The old cowhand expression goes “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is how advertising agencies often feel about our clients.
Coming up with the “big idea” is one thing- getting the client to buy it- can be infinitely more difficult. Sometimes, even when you have a client who thinks you are brilliant- they run into an “expert” who convinces them that their ad agency can’t possibly know how to make the web work for them- and that they should “trust” them.
This was the case with our client Zen Windows- a small business that we provided the tools to compete and win against much bigger and better capitalized business heavyweights. Our name, our tagline: Zen Windows, Relax, window quotes in five minutes, set them apart from the high-pressure, hard-sell, commissioned window sales companies in Columbus Ohio. Our simple web strategy involved using blog technology to keep Zen Windows at the top of search- for many terms- not just keywords. Unfortunately- the client drank from another cup- and so yesterday, when I saw we had gotten a google hit for “Zen Windows”- I checked to see what was generating the hit- and it was our post showcasing his logo. Considering “Zen” is the name of a hit MP3 player, and “Windows” is the leading operating system- the fact that our technology and our logo got first position in Google is a miracle. Considering that his company didn’t show up in the first 30 hits is a testimony to the snake oil salesman that told him he could build a better website for Zen Windows.
If you aren’t showing up in the first 30 results (or 3 pages) of Google for your own company name, you should be talking to an ad agency that truly understands integrated marketing communications and site construction for optimal search results (not just SEO or Search Engine Optimization- which we believe to be voodoo).
The funny thing is that the new site doesn’t look much different than the design we began with. But, the developer added Flash video to the home page. Flash, but no bang-for-the buck. You decide- what you want- snake oil- or results?
The Next Wave is marketing • innovation for a reason.
I’m not sure who the independent restaurants hired, but the site by the Dayton Daily News isn’t helping them much.
How do I know, well, people searching for “Dayton Independents” are ending up on my personal site: esrati.com which has a section on great places to eat and drink in Dayton Ohio.
This is why an agency that knows web 2.0 is critical to the success of any campaign- test your agencies adoption of this new way of doing business by going to google and typing in: site:agencyurl.tld and see how many pages come up.
Here is a snapshot of the Google results for “Dayton Independents” - note Esrati.com is number three.
It’s not enough anymore to run an ad, have a site, and expect results unless you have a modicum of Search Engine Optimization under your belt.
The payola scandals of the Fifties were a black-eye on commercial radio, where record labels would pay radio stations to play certain albums.
Now with corporate and satellite radio controlling the airwaves, and internet radio still in the nascent stages- the best way to get your songs played to mass audiences is to sell your song to a major advertising campaign. When Wieden + Kennedy bought the Beetles “Revolution” for Nike there was a major outcry of selling out. (Personally, this commercial still makes me love advertising- and what I do)
But, besides bringing new exposure to old hits- or even hits in the making- there is also an area of concern for artists- will they be seen as selling out? Some artists have sworn off commercialization of their art- Bob Dylan taking a hit for selling music through Starbucks for instance.
So, when Crispin Porter + Bogusky follows in the footsteps of Arnold by putting Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” into a campaign, Wilco fights back- and in the tradition of David Ogilvy who believed you should use the products you shill, admits to driving V-dubs.
Pitchfork: Wilco Explain Volkswagen Ads
After millions of infuriated Wilco fans around the globe set fire to their copies of Sky Blue Sky and drove their Jettas off cliffs yesterday, Wilco took it upon themselves to explain their recent involvement in a Volkswagen ad campaign.
“With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands,” wrote the Chicago sextet on its official website, “we see this as another way to get the music out there.”
They continued: “And we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them.”
Securing rights to popular music isn’t always easy- we once traded building a website for Buckwheat Zydeco in exchange for using his music as the background for a local neighborhood non-profit marketing piece- which cost us a bunch- but gave the neighborhood new life. Besides the website- (which has been sadly and badly basterdized over the years) Buckwheat gained a whole new bevy of fans- who would not have been exposed to his great music any other way.
With viral videos like Jud Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance” using a bunch of copyrighted music- the question is- is it better marketing for the music than the old school pay-to-play? If I was the copyright holder, I’d be thrilled to have “tastes” of my music given that much exposure.
It’s a whole new world out there in marketing, what you learned in school doesn’t apply anymore. Sharing is the new currency and attention is the new jackpot.
There was an IBM tv ad called “Deep Intelligence” about a sage who saw relationships in the data that drove sales. He says things like “Greeting cards, Lip Gloss” “Beer/Diapers” “Motor oil/ Turkey franks” we can’t be sure that he knows- all we know is that he knows.
If either the agency, Ogilvy, or IBM was tuned into this web 2.0 thing- they’d have it on YouTube to share- but they don’t. [UPDATE Dec 2010]If you have access to Ad Critic, it’s right here: http://www.adcritic.com/content/ibm-deep-intelligence.html
I’ve always liked this spot- but tonight, it became relevant- someone searching for “mark cuban buys hotel chain” ended up finding us at number 4 in Google- and calling us to see if we could help them sell wine.
This wasn’t search engine optimization- he wasn’t searching for small creative ad agency, or ad agencies in Dayton OH, or even great ad agencies- he wasn’t looking for the next Crispin Porter + Bogusky, or how to pick an ad agency (all terms that we’ve ended up on the first page of Google)- he was looking to find independent thinkers in the hotel industry to market to them as outlets for wine from his LA County vinyard.
There we were: The Next Wave>low budget advertising at number four, because we had combined content in a category that managed to put Mark Cuban and the Drury Inn- into the same place.
Go figure- good technology leads to happy accidents. Once the potential client read that “Our job is to make you more money than you pay us” he was reaching for his phone.
Can you ad agency get you this kind of happy results?
One of the things we teach our clients to do is set up a google alert on key terms- so this morning, I got notified of this Flickr photo of me- talking to Salim Ismail (I’m the one with hair on the right) about web 3.0 and how advertising money will drive the Open ID standard, so advertisers can verify their ads are being delivered to the right people.
As always, it’s money that will drive the development of new technology, and the old John Wanamaker adage of “I know half my advertising budget is wasted, I just don’t know which half” is going to be solved with Web 3.0 and IPTV- real soon.
As another note: Sally Hogshead talked about “Portable equity” in her book Radical Careering- in fact it’s chapter 5 of the book- and on Salim’s business card- I saw the perfect example of this: he has his e-mail at yahoo-inc, but, for a site- it’s his own blog: www.salimismail.com empowering his voice outside of the corporate Yahoo! channel- the ultimate example of portable equity that I’ve seen.
Of course, he’s also the “Head of Brickhouse” which is their new “skunkworks” type lab for launching new products and technologies- so he should be the first to practice what he preaches.
Is your company ready to step past ownership of your ideas- and trust you to share what’s appropriate with the whole world?
Rule #15, “Aspire to be the dumbest person in the room”
Just completed 2 days of amazing sessions at WebContent 2007 - where my “Blogzilla” presentation was well received.
Made some amazing connections: Jason Fried at 37signals, Zaga Novakovic from centiv, the wonderful people at duo consulting who put the whole show on, Calvin Hendryx-Parker of Six Feet Up, and Salim Ismail who just joined Yahoo as the “head of Brickhouse” (which is the new product dev center).
There were many others- and some great sessions- of which I hope to share more on later. Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy by Seth Early of Earley & Associates- was a fascinating look at how we categorize and organize information in the web 2.0 world.
Howard Tullman of Experiencia gave a great pep talk on change management in Internet time.
There was also more mentions of RSS, RDF, CMS, CSS, SEO, than I’ve heard in a long time.
When I do a mash-up of this conference with the 2007 AAF conference in my head- it all points to one thing: We’re headed for a new model of marketing built upon some kind of profile/open-id system that will allow us to opt-in for targeted marketing in exchange to discounted/subsidized content.
My personal highlight from the event, was being asked to re-run the Blogzilla intro as a warm up act for Salim’s first presentation when he was running late. Apparently, my presentation was one of the fun ones. As soon as I obtain permission for the mashup content in the video- I’ll post it live to share.
There will be more analysis and interesting information coming- but for now, all I can say is- I’ve never seen so many people at a conference say they would definitely return next year. Hopefully, I’ll be there too.
I’m not sure who the independent restaurants hired, but the site by the Dayton Daily News isn’t helping them much.