Creative Agency Secrets

And a follow-up link to the Cass Creatives Event from an article written by Nick Carr In Praise of the parasitic blogger

 

Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review, recently decried
what he sees as a tendency among journalists to characterize blogs as
"a ‘parasitic’ medium that wouldn’t be able to exist without the
reporting done at newspapers." He calls the charge "a poorly informed
insult of many hard-working Web publishers who are doing fresh,
informative and original work."

Nick Carr spotting opportunities again….Google should buy Intuit

And here is my comment posted there.

Interesting comment from Willshire above.  Intuit in the UK is a pretty poor service company (I’d always assumed it was a technology company that didn’t understand service but it appears the opposite).

I use Quickbooks for two companies I work with and the online support and training is really poor.  Maybe that’s just here in UK but none of the links work, there is no opportunity to buy offline training from resellers or the like.  And to crown it all they did a "customer survey" last week and the link to the questionnaire website didn’t work.

The day later they sent another email saying somethi8ng like ‘we don’t know why the link didn’t work on Friday’…. I am sure they did.  But it didn’t come across well to a customer who at the time had been prepared to spend her time filling in the questionnaire.  Opportunity blown away by poor testing IMHO.

Rebecca Caroe

(more…)

Thanks to Nicholas Carr for spotting and linking two reports on Web 21.0 for business.  First Forrester’s survey of CIOs asked about their take-up of six Web 2.0 tools

Fully 89% of the CIOs said they had adopted at least one of six
prominent Web 2.0 tools - blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, social
networking, and content tagging - and a remarkable 35% said they were
already using all six of the tools.

Pretty much what you’d expect from Chief Technology Officers (who all probably lie a bit to appear ahead of the curve!)  [aside…. I remember in the Wordplex days of dumb terminals and central servers at Edward Erdman when I told the head of IT that a Windows front end for the software suite had been launched.  He knew nothing…. and I got no credit!]

But McKinsey did a wider survey

In January 2007, McKinsey surveyed some 2,800 executives - not just
CIOs - from around the world. It found strong interest in many Web 2.0
technologies but much less widespread adoption. McKinsey also looked at
six tools. While it didn’t include tagging, it did include mashups; the
other five were the same. It found that social networking was actually
the most popular tool, with 19% of companies having invested in it,
followed by podcasts (17%), blogs (16%), RSS (14%), wikis (13%), and
mashups (4%). When you add in companies planning to invest in the
tools, the percentages are as follows: social networking (37%), RSS
(35%), podcasts (35%), wikis (33%), blogs (32%), and mashups (21%).

So - you know where you can place your company in this list.  BUT….read on, dear reader.

Perhaps the most surprising finding coming out of the McKinsey survey
was that American companies are not poised to be the leaders in
embracing Web 2.0 in coming years. If anything, they’re looking like
laggards.

[I don’t want to say ‘hooray’ but finally we find the "rest-of-the-world" can dominate the Yanks.]  Hooray.  And our chance comes now. 
This bell-curve of adoptions is raging ahead.  Different industries are taking it differently.  I have been working with my clients to get blogs up to speed… the hardest thing is to get them to see the opportunities offered.  And where the benefits will fall.

Any advice for me?

(more…)

Thanks to Mike Butcher for this summary of a conference I couldn’t get to.
But I just loved this part of his write-up - especially the bit at the end about brands.

• The session on “brand engagement  in the digital age”
was full of the usual marketing platitudes, with one of the few quotes
being lifted from Jeff Bezos, who said the ratio of spending 70% of
your budget on marketing and 30% in creating a good service will
reverse over the next 20 years. Over in the “Radio in the multiplatform
era: how are listeners consuming?” session Suw twittered:
“Radio panel seems to be a bit of a stats-fight. Who cares who was
first to podcast? Question is, are they any good?” And possibly some
conference controversy as Antony Mayfield
was asked to ’stop typing’ by a delegate who appears not to
understanding someone might be blogging a conference about changing
media… Perhaps she didn’t get the memo.

The brands panel heated up later on during Q&A, when people
started to mention - almost in passing - that monitoring blogs and
online discussion about your brands was important. Sue Elms of Sue
elms, executive vice president, global media practice, Millward Brown
said that despite all this talk about brands losing control to social
media, brands must not lose confidence and should “continue in a
leadership role.” She quoted a a survey in the States which said 7% of
people go onto blogs and online community to find out about brands.
Only 25% of people trust blogs about brands. “That’s quite small.” 55%
of people ask friends and relatives about a brand “in the pub. That’s
always gone on and will continue to go on.” [Stop me if I’m wrong, but
isn;t that the point here. A few years ago, that 25% figure was zero,
so the trend is upwards and smart tech firms are making all this stuff
easier to aggregate and track for the ‘ordinary people’. I mean maybe
Google, for instance? How many of us just Google to get the low-down on
a brand. The panel didn;t seem to touch on this much, perhaps because
SEO and PPC is too geeky a topic].

Too bl**dy right, Mike!

Here’s what I have done recently with clients.  (tip: if you haven’t done this for yourself yet… do it!)

1.  Get a PR agency to use Google News to track their client mentions online (blogs and news)

2.  Demonstrated how the SEO on a site determines relevancy to search terms and how important it is to be at the top of the list.

3.  Discussed what to do when someone writes something nasty about you or your client (shock horror)

4.  Reviewed the options open to a company when a similarly-named organisation chooses a domain name which is the same as theirs but with a different dot extension.

As an aside.  I do check myself out regularly via the main search engines.  Don’t you?

I took Stephen Horn and Eddie Buckley to the Cass Business School event - the usual panel discussion.  They said the subject was "the changing relationship between PR and the media"
What they actually talked about "Too much journalism is PR-led"

Panel Chair - Adrian Monck, City University
Julia Hobasbawm, Editorial Intelligence [but look at her Google search page ;-)]
Scott Leamouth, Media Strategy
Carol Lewis, The Times
Martin Moore, Media Standards Trust

Adrian has written his position statement in his blog and puts his case succinctly.

Martin: News reporting is so intertwined with spin that the quality is visibly weakened.  Should we care?  The news media sees its elf as accountable to the public but PR companies are accountable to their clients.  PR is a legitimate part of a free society. 

BUT it exists, Martin and journalists (whether lazy or time-pressed are susceptible to its wiles - not checking stories, repeating press releases verbatim etc).

Scott: The ability to damage reputation via journalists has increased and led to the opportunity for the PR sector to prosper.  However PR won’t drive the future of the media because it is user-generated and content-led.  But it’s impossible to unpick the relationship between PR and the media.  In the UK we have a healthy, sceptical media.

Presumably you mean people buy more PR because of scare stories of vicious journalists and buy time to be shielded from their fangs?

Carol: Professionals have roles and there are boundaries… this is the key issue.  As a journalist I find facts, research them in context and give a balanced view.  Journalism should always include some degree of investigation.

Yes, right.  It should.  But does it?

Julia: [plugs her latest book] Journalistic careers ar enot growing as fast as PR careers (11%) the the love:hate relationship between us is about power.  Journalism is fragmented adn diluted by the 24 hour media and blogs.  Reputation increase is important to the corporate agenda and that’s why they spend ££ on PR.  A new pact is needed between those putting information into the funnela nd those taking out of it and taking it to the public.  Although journalists are accountable to the public it has its own ‘truth’ and bias.  You know your readership.  I call for ‘content labelling’ for news.  This story is brought to you with 5 off the record briefings, one press rlease and has been checked by the PCC.

Julia speaks in wonderful sound bites.  Get to hear her in person if you can, she’s marvellous.  But she don’t ‘arf plug her organisation all the time.

Adrian: thinks online hyperlinking is the media’s opportunity to do content labelling…. oh and then he plugs his book!

And so it ended…. not much new discovered - some fantastic anecdotes and a few insightful questions.

Come next time.   These are great events.
Oh, this is how Cass wrote it up for their own news.

There have been a few rather too public instances of private internal memoranda being leaked outside the originating company.  Loyalty and corporate discretion may be a thing of the past, but modern organisations need to be aware of the potential issues surrounding internal documents that get publicised.

A great summary of the three types of leaked memo has been written up by Jackie Huba at the Church of the Customer blog.

Type 1

1. The Rorschach memo.

The idea: Write a memo that explains how your company has lost its
way and must make big changes. Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz made
made news last week for his "Starbucks has lost its way" memo

Type 2

2. The Maguire Gambit.

The idea: Write a memo on how your company is
screwed up and must make big changes. The caveat: You’re not the boss,
so your job or career could be on the line like the fictional character [Jerry Maguire]
for whom the gambit is named.

Type 3

3. The Wild-Eyed Memo.

The idea: Write a memo that’s equivalent to jumping
on the bar with tequila bottle in hand, screaming how much you kick
ass. Oh, and how much it sucks to be jilted.

The last has strong relevance for creative agencies because it was written by the MD of Cramer-Krasselt a US advertising agency who decided they were insulted by their client, Career-Builder, when asked to re-pitch for the business.  See the long list of sites about them from this simple Google search. Including the Chicago Tribune and Adrants. 

Interestingly, their website looks like it’s entirely flash-built and so doesn’t come up well on Google…. but see the  new front page which is rebuilt to focus entirely on their Career-Builder adverts and a box at the bottom just about the bloggers who have had their say on the saga….. I suppose you can call this a positive (honest?) response to the publicity surrounding the memo that was leaked.  But I think it just shows crass arrogance of the advertising agency ego. Would you give them your business?

If you want more on this subject and how to keep your clients and win re-pitches, may I recommend Jon Steel’s book Perfect Pitch.  His underlying lack of arrogance and over-riding desire to come up with the best possible creative work for his agency’s clients comes through so strongly that I just wanted to hand him my business without a pitch.  His focus on the client and the client’s needs over the needs of the agency shine through.  I hope that hiring WPP is exactly like that for anyone who works with them.

(more…)

God bless Google’s algorithm.  I am easy to find online….. even if you spell my name wrong.

Try it for yourself!
Or for your brand…..
AND Or your competitors….

In fact.  Why not download Firefox’s SEO Add-on and check your online profile, Alexa, MSN, Google and other rankings.  If you corporate page isn’t at least hitting 5 on Google…. worry.  in fact, be very worried and get it sorted pronto.

SEO is what you need.  Plus an integrated online and offline sales and marketing plan that builds your profile and reputation globally.  If you aren’t doing it - you can probably consider your business history within 3 years.

Call me and I’ll send you to the right people who are expert in the various skills you’ll need.

Blimey.

PS respond if you are scared by this.
PPS in fact, don’t write a comment or a response - just do it.  DROP EVERYTHING AND DO IT.

Wikipedia is my key research resource for work and play.  Recently I checked out all the Nobel Prizewinners for Physics, the Olympic medallists for 1956 and what a piece of business slang - inshoring and nearshoring meant.

But I worry about some of the things the organisation behind the site say….. apparently they want to check the credentials of the people posting items onto the site.  Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the whole point was to allow anyone to post on any subject.  Ergo why check credentials?
It’ll slow down posting speed and will take half the fun out of the whole shebang.

Memo to self… must create an entry about myself before they start checking credentials.  Maybe I won’t.  Well, I am probably the best person to write about myself anyway - so that’ll be fine.  Or will it?! 

I am grateful to BL Ochman for this wonderful opportunity here to get creative with recruitment.
several of my clients are hiring at the moment and the usual problems of alignment between the opportunity and the candidates are surfacing.

How about explaining in slightly more detail using moving images, exactly what it is like working for your company and what the job entails….. and then not paying for the advert or recruitment agency fee?

Read on….

(more…)

Just read a very insightful post from Atanu Dey on the shortcomings of officialdom on economic development and technology in India.

[Sidebar - I am reading up on India because one of my clients, Buffalo, works on outsourcing and that’s where a lot of business both in and out of Europe is coming for the outsourcing marketplace.] 

Now, way back, I worked with the AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Programme) in northern Pakistan doing what was then called ‘bottom-up’ economic development in village communities.  Their work and some recent reading I did into Ernesto Sirolli’s  vision of  Enterprise Facilitation  aligns so closely to my personal view that the best way to enable people to improve the economic value of their lives (earn more, buy a house, feed your children, education etc) is to use the building block of small business as a lever.  I delight in the fact that my academic studies were about the economy and third world development (as it was then called) and now I have the skills to align and correlate my interests in both fields and, moreover, to actually help people to achieve this for themselves through my work as a consultant.  I love it!

Here’s the comment I put onto Atanu Dey’s post

This is fantastic stuff.
One resource you might want to look at in the context of ‘village information centres’ is the Sirolli Institute http://www.sirolli.co.uk/

I worked in mid 80s for AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Programme) in northern Gilgit and the principles we worked to there are closely aligned with Ernesto Sirolli’s ideas. 

Now I’m a business consultant but the principles of using enterprise as a tool for economic development is the most rational I have ever seen.  And it works - in the first, second and third world!

Rebecca

And, as an aside, in browsing the Sirolli Instistute’s website, I find that they visited Cambridge in September 2006 and I missed the talk - darn.

Still, I signed up to their blog… which is more than many others have done.