Ad Agencies

5 Reasons Why Companies Choose the Wrong Agency Partner

posted by Laurenc on April 29th, 2009

Ad Agencies: 5 Reasons Why Companies Choose the Wrong Agency Partner

A few weeks ago, MediaPost wrote an article on “10 Reasons Why Clients Don’t Pick the Right SEM Agencies.“ This post really got me thinking, and I wanted to make my own similar list on five common traps that marketers fall into that leads to choosing the wrong agency partner. Picking the right partner for your business is critical to the success of your campaign. The wrong partner will not understand your business, goals, or even your target market, which could result in campaign failure and thousands of dollars wasted away.

If you are an client looking for an agancy-partner, stay away from these common problems that can cause you to choose the wrong firm.

1. You don’t have a clearly defined scope of work. Many clients fail to do the requisite preliminary research before issuing an RFP, including taking a hard look in the mirror and being honest about your assets and liabilities and what type of outside firm is likely to complement these. If you’re not sure what you need, you can always send out an exploratory RFI (Request for Information) to get a feel for what’s out there and/or hire an experienced consultant to help you navigate the waters.

2. You have an unreasonably short RFP lead time. If you want a customized RFP response with deep insights that shows how the agency will drive your business forward, you have to give them more than a week or two to work on it. Besides, if you hire the agency that dropped everything to put all their greatest minds on creating your RFP response, imagine what they’ll do once you’re a client and the next RFP hits their inbox.

3. You let work samples make the decision for you. Clients love flashy blinky things. And when the flashing and blinking comes with data, they light up as if they just hit the slot machine jackpot. Unfortunately, all too often clients see all the flash and forget to ask for the results. The next time an agency shows you examples of work they have done, as for a detailed business case study to go along with it.

4. Your approval process to too strict. You won’t believe how many times I have seen clients choose an agency by following a by-the-book process, choosing the one that looks best on paper, and ignoring their gut-instincts. In reality, there is no way to score intangibles like chemistry, vision, and how in-tune they are with your business. Choosing an agency firm this way is like marrying a person just because eHarmony’s 29 dimensions of compatibility say you’re a good match.

10. You don’t check references. It always amazes me how few clients actually check references. To continue the dating analogy, it’s like getting married without meeting any of your significant other’s friends or family. There’s no better way to determine how good an agency really is than by talking to their other clients.

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XMarks the Spot: Bookmark-Powered Web Discovery

posted by Jeanannv on April 22nd, 2009

Recently, I noticed that I was seeing little blue squares with “i”s in them all over my search pages and in my browser bar. I had no idea what it was, nor what I had done to cause it to happen. Note: that happens frequently…as I tend to try new FireFox gadgets all of the time in my quest for the most efficient social media marketing tactics. Anyway, when I stopped to explore the little blue guy, I discovered it was a FireFox plugin called XMarks.

You likely know it better as Foxmarks, the web based bookmarking system that FireFox has had in place for a long time. But with this latest upgrade, they have catapulted XMarks into social search, something that Google has yet to truly effectively do. Let me tell you how it works…

Once you have installed the Xmarks Plugin in your FireFox browser, simply go to a search engine (I tried it on Live, Google and Yahoo, worked on all three) and enter a search term. When you see this icon, click on the blue box. A pop up will appear with information about that link, how many times it has been bookmarked, topics or tags used, and an option to get more site info. If you click on the get more info button…

You will be directed to a page that has the site title and summary and bookmark information.

If the user clicks the “more’ link, they are able to edit the title and the site description, as well as report any off topic or spammy, abusive use.

Below, there is a listing of similar sites, as well as a tab for site reviews. The reviews can also be edited by others.

There is no doubt that XMarks gives social search a run for the money, though they prefer to say they are “bookmark -powered web discovery”. And in terms of democratizing search content, at first glance, this seems like a great option. But as I explored the features a bit, the wiki-like ability to change site titles and descriptions, even change reviews, threw me for a loop. It seems like the potential for abuse is fairly high. I would love to use these features, as I often do quite a bit of web research, but if the system is junked up with a bunch of spammy stuff, it will quickly fall off my radar.

Will FireFox and XMarks be successful in their Social Bookmarking wiki adventures? We will have to stay tuned to find out.

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Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing an Online Marketing Agency II

posted by Jeanannv on February 27th, 2009

Yesterday, I wrote a post that identified ten questions to ask when choosing an online marketing agency. Today, I will be giving you some answers to those questions. Keep in mind that you will want to look at how a company answers all ten…it’s the Gestalt of the thing, you know?

How long have you worked in online and social media marketing? A good answer here can vary, look for at least 1 year+…social media marketing is still a new frontier. But, if the agency in question won’t answer this head on, then they are trying to avoid showing you their lack of expertise.
Are you a full service marketing agency that includes social media work or is this your area of specialty? It is not mandatory that a marketing or ad agency focus only on this one marketing channel. However, there are precious few traditional agencies that know how to use social media to its fullest extent. Ask if they have in house services or if they outsource. If they contract out, ask who they use, then interview that person starting with question #1.
Where are your online profiles? This should take no time at all to find out. And if they don’t have a whole bunch of profiles, then they haven’t explored a whole bunch of social media platforms. This is an indicator of how much depth of knowledge they have about the thousands of sites that exist.
What is your online user name? Someone who understands the value of social media optimization will have one or two user names that they use consistently across social media sites. If you have their user name, you can Google it and see how far the trail of social media involvement goes. I have about 15,400 results for my user name of “jeanannvk”.
Do you have a client that I can contact or can I see work that you have done? The only right answer to this question is yes. And thinking back on it, I would amend this question with an “and” instead of an “or”. You want to talk to a client AND see an example of their work.
What can I expect in terms of outcomes? These next two questions will separate the advanced from the newbies. If someone promises you a ton of traffic right off the bat, they don’t understand the principles of social media marketing. If someone says that this is such a new field that no one really knows…they mean that they don’t know. You want a reasonable, realistic answer that says something like, “Social media marketing has an amazing ability to build cultivate new customer relationships and increase brand awareness. This will not send thousands of people to your site the first day. Plan on it taking 6 months or so to really start to see the impact of the campaign.”
How will you measure these outcomes? Ideally, they will be using a tool designed to monitor social media traffic and web chatter, like Radian6. But whether or not they name a specific platform, they need to be able to talk to you about building a plan to capture the results.
What is expected of me? Will I be a part of this campaign or will you manage it? This is a question that could have many answers…but they must be able to answer it.
What are your favorite social media sites and why? This question gives them a chance to talk about their passion for various applications. A good answer here involves some emotion and excitement.
Aside from social media, how do you use the web to market products and services? Again, this answer could contain a lot of different variables. But a well-rounded company will be using more than just social media platforms for online marketing.

Hopefully, these questions and answers will be of use as you interview your online marketing agency. It is always better to make an informed choice about partnering on a marketing campaign. These are the people who will be building your online brand…and that is not something you want to risk.

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Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing an Online Marketing Agency

posted by Jeanannv on February 26th, 2009

There are so many people who identify themselves as “social media marketers” or “social media gurus” that it can be difficult to know which one to choose. Remember, you have every reason to hold your online marketing agency to high performance standards, just as you would a traditional marketing agency.

I have compiled a list of ten questions you should ask anyone you are considering hiring. Keep in mind that social media and other forms of online marketing have different strategies, tactics and benchmarks…but the do have them. And your company should be able to tell you what actions and results they will be delivering.

Here are the ten questions:

How long have you worked in online and social media marketing?
Are you a full service marketing agency that includes social media work or is this your area of specialty?
Where are your online profiles?
What is your online user name?
Do you have a client that I can contact or can I see work that you have done?
What can I expect in terms of outcomes?
How will you measure these outcomes?
What is expected of me? Will I be a part of this campaign or will you manage it?
What are your favorite social media sites and why?
Aside from social media, how do you use the web to market products and services?

This is a good list for getting the conversation going. And while there is no one “right” answer to these questions, there are some general indicators that this person/group truly understands the use of social media and other online channels to market and promote your company. Tomorrow, I will answer these ten questions as if you were asking them of me. By using these two posts as a guideline, you will be able to learn more about the expertise of the agency.

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Marketing Budgets Continue to Take a Hit, But Social Media is Still Thriving!

posted by Laurenc on February 26th, 2009

Ad Agencies: Marketing Budgets Continue to Take a Hit, But Social Media is Still Thriving!

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently completed a study showing the effect the recession is having on the marketing industry. This is the second part of a two-part study, the first part was taken back in August of 2008 and asked if marketers thought their budgets would increase, decrease or remain the same in the next six months. Marketers were asked the same question again at the start of 2009, and the ANA is looking to analyze how the 2008 budget predictions compared against the actual budgets for 2009. This new study reveals that “more companies are identifying cost savings and reductions (93% as opposed to 87% six months ago) and that 37% of respondents today plan to reduce budgets by more than 20%, up substantially from the 21 % of respondents in the first survey.”

According to the study, the top five areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising efforts are:

Departmental travel and expense restrictions (87% versus 63% in the previous survey)
Reducing advertising campaign media budgets (77% versus 69% in the previous survey)
Reducing advertising campaign production budgets (72% versus 63% in the previous survey)
Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions (68% versus 63% in the previous survey)
Eliminating or delaying new projects (58% versus 61) in the previous survey)

Fortunately, online marketing is one of the most cost-efficient types of marketing out there today, which means that even though advertising/marketing budgets are being cut by over 70%, the remainder of those budgets are being used to create effective online marketing and social media campaigns. If you are a marketer facing these deep cut-backs, let me share with you a few strategies that are cost-effective, and have not only been weathering the recession, but have proved to be extremely successful.

Social Media Marketing - There are many benefits to engaging in social media. Social Media applications, like communities, social networking sites, and word-of-mouth marketing are proving themselves to be a rich new marketing technique that needs only a poor man’s investment. These sites depend on an abundant resource – your customers – rather than a scarce one – advertising dollars, and with all of the new ideas for social media evolving, you may find these strategies improving all aspects of your business.
Online Video - There has been a significant increase in video marketing over the past few months, and heard all of the chatter about the value of video from marketing experts, but did you know that video marketing, or social videos, are also an extremely valuable SEO tool? That is a 2 for 1 deal!!
Mobile Marketing - eMarketer forecasts that mobile social networking will grow from 82 million users in 2007 to over 800 million worldwide by 2012. “Along with the rapidly growing audience, marketers are drawn to mobile social networking because it creates a unique context in which to promote their goods and services,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and co-author of the report. “It goes beyond simply linking people with digital content by adding the immediacy of sharing with friends—a very powerful marketing proposition.”

By focusing on getting the highest value for their budget, Marketers can still develop highly successful campaigns and return measurable results, IF they focus their campaigns on the cost effective space of Online Marketing. Hopefully this will be one of the final pushes CEOs and CMOs need to get off the fence and really dive deep into a strategic social media plan.

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Social Media Marketing and Traditional Ad Agencies

posted by Jeanannv on February 23rd, 2009

I continue to come back to this conversation about social media marketing and its integration, or lack thereof, into the landscape of traditional ad agencies. Philosophically and linguistically, these two are so divergent that I find myself less hopeful that SMM strategies will become a part of the marketing structure that exists.

Now before you email or comment telling me that not all agencies will fail to make this leap, I will agree with you. A small number of folks will be flexible enough to make this kind of change.

At this point, we aren’t even speaking the same language. Some foundational concepts that once applied to ad and marketing campaigns are worse than irrelevant when it comes to social media marketing. The linear ROI model is a poor fit for working within the spheres of online communities.

And there is no pushing messaging to these crowds…because they can block you from ever speaking to them again. I’d like to see you try that with a tv or billboard. Worse, they can report you as a spammer and have you removed from the entire network.

See, in social media, the customer has much more control over what, how and when they receive information. Which turns traditional messaging on its head…and how many companies can be so nimble as to completely shift their paradigm? I mean, it is hard enough for an individual to grasp this type of interaction, but to ask an established “authority” to do so? Not likely.

And, I don’t want to slam traditional ad and marketing agencies. I think their services are valuable and shouldn’t be denied. But they are in a tough predicament right now…will they hire the right people to design campaigns? Will they give them the latitude to implement the right strategies and tactics to bring about results for their clients? I just don’t know….

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“Trust Me” Captures Ad Agencies’ Struggle with New Media

posted by Jeanannv on February 2nd, 2009

I was catching up on my DVR’ed shows over the weekend and watched the pilot episode for TNT’s Trust Me (link to the full episode). Erick McCormick and Thomas Cavanagh play leading roles as ad agency execs. And while I found it a bit slow at times, two scenes captured the chasm between traditional ad agencies and agencies that focus on new media marketing and advertising.

The beginning of the show depicts an irate and aggressive ad executive, absolutely out of his mind over the potential loss of a client to another agency member. When a colleague tries to explain that the client wants a different campaign, he starts ranting about clients not knowing what they need. He goes on to say that’s why advertising gurus make the big bucks (paraphrasing) and if all clients start thinking for themselves there will be no business and no ad agency.

And though this is an example that is focused on advertising, it also defines a major hurdle that marketing traditionalists must overcome in order to effectively engage in the social media sphere. In building an online marketing campaign, the client’s voice is absolutely essential. Without it, messaging sounds canned and stagnant. The primary directive of social media marketing is conversation, not push messaging.

The second example is in the final scene. The client is presented with a storyboard and a traditional campaign. It fails miserably, as the client wanted something that pushed the envelope, made him a bit nervous. Eric McCormack jumps up and devises a campaign on the spot…it is edgy, roughly presented and not based on hours of research and planning. In typical tv tradition, he saves the day.

Of course, showing up without a campaign to a client meeting is a bad idea. But, this scene captures the second critical element of social media marketing…flexibility. With traditional advertising campaigns, a lot of time and energy is invested in the campaign build out. Research, market segmentation, story boards, charts and diagrams…all to create a message that will have the broadest appeal to the most people within the target market. This is essential because the campaign is created as a monologue meant to grab people’s attention. Analysis and metrics are most certainly reviewed to ensure benchmarks are met.

In the new media space, most of the time and energy is focused on implementation. Certainly research and planning occurs, but it is at a much faster pace. Market research takes place every time you implement campaign strategy. And while a campaign will start with a central understanding of the company brand, there will be hundreds of messages that evolve from that understanding. That is because the nature of online marketing is conversational. The goal is to find potential customers and engage them in a dialogue…over time, building a relationship. Use of metrics is critical here, too…but the marketer must be able to access the analysis in order to shape future efforts. And by future, I mean later that afternoon.

As professionals we are struggling to create a framework that defines this new era of marketing. There are those that argue that social media is simply a marketing channel. I disagree. I think social media is a symptom of a much larger shift in communication and connectivity. It is very clear that customers today want a different level of transparency and accountability with corporate America. It is also clear that they want to feel ownership in a brand, feel connected and invested in businesses where they spend their money.

We can choose whether or not we engage and respond…but make no mistake, our customers and potential customers have already changed the game. And if we aren’t careful, we will be permanently sidelined.

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Teaching Old Advertising New Tricks

posted by Jeanannv on December 18th, 2008

It is estimated that more than 272 million people worldwide use social media . I dare you to compare that to the reach of any other form of traditional advertising. The average 24 hour period of television delivers near 50 million unique viewers (WebProNews) and is significantly more expensive. Media advertising agencies are going to have to step up their game to survive.

And there are so many ways this can happen…if an ad agency is willing to engage. Take Hulu.com for example…great hybrid. It is television on demand on the net. And it has commercials. What’s amazing about Hulu and sites like it, is that it collects information in a way Neilson can’t.

When you sign up, basic information is collected…including age, gender, geographic location. Then, there are three optional questions about education, income and referral source. But these are just the demographics, and these alone are significant, but when you add the profile options, it is a deadly one-two advertising punch.

Once in your Hulu profile (which of course, you can customize), you have the option to subscribe via RSS to any show feed. Updates are brought to you automatically, each time they are posted. They also have a recommendations feature in beta that gives you a series of show suggestions. You are able to go through the list and check those you like and those you don’t. Between your subscriptions and direct feedback about recommendations, Hulu will be able to more accurately suggest shows you will like. This feedback loop creates a great marketing opportunity for video producers to get their product in front of a very specific and targeted audience.

At this point, Hulu is able to create a demographic profile of you and connect it to all of your viewing habits. And, very likely, it will be accurate. Not as many people leave the room with a show running on the laptop as we do on the television. If you are sitting down to watch a show, you are really sitting down to watch a show.

In these shows, there are commercials. They are short…no longer than 30 seconds, and they let you know at the beginning of an ad how long it will last (what a novel idea). There aren’t many of them, two or three an episode. These ads are edgy and engaging…they have to be, really. Because we will simply find the video elsewhere if we chose not to sit through it. After all, Hulu isn’t the only site on the net with videos.

Is any of this sounding familiar? This is a souped-up, high octane version of standard television advertising. The difference now is greater precision and greater user influence. Now, sites can collect data and build profiles about viewers, and in turn, show relevant, tailored advertisements. Users can offer feedback or completely opt out of the viewing process if it isn’t entertaining or meeting a need in some way.

Ultimately, some of the standards of old school advertising are still around…collecting information about the target audience, captivating attention, building brand recognition. But if agencies aren’t able to move from pushing one message to a large number of people to highly targeted, user driven messaging, they simply won’t survive. With laptops giving us ultimate control over when and where we watch high def programs, television is losing its importance in day to day life.

I suspect that we won’t ever lose the television, though. It is far too important to American life. Instead, social media will reach out and effect our tv viewing…as it has on some news channels. And I, for one, would be happy to sit through a couple of commercials on television if they were relevant to my life. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how ads morph and if we will find a way to deepen the connection between marketing on the internet and marketing on television.

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Online Advertising Directly

posted by Jeanannv on December 12th, 2008

Online advertising directly impacts the amount of traffic that will flow to your website. And in order to create a solid social media marketing plan, you need to understand what role it will play in you efforts.Though there are multiple ways to advertise online, this post focuses on search engine advertising (for a really in depth look at search engine ads, check out Search Engine Watch).

In the event that you don’t know how it works, here’s the skinny: You pay the search engine to place your ad in a highly visible location on the search engine results page (SERP). This location is determined by researching what keywords are being used by searchers to find your product or products like yours. Some words are more expensive than others because they are in high demand.

Without a doubt, the question that I hear the most often about advertising on the internet is “yeah, but it’s so expensive, do I really need to pay for people to find me?”. Which is paradoxically the right and the wrong question to ask….it’s the right question to ask if you have a strong marketing effort that understands new media OR you are a relatively good writer and social networker and have the time and energy to build it from scratch. It is the wrong question to ask if you think that cutting out the paid advertising portion of your online campaign is going to save you money in the long run.

Paying for search engine ads will likely bring traffic to your site faster than anything else will. If you are relying heavily on search engines to bring you customers (I would ask why you would do that), you need to know that 95% of people never read beyond the first page of results, so paying for that position may well be important to you. However, there is no guarantee that the traffic will be sticky, so make sure you have something worthwhile on your site to capture them when they get there.

I like to think of online advertising as one of many marketing tools I have at my disposal. When it is interwoven with a solid social media campaign, it has benefits. But the bottom line is that it is not the only way to achieve success, so divide your marketing budget accordingly.

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Top Advertising Agencies

posted by Jeanannv on December 11th, 2008

Top advertising agencies are struggling to be flexible with their marketing model in order to include social media. Here’s why: social media is not a “push” marketing environment. Standard marketing efforts do not translate well into new media…consequently, many businesses are alienating customers with their efforts.

And though there are many reasons, and many posts, about why push marketing won’t work…it really boils down to one factor. Flexibility. We simply cannot respond quickly enough to the conversations that are happening in the social media sphere if we are focused on the creation of an elaborate messaging campaign.

Seth Godin offers a great bit of wisdom: “Conversations happen among the members of your marketplace whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sorts of conversations.” The point of social media marketing is that YOU are where those conversations are taking place. And YOU are participating in them…not sending them a press release.

We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, though…we need to continue to reach out to our customers outside of the virtual airwaves. Finding a way to combine the two is ideal. Examining our methods and finding ways to create opportunities for engagement, sharing our information through new channels, creating greater transparency in our messaging…we must use a critical eye, assess and re-invent our marketing methods.

Take steps to increase your flexibility and don’t become mired in what has worked in the past. Reach out to the social media stream for market information and apply what you find…and apply it quickly. Treat the consumers of your information like they have a choice…because now more than ever, they do.

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