Our answer is yes. Over the course of the past 50 years, the advertising industry has transformed to encompass all new media that fall under the advertising umbrella. If you recently haven’t reviewed your marketing strategies and costs when working with an agency, you should. You might be losing a fortune.
I read an article today by a former head of creative at a major ad agency that read how he had witnessed a large amount of frustration by Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) caused by how their agencies charge for creative and account services. The author says he had an epiphany and that maybe charging by the FTE (full time employee) should be a thing of the past. He states, “the fact that agencies charge more money when they put more people (or say they do) onto a project,” is wrong. No kidding.
I have always felt that the standard advertising agency model he wrote about is broken. In this model, ultimately agencies are compensated greater when deadlines are not met or only sub-par work is delivered. I’ll explain.
Let’s say that your agency presents you concepts for a new campaign. Its employees have been working on storyboards, scripts and ads for weeks while billing you for the time. You take a look and see nothing you like and say to the agency, “I need to see more concepts.”
If the agency uses this standard model, ultimately, it just hit the lottery. Now it can go back and create additional campaigns and of course bill you more money. If the agency presented you great campaigns in the first presentation they lose potential income. The agency is being rewarded for delivering inferior work.
I’ve always wondered why CMOs put up with type of agency model.
Now you’re probably saying, “This isn’t the relationship I have with my agency. I would never agree to this type of arrangement.”
The truth is you might have a similar type of relationship but don’t realize you do. Are your invoices always much higher than the initial quote? Are hidden fees popping up each month? If you answered yes, let me tell you how Davis Advertising can help.
At Davis we can operate using a fixed pricing model to help businesses of any size. This model has our clients pay a locked-in price or a pre-determined monthly fee (not retainer) that covers all required services for the completion of a project or campaign. This fixed pricing model would penalize us for creating campaigns that were not accepted by our clients at the first presentation. At Davis Advertising, if our first presentation is not great we will not be compensated for future concepts. Clients are invoiced only once we get it right. Not only does this method make us work more efficiently, this method is fairer to our clients and saves them time. So when you ask your agency if it can fix your problems and save you money be sure to also ask which model is used.
By Andy Davis
One of the greatest joys in building a marketing campaign is looking at the product, and trying to come up with words that truly exemplify the experience the customer will have with the product. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to return to the same well, and pull out several of the same words. There are plenty of lists out there of overused advertising buzzwords, and we aren’t going to make another one.
Instead of creating a similar list, what we are going to do is help you become more descriptive. If you click on this link, you will find an excel spreadsheet to download. Once you download it, you will see that there are six bingo cards filled out with words pulled from a list of 100 most overused words in Press Releases.
This is one game of Bingo you don’t really want to win.
If you’re reviewing your soon-to-be-released PR package, and it stands a chance of winning a game, you have too many buzzwords. This means that there is a good chance the average reader of your release will immediately think “Sales” and Pitch your copy directly into the cylindrical file.
The solution is to look at each of those buzz words, and examine them from the customer’s point of view. Domino’s Pizza’s brand image relaunch would have gone horribly, if they had said, “Domino’s crust is New And Improved”. Instead, what caught the general public’s attention was “Domino’s crust is cardboard and no one likes it.” Then, they explained that it was new, and improved. The fact that the buzzwords were implied, and not surrounded by bright flashing lights, made this campaign a huge success.
Writing smarter doesn’t mean use bigger, better buzzwords. It means connecting with your audience more effectively, so they have a better understanding. Write in a way that illustrates to the reader that you care about their needs, and are here to serve them, not just to WOW them.
(buzzwords for the cards were taken from a great blog, listed here: http://www.adamsherk.com/public-relations/most-overused-press-release-buzzwords)
After taking a good, long, honest look at your business’s online identity, you have come to the realization that it is lacking. Maybe the look and feel is reminiscent of an Atari game. The only emails you receive from your website are from Nigerian Princes or offers to rebuild your website. Even though your site is old and out of date, trying to load up your website on a Smartphone is an impossibility with all of the flash navigation you have on it. Not to mention, the name of your site is www.2beornottoB.net, for all of your Shakespearean needs. How do we fix this without completely starting from scratch?
First, we’ll conquer the domain name issue. Your domain name is a main part of your branding. If you cannot line up your business name with your web name completely, you’d better have something close. Buying multiple domains, and pointing them all at the same site, is one way to help organize this. Just for fun, type in www.coke.com. Notice, it brings you to www.coca-cola.com. Try www.cocacola.com. Same thing, right? If your name could be confusing, or if there’s a chance that someone will type it in wrong, go out and buy yourself some extra domain names, and point them all at your site. Do your best to make sure that you have all of the possible names customer’s may accidentally put when looking for your name.
Next, if your website design hasn’t changed in the last couple of years, you probably need an overhaul. For one thing, any pictures you have of people may seem dated, due to their outfits. Even something as simple as blue jeans and a T-shirt can appear dated. Colors have come and gone out of style. Even your font choice may cry out “New, Inexperienced Company Here”. Keep your site current, with new graphics and style cues. Hint: there’s more than 16 colors allowed on computers now.
If you’re trying to get email from your website, have a form, not just your email address posted there for the world to copy. A form will help to limit some of the junk mail. Understand, there are still desperate people that will go and fill out your form, trying to sell you things, but at least they have to do it on your website. They can’t simply copy your email address into their mass email program and pepper you over and over again. It also makes things easier for your customer. For example, if a customer uses a web-based email system, like Yahoo, they have to copy your email address and LEAVE YOUR SITE to contact you. Do you really want them going off, onto a different site to contact you? Or do you think that they could be distracted when they leave your site, and go to their email? Who knows, maybe that Nigerian Prince has contacted them, too...
In case you didn’t know, people don’t want to read about your business. How many “About us” categories does one business need?(about us, our history, our goals, what we do, how we do it, when we do what we do, our beliefs, meet our staff, meet our staff’s family, meet our pets, our pet’s history and goals, etc.....) The primary subject of your website is your customer. Your website needs descriptions of your products, FAQ’s on how to use them best, contacts for sales or customer service, and a limited amount of social proof. Your website is a sales tool, to either directly sell your product or service right online, or to increase off-line sales. Make sure the point of your website is one click away at most. If you are selling goods, make the sales process easy. Don’t force the customer to fill out 20 different forms before they buy, or they won’t bother.
Remember, it’s about ease for the consumer, not for you.
We’ll tackle mobile websites tomorrow.
Is any marketing safe? Not a day goes by that we don't read stories of television ads losing viewers because of DVRs, mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, etc.), and people watching video online. There are stories of how no one reads print anymore, and that print ads are going away. The latest news is that click through rates on banner ads are at their lowest percentage ever. What’s an advertiser to do?
Change your paradigm.
Side note: I’ve always wanted to use Paradigm in a title, ever since I read my first Dilbert cartoon strip.
Banner ad click through rates are certainly at a low. People have a tendency to tune them out. Even if it is exactly what they need, with a flashing billboard of their name, saying, “You need this!!!” there’s a good chance they will miss it. As a society, we are trained to look away from these ads. You almost have to spring them on someone to get a response.
The belief has always been that a banner ad is only useful if it encourages an immediate call to action. For example, if 1000 people see the ad, and 2 click, your .2% CTR shows how effective that ad was. The shift in vision is to consider these banner ads the same way that you would consider your television ad - as a branding platform.
Banner ads that are used as branding tools do not need to say, “Click here”. In fact, a click to such an ad should only bring the customer to a brand awareness landing page. The call to action is not “BUY OUR PRODUCT NOW” or “USE OUR SERVICE NOW” but rather, “Remember us when you need us, because we’re the guys you want to do business with.”
The use of banner ads can mirror your social media platforms. Rather than an immediate call to action, you are using your banner ads to create a brand loyalty based on respect. In fact, rather than pushing landing pages to sell product, you can begin to use banner ads to suggest your social media channels, where the future customer can see what you’re really all about, and make an informed decision. It is a way of showing your company as more than a peddler of goods, but as a company worth doing business with.
This is a non-traditional use of banner ads, and we wouldn’t recommend this to be your only use of such a medium, but it is certainly a direction that is worth looking into. If click through rates are all you are concerned with, this isn’t the program for you. If you’re interested in expanding your advertising reach, and can imagine your banner ads as basically television commercials, then this is for you. No one has a click through rate on TV. (Of course, Old Navy, with their Shazam encoded commercials come close...)
Are your ready to shift your vision?
We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about marketing strategies. Many of these are in relation to technology, like QR codes. We’ve discussed different social media tools that businesses should use to forward their brand awareness and increase customer loyalty. Texting, web design, and branding are all popular themes on this site. All of these are important aspects that you need to think about, frequently. However, there could be something hurting your business every day that you walk right by, and never think about.
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| Your signage looks like this... |
Alright, hopefully that’s an overstatement. Let’s face it, perception is reality, and if your business appears to be out-dated, there’s a good chance it’s hurting your bottom line. Let’s pretend a traveler’s car breaks down in a town he’s never been in. He’s going to have to stay a couple of nights while waiting for it to be fixed, and he’s trying to pick out a hotel. There are two within walking distance of the automotive dealer fixing his vehicle. Which one is he going to pick, based on looks alone?
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The example above may seem a little extreme, but in reality we do this every day. There are stores that you have never gone in, because their display or signage from the street does not look appealing to you. In these stores you may be missing the deals of a lifetime, and you will never know because they look closed due to horrible signage. Even if a friend stated that there were great deals to be had, some people would still avoid a location due to the effect on their own self image that shopping at a place that looks close to condemned would have on them.
If I accidentally posted your sign as one of my examples, please call us today, so we can schedule a sit down and discuss the drastic overhaul you need!
We often give you advice on this blog, on how to better your social media presence, your SEO, and other marketing ideas. Today, we're going to give you a different type of advice: Financial! Okay, maybe that's not entirely true. We did want to share this video that we put together for Webster First Federal Credit union with you, though. Enjoy! We have a full video production center, so if you're looking to expand your advertising into video, whether for the internet or television, contact us today.
When I was young, I thought that my Uncle Robert was a superstar. Everyone in our little town of 10,000 people knew him. As I became a teenager, I came to the realization that there was a great big world outside of my little town, and he most certainly was not a celebrity, even though everyone in our little Podunk area knew him. Now, as an adult, I have come to understand fame a little better. Robert drove a fruit truck in town. Basically, this means that he woke up around 3:00 in the morning, and drove out to Quincy Market (the real farmer’s market, not today’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace) and bought the freshest fruits and vegetables available. He would hit several farm stands on the way back to town, where he knew of good deals on excellent produce. He would organize all of the product into bins, and drive around, selling. All of the restaurants in town bought from him. His route took him to every business in town, and he sold to every worker. People would flag him down as he drove down the street, and buy their produce to use that night. You can understand how I thought this was akin to being Elvis, when I was a small child. Everywhere we went there were people were pulling him over, and waving him down. Every time the truck stopped anywhere, a crowd formed around him, and people came out of the buildings to see him. Although this happened back in the 80’s, not too long ago, there was still a lot of bartering going on, so I’d see him giving away pounds of potatoes and taking a chicken in trade. I thought he was receiving gifts! How much more famous could he be! I can look back on this, almost thirty years later, and realize that although he was not a celebrity, he certainly was famous. He did not reach millionaire status, but was able to live rather comfortably. He raised a family that understood hard work, and everyone in town knew where to go if they wanted fresh food. I’m sure the local supermarkets sighed in relief when he retired. You have this same ability. Brand yourself. Become the absolute best place to buy your specific product from. Offer a level of service that no one else can compare to. To be cliché, go that extra inch, mile, etc. Use you business’s good reputation to grow. Use the social media tools of today to expand where businesses couldn’t in the past. Make your business famous, even if it is just locally, and you will be successful.
-Submitted by Chris Gregoire
I’ve got another game. I’m going to name a product. Then I’ll give you three choices, and you can pick what information you’d like to figure out the target market for each product. Item 1 – Highly Caffeinated Energy Drink a. Males, Ages 15-30 b. Males, Yearly income of $25,000-$50,000 c. Males, that commonly: partake in extreme sports, listen to loud music, play aggressive video games. Item 2 – Home-Made All-Natural Anti-Wrinkle Cream a. Female, Ages 25-55 b. Females, Yearly income of $35,000-$60,000 c. Females, that commonly: buy/wear makeup, spend time getting hair/nails done at professional salons, have gym memberships. If you picked either a or b in either example, you are using demographics (characteristics used to classify people for statistical purposes, such as age, race or gender) to try and figure out who the target audience is. If you chose c, you are using psychographics (variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests or lifestyles). Demographics are chartable; they are concrete classifications, unlike psychographics, which are open to interpretation. If you could fine tune your marketing for the appropriate psychographics, in addition to simply the demographics, you would have a higher success rate. The challenge in the past had been, “How do I successfully market to a specific niche when they may fall into different demographic groups?” Enter social media. You now have the ability to find your target audience, and specifically speak to them. In example one, if I was launching a new energy drink, I would actively post on extreme sports pages on facebook, sponsor cutting edge music groups on Myspace, and run ads on video game review sites. I would make sure that people that I felt would want my product could see it. Rather than relying on traditional print or television ads, I now have the ability to infiltrate the correct groups with my product, and give people that would want my product the avenues to find it. That’s on a national level. What if my product was more like number two? A self-starting, small business that creates and distributes products that are locally made and sold would not want to go for a national market. That business would want to get into local homes, which means getting in with local businesses. The person starting that type of business would want to visit local gyms and salons, and offer sample giveaways. He or she would put the company’s energy into local fan pages in social media, to build up relevant excitement. The ability to cross market with other small local businesses through everyone’s social media channels can greatly increase visibility for every company involved. Are you actively communicating with your target market, in their environment, or are you passively hoping they will randomly see your message? If your marketing is based on hope, you are risking failure.
We’re going to play a short game. You ready? You have to answer six questions. No peeking ahead! 1. If your cat scratched your finger, you would go to the bathroom and get a _____________. 2. If you were thirsty at work, you’d go to the _________________ and buy a soda. 3. On the way home from work, you need to stop at __________________ to buy a new tv. 4. I can’t start my day without going through the drive thru at _________________. 5. I need to load more music onto my _________________. We’ll hold off on number 6 for a minute. Now comes the fun part. I’m going to guess your answers. Now it is fair to say that I do not have any prior knowledge as to who is reading this right now, at this moment. I’ve always been a fan of magic tricks, but this is no magic trick. I am willing to bet that I have at least one of your answers correct. There is a very good chance that I have more than 3. Let’s see how close I came. 1. Band-aid 2. Coke machine 3. Best Buy 4. Dunkin Donuts 5. iPod We tend to think in brands. For example, maybe for number 4, you said “Starbucks.” Possibly you said a different store than Best Buy for number 3. However,I am pretty sure that most people did not say: 1. Plastic adhesive strip 2. Vending machine 3. Electronics store 4. My local coffee shop 5. Personal mp3 portable device Your company’s goal needs to be: Our product must become synonymous with our brand. There are whole sections of the country that call any soda “coke”. Can you imagine working for Pepsi, walking into an establishment, and having someone refer to the bottle of soda you are selling as, “Some of that Pepsi coke”? Ideally, you want your customers to stop referring to your product by its generic name, and refer to it only via your brand. What you need to figure out, for your specific product, is how to accomplish this feat. It is not the same for every product, and you need to spend some serious time looking into the demographics and psychographics surrounding your specific products. I skipped question number six. 6. If I needed (what you’re selling) I’d pick up the phone and call ________________. I sincerely hope that eventually, everyone asked this question will say your company’s name.
 This is a two-part series, discussing two major questions that we are most often asked by companies trying to enter into this new era of Social Media. WHO and HOW. Congratulations for entering into the new media world. You now have a Facebook, a Twitter, a Youtube, a Flickr, and blogger accounts, as well as your traditional website. Now comes the tricky part; using them appropriately. The very first question you must ask yourself is, "Who will become the Social Media mouthpiece?" After speaking with several companies, one mistake that many companies make is that they assign Social Media responsibilities to their IT department. Someone up the chain of command said, “Social Media is done on computers. IT works on computers all day. They should do Social Media!” No, they shouldn’t (necessarily.) That’s like saying, “My janitor cleans a toilet … He should become a plumber!” Most would consider this a silly statement. If you owned a major newspaper, you probably wouldn’t have all of your articles written by the paperboy. (I can hear IT people saying, “Thank you,” from here. You’re welcome.) The tools are simple enough to use, but need to be navigated by a well-versed individual that is aware of your company's current products, promotions, and services. In order to fully understand who should be in charge of your Social Media, you must know which job responsibilities that individual or group will oversee. There are three major areas in Social Media - Advertising, Public Relations, and Customer Service, that need to be addressed in slightly different ways.
For example, your Advertising person is most likely focused on immediate results. They want analytics that show for the day after an ad was run, an influx of customers came in and bought the product. Social Media doesn’t typically work that way. Spotting trends in Social Media takes longer, and uses a completely different set of analytics.The typical Public Relations Manager wants to always show your company in a good light, and would want to shut off any negativity that can come through the channels of Social Media. He would limit the amount of client submissions onto your sites, which is not the appropriate response in the Social Media world. Your Customer Service person wants to solve any issues that arise, on a per-issue basis. Although this is certainly a part of Social Media, it is only a fraction of the total responsibility. Depending on the size of your company, there may be a small amount of customer issues that make it into cyberspace, and a Customer Service manager could miss the focus of the larger areas of Social Media. Your social media strategist, champion, or whatever buzzword you like right now, should be someone who is able to blend these three roles. You want a percentage of PR, Advertising, and Customer Service, that truly understands your company and the demographic your company needs to reach. Stay tuned for Part 2 – How Do I fill 5 New Channels with Information!?!
 Today we are going to go back in time to third grade math class. The teacher started the lesson with a question, “What is 4 times 1?” She held up four fingers, and asked us how many. We all said, “Four!” This is not a trick question, although when I was a child, I thought it was. Then again, I also thought that adding or subtracting zero to or from any number was a waste of time as well. What do you have if you had four, and take away zero? My answer was, “You didn’t do anything. Don’t be silly.” Multiplying by one seemed to be the same waste. “If you take four fingers, and count it once, then you already did the work. Why point out you only counted it once? ” I guess I was a little too analytical in third grade. Now I’m older and wiser, and I realized why we had to learn the “1 x X = X” kind of math. It’s so that we can understand relationships. If you are a relatively new or small company, chances are you have a small client base. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could piggy back on another company, and count its client base as your own? That would be some multiplication that you would get behind. Even my third grade self would have understood “X x 2 = 2X”. That’s where Cross Promotional Marketing come into play. Today we are going to focus on the power of doubling your audience. Let’s start with the benefits from Cross Promotional Marketing. This is the short and sweet. - Expands the customer base. Both your clients and their customers see the ads.
- Added credibility from a company with followers. If they are willing to work with you, why shouldn’t your potential customer?
- Potentially lower cost of advertising. It can be lower because you can shoulder it with your partner in the cross promotion.
- Added creativity. There’s no way to advertise lawn care with auto body work without getting a little creative.
A Cross Promotional Marketing is not always mutually beneficial. Often times, one company gains a lot more than the other, and if the costs of doing this business are not aligned the right way, you could end up shouldering more cost, while the other business gains all the sales. It is important to understand the demographic of the audience that your new partner brings to the table. If I run a hair dressing establishment, it may be easier to partner with a pedicurist than a chainsaw salesman. How many of my clients need a chainsaw, versus how many of his clients need a haircut? This would probably not be the best relationship for both parties. And if you are trying to give haircuts with chainsaws….. Sometimes, it makes sense to get a group of businesses together. Banks, insurance companies, and financial advisers often times make good brand partners. Most concert series have multiple businesses sharing the costs of the venue, so all benefit. Multiplying your brand power as a group sometimes makes sense. 3x, 4x, etc. The problem can arise if there are too many partners, and your message gets muted by all of the other brands involved. Cross Promotion can liven up your marketing strategy, and if done correctly, can really benefit your customer base in some incredible ways. It can show that you care about your customers outside of just your establishment, and that you want them to get the best deal everywhere. The pitfalls typically cannot hurt your clients or customers at all, but you can end up taking it on the chin, if you are not aware of the demographic you are trying to reach, or if your marketing campaign favors one business over another, with evenly distributed costs. The easiest way to make sure you are in the right place is to work with an advertising consultant, to make sure everything stays even.
This is a question that often confronts many executives as their business evolves over the years. In today’s world, where businesses have to adapt daily to new technology, new products and new services, many times a brand line, which successfully described the older company, is no longer relevant. The question to change a brand, especially one where years of marketing dollars have been spent to support that brand, should not be taken lightly. There are a series of questions that should be discussed prior to making that decision. Is my brand still believable? Does it truly reflect my current business or where I expect to be in the next few years? Is my current brand line detrimental to my growth? Have I successfully marketed my brand, and how will changing it affect my business? One option to consider is whether you need a new brand or can evolve your current brand that might be a far less risky. Examples of brand evolution include Fortune 500 companies like General Electric. In the past evolved the brand line “We bring good things to light” to “We bring good things to life”, before finally changing the brand completely to “Imagination at work”. GE, which started as a manufacturer of light bulbs, now offers hundreds of products from light bulbs to jet engines. It was clear that as the company expanded into new fields, a brand that would not limit that growth needed to be created. Their new brand line puts no limits on the company’s growth. Other examples of brand lines with no limits include Nike’s “Just do it” and the universal “Swoosh” symbol and McDonald’s current brand, “I’m lovin’ it”. If you make a decision that your brand line needs updating then make sure you choose a new brand that can successfully evolve with your company. Remember the basic rules of branding, starting with the question, is my brand believable? Creating a brand line that successfully represents your business now and in the future is your main goal. Creating a brand that makes your company seem too perfect or does not truly reflect your product or service is only going to create consumer disbelief, and in the long run need to be changed. It is easy to feel that you are the best at everything or your products are the best on the market, but it’s better to find a niche where you do exceed the competition, and then create a brand that accurately depicts that. When thinking about your brand you need to look at all facets of your company’s business and make sure all materials live your new brand. Things to consider include; How is my new brand positioned? How should my new brand be presented? How do I market the new Brand? How should my employees and customers experience the brand? Start with the basics; new stationary, business cards, signage and point of purchase materials, brochures and your website. Anything that a customer might see needs to live the brand. Do not launch your new brand until everything is in place. Make sure your employees understand your brand message and support the brand in everything they do. Become a brand guru and preach the need to live your brand in all aspects of your work. A great brand with no support will fail miserably. If you do your homework, you will create a brand that can last for generations. If not, you will continue to have a brand with little relevance to your consumers and it will ultimately hurt your sales.
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