do that? And why would Toyota agree? It’s called diversity- maybe not in the traditional sense of minority hiring, or Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business- but in diversity of ideas. Big agencies, in big cities are sometimes insulated from the reality of the rest of the country. As Ad Age points out- the difference between calling that thing under the back bumper a “tow hitch” or a “receiving hitch” would escape most creatives in LA.
It’s also a form of creative out-sourcing- not in a bad way, but in a forward thinking way like the way Eli Lilly and Company went Open Source in their search for answers to create new drugs. Saatchi can hire an agency where 80% of the employees actually own pick-ups(Brothers & Co) as opposed to the yuppie-mobile favored by people in LA. The perspective on the consumer is different out here in the “fly-over” states.
A recent trip to NYC gave me insight on the BMW motorcycle account. Walking around NYC I saw BMW’s everywhere. The agency is in NY, the client in NJ- this is what they see. The only time you see more BMW’s than Harley’s in the Midwest is when the weather sucks- and we BMW riders are the only ones on the road. Our reality is that the dealers are going under left and right- from lack of interest generated by advertising created in an alternate reality- where BMW’s rule, and dealerships are plentiful.
Saatchi also doesn’t have to carry as many people by using this strategy. Why buy the cow, when you only need the milk? The cost of a creative team is more than just salaries and benefits- overhead for office space, computers, support personnel all add up.
Is this the model of the future? Is this the beginning of the end of the Mega-agency and a return to small creative shops? Are there creatives outside the spheres of advertising that can do good work? Whoever heard of creative in Minneapolis, Portland or Miami before Fallon, Wieden + Kennedy and Crispin Porter + Bogusky?
The best soliders in the US Army, a megalithic organization, aren’t operating in the huge units- they work in teams of 12 on a Special Forces team. Maybe the ad world is starting to see that big isn’t always beautiful. After all is said and done, most “Big Ideas” come from a creative team of two.
Maybe the return of the creative team is the next big thing.
Ad Age lists the team for the Tundra campaign:
Saatchi & Saatchi LA
Agency partners:
Brothers & Co. Tulsa
Pocket Hercules, Minneapolis
VSA Design, Fort Collins Co.
RadicalMedia LA
Freelance Creative Consultants:
Eric McClellan
Ray Johnson
Andrew Christou
Charlie Tercek
Gavin Milner
If you know the links to Eric or Gavin- let me know.
