by Next Wave Team | Jan 23, 2007 | Ad Agenices in Dayton, OH, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, How To Select An Ad Agency, Search and Business, Web strategy
Some local Dayton Ad agencies are starting to get a clue to what we do- and here is an example of one copying our list of Dayton Ad agencies- and posting it on their site.
Call it e-marketing, call it online marketing and communications- but, online is only one part of your complete marketing solution. The ability to build relationships with your customers isn’t just HTML- but here’s an example of what a copy job looks like:
Dayton Ad Agencies and BrainWave Emarketing
Need an ad agency? Get an ad agency. Need online marketing and communications? Get BrainWave.
Some agencies specialize in direct mail, some excel in public relations and some claim to be full service and do it all. BrainWave specializes in what we know - emarketing. And as you know, businesses that specialize in one category will outperform the departments in the one stop shops.
Some ad agencies can build websites. BrainWave builds a marketing tool that works for your business 24X7 and takes your online properties to the next level, making it an integrated part of your marketing communications and a true business value to your company.
We have provided a list of Dayton ad agencies. Call and discuss their online marketing capabilities before or after you have had a chance to chat with BrainWave.
Dayton Ohio Advertising Agencies
There is also another local agency that has a blog- although the integration with their main site is poor- and the content is focused on their own hip factor.
If you are looking for an ad agency in Dayton OH, Columbus Ohio or Cincinnati Ohio you’ve come to the right place- at least if you are looking to research- see our page: Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave.
by Next Wave Team | Jan 15, 2007 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of TV, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy
Serious 24 fans watch it live, TiVo it, or even use an old fashioned VCR- but they don’t miss the season premier. But, they also go out and buy the entire season on DVD and watch it straight through- and some collect it. Typically, the DVD doesn’t come out until after the season is over- not anymore. Starting tomorrow, you can buy the first 4 hours (premiered last night and tonight) on a DVD. No waiting till the season is over. Have it now. More than likely, after each 4 hours they will sell another DVD, and instead of getting $45 for the entire season in one box, you’ll pay more for the single packages.
Well, some Fox exec is probably thinking how smart am I- when in fact, they are missing the whole point: Bits not atoms. This was the seminal idea presented by Nicholas Negroponte in his 1996 book, Being Digital where he suggests that things that are made digitally (movies, books, newspapers etc) do better to stay in a digital format instead of being converted into atoms. This is what the iTunes store is all about, and what the future of television is- IPTV, on demand TV delivered by Internet Protocol, not, by creating disks with packaging, distribution costs etc.
Granted, television networks still haven’t got a clue what to do about TiVo yet- or the opportunities to build communities around their programming (except ESPN which understands the sportsfan better than anyone). The idea is to embrace your viewers- and make it easy for them to become a “market” with user profiles for direct delivery of targeted advertising- instead of the shotgun approach we now use.
The idea of the Sprint tie in to 24 is just another way to alienate some of your market. Is there anyone who really believes that fans will walk out of their Cingular or Verizon contract in order to move to Sprint to watch a webisode or get additional info? All this is doing is ticking off your most rabid fans that love 24, but don’t love Sprint.
Accept it: the customer is in control. It is your job to remove barriers and make them jump through as few hoops as possible to get access to their favorite shows. No big stupid Flash intros like they had on Rockstar Supernova, no sites that require proprietary browsers or specific hardware, you must work to make your content accessible to the widest possible audience, and let them feel like they aren’t being sold to- but embraced and part of something special- as you deliver the marketers message quietly through the screen.
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.
by Next Wave Team | Jan 10, 2007 | Advertising, Apple Advertising, Change the world, Creativity, Design, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Future of TV, Marketing & the Web, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Retail, Web strategy
Sell your stock in ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, say goodbye to the cable companies, and look at Apple, Cingular, Yahoo and Google. Kiss phone books goodbye as well. Credit cards may go away too. The iPhone is coming this June, and it will change the world.
Already, Research in Motion (the Blackberry people), Palm, Motorola and other “Smart Phone” makers stock dropped, and deservedly so. My Treo 700 is a pain in the butt to use and it’s one of the “better smart phones.”
Steve Jobs has 30 years experience in changing the way people and computers interact and with yesterday’s introduction of the iPhone, he showed why Apple is the master of the GUI (Graphical User Interface). First came the mouse, then the click wheel and now- the scrolling gesture and MultiTouch interface (most touch screens can only read one point at a time). All, in all, it’s brilliant. A phone, iPod and Internet device- but, watch out, it may be way more than that.
When the video iPod was introduced, it wasn’t that the iPod could play video that was the groundbreaking news- it was that Apple was selling “free” TV programs for $1.99. The beginning of a la carte programming delivered over IP. Now, with the iPhone and the new Apple TV set top box, we have the “Remote” that pulls everything together, including a billing system (Cingular) and a whole new way for advertisers to reach highly targeted consumers. Just think, your cell phone bill could be subsidized for you agreeing to watch highly targeted content- based on several different criteria to begin with:
- Your geographic location- cell phones are mini GPS devices, and as Jobs demonstrated the iPhone integration with Google maps/Google local, he showed us the beginning of a brand new way to access advertising, custom crafted to your longitude and latitude.
- Your buying habits and payment processing might be handled through Google wallet, with you keeping your running account balance on your phone. Phones have been used in Japan to pay vending machines for years, the iPhone brings whole new levels of integration to your pocket.
- The end of “Sales” for bricks and mortar stores- if your price doesn’t match what comes up in Froogle, you won’t make the sale. The “true browser” with easy input, coupled with a camera that can probably read product bar codes will put so much power in the consumers hand that all retailers will be able to compete on is better service or immediate delivery. Will that be worth paying a premium? Take a look at what the iTunes store has done to the music industry if you need hints.
- With its superior interface and WiFi/phone system Internet access, the iPhone will allow users to access company websites on it’s small screen. Jobs didn’t show any Flash sites in the demo, but, by partnering with Yahoo and Google- and showcasing the New York Times- he did hint at the importance of CSS coded HTML which scales, and reformats to different screens easier than Flash. If you have a website that is in Flash come June, you will be missing many of the opportunities of true Mobile connectivity.
- Last but not least, with a real browser- and an 8 gig drive, consumers will be able to carry your ads, your product literature- right to the point of sale- or discuss your products or service over lunch with friends- complete with sound, motion and data. No more need for brochures- even PDF’s online that don’t easily fit the new screen won’t be as handy a well-designed web interface. Think of having infomercials on your site that entertain and allow 2-way feedback- as well as click to buy options- all accessible from anywhere- anytime, in your customer’s pocket.
There is much more to this iPhone than an iPod, Phone, Internet connectivity- there is the first step of the true 1 to 1 revolution.
Apple stock went up 8 points yesterday. Just wait until June and the full power of this new phone is realized- by developers and marketers.
If the phone works as promised, and the reviews are good, Apple’s stock will climb like Googles- and the web will be a whole new place for marketers to (re) learn.
by Next Wave Team | Jan 9, 2007 | Ad Agenices in Dayton, OH, Change the world, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, How To Select An Ad Agency, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world
As ludicrous as it may seem, the Dayton Advertising Club, now known as the Greater Dayton Advertising Association, has been threatening to throw The Next Wave out of the organization if we don’t swear some sort of loyalty oath not to advertise.
That’s right- the very organization which is supposed to promote and protect advertising from restrictions and legislation- wants to restrict us from advertising our Websitetology seminar outside their seminars- on a public street.
You can read about it in this post- and see the offending flyer:
http://thenextwave.biz/tnw/?p=170
We have posted copies of the correspondence as PDF’s for you to follow along. Ours were sent on letterhead- with a signature- these are PDF’s of our Word Docs.
We believe the Greater Dayton Advertising Association would do better to endorse our seminar- and teach Ad Club members about building sites that are search friendly and easy to maintain, instead of wasting energy trying to throw us out.
Groucho Marx once said “I wouldn’t be a member of any club that would have me as a member”- and if it wasn’t for our love of the craft of advertising, we probably wouldn’t be a member of the Greater Dayton Advertising Association. Unfortunately, their love of the craft seems to be conditional.
Read the letters below: (PDF’s)
First letter from The Greater Dayton Advertising Association
Dayton Advertising Club Code of Ethics and Conduct
Dayton Advertising Club Standards for Membership
David Esrati respond to The Greater Dayton Advertising Association (July 11, 2006)
The Greater Dayton Advertising Association replies (August 4, 2006)
Letter from The Ethics Committee asking David Esrati to apologize for advertising
The Greater Dayton Advertising Association contact David a second time
The Greater Dayton Advertising Association contact David a third time
The Greater Dayton Advertising Association decide not to revoke Davids membership (January 23, 2007)
by Next Wave Team | Jan 1, 2007 | Advertising, Apple Advertising, BMW Advertising, Creativity, Design, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, How To Select An Ad Agency, Practical Marketing 101, Product and Service Naming
When we do our job really well- our clients get PR for free.
Dan Wolt was another window salesman, who knew the high-pressure business inside and out. He’d been at the top of a huge window mill- with 150 people setting appointments in a pressure cooker- and then he walked away and went solo.
But how to compete? How does a sole practitioner make enough noise to get noticed above the din of one of the most cut-throat industries known to man?
Our solution was “Zen Windows” a brand that was the antithesis of the standard positioning. His new slogan “Relax, window quotes in five minutes” opened a new conversation with customers who had already experienced the grueling three hour sessions of the competition.
So successful is his strategy, that About.com wrote about it. (unfortunately- the link died)
Replacement Windows - Profile of Zen Windows - Replacement Window Company
Zen Windows - Doing Replacement Windows Differently
If you think your business can’t compete with the Goliaths of your industry- consider what is accepted practice- and think about how you can differentiate yourself. BMW motorcycle dealers are different because they let customers ride demo bikes. Apple built it’s own network of Apple stores- that are as much an experience as a retail environment. Target asked it’s vendors to help them differentiate the product offering with high design products at a reasonable price. What makes your business different?
Can an ad agency like The Next Wave help? Ask Dan Wolt for a reference.
