Are Companies the New Consumers?
Think about it. As advertisements push the limits and our patience, Company X needs to find some way to get our attention. That is the consumer's product. We offer brand loyalty. It's no surprise that this has always been the highly coveted goal for all companies and brands… but they used to not have to try so hard.
Now, they are among us. Having their own pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn… interacting as though they were your friend or “part of your professional network”. They want, so badly, for us to like them. But, can you blame them? The consumer has what the brand wants… Time, attention, loyalty, and of course money.
As I said before, this is no new development, but it is an interesting concept to point out as companies explore new frontiers in advertising. The consumer has all the control – the choice as to whether to click on that ad, go to that site, or to type that company name they heard on TV into their preferred search engine.
So, how can companies counteract this choice? They need to be where we are, doing what we are doing, interacting with us to develop relevance to our daily lives. They can no longer expect a stand alone ad or TV commercial to get the job done. It has to be interactive. It needs a call to action. It needs to sync up with multiple outlets in order to 1. Get noticed and 2. Be seen as relevant. Companies can no longer stand by and expect the customer to come to them… They now need to be the active consumer, embarking on the world, living amongst their desired product – in order to understand it and work with it.
The more inundated people are with information and stimulation, the less likely they are to go looking for it. We talk a lot about consumer driven advertising, and this concept follows suit. Think about the consumer as being the driver of a bus… Not only do they get to choose what ad is placed on the side of their bus, but they get to choose where they stop and who gets on. So, Company X is at the mercy of Brand Y, with Brand Y being YOU.
Frequently Asked Questions
I will, however, provide some insight into the more common answers to questions we face, and in doing this, it is my hope that I pique your interest to inquire further. So, naturally, one would start with “What is an advertising agency?” Well, the answer is an ad agency can be many things… much like the question “what is a restaurant?” You know they all serve food, but what kind? Do they have a specialty or can you order anything you want? Mad Men Marketing is a full service agency, which means we can provide you with anything you might need. Basically, we can become your own personal marketing team. Only we won't ask you for a salary and benefits, including dental. Instead, we can make your media buys for you, help you with creative ideas and mock-ups, and consolidate your billing to make sure your advertising is running as smoothly as possible – and we do this at no extra cost to you!
SO, naturally, your next question is “Well then, how do you make money?” Valid question. I'm glad you asked… We make our money much like any other accounts services department, like any other company would. If you are placing your TV ads personally, there is a percentage of that spending that goes to the account executive, and the rest to the station itself… When you hire us, we enter as just another slice of the vendor's pie. They pay us 15% of whatever you are spending. We basically charge them to work with us instead of you.
Now, this brings us to the question of additional agency fees… Some agencies will charge you an additional percentage of your ad budget to spend it for you. We at Mad Men do not believe in this. We do have some additional services beyond those an “Agency of Record” would perform that cost us money such as SEO, website development, mobile sites and so on. These services take time and need to be developed, but that is the same across the board.
A common misconception is that working with an agency will cost you MORE money. This actually couldn't be further from the truth. In most cases, we ensure your budget would not need to change in the slightest; and, we can almost guarantee that in working with us – being experts in the field – not only can we save you time, we can also actually save you money – all the while generating better results while spending what you already have (or even less), more efficiently than ever before. Furthermore, because we now have perceived control over your entire ad budget, media outlets tend to be even more accommodating and in turn, provide additional incentives to work with their company.
Another fear companies have is, once they sign with an agency, they worry they will lose control of their advertising. Our services range on the spectrum of control. We will follow your comfort levels and direction to be as much or as little involved as you would like us to be. Of course, every decision is sent for your approval before we move forward, and all creative ideas are run by your team first. We are simply here to make your job easier, and take some time off your hands so you can focus on running your business, while we keep the customers walking through the door, or picking up the phone.
How about this concern: Will we be working with your competitors? That answer is simply, NO! Mad Men Marketing operates as category exclusive. We made a partnership with you, and we have become your advocates… sharing sensitive information and working hard to make sure your business excels in its field. While you are our client, we will not work with anyone else in your category, as we hope you would do us the honor of letting us be your sole full service agency.
So, now you might be asking yourself, “Do I need an agency?” or “Would working with an agency be right for me?” Well, that is a question you must answer yourself. But in my experience, the answer is almost always, YES! Every business is different, with individual needs, owners and infrastructures. But, if you want to make more money, grow your business, spread your ad dollars, consolidate bills, or expand… an agency is just the partnership to help you reach those goals.
With our collective expertise, we can assure that you get the most bang for your buck. We have done the research, we conduct additional research on your behalf, we have credible and already established relationships with media outlets and we know what we are talking about when it comes to consumer driven advertising. Give us a shot and let us be your pinch hitter… It doesn't mean you're completely out of the game – it just means you're calling in some help to give you that extra edge above your competition.
That's what an agency can do for you.
The Foreign Nature of Foreign Marketing
Case in point… The first advertisement that stood out to me in Italy was a HUGE ad for shopping mall outlet stores (keeping in mind that the entire ad was in English – which is a completely different topic altogether) it was on a drop cloth, suspended in the beautiful San Marco Square in Venice. It was brought to my attention due to my mother's complaints that the gigantic poster was taking away from the beauty of the square. She asked why anyone, in their right mind, would drape an enormous ad over the front of such a beautiful and historic building… I then noticed, as we looked closer, it appeared they were doing some restoration work on the building, so the facade was already covered. But this brings be to my point… the advertisers took this opportunity to use the already covered space and pay, what I can only assume would have been an exorbitant amount of money, to place their “English targeted” ad in the most touristy spot in Venice. Good show indeed – but interesting tactics – no room for your regular billboards there. With all that being said, I actually found myself almost ignoring the ad due to its size alone. And due to the fact that the square is so beautiful, my eyes were hardly drawn to the gaudy draping down at the end.
One effort that did catch my eye, however, was a picture hanging in one of the restaurants. It was a splendid example of a company using the surroundings to impart their message, in an entertaining and intriguing way – instead of an 'in your face' large draping that covers up half a building side. The black and white photograph showed San Marco Square (known for its many pigeons) with the large words Coca Cola, somehow shaped on the ground in the middle of the square. It was only when I looked closer, that the words were in fact spelled out by, none other than, the pigeons themselves! Coca Cola, cleverly, must have spread out bird feed so precisely, to entice these birds to do their flash mob style bidding. Now, that is resourceful advertising. No wonder Coke is the only American made soft drink I saw when in Italy…
Stay tuned for more observations from abroad…
Advertising and Wall Street
I do not presume to know much about the stock market; however, due to the recent allegations hinting that certain investment bank underwriters supporting the IPO told clients earlier this month that they were reducing their earnings forecasts for Facebook, the social networking site has had quite the tumultuous ride during its opening week on Wall Street. And knowing what we know about the events leading up to this point, it's not very difficult to see the connection.
It is said these investment banks made the decision to sway their investors after supposed conversations with Zuckerberg. According to these reports, Zuckerberg hinted that he was worried his site's value was decreasing because so many advertisers had been pulling out recently, and that Facebook's mobile version was looking to have an even meeker forecast.
So what does this say about the power/affect of advertisers and their monies spent? It looks to me that; firstly, you need to create a sound platform that will ensure a ROI on ad dollars spent. As we have said before, ROI for ad dollars is not something you should expect immediately (consider it more like any other cost to run a business) BUT if over time, as General Motors noticed, you continue to see no return on dollars spent, you could blame it on the outlet, but it could also be as simple as – the campaign just wasn't good enough.. But I digress.
So where does this leave us? I've established two takeaways from this Facebook debacle. One: Where companies choose to spend their ad dollar has a direct correlation with how successful said company/outlet can be. Two: Some advertising platforms are indeed more successful than others, and just because something is “popular” doesn't mean it's always good for advertising. However; the bottom line is, and a point you will notice me making time and time again , you must think of the consumer before anything else, and no matter what outlet you use to get your message across – if you're not talking to them… they're not going to listen!