Today, the Greater Dayton Advertising Association (formerly known as the Dayton Ad Club) made an effort to finally bring it’s members into the year 2003. The speaker was Matt Bailey from SiteLogic- a Search Engine Optimization consultancy.
All great stuff- all stuff we’ve been trying to get the ad club to discuss for over 2 years. All the stuff that we’ve been offering in our Websitetology seminars- but, of course, if you aren’t from out of town, you can’t be an expert.
Matt had a hard time coming up with business to business blogs as an example of generating business- yet, had we been the presenter- we would have been able to point to this blog- to show the b-to-b results. I looked at Matt’s blog- and found this bit:
SiteLogic - Marketing Logic » Why are Analytics so Difficult? by Matt Bailey
Building a website requires an understanding of search engines, as search engines are one of the primary methods of acquiring visitors and customers. However, once the search engine’s information requirements are met, the site has to be able to communicate a different message to the human visitor.
We agree- since 80% of Internet use begins in search, search is key. And, once they get to your site- they need to engage. Apparently Matt’s blog isn’t providing him the kind of traffic he needs. We think we know why.
In the Q&A, someone asked if “tags” in a blog are like Meta tags of old- and he answered they weren’t the same- which is true. Metatags were for the machines; blog tags/categories/taxonomy are for the user. He got that straight- but then, he took what I call a Guru Nosedive- he said that he didn’t use them much, they aren’t that important- content is.
WRONG. At least with WordPress, categories are a way to supercharge a search term, by grouping a bunch of posts into a single post. It’s probably one of the most important SEO techniques we teach- but, alas, the Dayton Ad Club people won’t learn that. Their Executive Director still won’t attend our seminar- and is still building sites the old fashioned way.
It was particularly telling of the 2.0 literacy in the room when there was only one other person in the room that knew what the Long Tail was (besides yours truly) and only a handful (including SAA students) had heard of Digg.
If the Greater Dayton Advertising Association and it’s members (and SAA students) hope to survive, they are going to have to do some serious catch-up. Web 2.0 is only the beginning of The Next Wave, and they aren’t there yet.
Advertising is usually delivered in what we call “paid media” - which would include TV, Radio, Print, Direct Mail, Outdoor, Internet etc. It’s usually your company talking about yourself.
There is also what we’ve come to know as “unpaid media” which is usually described as Public Relations- where your press release, guerrilla stunt, amazing feat, etc. is actually newsworthy- and you appear in the media- usually print, radio, TV or Internet. This could be defined as others talking about you.
Then we have the new media form, and by that, I don’t mean web, Internet, etc. and it’s new name “earned media”- this is where something is so interesting that it gets circulated and watched out of fascination. It is the basic building block of a viral campaign. It is becoming the most valued form of advertising- but there is no price tag on it. You can’t just pony up money and get the eyeballs. Earned media is the result of the new currency in advertising (which really has always been the true currency) creativity. Creative solutions, creative executions, interesting, funny, informative and unexpected messages can take your brand message places that conventional (paid and unpaid media) can’t and won’t.
This creates a huge problem in advertising agency compensation - are you as a client, willing to pay for the value of a good idea? Or are you still basing your compensation plan on the size of your media buy or on hours worked? If you want to earn eyeballs instead of pay for them, the first thing you need to eyeball is what you are trying to buy from your ad agency.
And then decide what kind of media is going to get you what you want.
In our effort to bring you the best, most useful, and interesting insight into advertising, ad agencies, and getting the most for your marketing dollar- we stumbled upon this post by “Gerry McGovern” in a non-web 2.0 site- but was right on:
Well worth a click over - where he rants about the stupidity of the Flash intro, and the innane copy which makes every agency sound- well- alike. He doesn’t actually give your real stats on why big ad agency sites suck (we do that quite aptly here: ad agencies seek diversity) but he does describe some sites- that when you visit today- will realize haven’t changed or updated content in 3 years (we just went to LeoBurnett.com the other day- only to leave totally frustrated with the most worthless web navigation ever- and no search function).
We’re not saying that all big advertising agency sites are boring, or ugly- just that most of them aren’t actually useful.
Here are some key ways to evaluate an ad agencies web competence:
Is the text selectable- and copyable- so you could easily put together their brilliant ideas for marketing into a memo for your boss on why to hire them? (This also means you can read the content with a text-to-speech reader for blind people- and that the site will be indexable by google).
Are there separate pages for each piece of content- in other words- can you send a link to the exact spot that you think is relevant to your boss- “Hey, look at this brilliant marketing strategy” - I think it applies to our company.
Is the content current- and changing? Google rewards fresh new ideas and content. If thy don’t update their content, how can they suggest you do it? Practicing what you preach is important on the web.
Can you view the site without having to turn off noise, or have video start without you telling it to? Good for not disturbing the boss- or letting him know that you are secretly looking for a new ad agency because your current one isn’t very web-savvy.
When you go to Google and type in: site:bigagency.tld you actually get more than one page. Try it for this site- site:thenextwave.biz and look at how many pages are indexed!
Another key to finding out if your prospective agency is web 2.0 compliant- look for links out, and links in. Although not perfect- going to Google and type in link:thenextwave.biz will show you a smattering of what links to us. We know many more link to us, because we watch our web stats- a very informative tool to gather information about who is saying what about you.
There are a whole bunch of other questions to ask before hiring an ad agency- but we try to cover that in our topic “how to pick an ad agency”- as opposed to here- where we’re just talking about web 2.0 web skills.
If you have questions on how to analyze your ad agencies web competence, feel free to give us a call.
I’m totally convinced that within 5 years, the only people selling targeted ads in video will be Google. The networks (broadcast and cable) will be toast. Content producers will be uploading their content to Google Video- where we will go to download our programs. Some will be free, others will cost, and if you can’t afford to buy the program at full price, you’ll be able to opt in to sell your eyeballs to some marketer who wants to reach you.
So, when Google wants to know it’s future, they call on Seth Godin- and this 48 minute video shows you why Seth Godin is one of the go-to guys for the future of marketing and advertising.
When I have some more time, I’ll pull out the juicy parts- but for now- I’ve pointed you in the right direction.
We’ve been working on a local film festival and trying to get materials to promote the films. This shouldn’t be too difficult- wrong.
Movie after movie has a site built in Flash- with no way to easily get the images or synopsis that would make promoting a movie easy. Even finding the films “Official site” is next to impossible- and that’s even with the amazing resource of IMDB.com
So- a few tips to independent film makers (and maybe even some major film distributors):
Have searchable content- that means the viewer should be able to select and copy your text.
Have your film logo available as an .eps, or .ai, or even in a pdf, in case someone wants to use it to promote your film.
Have high resolution still photos from your film- for print articles about the film. Make sure you tag them so Google images can find them too- include names of stars, the name of the movie, not image001.jpg (it doesn’t hurt to have a stuffed/zip file for the complete press kit)
Keep your site up-to-date with news and showings. Flash makes this more difficult- a blog makes this easy.
Provide information that reviewers would find useful on the site: bio’s of actors, writers, the history that goes with your film.
Have film clips and trailers available in multiple resolutions- in a universal format. We prefer Quicktime, but, what ever you do- don’t embed them so we can’t use them on our promotional site.
Have your contact information available. If the film is available in subtitled form, make sure you have the site in each language.
Make sure you update your IMDB.com entry with your official site link.
The Next Wave can build you a very effective site, for a lot less than what these fancy Flash sites are costing- and get you better search position. But, this really isn’t being written to be a sales pitch- it’s written out of frustration because we can’t get what we need to promote a film festival.
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:
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.
