When Is Advertising & Public Relations Not Advertising & Public Relations?

When it’s brand engagement. And that is what my new agency does and does really well. I’ve just landed, what may very well be the best gig in my career. I am now the VP General Manager of the Columbus, OH office of Northlich. We are not an ad agency. You can view the press release here- http://tinyurl.com/yef9em9

Let me use the words from their site to help set the stage:

What is this Northlich I keep hearing about? First, we’ll tell you what we’re not. Northlich is not an advertising agency, public relations, media buying or interactive agency. Northlich is a brand engagement agency.

That means we consider the entire brand experience, not just advertising, when it comes to creating communications programs for our clients. We specialize in changing perceptions and behavior. Our product is ideas. Good ones. That engage a target audience emotionally, intellectually, behaviorally and gut-ally. We excel at leading brands to a culturally relevant place where they can be personally embraced and where true behavior change can be achieved. And don’t ya just love it when that happens?

This point of view is what makes this agency different and exciting. For me. For the people working at Northlich. For our clients. We know who we are, what we can do for our clients, our employees and our communities. One of the things that attracted me to Northlich was their commitment to Columbus and Central Ohio. Not just because we have some clients here, rather because of the belief that Columbus is a vibrant and creative city with a tremendous wealth of marketing smarts, great organizations and positive, upbeat vibe about it. Maybe having OSU here has a little to do with it as well.

I don’t want this to be an ad for Northlich. Just know this is a special group of people who have found their purpose, values and principles over the last 2 years and is poised for great things. I plan on making the Columbus office a big part of those plans.

If you want to say Hi, toss some “congrats” my way, or just comment on me or Northlich don’t be shy.

Lessons Brands Can Learn From The Prez On Social Media

There is a very good post on Social Media Today http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/129423 on The Obama Administration dropping the ball on Social Media after what was an excellent start during the campaign. The central point being once you start you have to be consistent if you want to retain, engage and grow your audience, fans and advocates. Getting a consumer to trial is expensive, keeping them through a real and continuous dialogue takes effort but is a lot less expensive in the long run than trying to replace those lost to weak engagement.

If you are going to take advantage of the power of social media, understand it requires dedication.

Ah Zappos, I wish I knew ya.

The ad agency industry is all a Twitter, and a blog over the Zappos RFP. Some are thrilled with the process, most are pissed off. The recent Advertising Age article http://tinyurl.com/ks26tk
and associated comments are telling of the frustration agencies have with the RFP/pitch process. Well it does suck, sort of. Here is my comment posted on the Advertising Age site.

This is a challenge for both sides of the table. We were not one of the first 16, but were in the mix early and were able to have just about as much contact as necessary with the Zappos team. We also did not make it to the next round; we choose to believe our materials received a fair review. Aaron Mangness’ comment (added to Ignited’s blog)http://tinyurl.com/n3pe79 spells out the intention of Zappos.

I think Mike @ Ignited is right, I think Zappos is right – the RFP process sucks for everyone, Client/Agency relationships are more like marriage than deciding where one might eat lunch today. As such, some dating is in order – maybe even speed dating is necessary. It’s not pretty, unfortunately.

Where it appears things got hairy for Zappos was when so many agencies expressed an interest. Their RFP indicated “…all agencies will be invited to present their proposal.” That gave us the perspective there would be two opportunities to impress the Zappos people. When they became overwhelmed, it may have been to everyone’s benefit to communicate with all agencies about the situation and that the game is changing. Additionally, we were left waiting to hear about our status while those selected began Twittering about their good fortune. It was sort of like waiting to find out if we were voted off the island. It was not until 12:29 AM on Friday July 10 that we received word.

Now I understand why – more than 80 submissions, a looming deadline, and a holiday. So many factors for our friends at Zappos.

Do I wish we were there – no doubt, we believe we did what was necessary to get into the finals. Zappos, unfortunately did not. Would I do it again, not without understanding the number of agencies they are considering, but we’d most likely show up. Good clients are hard to come by and I believe Zappos would be as good a client as they are a company.
We are doing more and more to get away from the RFP/pitch process, it is unavoidable. And exhilarating. And sharpens the agency. For that alone we think the Zappos effort was worthwhile.

Do you have 7 years to recover from discounting?

All brands have value. That value is determined by how the brand is positioned with a specific target audience and differentiated from its competition. If that brand is discounted today to drive sales, does it run the very real risk of hurting its future? Martin Lindstrom thinks so, and I am inclined to agree. http://www.livemint.com/2009/04/14211012/Don8217t-cannibalize-your-b.html

Digital Killed The Analog Star?

The first video on MTV was the Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”  This song celebrates the “golden age of radio” and a singer whose career is cut short by television. The proclamation that the radio was dead and that all things musical would migrate to the small screen was profound if not exactly true.

Much of the music world quickly jumped on the video bandwagon as a way of extending audience interest and sales. And that changed the paradigm for the music industry. The same can be said for the on-line world and the future of branding. Maybe. In a recent article in Adweek by visionary Bob Greenberg, the CEO of R/GA,  pointed out that the old rules of branding that served iconic brands like IBM, UPS and AT&T won’t work in today’s ever wired world. http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/bob-greenberg/e3id9a975e26c8545c537eabf30e962eed8 That consumers tune out with ever increasing frequency “traditional” marketing tools -the monologue brand’s typically have with consumers. No argument that the game has changed and that many consumers get information differently today than they did 15 or 20 years ago (let’s get out of the way the fact that much of the radio and television programming is being delivered digitally – we live in a digital world – that’s a fact). I don’t argue with the notion that brands have to give consumers a reason to have a relationship. I wouldn’t be in this business if I didn’t believe that consumer/brand relationships weren’t the linchpin to loyalty and advocacy. I contend that a blended approach to relationship and engagement with a consumer or community of consumers is the right approach. Consumers gather information from so many places – family and friends, editorial, the digital realm as well as traditional media that the development of a relationship is not the function of one medium or another. They work best when they work together. There is no doubt that technology has allowed consumers to connect with brands on their terms. It has also allowed brands, if they are so inclined, to create higher levels on attention for themselves and their products and thereby injecting themselves into the consumer consciousness more easily than before. Traditional media however still has the power to reinforce messages and reach large numbers of consumers which is of particular importance to brands and products with broad and deep consumer appeal.

By now, it might appear that I am “Anti-New Media” which couldn’t be further from the truth, case in point is this blog and the fact that I’ve helped develop both experiential marketing and digital marketing skill sets within two traditional ad agencies.  What I am is against saying any one thing is dead and that technology and the new media are the apes taking over the humans like in Planet Of The Apes. There has got to be a balance in the application of all marketing communication tools – old and new media, direct, public relations, experiential.  The ratios come from understanding the consumer community with which a brand is trying to create relationships.

This leads to tremendous complexity for brands, CMOs and their partner agencies.  To Mr. Greenberg’s point, consumers are on a path to pulling information rather than having it pushed upon them and brands must change the way the create engagements or interfaces in order to have success. This means much more than repurposedcreative for multiple channels. Mr. Greenberg is right in the assessment that brands cannot take a top-down approach as has been done for decades.  I believe it must be a 360-degree approach from all sides to help the consumer with awareness, acceptance, trial, loyalty and advocacy.

Let’s not do the death march for “traditional” advertising just yet.  Maybe Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive” is a more approriate anthem to describe the evolution of advertising.