Everyone can get their 15 minutes of fame, thanks to the Internet. Some pastors have managed to do the same with weekly church sign-board messages (7 days without prayer makes one weak, etc.) but Casa D’Ice has taken their owners political pontificating on his sign board and generated a viral campaign that came into my e-mail box this morning.
You may, or may not agree with his messages- but, you might spend more time reading these political rants than you would watching a low budget local TV spot on cable for his restaurant.
I’ve never been to North Versailles PA, but if I did- I might go to look at his sign- or ask what the locals think about his restaurant.
Guerrilla marketing at work.
What do you think of Mr. Bill Balsamico’s marketing campaign?
Our advice would be to alt tag the images- and change the site to have an RSS feed- but, if you’ve read much of our site- and about our Blogosopher seminar- you already would know that.
Please note- this is story about viral marketing- if you want to contact Mr. Balsamico, his e-mail is [email protected]
That’s number one of “95,000,000 for great ad agencies.”
In case you are wondering- the guys above us in the blue band- pay money for that position- and if you click on their links, it costs them money. The same goes for the ones on the right. Don’t pay for search engine optimization- just hire the number one organic search result for great ad agencies if you want to be on top of search.
We offer the list of “Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave” as a public service- since so many ad agencies still don’t know how to build a web site that indexes in search. Even though we don’t think anyone should use an agency that can’t be found in Google even if you have their name, address and phone number - we figure if we lead you to them- maybe you’ll consider using us instead. PDF of flyer
Yet, when we get right down to it- the ad agencies in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton aren’t our competition - the ones in NYC, LA, Portland OR, Miami FL, Chicago etc- are the ones that The Next Wave would prefer to compete with. We believe we can do a better job than 86.7% of the “big city” firms.
So, today- we decided to go guerrilla and hand out a flyer to attendees of the Dayton Ad Club professional develoment seminar - offering to teach our competition how to build a site that will get their customers to find them- instead of us.
We pulled a list of 300 search terms for other agencies off our webstats- amounting to thousands of searches (many different people used the same term to find the other agencies on our site)- and put “IF YOUR AGENCY IS ON THIS LIST- YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS SEMINAR” for our Blogosopher seminar.
The rest of the copy read:
Customers looking for these agencies came to www.thenextwave.biz this year.
If you want to learn how to build a site that search engines love– and that any idiot can maintain– this seminar is well worth your $99. And if you are using any of these agencies for your site– you should come too (to learn what they are doing wrong).
However, if you want potential customers to keep going to The Next Wave site– that’s fine too.
Either way, we’ll take your money.
As usual- the other agency people still don’t know what to make of us- offering to share our “Trade secrets” - but, we’re firm believers that better competition makes us stronger. If you want to know how to get to the top of Google, and sell a ton of stuff by being the coolest kid on the block- we highly recommend you hire us (or at least come to the Blogosopher seminar) but feel free to check our competition too- it just makes us look better.
The guy who gave the greenlight to an ad that didn’t get the brand voice, has now chosen a new agency- to “boost its online presence.” Unfortunately, this is another case of the blind leading the blind – Marketing Communication Director Laurence Kuykendall (who used to work at former agency Merkley + Partners- before jumping to the client side) picked “The Concept Farm” as the new agency- because of their “capabilities in guerilla, interactive and Web work” – yet their site still has a retarded Flash intro and only indexes three pages in Google.
Kurkendall claims that Merkley lost key players on the account who were “motorcycle aficionados” – yet, the people at Merkley seemed to have a contempt for the people who choose to ride BMW- as can be witnessed by the exchange on this site late last year.
Quite frankly, with a two-million dollar ad budget and requiring motorcycle riding creatives, one must wonder if NYC is the right place to have the account? Not only are costs lower in other parts of the country- but the likelihood of having people who ride their motorcycles more than the subway is statistically higher.
The good news for the Concept Farm is that they can’t do much worse than the “Hibachi” ad- the bad news for BMW riders is that the guy who approved that ad- still is in charge.
Please note- the closest BMW motorcycle dealer to Dayton OH closed Dec. 31 (Cincinnati), Indianapolis closed last year- and I’ve heard rumor that the dealer in Athens OH no longer stocks new bikes. Hint to BMW Motorrad- if we can’t get to a dealer- no amount of advertising, guerilla or online- will help you sell more bikes.
The State of Maine hired a NY ad agency, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC, to handle the Maine Tourism account. WKP then built a site- and bought search terms with State money to direct traffic to the site. Apparently there are no creative people living in the state of Maine, but, there is one semi-smart web developer.
Lance Dotson is the owner of the Maine Web Report- a blog, who quickly found the cost of his google ad words increasing when WKP started bidding up the prices of keywords using tax dollars. He said some things on his blog- that suggested that WKP was “pissing away” Maine tax dollars- and competing with him. WKP decided to sue.
This story is making the rounds in several spheres- bloggers concerned about being sued, free speech advocates worrying about rights disappearing, ad agencies worried about bad pr, and maybe even the people selling search words like Google and Yahoo.
Here is The Next Wave take on this mess: The State of Maine and Lance Dotson and WKP all have made a mistake- because buying search terms instead of creating sites that generate organic (unpaid good results based on the quality of the content) is the lazy way to generate hits for your site.
The State of Maine, and anyone else who hires an agency like WKP- who’s entire site is built in Flash- and has no real search results on it’s own, should be questioning their agencies ability to build an effective web site in the first place. To see how many pages are indexed in google- go to the search window type in: site:yourdomainname.xxx and you will see the results- WKP has 3- with zero indexed content.
Instead of buying search terms- that money could be used to continue to develop useful and informative content- or to promote the site and the State using other media.
Maine should fire WKP- because they’ve brought the State into an embarrassing situation with negative PR, and because they were “pissing away tax money”- but this is typical of government buyers who issue RFP’s without fully understanding what they are buying.
I’m sure this story isn’t over- there are lots of places you can look to read more: The blogging journalist Fuzzy Blog Boston.com Maine web Report
But the important thing to remember on the web is that content is what is important- and if it can’t be found by search- it’s not good content.
Now- I’m going to say what I really think:
Agencies that buy search terms as part of a media strategy are whores. Even if they aren’t marking up the buy, they don’t love their client- they just are too lazy to work to make the site sell itself. Good content gets you the search engines love for free. Ask us- or look us up- we’re on the front page of Google for quite a few search terms.
For right now- the search engines revenue engine is driven by Internet lust- by clients like the State of Maine who don’t know what makes a site index- or work. The search companies are feasting on the uneducated by pimping the top spots and the right side of the results page to the highest bidder. While we don’t believe prostitution should be illegal- we do believe that pimping is the most deplorable form of trade there is- and both the search companies – and agencies who buy results are nothing but pimps.
Those are fighting words- and for good reason, this is a controversy that needs to be discussed. The model of agency compensation has been broken for a long time- but paying auction prices for placement is not a win for the client. The agencies job is to ADD value to the clients products or services- by finding a unique selling proposition- or creating an aura of desirability that wasn’t there before. Not by slapping some keyword make-up and a bigger budget on some haggard creative.
What do you think?
Last night, watching TV, I saw 2 new campaigns- by two of the best advertising agencies in the business: Chiat/Day and Crispin Porter Bogusky.
The clients: Apple and Burger King respectively.
Both clients spend more to run a spot than any of our clients spend in a year- but, that’s beside the point- the point is; who gets the most out of their advertising budget; who maximizes the value of every dollar, and how can you get the best advertising for less money?
Apple’s new campaign is a simple production- 2 actors (the button down guy, John Hodgman, is the PC and the young hipster, Justin Long, - is the Mac) talking on camera, white background, - with a logo at the end on an iMac screen. Six different spots- Viruses, Restarting, Better, iLife, Network, WSJ. Each covers a different reason a Mac beats a PC. Entertaining yes- but where is the call to action? Sounds really trite- but, no where in the spot is any indication that if you go to Apple.com you can find out more.
Luckily- most people can figure that out on their own- and if they do- right on the front page of a fast loading site- Apple has the spots running- and links to why you should get a mac.
The cost of production and editing these 6 spots in Dayton OH would be under $30,000, shot in HD (not including talent rate). On the web- all the spots are downloadable in different sizes, and easy to link to. This is how viral campaigns take off- easy to point to, easy to send. On the other hand- we have the BK “Manthem”- a very expensively produced spot- with scenes of men marching through streets with their new Burger King Texas Double Whoppers. Yes I am a man- hear me roar- but after CP&B got done with the musical score- the multiple scenes, the huge cast- the dumping of a mini-van over a bridge into a dump truck- to be pulled by a circus strongman- we have a :30 spot with a budget that some independent film makers make a feature film with.
Now, even if the spot was amazing, fantastic, one that I wanted to watch over and over- I can’t- at least not easily.
The Burger site at bk.com is made in Flash [note: the site was built by VML]- with no way to bookmark a page, send a link or even download the spot. If I’d like- I can send the spot to a friend- which I tried to do- so I could send you an easy link- but the link that it generates- fails. So much for a multi-million dollar budget (including creative, production and media). You will just have to go to BK.com, find the cinema link, then click on the Manthem reel (note- all the other spots have download links). NOTE: Feb 2007, I’ve added the Manthem Burger King spot with a link from YouTube at the bottom of this post- since BK still doesn’t understand how to maximize their ad dollars online. This post still generates a lot of search results- all for BK, almost none for Apple.
As more people time shift TV programming- can you afford not to have your spots as easy to get to as possible? Why hide behind menus, locked content, and long downloads? Do you have the script in a searchable format- so someone searching for “I’m am man, hear me roar” or “Texas Double Whopper” or “Eat this meat” etc- so that people looking to see what you spent so much money on- can find it- instead of this post.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky is where Chiat/Day was around 35 years ago- having the pick of clients and talent. But comparing these two campaigns, shows that the steady old hand of Chiat understands it’s about delivering a message instead of showing off. The Apple campaign isn’t going to set the world on fire- but at least it’s accessible and supported online. Instead of spending huge on production- they bought more media- instead of posing- they deliver.
At one point Jay Chiat asked “How big can we get before we get bad?” and many would argue that Chiat/Day on a bad day was better than many agencies on their best- but, if you really want to know how to get the best bang for your ad dollar- make sure your agency checks it’s ego at the door- instead of out of your ad budget.
What do you think?
Here are the complete words (Lyrics) to the Burger King “Manthem” tv spot for the Texas Double Whopper:
I am man, hear me roar,
In numbers too big to ignore,
And I’m way too hungry to settle for chick food!
‘Cause my stomach’s starting to growl,
And I’m going on the prowl,
For a Texas Double Whopper!
“Man that’s good!”
Oh, yes, I’m a guy!
I’ll admit I’ve been fed quiche!
Wave tofu bye-bye!
Now it’s for Whopper beef I reach.
I will eat this meat
Chorus (Eat this meat)
‘Till my innie turns into an outie!
I am starved!
I am incorrigible!
And I need to scarf a burger beef bacon jalapeno good thing down!
(Yeah!)
I am hungry!
(I am hungry)
I am incorrigible!
I AM MAN!
The Texas Double Whopper: Eat like a man. Man.
By the number of hits we’re getting for people searching for this- it’s even more proof that CP&B isn’t managing the BK site properly-
We’re not getting any searches on the Apple spots- meaning people are finding the PC/Mac spots easily on Apple’s site.
Note: This post is generating an incredible number of search hits- all for the BK spot. According to Ad Age- this was a spot that was unveiled at the BK franchisee annual convention. After complaints about the spooky king- and the focus on the 18-24 yr old male customer- and almost everything else Crispin has done for BK- the franchisees looked at their sales figures- and this overblown production- and cheered.
Maybe the difference between BK and Apple has more to do with the client- Steve Jobs is a visionary king- BK is a horde of franchisees who like to think they are all kings. The big question will be if the franchisees will be able to let Crispin let go and keep making new, fresh ads- or will they try to force this into eternity. Ugoff was brilliant- but it would be old and annoying if it had run much longer.
You can see the spot and read comments on YouTube - the quality isn’t as good as the BK site- but they still don’t have it available to share. There may even be a directors cut out there somewhere- CP+B has been known to float some viral versions. It may have been on MySpace for a minute- but it’s gone now.
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