by Next Wave Team | Nov 24, 2006 | Creativity, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Low Budget Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Web strategy
If you are looking for guerrilla marketing ideas, GoGorillaMedia wants to be your source. They’ve got a ton of great ideas on their site- all, tried, tested and true, but the site doesn’t search at all as you can see by the following test from Google that only returns 2 pages:
site:gogorillamedia.com - Google Search
GoCARD - GoGORILLA Media
© 2005 GoCARD, LLC.
www.gogorillamedia.com/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages
[FLASH]
LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING …
File Format: Shockwave Flash
LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING… LOADING… LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING… LOADING.
If there is one thing that is imperative in any guerrilla campaign it’s a great website- one that if you type Go Guerrilla Media, or Go Guerrilla Marketing, you should be able to find GoGorillaMedia instead of The Next Wave. Having a showcase of stuff to buy to spread the word is great- having a website that people can find is even better. We only found them because they spent big money on an ad in MediaWeek (not exactly a showcase of Guerrilla Marketing skills, huh?).
We do guerrilla marketing in the Midwest, with lower overhead than the Gorilla’s in NYC. If you are interested in putting some buzz on the street, you’ve found the right place. And if you have questions about how to build a site that will get you more hits in Google- try our Websitetology Seminar.
by Next Wave Team | Nov 12, 2006 | Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Design, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Guerrilla Campaigns, Low Budget Advertising, Practical Marketing 101, Secrets of Great Advertising
Working with small clients, doing great work is what got Fallon, McElligot Rice started in Minneapolis when most big clients thought they had to work with a NYC, Chicago or LA agency. We view work with independent local restaurants as part of keeping our city unique, interesting and fun. It’s also nice when a national publication includes examples of our work as part of a how to differentiate your small business to compete with the big chains.
Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory will never sell more pizza than Domino’s, Papa Johns, Donato’s or California Pizza Kitchen, but, they will have a loyal following and leave every customer smiling.
Restaurant Business Magazine Online - How to build buzz
New Rule #3 Surprise people (and they may surprise you)
Nothing gets customers buzzing like a surprise. Sometimes it’s a new product, or even a stunt.
“Target does great word-of-mouth stunts,” says Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. “They didn’t have a store in Manhattan, but they brought a truck of $99 window-unit air conditioners, parked them in Union Square and sold them off the back of the truck.
“The Drury Inn hotel chain gives you an hour of free long distance for every guest every day. It costs them nothing, but the first thing you do when you pick up the phone is to say, ‘Can you believe there’s a hotel with free long distance?’”
Even your humblest item can offer a surprise, says David Esrati, chief creative officer of ad agency The Next Wave in Dayton, Ohio. Like the pizza box he designed for Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory. The front of the box reads, “Smile! Your pizza’s here,” while the bottom says, “If you can read this, it’s time to reorder.” Says Esrati, “Everything you do in a restaurant is an advertisement.”
Unique service also gets people talking, says McConnell. At Cyrus, a fine-dining establishment in Sonoma, California, the hostess alerted the kitchen to a new guest’s arrival. Once seated, a cart came up with champagne and caviar. “It’s an experience I’ve talked about hundreds of times,” McConnell says.
Another gossip-starter is to offer dishes that aren’t on the menu but can be requested by people in the know. California’s In-N-Out Burger has a cult following for its “secret menu,” with burgers like the Animal Style, Protein Style, Flying Dutchman and 4×4. Jamba Juice has a similar reputation for smoothies, with unofficial concoctions like White Gummi Bear, Strawberry Shortcake and Peanut Butter and Jelly.
It’s nice to be quoted in the same article as Laura Ries, Jay Levinson and a mention of Crispin Porter Bogusky’s “Subservient Chicken” site- but what was more important is the results Pizza Factory has enjoyed over the years.
We’ve introduced blogs as a tool for our other restaurant clients, Eclipse and Coco’s Bistro, and although they haven’t fully taken advantage of them yet, once again, The Next Wave is on the forefront of Marketing Innovation.
by Next Wave Team | Nov 10, 2006 | Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of TV, VW advertising, Web strategy
Note to NBC- maybe if you had all the episodes available online, to anyone with a computer (not just those with a Viiv chipset) - or available through the iTunes store- maybe your viewership would go up. I wrote about this earlier: How not to tie TV to the Internet.
It’s hard to interest people in these very intense serial dramas if they don’t know what’s going on- sort of like walking into a movie halfway in- and going, hmmmmm?
High income viewers don’t want to have to struggle to watch a show- they have better things to do. They are least likely to go on BitTorrent etc. to get the show (although their kids know how).
TV Week
NBC is making good on its promise to stand by lackluster performer “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” making a full-season pickup order for the Aaron Sorkin drama.
The network has ordered an additional nine episodes of the series, which has been struggling in its Monday night, 10 p.m. time slot. “Studio 60” is averaging a 4.0 rating in adults 18-49 and 9.8 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“I am pleased to show our support for this outstanding and ambitious effort,” said Kevin Reilly, president, NBC Entertainment. “From the start, they have delivered the superb show that we wanted. The critical support has been rock-solid and there is a passionate core audience. We can’t wait for what’s going to come in the remainder of the season.”
Mr. Reilly has said he supports “Studio 60” despite its low viewership because the show is fits NBC’s brand and attracts affluent, educated viewers.
I’ve enjoyed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- via TiVo, as always, Aaron Sorkin dialog requires frequent instant replays. The good thing about both TiVo and online viewing- is they both give real numbers- as opposed to Nielsen’s extrapolated data.
The future of television isn’t in ratings, it’s in the ability to target real people. If NBC changed it’s net strategy, the show might be able to deliver numbers that standard ratings won’t.
NOTE: 14 NOV 2006- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is now available on iTunes at $1.99 per show. Note- 30 Rock is available for free. NBC brass must be reading this site.
by Next Wave Team | Nov 5, 2006 | Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of advertising, Great Ad Agencies, How To Select An Ad Agency, Marketing & the Web, Minorities in Advertising, Search and Business, Web strategy
I just returned from NYC to attend the first AAAA/AAF Supplier Diversity Trade Fair.
The Next Wave is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business, with HUB (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) zone certification. If you are a big agency that’s doing work for the Government, those certifications are very important- it’s Federal law that 3% of your budget be allocated to working with SDVOB and there can be other requirements mandating HUB zone participation.
The Next Wave has been listed in CCR (the Federal data base for eligible contractors) for over 10 years. We have been called by exactly 6 different businesses over those years- either as a last minute effort to include us in a list of “possible subcontractors” in a bid (Leo Burnett for the Army recruiting contract- which went to McCann, and Burson Marsteller on an unnamed project) and a whole bunch of times by the diversity master of the moment at SBC/ATT. It seems that SBC/ATT has very high diversity goals- but very poor follow through.
The list of great ad agencies attending the event was impressive:
Arnold Worldwide
BBDO New York
Leo Burnett, USA
Campbell Ewald
DDB New York
Deutsch
DraftFCB
Element 79 Partners LLC
Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York
Grey Worldwide
GSD&M
JWT New York
The Kaplan Thaler Group
Lowe Worldwide
Merkley Partners
MediaVest
McCann Erickson
Ogilvy & Mather
Publicis New York
Saatchi & Saatchi
TBWA\Chiat\Day
Y&R
and then there was us: The Next Wave.
Since ad agencies don’t typically like to admit to hiring either freelance creative, or another agency to do work for their clients- we took a different path to approach them in partnering for diversity goals: we only talked about helping them understand Web 2.0 and Search Engine Optimization, Direct Mail fulfillment (pimping for a local SDVOB who is also a member of VOB108.org with us) and video production- which we can do in-house, or partner with others to deliver product that qualifies for SDVOB participation points.
Our promo piece included the an analysis of how each of the above agencies compared in number of actual pages indexed by Google. The results were astonishing- of the 22 agencies in attendance, The Next Wave beat all but 4 for accessible, searchable content. Here is what we found:
2 from mccann.com
4 from greyny.com
4 from saatchiny.com
24 from deutschinc.com
29 from element79.com
37 from tbwa.com
39 from leoburnett.com
52 from kaplanthaler.com
58 from bbdo.com
58 from mediavestww.com
94 from publicis-usa.com
114 from gsdm.com
152 from loweworldwide.com
161 from arnoldworldwide.com
193 from yr.com
212 from merkleyandpartners.com
230 from draftworldwide.com
244 from campbell-ewald.com
260 from thenextwave.biz
480 from ddb.com
577 from ogilvy.com
621 from eurorscg.com
2,220 from jwt.com
Note: Crispin Porter Bogusky, the agency that is known for their viral video and “web and new media expertise” only returns 1 page.
Presenting proof that 82% of the Agencies in attendance have interactive departments don’t understand Google isn’t always the best way of making friends, but most of the representatives there seemed genuinely interested and surprised by the results- and the implications for them.
If you work at one of these big agencies, or others, and want to learn how you need to build websites that have content (including your ads) that the general public can find- and interact with, we are available for consulting.
If you want to find out how to tell how many pages Google knows about in your domain do the following:
- Go to Google
- type: site:yourdomainname.tld in the search box
- it will return the numbers of pages it has indexed and what each page is about and it’s title (if your title says “untitled” or “home” and the “about text” is the same for more than one page- you need to call us ASAP).
We believe “Search Engine Marketing” is voodoo, however, we are sure that if your customers can’t find your content in google- you don’t exist for most of the market.
If you are looking for a way to meet your Federally required SDVOB participation for contracts- we can help you with the following NAICS Codes:
54143 Graphic Design
541810 Advertising agencies
541613 Marketing Consulting Services
541511 web development
518210 web hosting
512110 video production
Will this trade fair generate diversity in advertising? Probably not. But it was a step in the right direction.
Some suggestions for future trade fairs: Supply a database of vendor attendees and their services and qualifications to the Agency buyers- and include that information on the name badges. It would be a huge help.
The other suggestion: Hold it in a place that has a history of supporting diversity, instead of the NY Athletic Club- it seemed almost like blasphemy to be in a place that didn’t have African American Members until the 80’s and was so concerned with a dress code.
by Next Wave Team | Oct 22, 2006 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, How To Select An Ad Agency, Marketing & the Web, Search and Business, Web strategy
We were doing research on cosmetics branding- and asked a friend who is a former “cosmetina” about who is hot.
She suggested looking at “Tony & Tina” so we did a Google search, and another search, and another search- and couldn’t find the company site. What we did find was this:
Buzz Marketing Group: Case Studies: Tony + Tina
Results
Tony Tina experienced a 25% increase in web site traffic, which led to a major site upgrade.
Unfortunately- the agency didn’t provide a link to the site, nor did the search engines. Must be a pretty impressive site- so hip, they want to keep it a secret.
If anyone knows the url to Tony + Tina Cosmetics- please use the comment section to tell us the link.
If you are an agency, and your client doesn’t come before your site in search- shame on you.
by Next Wave Team | Oct 22, 2006 | Advertising, Apple Advertising, Brand Relevancy, Design, Differentiating Your Brand, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Great Ad Agencies, Secrets of Great Advertising
As always- when the results are good, no one ever says “the ads did it”- but when the results are bad- it’s always the advertising that’s to blame.
When I first saw the “Get a mac” campaign- with the two guys chatting it up in front of a simple white screen- with “Hello, I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” I thought that Chiat/Day had hit a home run for Apple. Not only had they gone to a direct product comparison, they had captured the “user friendliness” of the Mac perfectly.
It was also an affordable campaign- with the potential for having legs. With a rumored 27 different executions already in the can- it stays fresh- and on target.
If there was any doubt that this campaign is resonating, Apple just released it’s latest quarterly results- and the news is great.
Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
CUPERTINO, California—October 11, 2005—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2005 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2005, reporting the highest revenue and earnings in the Company’s history. Apple posted revenue of $3.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $430 million, or $.50 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $2.35 billion and a net profit of $106 million, or $.13 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 28.1 percent, up from 27.0 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Not to say all honors belong to Chiat/Day- Apple completed their move to Intel processors- making their computers capable of running Windows should you absolutely have to (and unfortunately- due to some bad web coding- there are still some sites that only work for a PC running Internet Explorer). Apple also introduced the new MacBook to replace the iBook giving them one of the sexiest laptops on the market, albeit at a higher price than most entry PC laptops- but here’s the difference- you really do get what you pay for.
A Next Wave teammate who likes to hack things bought a Dell laptop for $800. It had more ram, more HD and a DVDr drive and a 15″ widescreen- feature wise, it looks like a great deal compared to a similar Mac laptop. But, here’s the catch- it’s all plastic- designed like a kids Lego version of a laptop- instead of the sleek, sexy, smooth lines of the Apple product. 
We’re comparing a Citroen 2cv to a Lotus Elise. If you need a hint- the 2CV is on the left in red- and the Elise is in blue on the right. 
Apple is delivering a clearly differentiated product- competing on factors other than price, with a consistent brand voice, in a highly competitive market. Will they be number 1? No. Do they have to be? If being number one means you are delivering the most product- at the expense of profits, sustainability will be short lived.
Apple is working on expanding their brand to be central to the “digital lifestyle”- with the iPod being given more credit by stock analysts than it is due. The idea of making life easier for Apple users which is reinforced in every Get a Mac ad- is part of the strategy for Apple’s move into other areas like the delivery of digital content- with the iTunes store- and the much rumored iPhone.
Could these ads sell the new products- definitely. That’s the mark of great ads that bring brand voice, design and company strategy together for results.
