To all the über creatives out there about to launch your new “hot agency”- a few words of advice: launch a site before you send out your press release telling the world that you are open for business.
If I was a client, I’d assume that an agency is the first to realize that people can’t buy from you if they can’t find you, so, start off with your best foot forward.
Please note: this also means, don’t waste your money on a fancy Flash site- save that for when you are too big and don’t want business (unless you are really smart and know exactly how to make a Flash site that is both accessible for the blind- and search friendly- which few of you do). Google doesn’t like Flash much- and so all those people googling to find start-ups like Goodness Manufacturing, Toy, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, and Brew Creative are ending up on some upstart agency site like this to find a link to your site.
There is also a bit more to it- web 2.0 and search require more than a brochure site- you have to continually add and update content to make your site relevant to search. If your agency doesn’t understand this, we’re happy to offer our consulting services to help you get the results you want.
My father was a copy editor for a major newspaper. Facts counted back then- apparently, that skill has been lost- when Ad Age continues to ad to the legend of Crispin Porter + Bogusky by saying an office that opened on Sept. 10, 2001, was “shuttered in the 1990’s.
Advertising Age - Five Crispin Refugees Set Up Shop in L.A.
There’s a new creative boutique gunning for Crispin Porter & Bogusky’s hotshop crown — and it’s staffed with five of the agency’s own.
Setting up shop in Venice, Calif., just blocks from an office Crispin opened (and later shuttered) in the 1990s, are a cadre of the agency’s former staffers — some of the minds behind a handful of the shop’s most high-profile and envied campaigns for Burger King, the “Truth” anti-smoking movement, Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Miller High Life and Ikea. Their fledgling agency will be called Goodness Mfg. and led by three former Crispin creative directors who resigned last week, along with two others who left previously.
The natural evolution of great creative shops should be the spawning of more creative shops. When I visited Portland Oregon about 10 years ago, it was clear that the caliber of the entire market was elevated by having Wieden + Kennedy in the ‘hood. It’s interesting to see that CP+B is spreading its seeds all over- with Alex Bogusky stating that Toy in NYC as a CP+B offspring- and now Goodness Mfg. in Venice.
Mr. Bogusky put the number of Crispin employees at 600, with 80 in the creative department. He also pointed out that this is not the first shop to break away from the agency — the first was Stick & Move, based in Philadelphia. Mr. Bogusky also considers Toy, under Ari Merkin, to be inspired by Crispin. “I think of myself as the father and Chuck [Porter] as the mother.”
However, for the kings of new media- it’s going to be hard for them to land new business- since they don’t seem to have a site up at either www.goodnessmfg.com (16 July 07 update- holding page is up) or goodnessmanufacturing.com and have cloaked their identities through the registrar. Another question arises in a google search where it seems that there is already a “Goodness manufacturing” out there- and it isn’t anything to do with advertising.
Considering that Crispin Porter + Bogusky is considered a leading new media agency, it’s odd that they, or their spinoffs don’t practice what they preach.
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?
I’m not sure who the independent restaurants hired, but the site by the Dayton Daily News isn’t helping them much.