Creative Agency Secrets

I received a quesiton from a Business development Director of a well-known identity and branding agency who works with social enterprise and government organisations.

We don’t use outside consultants, but the ‘Enterprise 2.0’ is an area of interest. Most agencies seem to be setting up blogs as a way of presenting the agency culture and having open dialogue. What are your thoughts?
Ben

And so I wrote him this reply.  What do you think?

Without writing “screeds” my view is that a blog is a good way to start if you want to present the ‘personality’ of the agency to the outside world.  However, deciding to do it and doing it well and consistently are two different things.  You need to be the type of organisation who has the desire to show off in public a bit in order to keep the momentum of a blog going – and you also have to be able to write interesting stuff.  Many firms struggle to do both of these.

There are other simple social media tools that can be quicker than blogging and easier to maintain – but the same two rules I mention above apply.

Having said that, it is very hard to stand out in a crowded marketplace especially when the market for your services is changing.  But the opportunities for working with ‘social conscience’ organisations are rising.  Which should be good for you.

I note the Google page rank on your site is pretty low 3/10 for your home page.  Adding a blog which is not built in flash, may help improve your SEO as well as enable you to promote appropriate search terms to capitalise on your strong brand heritage.  Think of it as amplification for your corporate “voice” online.

So that’s my free advice for you.  Sad you don’t work with outside consultants – but call me if you want to talk further.
 

Many thanks to Mireira Fontbernat from Qik who has uploaded video of the three speakers this morning (and a little bit of me doing introductions).

Bloggers reactions: FreshNetworks' Helen Trim 

Charlie Robertson of Red Spider 

Quentin Boyes of Honeycomb Software  

Sadly the one of Andrew Howells of Zype didn't come out…. darn phone reception. 

Thanks to Nico Macdonald for inviting me to chair two sessions at his Media Futures Conference next week.

I am going to be up there with Alex McKie and the guys from Plot…. Wicked! 

11.00:    Research in the real world – Alex McKie

11:30:      Meet the people formerly known as… users – Gill Wildman and Nick Durrant, Plot

He twittered it here 

Really looking forward to this. 

I am hosting my third breakfast event.  "Should Brands be Broadcasters?" on Wednesday 18th June, 2008 at One Alfred Place 

I run these breakfasts in order to showcase new ideas and innovative marketing thinking.  Past speakers include Adriana Lukas on Social Media and Mark McGuinnes s on the Enneagram. 

Three speakers will give their unique points of view on this issue:

Charlie Robertson, Red Spider speaking on extending brand strategy to the online world

Sign up here to come along!

PS if anyone is willing to blog the gig for me, please get in touch! 

I just found an interesting website which may be helpful for those times when you think you've done a fabulous piece of work and would like others to appreciate it as well.

It is called Dynamo London and it is a site promoted (and presumably funded) by the lovely NMK, London Development Agency and a couple of notable quangos and private businesses. 

it has three major areas: Projects , Discussions and Events .  Self-explanatory and handily colour co-ordinated for the hard of hearing. It claims to be "your online interactive media showcase".

Here's what Malcolm Garrett the Creative Director says in his welcome email

This is a site for its members, and for sharing knowledge, so I sincerely hope you'll participate and offer your comments and opinions. We'd like to hear about anything that you see on the site, that you like, or don't like, or have an opinion about.

It's very easy to upload more projects, or to post your own discussion topics. Project texts remain editable so this can be done quickly, and you can come back and add more detail at any time. You can also add extra information to other projects that are already uploaded.
 

in fact it prompted me to sign up for the Beers and Innovation party on 27 May… maybe see you there? 

Afterthought… if you want to get in touch with a particular agency or individual, the list of members is a pretty powerful grouping with people from Foster + Partners, Burston Marstellar, AIG

I have been given sight of the Forrester report "The Connected Agency " Feb 8th 2008.  And it spells gloom and death for the current traditional agency business model.

Definition of a CA is

An agency with a deep understanding of consumer communities, helping brands create and nurture connections, deliver targeted, on-demand messages, and network for talent and insights. 

Key points and the impact on your biz dev methods are:-

• Data - if you aren't deeply into collecting it (audiences as well as prospective clients) start now.  Great databases, good data insight professionals and the means to interrogate with tools like DataCentre.
• Communities - get into the groups online who are talking about your brands, products, clients, marketplaces.  Lurk and read.  Then participate.  Prepare to lead the conversation.  Conversational (closed loop) marketing is the future.  Dialogue, listening, endless conversations not 'campaigns' will be your metrics.
• Analytics - The authors particularly berate the lack of 'left-brain' mathematical and statistical skills in the industry.  These are key to analytics, segmentation and customer insight.  Buy in and develop these skills for your team.
• Stop-Start Campaigns die and continuous customer conversations rule driven by account managers at the heart of the conversational community.  Be prepared to go to your prospective brand clients and demonstrate your connections into their target audiences, what matters to the audience will drive creative not what the agency thinks up.
• So start by knowing the target markets you work in, browse the blogs, forums, message boards and listen carefully.  [If you don't work in a niche, get one.  Fast]
• Use this online audience for research, find your early connectors, mavens, critics, UGC creatives and make friends with them.  Test campaign ideas on them.
• Have your own "private" marketing funnel that can generate early WOM adoption or buzz.  Not got one?  Give me a call.
• Start planning initiatives (not campaigns) to that audience group from a range of brands - who all want the same audience.  Force collaboration among brands but driven by customer needs.
• Beware auctions.  They will grow and the lowest price point will probably win.  If you are not yet offering a low cost solution to your clients, find a way to deliver it.  (ideas: use young staff as training, outsource to lower cost locations [USA? China, India, Australia, NZ] and find ways to use technology to streamline process and use fewer people)

[and they used the word 'nonfungible' that according to my Dictionary doesn't exist!  Now that's leading edge progress.]

 Media planning works on prices driven by the nonfungible metrics of audience, circulation, and page iews, complicating the decision about where marketers should allocate media budgets.

Cambridge Judge Business School's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning does an annual residential course called "Igniting Enterprise"   It's a all-you-need to get started course where the attendees are expected to come with an idea for a new business that they can use as the model for all the lectures.  I think the focus is on business innovations.

Brochure download  

Last year I played a very small part in delivering the content - doing marketing advice to course members.

This year's course runs in Cambridge from 29th June to 5th July 2008.  It costs £1000 if you come as an individual and £3000 if a company is paying you to attend.   

I met Tim at SXSW earlier this month.  He has written a seminal book called the Four Hour Work Week and it's being launched in London next week.

Tim has set up a pub sessio for any Uk blogger / social media types who fancy hooking up with him.  Wednesday 2nd April in the Chandos pub on St Martin's Lane, London WC2

Sign up here .

If you are a girl geek - keep checking the site as we may have organised an exclusive breakfast with Tim…… my brilliant idea [thanks Sarah for the support!]

I've been online with Twitter for a few months now and here are 5 top tips on how to use it

1. Find top bloggers in your space and follow them.  Read the links they post - you often get the scoop early and can be commenter #1
2. Browse your favourite bloggers and see who follows them and browse their Twitter home pages and see who follows them - good for finding new interesting folk you didn't previously know
3. Tweet your blog posts and 'advertise' them online quickly via Twitter to get early readers who follow Tweets more regularly than Bloglines
4. Use tinyURL where possible to save characters
5. Always thank followers - and if you know them, follow them.  if you don't know them, read their home page, browas as in #2 above and decide if you like their stuff before following.

Steve Gillmore has written a neat summary of Twitter's progress and how he has used it during a live podcast with some uber-bloggers.

And a couple more because I thought of them….

6.  Don't write direct messages to anyone unless you REALLY know them

7.  [for non-US users] Turn off the SMS messages for days when you are at the computer - save up those rationed 250 SMS messages

8.  Watch out!  Twitter is compelling…. you'll get hooked ;-) 

Later… Found I am one of only 45 people following the BBC Radio 4's morning Today Programme on Twitter @todaytrial ….. interesting they only follow other BBC programme twitter sites and so NO Chance of dialogue…. which might enhance the programme….. they do read out the odd email during the show. 

Reading the Busienss section yesterday evening… these are the people listed as the Media Industry's rising stars: top 40 under 40.

These ones interest me:

• Ajaz Ahmed, Founder an dchairman of AKQA
• Michael Birch, co-founder of Bebo
• Neil Chugani, FD BBC Worldwide [my interest is more in his former international rowing career!]
• Nick Gregg, Founder of Strategy Eye
• Nick Green, CEO, Tangent Communications [a former client of mine!]
• Rob Horler, Founder of Difiniti
• Debbie Klein, CEO, WCRS
• Saul Kelin, Partner of Index Ventures
• Richard Moross, Founder Moo.com
• Slexander Northcott, Founder of Gorkana