Agency Side or Client Side: 3 Simple Steps

I think working in advertising and marketing is a fantastic way to make a living.

And thank you to either the tumultuous job market or the wild success of Sterling Cooper...

Because more and more people are asking me about getting into this crazy fun game.

But before they jump into the game they are asking themselves, me and maybe you the "question."

Am I a client or an agency person?

I hear this OFTEN from marketing professionals of all ages and levels.

Whether someone is a recent graduate, happily employed or just out looking for a job...people want to know.

What is the real difference between client and agency side jobs? Where do I fit best?

You can see it in some client's eyes when they come to NYC.

Nights out. The "talent" around the office. The buzz in the hallways. This grass looks pretty green baby.

And ironically you can see it in the agency's eyes when they go to Purchase, Minneapolis, Kansas, Plano and the like.

Nights at home. Everything is on the "campus". More consistent schedules. This grass looks pretty green baby.

Some have said it is just, well personal?

So if you are thinking about coming over to the "sex, drugs and rock-n-roll" side of business (advertising & marketing), where should you go?

Follow these three simple steps to help find your way.

STEP 1

Here are some general questions that hold some truth as provided by anonymous agency and client stars.

- You like to tell people what to do? (client)

- You like to wear t-shirts to work? (agency)

- You like to manage budgets and make decisions? (client)

- You like to create solutions under deadlines? (agency)

- Apple? (agency) PC? (client)

Though superficial, these still draw smiles while holding grains of truth, but for most of us the decision runs a bit deeper or seems more complex.

So first let's address a few things that have changed - especially since the glory days of Mad Men.

Here are a few dynamics to consider in 2010.

SPOILER WARNING - could burst your bubble.

Client life is NOT easier.

Not true anymore or not a given. Marketing departments shrank (Bubble burst, Global Recession) driving longer hours, hand-held addictions and loss of a desire to have fun. Clients are grinding it out in many cases as hard as their agency partners.

Agency life is NOT necessarily more fun.

Agencies have been decimated by clients slashing budgets and working with procurement, driving layoffs, leaner staffing, grumpier over-worked clients and cutbacks on employee perks - think whole bagels become bagel "quarters". Agencies are doing more with less.

Relax. Relativity still plays in here...so agencies are still more fun and clients do have it easier BUT the gap has shrunk dramatically.

STEP 2

Now watch the these short educational videos:

1. Why agency life.



2. What it takes.



3. How it works.




STEP 3

So after considering the gap shrinkage and enjoying some short educational videos, here is an unofficial guide on how to determine your marketing DNA.

DISCLAIMER - Quiz is based on my experience working as a client and an agency person and working with some of the most amazing and worst agency and client people on the planet.

Answer this 5 question marketing self-assessment quiz:

1. Do you prefer team sports or individual sports?

2. Have you ever successfully waited tables? Or would you like to?

3. Head or gut? (Works both ways people - where to take a punch? what do you trust more?)

4. Where do you sit in a school classroom?

5. Do you like slow and steady or fast and inconsistent?

Answers to these questions can help direct you toward your marketing DNA - client or agency.

Think about your answers.

Acknowledge that your answers may change over time.

Be honest.

We need passionate people on both sides so answer, reflect and jump in.

P.S. - Check out e. My favorite book on the agency business. Must read. Hilarious.

Gift of Feedback. Accept the Gift Today

I think PepsiCo taught me a ton.

One of the first lesson's was the "gift of feedback."

My wife yawns when I bring this one up but the PepsiCo people were correct.

Feedback is a gift.

You, and of course brands, should welcome and process all feedback as a gift.

Gift giving can be tough in real life but in the communications business it can be easy.

Facebook showed this a few months back with their redesign.

Yes the redesign had issues but check out the two red boxed areas.

Facebook serves users ads and gives them the option to say "I like it" (thumbs up), "I don't like it" (thumbs down) or "bye-bye" (delete). This is the smaller red box on the right.

Should a user choose to give a thumbs down, Facebook serves a pop-up shown in the red box on the left.

Facebook then takes the gift a step further asking why users didn't like the ad offering some half a dozen options from irrelevant, repetitive, misleading, offensive and more.

I love this.

Excellent data capture.

Nice value exchange.

So not all brands are serving ads as a platform.

But all communication touch points offer the ability for your most important constituents - your consumers, customers or clients - to give you the gift, the gift of feedback.

Digital executions could mirror the example above but any channel could feature a URL for feedback.

Or offer the section for feedback on your site.

Make sure call centers or brick and mortar locations facilitate gift giving.

Might not be the holidays but giving the gift pays off year round.

Ask for feedback, listen, analyze, learn and improve.

Getting the gift will extend your return on communication investments even further.

Local Media is DEAD: Brands Will Rule the Day.

I think local media is dead.

OK, not dead, dying.

Endangered.

The concept of a "local" newspaper or magazine is in trouble unless there is a material brand built.

Five years from now high school kids in the US will not be looking at their local news paper.

Local information, communications and content will still be around but the forms in which it is consumed will be completely different.

Example of the day is ESPN for sports.

ESPN could rule.

From Dallas, San Francisco, Kansas City to Nashville the ESPN brand will dominate providing all local sports fanatics their needs.

Print is not the only victim as radio will also become brand focused.

Will Clear Channel's efforts in radio fight off Sirius XM, on-demand music and online radio?

Why not ESPN radio with local coverage?  

Cable is closing in on broadcast.

Is Nip/Tuck cable or broadcast original content?  How about The Closer?

The content is closer in quality than ever and clear brands are emerging.  

Discovery - Science

Spike - Action 

TBS - Comedy

TNT- Drama

And newspapers are the leaders of doom.

Do people born after 1980 (Gen Y) even care to read papers? 

Pew Research and many others say no.

My bet is brands will matter more.

Do you see a "back to the future" with affiliates now being born out of focused brand?

Let's watch ESPN Chicago and see.

Twitter: Consider Use

I think Twitter works for me.  

I really like Twitter.

When I heard Matt Lauer laughing about Twitter on the Today Show which hits nearly 6 million viewers every day, I knew Twitter was no longer underground.

And as this simple graph shows, more people visit Twitter than NYtimes.com.

Wow, one of those headlines that are just fun to say.

So everyone and every company is "in" or debating jumping "in."

So here is the one thing to think about, peak at the chart.

OK, its a bit dated but the point is clear.

People use Twitter differently.

Taking your brand to Twitter is not like taking your brand to the Super Bowl.

Taking your brand to Twitter is more like taking your brand to television.

I recommend you view Twitter as a media.

Television can be used in a ton of different ways: 

- buy an advertisement (numerous options)

- pitch to be featured in the news/talk show

- buy an integration

- sponsor an on-going program or special

- create your own show or special

- look at cable, broadcast, local, national, DRTV...

Twitter can be used in a ton of different ways too:

- help you sell buns or product

- facilitate executive team members communications

- engage customers like Southwest Airlines and many others

Twitter allows you to search and there are other sites like TweetScan.

I vote you get in to Twitter.

Fun part is how Twitter can/should work for you and your brand.

Analyzing your brand's communication plans, your category and you objectives and remember, every brand doesn't need to communicate with customers in 140 character bursts.

US Pressures Demand 5 Marketing Basics

I think the 2009 pressure is incredible.

Your audience is not the same.

Irrespective of your industry your sales probably reflect their change.

But we are not just reminded with emotional jolts but also amazing economic realities.

Here are two recent items which clarified the impact of the recession for me.

Look at Walgreen’s Chief Executive’s recent comments in the Wall Street Journal:

"Consumer behavior has changed dramatically in recent months, beyond just the kinds of products they are purchasing…customers seem to be delaying filling prescriptions and cutting pills in half to save money.” -       WSJ, March 24, 2009

Not trading down but swapping priorities.  Life and health altering priorities.

And the pressure...

“Alex Rodriguez (Confronting A-Rod, SI Feb. 16) says that he took performance enhancing drugs because he felt the pressure to live up to his $252 million contract.  My colleague, who has a five-month-old baby, will be out of work in six months because the Boston public school system is cutting jobs.  I have students who are in and out of foster care...And this guy wants to talk about pressure?  Give me his kind of pressure, and I’ll do a lot more with it than use it as an excuse to become a national embarrassment.”  -       Pata Dibinga, Boston

We are not talking about trading up, trading down or switching brands.

What are you doing about this?

1. Reassess your current actual audience.

2. Analyze with fresh data your prospective audience.

3. Examine your brands' categories and competitive set - again.

4. Evaluate your brands' value proposition and core DNA 

5. Refresh and rerun all of your predictive modeling assumptions.

These five basics are more important than ever.

Using last year or older data and assumptions will kill your brand and business.

If you haven't already, run your brand through a major reset before the pressure gets you.

Managing Value Exchange

I think life is all about balance.

Balancing meat and veggies.

Balancing work and life.

Balancing your budget.

Balancing your needs and your family needs.

Today, balance applies more than ever in maintaining the relationship between your brands and their audiences.

You must think about, manage and create balance before you panic creating poor experiences due to economic pressures.

The graph puts perceived brand investment on the y-axis and perceived audience investment on the x-axis with respective low and high ends.  Every point reflects the exchange between brand and audience investment.  The red zones are (surprise) the "bad" areas. 

So the top left corner reminds you that too much from the brand at no cost to the audience creates concern among the audience.  Your brand comes across desperate.  The audience questions the brand's need to "buy" their attention or business.  This corner is a trap prestigious brands need to avoid during tough economic times.   The damage of this trap can last for some time.

The bottom right red is the more traditional imbalance.  

Brands offer little and ask a lot.

Strive to keep the relationship 1:1.

Or close to 1:1 (white band in the graph where positive experiences and higher response rates live).

This is a simple helpful framework.

One complexity to consider is the length of the relationship.

The value exchange between brand and audience often doesn't occur in a vacuum.

Great example is Disney's new community site, D23.  

To join the community you pay $74.99.   

Is the value worth the money? 

If you have been a fan of the brand for 20+ years and given $1,000s to Disney for endless products, is $74.99 fair?  a steal?  a robbery?

Time will tell if this is a balanced value exchange.

Because like never before has the power switched to people empowering them to mark brands to market. 

Run through the simple framework and tweak to balance.

Stay out of the red in the graph and hopefully you will stay out of the red long term.

 

Mobile Should Expand Touchpoints - Tags and Napkins

I think my napkin asked me to text.  

I also think you don't read this blog for the savvy image posting.

But regardless the two examples above show how brands are using mobile in many new ways.

The grey image (both images were snapped with my phone) was a clothing line tag hanging in a store.  The brand for females offered me and others to text in to play a game.  Few things done well:

1. Strong call to action 

2. Celebrity integration

3. Clothes are intimate purchases, could be a good "moment"

Potential miss:

1. Should provide numerical code for DIVA (3482)

2. Fancy font...plays to brand but legibility?

Now for the US Airway napkin - white image, taken at 30,0000 feet.  

I like this one a lot.

Clear call to action.

Allows for people to opt in to loyalty platform at contextual moment.

Clear communication with "fun" headline.

Oh, but wait...mobile should be OFF on the plane - DOH.

Seems brands are extending their experiences with mobile.

Are you?