by Next Wave Team | Dec 5, 2005 | Advertising, Design, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy
Today- a good friend called me and asked me to take a line of commentary off my list of ad agencies in Dayton because I was hurting someone’s feelings- a “good guy”- who took what I said about his agency “website” personally. There was nothing personal about it- it was purely a professional warning that what someone clicking on the link expecting something professional, was going to find something, well, plain and simple, terrible.
It’s not a site- it’s an “under construction” Flash animation- something that obviously took some time, and a bit of thought. I’ve never understood “under construction” sites- either put up something real, or don’t do it at all. The thing about this “site” is that it’s been this way for at least five years- and the punch line is “Butt check back soon” with an animated construction worker showing his backside.
We take what we do here pretty seriously- advertising isn’t something for the meek, the scared or the gutless- it’s about working hard- taking calculated risks and figuring out how to work smarter instead of harder, and- it’s competitive- very competitive.
So, when the call came from my friend- and he asked me what I was doing- I told him: I’m probably driving more traffic to this guys site than he could have gotten any other way, and that I was hoping this might get him to actually put a real site up, one that wouldn’t be an embarrassment to the profession that I love. My friend said that I wasn’t being nice, wasn’t being fair- and that I’d attacked someone personally (to me, a personal attack is when I say “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny”). So, I’ve relented and removed the comment- the link is still there for you to find, but it’s up to you.
It’s been said that “good advertising will kill a bad product faster than bad advertising will kill a good product” and this site should have killed this agency long ago- except no one could find it since it was all in Flash- which doesn’t index in Google worth a spit unless the coders really work hard to tag everything. Our list of agencies in Dayton was probably the only way anyone would find it- and, to be honest, we’ve had that comment up for over a year before this guy figured it out.
He can blame me for pointing out how bad his site is- or he can fix it.
He could even come take our Blogosopher seminar and learn how all this stuff works, so he doesn’t have to have an embarrassing site.
Or- he could say, thanks, because like it or not, that little line of text- “this could possibly be the worst ad agency site ever” probably got him more hits than he deserved.
What do you think?
And- if you are wondering why I don’t link to the site- well, I’m being “nice”- you can either start at the top of the list and start clicking- or write me an e-mail and I’ll tell you which one it is.
Note: 21 Dec 2005- the offendsive Flash annimation is now history- so we’ve done our part to improve the world for the moment.
by Next Wave Team | Dec 4, 2005 | Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web
If I needed a copywriter today- I’d hire David Freels. You can read about his career interrupted on Sally Hogshead blog. To sum it up, David put his kid before his career for a few years, and ended up making the world a better place. We have a sign hanging in reception and at the front of this site that says “If you aren’t here to change the world, please turn around and leave”- after reading this story, I’m not sure I’m worthy to come in my own office.
So, I commented on Sally’s blog, and then another ad blog picked up my theme- David and Goliath - and that ad blog belongs to Ernie Schenck- another ad god right up there with my heroes Sally and Luke Sullivan.
This is the power of blogging and the Internet- the connecting people who may have never connected before, now come together to help as best they can. I’m posting this, in the hopes that a few other ad types who read this blog, decide to put their little job needed links on their site- to help David Freels get a job.
If you could use a freelance writer, especially if you live in the Atlanta area, please call David Freels.
Sally says the guy can write- and if she says so- who am I to argue.
Reach David for freelance writing work:
[email protected]
404-725-4520
http://www.freelanceforum.org/df
by Next Wave Team | Nov 15, 2005 | Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Future of TV, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy
We have three television news organizations in Dayton OH. Some city’s may have more- some less. Even with the cost of ENG (Electronic News Gathering) cameras and remote technology, there are only so many reporters available at any time.
Enter citizen journalists armed with cell cams, digi-cams, camcorders and an Internet connection- they can post their story on their blog or site faster than a news director can get a crew on the scene.
The cell phone pictures out of the London Underground bombings were front-page news- globally. You don’t even need standard NTSC quality if your content is compelling. So, what are local news operations doing to counter this threat- not a thing.
Instead of building a community of news gatherers- or even a community online to support their broadcast news, they are still doing the same thing they’ve always done- and still advertising as “The Leader” or “StormCenter” or something else totally unrelated to building a 2-way relationship with their viewers.
This is so absolutely critical since local news is the ONLY thing they actually serve as a content provider on- and as any reader of this news section knows- content is all there is to distinguish you from your competition.
What’s more interesting is the site www.scoopt.com, where anyone who happens to be the next Abraham Zapruder (he’s the one who shot the home movie of the John F. Kennedy assassination) can upload their content for sale to the highest bidder.
This could be the next big things in local TV ENG- enlisting your community and paying them for the hottest story tips and shots instead of carrying a load of reporters that can’t be everywhere at once.
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | Oct 8, 2005 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy
Every week The Dayton Business Journal publishes a “list” of the top 12 or 24″ players” in a field from Hospitals to Title firms, and once a year they publish their “List of Advertising Agencies” which is always good for a few laughs by those of us in the business.
As I am fond of saying, “Good research is expensive, bad research is more expensive” (in case this is instantly apparent- the cost of doing the wrong thing because you did your research poorly is always more expensive than doing the right research to begin with). The Business Journal’s methodology is suspect at best. They fax a questionnaire out to the agencies they have identified- never telling us how many it is sent to then they take the responses, without verifying the answers, and compile a “ranking” based on number of employees, or gross billings as reported, and this creates their “List.” I don’t claim that my list of agencies that aren’t The Next Wave is complete, but I update it every time I run across another firm, and it has links to other resources.
I was going to buy the 10″ x 1″ ad at the bottom of this Years Agency list to promote my list- but they only are going to have 12 agencies this year- a half page, because they didn’t get enough responses. How lame is that. I admit, after not being included last year (when I had my largest employee count and billings) and seeing smaller firms on the list, I wrote “why bother” on my questionnaire and sent it back.
The wonderful ad rep that I deal with at the Business Journal suggested I talk to the publisher. She transferred me, I left a message and got a call back from the Editor, who was about as flexible in her thinking as a brick wall. So, according to the Dayton Business Journal there are only 12 Ad Agencies in Dayton. End of story (except here).
Not only that, I tried to explain to them how a list could be complete and useful like my list, but they aren’t interested. They have to be able to rank agencies by size or employee count, I feel that alphabetical works just fine. I offered other ways to rank- number of awards won per employee was one 🙂 No matter, they will republish their list in an annual publication called “The Book of Lists” which is just as worthless. They hawk it for $29 and describe it as:
“PERFECT for: Sales Prospecting, Job Search, Fundraising, and Business Research”.
I call it a poorly researched advertising vehicle.
If you are looking for a list of advertising and design firms in Dayton OH, and surrounding areas, Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave is your best resource. You can contact their publisher to let her know that incomplete lists are a waste of your time and that a complete list would improve their publication. Or you can just use our List of Advertising Agencies in Dayton.
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | Sep 30, 2005 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy
How long does it take for a campaign to launch for the big boy of media- network TV? How do you reach a lot of people fast? Is the Superbowl ad the way to go?
Forget what you know- and what you think you know- blogs spread faster, especially among cutting edge opinion makers and early adopters.
Today these stats were being bandied around on adrants:
that 29 percent of traffic to a site created as part of a recent Audi A3 campaign was generated by advertising on the BlogAds network. The kicker is that 29 percent was achieved with just one half of one percent of the overall media budget. Let’s say it again, advertising on weblogs deliver Audi 29 percent of all responding yet took just on half of one percent of the budget to do so.
It’s no longer the size of your budget that matters, it’s the quality of the content. Mckinney Silver of Durham NC created a scavenger hunt for the new Audi A3 they used a variety of media- including network tv to launch, but the numbers showed that on day 10- in the case study- that the interest was coming from blogs.
And- as a note- for a big-time agency- that “gets the web”- their really expensive Flash based site gets them 8 pages indexed in Google- with no real content showing up in the search results- another example of an agency telling people to do what I say- not as I do.
Blogs connect you with customers. Learn it, repeat it, do it, and link away.
What do you think?
by Next Wave Team | Sep 20, 2005 | Advertising, Everything You Want to Know About Advertising, Guerrilla Campaigns
“We don’t do guerrilla,” says a big agency in NYC, they also “don’t do web” and, no, you have to hire a design firm to do your collateral- we’re an Advertising Agency (with capital “A’s” for effect). When you get to local agencies, it’s even worse- at least around Dayton Ohio and vicinity (that would be Columbus and Cincinnati too) where they don’t even get the advertising part right.
Selling isn’t something companies can do part time. By that, I mean, your brand must live 24/7 in the world- that means on store shelves and the customers cerebral cortex. Your employees should eat, sleep and breathe your product. Think about the employees at Harley Davidson, Apple, Nike – do you think anyone rides a Yamaha into Harleys HQ or anyone is using a Dell that works at Apple- or running a marathon in Reebok’s if they work at Nike- the answer isn’t no, it’s hell no.
So- if your agency can only do one part of the dance that is critical to marketing in these days of fractured media and message overload, you may as well just give up. It ain’t going to happen. Driving your message home isn’t about creating a campaign today, run it for the next six months and work on the next one. It’s rapid fire and maneuver, because if you aren’t shooting your message at your target, your competition is.
There is no one magic media; there is no one great ad that will sell it all. You put an ad out there and you start working on a new angle to hit the market in a different way. You won’t be able to score the same way twice, the landscape changes too quickly.
So, what is a brand manager to do? A couple of things have to change- it’s time to pay for creative- and pay well, forget about the media commissions, how was anyone supposed to really make money on a 15% commission anyway? The rest of the world works on 40 points, so, if you think 15% is going to get you great ads- instead of great media bills, you can go home right now.
The scope of the work should change too. It’s not about just ads- it’s the whole experience that has to match. Expect the website, the brochures, the field work- all to have the same consistent voice, coming from the same people- the agency in partnership with the brand manager. It used to be called “integrated marketing communications” - now the “total brand experience” may be more apt.
It’s also critical to be flexible- to experiment with new media, new placement, new ideas, and especially a new honesty. Ads can entertain, but they also must inform. If you aren’t hitting an emotional chord with the audience while reaching for their gut and their brain at the same time, get back to the drawing board.
No one has time for ads anymore- they want to be part of something bigger. Your agencies job is to create that brand experience that makes the consumer feel a part of something bigger. Look at Harley Davidson’s Owners Groups (HOGS) or the Mac heads that will defend their computer to the death.
When an agency does get it, like Wieden + Kennedy got Nike, it’s a beautiful thing. So, instead of saying what an agency can and can’t do- find one that can Just Do It.
