We are pleased to present a new series, Ask Mr. Brandypants, from guest blogger Tom Marcantel. Practical advice on marketing from a guy who knows a thing or two about advertising and selling stuff. Enjoy!
Dear Mr. Brandypants,
I think that I need an ad agency but I’m not sure who to go with. I know that given this economy, we need to be smart with our marketing budget. Is there some criteria that I should use in evaluating a marketing partner?
- Need an Agency Now
Dear Need,
This is a question that Mr. Brandypants often hears. The short answer is, yes, there is a criteria. But you’ll need to create it because your situation will be different from everyone else—including your competition. However, Mr. B would never leave you hanging so here are some guidelines to consider for developing your criterion.
1.Experience in your category does not mean success for you.
Agencies that have “category specialties” often are experts on the operations of a category, but have standardized their practices. Which means they’ll attempt to solve everyone’s marketing problems in the same way. It’s more efficient for them but not necessarily more effective for you. Look for someone who is willing to dig into your business and offer fresh perspectives. The quality of the thinking and the interest shown in your business can trump category experience. That is, if they can show that they know and follow sound marketing practices.
2. Look for someone who listens, but aren’t order-takers.
Mr. B knows it’s a fine line to tread, but there are two considerations to take into account. First, you know your business better than anyone. But the agency should know how to do what they do better than you. It’s a nice balance, right? So if you get the sense that you’re dealing with someone who’s point of view is “whatever you think,” run—don’t walk—away. You’ll be wasting your time and money.
3. Who will run your business?
Here’s a little secret—big agencies take on small accounts to provide cash flow while their higher-profile accounts offer marquee value but smaller margins. If you’re a small account at a big agency, chances are your day-to-day team will be junior staffers. So you want to be a big fish in a small pond. Provided of course that the people in charge of the pond know what they’re doing.
4. Find someone you like.
Everything else being equal, you have to like and respect the people you partner with and vice-versa. If the chemistry isn’t there, things can go south fast.
One suggestion before you commit your entire budget, try a project or two with people you feel good about. It will give you both a chance to see if things are working.
Good luck.
MB
If you have a question, please email Mr. Brandypants c/o tom@marcantelpartners.com
The Australian Ministry of Tourism decided to invest $20 million to build a brand plan that would change the conversation around their country. They decided to start with a new brand identity.
Rather than hire a branding agency that specializes in research and strategic thinking that would build all of the elements of a brand campaign including the identity to accomplish the stated goals of the campaign, they decided instead to have an online logo contest.
This isn’t a local minor league sports team with a mascot contest that is one part public relations initiative and one part community involvement project. This isn’t a small non profit with no budget looking for student work to improve their image.
This is a country. This is a continent.
And they are going to trust their $20 million investment in the hands of amateurs who are willing to work for the slim chance of winning $2500 for a designing a logo.
Check out the results from the contest and you can see the quality of the submissions. Out of almost 400 submissions, these are the ones that the committee has decided are the best. Take a look at the plethora of taglines submitted along with the logo designs:
The future is bright
The heart of many nations
Everything happens here
Make it real
A remarkable journey
Get down under
Pure geniaus
We’ve got it right here
Discover the land down under
The directions for submission were as follows:
“Designers and contest participants should submit ideas for a contemporary Australia brand that captures the essence of the nation and presents Australia as a great place for living, holidaying, education, business, manufacturing, agriculture and investment. Submissions should articulate as clearly as possible Australia’s brand position in the context of the global marketplace and help the Government capture “the vibrancy, energy and creative talents of Australia. Designers and contest participants may choose to spend time researching Australia and its current brand.”
What ‘brand position’? There was no strategic brief. No creative direction. No consumer insight. Just a suggestion that designers ‘may choose to spend time researching’ the current brand. “May choose to”. Really.
Is there ever a time that quantity has been the same thing as quality? Crowdsourcing delivers more, but not necessarily better, options.
The Nashville Business Journal’s recent article, Print is Not Dead, covers a recent luncheon for the American Marketing Association in Nashville. A panel of the largest ad agencies in Nashville discussed print media and shared their thoughts on the future of advertising.
These comments, as reported in the Nashville Business Journal, seem to be most telling regarding their thoughts about print media:
“Print is not dead. Print is very valuable going forward,” said Jeff Lipscomb, president of GS & F.
Jeffrey Buntin Jr, president and CEO of The Buntin Group, agreed.
“People still like to hold hands and walk in the park, and print is the same,” he said.
“I think it holds a creative preciousness that other mediums don’t,” he added, to applause.
That ‘creative preciousness’ that Buntin refers to is how the agencies feel about the print ads they design, not how the consumer feels about the media. There is no doubt that the loss of print as a viable advertising medium is a blow to the creative agencies that focus their talents on designing print ads. Those agencies, like the media they favor, are going the way of the dinosaur.
Shouldn’t the focus be on putting clients where their consumers are? Focusing on the kind of ads an agency wants to create just won’t cut it anymore.
Why would a consumer continue to choose a newspaper with out of date information? They aren’t. Consumers are getting news online. Consumers are researching products online. Consumers want to interact and engage with a brand online - mostly so they can actively be a part of the conversation instead of passively receiving a message through an ad.
Look at the industries that have been rocked by the ever changing technological landscape. Print media is just the latest, and it seems slowest, to evolve. How do you think Polaroid feels about all of the digital photography inventions of the past decade? Check out this AdAge video from the CMO of Kodak and you can get a glimpse into how much his world has changed.
So what does that mean for print? How do daily newspapers survive? What will happen to the ad agencies that are only focused on designing print ads?
Take a look at the survivors of the industrial revolution - the only solution is to evolve or die. Consumers still want and need the content but the delivery system has to change. The media outlets that can adapt will survive and even flourish. There is hope, but only a little, and only if they are willing to do things differently in order to get a different result.
For those of you that work “in house” on the corporate side, also known as “the client”, I hope that you will take the following suggestions from David Ogilvy to heart.
Obviously this list is written from the position of the agency. But just imagine how much harder your agency would work for you in you followed these points. What would be the worst thing that would happen? The agency would give you really great strategic branding and marketing initiatives that actually drive sales up?
1. Emancipate your agency from fear.
2. Select the right agency in the first place.
3. Brief your agency very thoroughly indeed.
4. Do not compete with your agency in the creative area.
5. Coddle the goose who lays the golden egg. (provide enough time and resources to do the job well.)
6. Don’t strain your advertising through too many layers.
7. Make sure your agency makes a profit.
8. Don’t haggle with your agency.
9. Be candid and encourage candor.
10. Set high standards.
11. Test everything.
12. Hurry. (Profit is a function of time.)
13. Don’t waste time on problem babies (Back your successes and abandon your losses.)
14. Tolerate genius.
15. Don’t under spend. (The surest way to overspend on advertising is not to spend enough to do the job properly.)
Amazing.
Fifty years later, as the industry goes through another major evolution, these words still hold true. I guess what’ really amazing is how few companies actually follow this sage advice.
What is holding you back from trusting your agency partner?
Fear? Fear of sucess? Fear of failure? Fear that is won’t be your idea?
Did you hire the agency that you believed would do a great job? Did you hire an agency that has achieved great results for other clients? Then let them achieve great results for you. The more you micro-manage the process and water down the work, the more you are guaranteed to get exactly what you fear most. Don’t make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Instead, support your agency. Work with them as strategic partners. Hire an agency that you trust and let them do the job you hired them for. Mr. Ogilvy knew a thing or two about how advertising should work.
If you don’t trust your agency enough to let them do their job, then get another agency. Right now. And this time pick one you can believe in.
So what is the flip side? What are the 15 things that agencies should do to be a good partner to you? If you imagined the perfect relationship0, what guidelines would the agency follow? Please list them in the comments.
Unlike quite a few other holidays, Thanksgiving is unique - no gifts. The whole concept of the holiday is about remembering who and what you are thankful for. Pretty ironic when you consider the American origin is Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal. Of course, in some families today the outcome will be very similar - yelling, screaming and some hurt feelings.
Thanksgiving does not have the same level of pressure as other holidays. It is about family, food and football. We all eat the Turkey (or tofurkey for my vegan friends) now so we can have great leftover sandwiches later. By far the most relaxed and guilt free of the holidays - even if you are in charge of meal preparation and clean up.
I am thankful for my husband and our four kids. I am thankful for the life we are building together.
I am thankful for my co-workers and the good laughs that we share every day. I am thankful for our clients who trust us with their businesses and let us work with them.
I am thankful for my community, our school, and this country.
But on this day, I am most thankful that my in-laws are such awesome cooks and that we are going to eat their house. I’ll take clean up over cooking every day.
Each of the spots are embedded next to the poll and available for viewing in case you don’t remember them by their title. Although there are a few standouts Dove “Real Beauty” and Honda “Cog”, judging by this list, it would appear that there weren’t that many groundbreaking commercials during the past ten years.
What do you think? Please click here and let your voice be heard.
I had breakfast with John Winsor in New York a few months ago. Having spent time with him and discussing some of the philosophies from Baked In, this send up is all the funnier.
As Chris Anderson, Free and The Long Tail, describes it, “If you want to understand the future of marketing, advertising and product design, start here. Baked In provides essential insights from two of the hottest minds in marketing today.”
Razor Branding Blog specifically focuses on insight and guidance for CEOs and CMOs with regards to branding strategies for their companies.
Although the following video is more geared for the media industry, I thought it was applicable and more importantly pretty funny. I hope you enjoy it.
From a personal standpoint, Habit 4 Think Win-Win is about developing mutually beneficial solutions. The idea is that it doesn’t have to be win/lose or lose/win. No matter what the situation the idea is to always focus on the human element and true collaboration for solutions.
When people live with Habit 4 Think Win-Win then we believe in cooperation not competition and comparisons. You don’t have to lose so that I can win.
When a company utilizes Habit 4 Think Win-Win it truly does become a part of it’s brand. The 3 elements of it include:
Integrity - the values and commitments of the company
Maturity - having the strength and wisdom to be who you are and stand up for what you believe - recognizing that being different is best
Abundance - knowing that there is enough to go around
Companies can, and should, think win-win. When they do it is beneficial for the company, for the employees, for the product and most importantly for the consumer. Social marketing is here. Consumers respond to it. Companies have to embrace it, whether they want to or not.
My first car was a Volkswagen Thing. It was bright yellow with a small rip in the black top and a radio that rested on a shelf in the dash. The passenger would have to grab it before it flew out of the car if I turned a corner too quickly.
The doors came off, like a real Jeep, and it could be hosed off, inside and out, when it got dirty. I was a senior in high school and it was awesome. I felt like this car really defined me. Although I was a high school debater in Louisiana, the car made me feel like a surfer chick in Malibu.
Also, it didn’t look like everyone else’s Honda or Toyota. My car was different. It was a conversation starter. In my mind, I pictured my life playing out like the plot of a John Hughes movie and my VW Thing went a long way towards connecting me to Molly Ringwald and her Karmann Ghia in “Pretty in Pink”.
Mostly, owning a Thing put me in a cool club - which my weekends spent as a debater did not qualify for admittance to that club no matter how many trophies I won. Although we weren’t a majority, or in spite of it, VW drivers recognized each other with a smile and slight head nod. We knew we were special.
Imagine my distress when I read Ad Age recently to discover that VW is looking for a new agency to evolve into a more mainstream choice. ”…inspire our base of enthusiasts”, Tim Ellis VW VP of marketing, (Ad Age 8/31/09),”… reach out and captivate those in mainstream America.”
What?!
VW isn’t mainstream. This is the company with the iconic Lemon ad campaign.
How could a company that gave us the “Think Small” campaign even think about going ‘mainstream’.
Consumers are drawn to a product because it is different. It is unique. We like things that are decidedly not mainstream.
Why VW, why?
Don’t do it. Don’t appeal to everyone. Don’t be all things to all people. Don’t make everyone happy.
Razor Branding Blog
