Phil's Blog

Five Things Your Digital Folks Didn't Tell You About The Internet

Free for the asking. 

If you email me about this, I will send you back the five things your digital folks (whatever titles they may have) did not tell you about the Internet.

I will also offer questions relating to each of the five that you really must answer.

So, drop everything now. Click on this: email Phil link. And ask for the: 

Five Things Your Digital Folks Didn't Tell You About The Internet.

If you don't have digital folks, email me and ask anyway.

Phil

What We've Got Here

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate." - Strother Martin as the prison Captain in the film Cool Hand Luke

Failure to listen to prospective clients isn't the only mistake I observe ad agencies and PR firms making in their new business efforts. 

It is, perhaps, the most significant error overall, because this failure occurs at every stage of the new business evaluation process.

No need to state the irony here. If it isn't apparent, you may stop reading now. 

What I would add is that my one-day Business Building seminars enumerate all the keys to success and failure in presenting to new potential clients. Almost forty agencies and PR firms so far have heard both the common and the remarkable failures in the management sessions I have conducted at their shops. 

While I prefer focusing on the positive and pro-active ideas, it's important to know what will get you booted from consideration. And what you must do in order to win.

For your own session, please email me.

Phil

The Popular Strategy

Need a solution for your sales slump? Trying to build brand loyalty? Well, do what all sophisticated marketers doing these days: go social.

Wanna be popular? Then go for what's popular!

Sometimes, when something doesn't make sense, you do it anyway. Don't you remember high school?

Seriously, ad agencies telling their clients and pitching potential clients that all their answers are in the social media are advising from the shallow end of the pool.

So, befriend, poke and tweet. But do little thinking, too. What will get people to try your product and what won't? 

Monkey see, monkey do is not a sound marketing strategy. Even if it's popular.

Consulting For You -- A Fourth Anniversary

This blog celebrates its fourth anniversary this month. Hooray!

To celebrate, here is my very first blog post from November 2005:

“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” --Peter F. Drucker After I retired from 30 years at General Mills, Six Flags and, on the agency side, from Campbell-Mithun (Minneapolis) and my own advertising agency partnerships, I traveled, I relaxed and I taught for a semester at the University of Florida. But I became a little bored. What to do? I love capitalism and, especially, marketing and advertising. So I became a part-time marketing consultant, part-time retiree. In the first two years of this new consulting career, I have been hired to coordinate ad agency (and PR firm) reviews. I have also helped advertisers (aka "clients") to negotiate better, often less expensive compensation agreements. I love it. If you and your management want to improve your marketing, conduct an agency review, negotiate a better compensation agreement, please call or email me. Let’s talk. Thank you. Phil Schwartz

How Much Should You Pay Your Agency

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." --Samuel Johnson In the last 2 years, I have helped negotiate and advised on over a hundred advertiser-agency agreements. Without exception, my advice is based on the surveyed experience of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). (Not available publicly.) While it is true that ANA members tend to spend more than $50 million annually in advertising, smaller advertiser contracts are following the same trends for compensation and other content in these agreements. Thus, my advice yields agreements that are fair, equitable and complete. If you are an advertiser that is happy with your agency but unsure of your agreement, I am available for a review of terms and compensation levels. If you are an agency that wishes to update the terms and compensation methods of your “standard” agency agreement, I can help as well. [Of course, I only represent one side in any (re)negotiation. While I advise at every point, I seldom do the actual negotiating.] Email me your number for a private review or initial discussion. I would be pleased to speak with you. Phil

Digital Ads Turn Fifteen Today

This was the very first banner ad ever placed. The date was October 26, 1994 and the advertiser was AT&T. 

With an extraordinary 78% click-through rate, this 468 x 60 banner ad ran on HotWired.com

Congratulations!

Phil's List of Enlightening Stats - Part 89

5 billion - Number of tweets on Twitter since it went live. This level was achieved this week. 

2.6 billion - Dollar spending forecast for 2009 for Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH) advertising. This encompasses advertising on digital media in retail stores, malls and movie theaters.

3.4 percent - Portion of US population who posted a blog entry in the last 30 days. 

10 percent - Portion of US population who read a blog entry in the last 30 days.

1.6 million - Number of ning.com social networks. Total active members: 32 million.

45 percent - Estimated market share of Amazon's Kindle. Sony is in second place with a 20 percent share. In 2010, Apple is expected to introduce a competitor.

240 million - Dollar investment by Microsoft in 2007 to acquire 1.6 percent of Facebook. This relationship helps explain the new Microsoft Bing agreement to provide real-time search results for Facebook status updates. Bing will also provide the same for Twitter tweets.

The Absolute Best Ad Agency Web Site, Bar None

In many of the Business Building seminars I conduct for advertising agency management, I am asked what agency sites I admire and believe to be most effective.

I am careful to be objective, so I provide several examples, usually from agencies outside my principal geographical area of work. One who advises clients on their agency reviews must not show bias.

Since the agency whose site I hold in such high regard is not likely to compete in the reviews I do, there is no loss of objectivity. 

Please email me (including your name, title and direct business contact information). I will email you back today with the URL.

Phil

Coming tomorrow: The absolute best ad agency site on the Web.

You will agree. 

Tomorrow, I will reveal what is absolutely, positively the best Web site of any advertising agency in the United States, its possessions, outlying islands and much of the rest of the world.

But there's a catch. You will have to email me to get the link. See how lead-building is done?

Phil

To Be Digital or Not To Be

Report from the agency search front:

Lately, when ad agencies claim capabilities in digital products, the question is not whether you create iPhone apps. It's -- How many have you created / are you creating?

Phil