Advertising Agency Insights

I was just connecting with a few people on LinkedIn the other day and while I was doing so I had the distinct feeling that business was getting done somehow. That re-connecting with these people would benefit me in some way down the line. That the phone would suddenly ring and a recent contact would say, “dude where have you been? I have a million dollar project that I need you to get started on right away!” At that moment I realized that I have been using LinkedIn diligently for the past 4 years and it hasn’t done crap for me or any of the companies I work for when it comes to soliciting business. So, I’m a little slow. I also realized that I don’t know a single person who’s benefited from LinkedIn or closed a huge business deal because of a connection made through the platform. I’m not saying that LinkedIn isn’t a great tool for me, I use it every day for business as a research tool and to locate resources. I’m just saying that there must be millions of people out there feverishly “connecting away” thinking that they’re going to land the next job or business deal by adding people to their contacts list. Or, what must be the equally satisfying feeling of having “500 +” connections. Which I don’t have. So sad. As matter of fact, many of them are more likely to be killing potential opportunities due to poorly crafted profiles and spelling errors. Bummer dude.

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I thought 2010 would be the year of Cyber Monday online product promotions but its been pretty thin. Verizon bought the Twitter hash-tag #CyberMonday to promote their daily deals and Walmart set up a page on their website dedicate to “Cyber Week” but that’s about all I’ve found so far. I find this peculiar considering Amazon, Target, Kmart and even GoDaddy.com all have robust online marketplaces where each could easily enjoy a spike in traffic with a quick gimmick or two.

Happy holidays everyone and happy shopping!

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While doing a little SEO marketing for the ad agency that I work for I pulled up the blog topic “Navy SEAL Marketing To The Big Fish.” Naturally, I had to check it out, and it’s an excellent overview of how the Navy SEAL’s recruits higher quality candidates. The author has a military background and spells out from start to finish how the Navy deployed their program. Very cool.

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My blog has been inactive since 2008 and as I go back through my old posts its amazing how much my social media strategy and has changed. For example:

1. My post about the FreeCreditReport.com is just a tiny bit irrelevant now that the campaign has been cancelled and they’re looking for the next band.

2. I would completely write the post about “How I use Twitter” differently based on how much my Twitter strategy has changed since then.

3. How I use the tools to advertise my marketing services now and how I recommend my clients use it, are completely different today.

The above will be two very long posts, if and when I get around to it.

Finally, I have a few reservations about sharing my strategic marketing know-how, now. The emergence of social media has brought with it a million hacks. I’m not sure at this point if its in my best interest to provide too many details on that subject. Our agency has developed a competitive edge in that space and I’m not eager to give that up, just yet.

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I love seeing TV spots where companies pull off conveying a complicated, gross or taboo notion to sell their product. I love it even more when people don’t get the fact that pulling off such a feat, is huge in the advertising world.  There are people all over the place railing on the Gillette ad for their “Speed Stick” antiperspirant where they use canary’s in guys arm pits to tastefully show how much yellow sweat stains stand out. Here is a sample blog post about the commercial:

Jimmy – There is a new Gillette ad for antiperspirant where it shows men standing in the public waving their arms over their heads (at a ball game; hailing a cab), and there are chirping canary’s attached to their armpits. My only question is this: how stoned were the advertisement departments when they okayed these ads? Has anyone else seen these? or are they simply leftover hallucinations from my years of LSD use?

So, here is the question Jimmy, how would you get the point across that yellow sweat stains are disgusting, and that if you have them, you may want to use Speed Stick to eliminate them? Coming up with a creative way to convey that thought is not as easy as is sounds. Do you simply show the yellow sweat stains? If they did then I would really be grossed out. Do they just try and talk about yellow sweat stains but not show them? Getting that ad to emphatically get the point across would be a challenge. Lets face it, the person who wrote that ad is a creative genius and my hats off to em’. Here’s the spot.

Speed Stick Stainguard Commercial

Now the spot that really had to be a challenge to figure out was the one for Trojan Condom Ecstasy. Imagine the creative briefing. CLIENT: “Agency peeps, I want you to make us (Trojan Condoms) a TV spot that shows exactly how an Ecstasy condom feels like you have nothing on.”  AGENCY: “Everyone laughs hysterically.” CLIENT: “We’re not joking, so get to work.” AGENCY: “Holy crap, they’re serious.”

Here is the brilliant solution.

Trojan Condoms \”Mime\”

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This little beauty highlights the reality that most companies are only recommending what they have, not what you need. A quality agency will only sell you what you need and tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. Last week I was on a conference call with a client and had to break the news that not packaging an existing product the way we were recommending it would only yield more of the same results. I was absolutely astonished when they thanked me for my honesty.

The truth in this video illustrates why an industry with so much deceit makes being honest, not easy.

Truth in Ad Sales

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Sorry folks for not blogging for quite awhile. I’ve been working on some fairly large initiatives, I’ve changed companies and I’ve been blogging in other areas. Here are some other projects I’ve been working on.

I work for Bigfish Creative in Scottsdale and our blog is DryLandSucks.com

Here is a client project that we just finished that the entire team is very proud of WalterTheBus.org

Thanks for following me. I’ll be sure to get back to pushing out fresh content soon!

Brandon

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When I first heard about Twitter I totally didn’t get the point of it. People telling me where they are and what they’re doing seemed silly. However, I did have an interest in what some of my web developer friends had to say so I created an account. BTW – My Twitter ID is brandontague. Anyway, I quickly found out that this is the best way in the world to quickly stay caught up on what’s taking place in my industry.

By following advertising professionals, I have a group of people who share the same interest posting links to intersting industry articles, websites and providing commentary on what they like and dislike. Businessweek just put out a story about how major brands are following the Tweets from folks to get a very real perception of their brands and cosumers experiences with their brand.

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

So, do yourself a favor and set up a profile. Search for terms that you’re interested in and start following people. You won’t regret it.

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Finally, some good writing carried by continually great performances from the quirky, yet trustworthy sales girl in the virtual Progressive insurance store. Complete with a perfectly timed pregnant pause, the sales girl yells “surprise” after the husband reveals all the new toys he’s purchased. Then, to bring it home the sales girl brilliantly captures the awkward moment with, “let’s bag these up.” Copy, delivery and overall acting is completely superb.

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Everyday, I hear from advertising professionals what “great” creative is. More often than not, it ends up being some trendy, over designed French film with the word “fin” at the end. I find myself constantly reminding my peers that great work is a smart balance of form and function. Perhaps the best example of this has been the GEICO Insurance campaigns.

Not only do their campaigns debunk the notion that you can have innovate creative deliver important messaging, GEICO has proven that you can have more that one campaign in market at the same time. The cavemen and gecko spots deftly cover two different, but overlapping demographics, establish strong brand recognition, deliver important information about what GEICO covers, all with a creative flair that will certainly be remembered ten years from now.

Now, GEICO has added a third campaign and has created an en-genius solution to customer testimonials. Any B2C advertiser would love to leverage powerful endorsements from their customers in a TV campaign, but all have the same problem…actual customers are horrible actors. So, GEICO hired real actors to help them tell their story. Bravo.

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