Creative Agency Secrets was asked to prove its salt by giving some free consulting to a new organisation, DirtyMan.co.nz Perversely, it is all about keeping men clean!

Avoiding costly product launches

The team is a start-up and was looking to gain profile without too much hard cost.  Our suggestions included:

• Painting up an old caravan to take to events
• Asking supermarkets about promotions based not in-store ($$$) but in the car park
• Setting up google alerts for three phrases aligned to the 3 personae of their ‘ideal customer’ profiles
• Set up a press or media page on the website to host high resolution pack images, past coverage and background information
• Print A5 leaflets on light card single sided and then use the back for several different purposes: a Postcard; letterbox maildrops; product information – just overprint in black when you need them

Prioritising your time and money

We time showing DirtyMan how to prioritise their decisions with regard to which promotions to spend money on and how to pick the ones that would give the best return.  They were considering a radio show sponsorship, leaflet drops to households and joint promotions with other non-competing brands.

For a startup, we think the best promotions are those that

1. Bring a customer face to face with the brand
2. Drive awareness to a new audience based on someone else’s data list

We recommended assessing any joint promotion based on the size and quality of the database of the other company.  And so a sports team sponsorship that has a supporting newsletter (especially an electronic one) and a Facebook fan group is probably worth more than a radio show with no mailing list.

What were the outcomes?

Here’s what Tracey Orange, the owner had to say after the briefing with Creative Agency Secrets:

Yes I did find my meeting with Rebecca useful, we have been busy talking to lots of people over the last week or so and I guess I am taking bits from everyone I speak to, and then formulating our plan from here.

After meeting Rebecca we are going to use some of her suggestions, one was to get out and meet our customers face to face and we now are looking for a cheap promo vehicle brand up and use for onsite promos and events, (if you know of any old land rovers for sale please let Mike know), she also gave me some good things to be talking to organisations we want to align with and not to be just giving stuff away but to leverage product for contacts database names and she also suggested getting hooked up with a clothing brand or similar and then the next day we spoke to someone who is going to see about hooking us up with a menswear clothing brand so fingers crossed.

Would you like access to our ideas?  Think about how to apply these to your own brand.

Get in touch and ask for a FREE 20 minute chat on the phone or Skype.

If you think that that was a coincidence, think again. It was newsjacking.

Interview with David Meerman Scott

On an episode of the radio show Internet Marketing for Smart People, Copyblogger interviewed David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and author of Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.

So what is newsjacking?

Newsjacking is a marketing technique where a company strategically coincides a product development, company promotion, etc. with a larger-scale news-worthy event. Essentially, a company rides the wave of another news piece, gaining coverage and promoting their product with minimal effort.

Meerman Scott identified the insurance company TIO as a prime example of a newsjacking success story. When the company heard that President Obama was visiting Australia for the first time in his Presidency (an event sure to gain extreme media coverage), they decided to offer him an insurance policy against crocodile attacks. It may sound ridiculous, and in truth it is a little, but it worked. For the short amount of time that it took TIO to announce that they were offering Obama the policy, they gained a huge amount of media attention.

But why does it work?

During his interview Meerman Scott explained that there has been a shift in journalism. Where it used to be that companies would seek out journalists for coverage, journalists now venture out themselves and seek news. Their search includes a variety of sources, including blogs, twitter, and more. That’s how a company can release one snippet of information into the cyber tide pool and have it become viral, often gaining a second paragraph nod.

The benefits of newsjacking are enormous…

• minimal time input
• avoidance of through-the-roof PR expenses
• viral media coverage
• anyone can do it

All it takes is a post and well-planned timing!

Have a listen to this show and decide for yourself: is newsjacking the PR technique of the future?

Take a look around the other books written by David Meerman Scott - yes that’s an affiliate link.  Thanks for supporting Creative Agency Secrets.

For brands who are growing  and becoming profitable there comes a time when you choose to professionalise your marketing.  Many businesses decide at this point that they have two choices: to hire a staffer or to buy in expertise from an agency.

Why you need better marketing

The needs are clear – you want more traction with your marketing, you suspect that there are better ways of doing promotion and marketing to get inbound leads and you can afford a budget just for marketing.  These are good signs.

You have identified clearly that your brand has a need and the possible shortcomings of your current set-up.

Hire versus buy: the dilemma

There are advantages and disadvantages – the internal member of staff will need to have well-rounded skills in a range of marketing disciplines (web, advertising, PR, copywriting, print design) and therefore a senior hire with this range of skills is more expensive than a junior.

Using an agency also requires decisions about their skills and area of expertise compared with the type of marketing and communications activity your brand has done in the past or plans to do in the future.

Costs are usually the determining factor

It may be less costly to hire external advisers compared to the cost of a senior member of staff – compare the full cost of hiring and paying (including office costs) a new senior marketer with the price an agency would charge you.

Have a couple of ‘chemistry’ or getting-to-know-you meetings with local marketing agencies and ask their advice.  Also ask to speak to a couple of their recent clients to see if they also made the same transition.

A third option worth reviewing is using a freelancer.  You don’t have the full hire costs of a full time person but can often get very experienced people at lower fee rates.  Check out the freelance hire websites like eLance.com and Freelance.com, Freelancer.com and guru.com.  I’ve successfully hired people for my agency and for clients using eLance.

Creative Agency Secrets has two current clients who use us for mentoring work.  They hired a junior marketer and we speak weekly to review their work, priorities and give guidance.  Could this work for you?  Give us a call – we always offer a free 20 minute first call.

In the meanwhile here are a few other articles that may help you figure out what to do

• Advertising – do it yourself or hire
• Hire a PR firm or do it yourself?
• Do it yourself internet marketing, or hire
• Hubspot offers inbound marketing tutorials for people using its website / content marketing system.
• Read Creative Agency Secrets’ assessment of Hubspot and how to do it yourself
• SEO do it yourself or hire a professional
• Small Business marketing – DIY or hire a pro?
• Web design – do it yourself or hire someone
• DIY or hire a market research company?

The debate proved to be extremely popular. Not only that, but there are no less than three separate write ups for you to choose from:

Eseoghene Okonedo: Summary of the speakers and event questions.

Jonathan Priest: Recognises the reality and challenges your assumptions about whether leaking is always bad

Sean Trainor: In favour of reduced transparency in business

The main learnings that I gleaned which have applicability for business are:

1. An expectation that our rulers are rational and transparent is now the norm for behaviour.  But may not be true.
2. “Fair play” doesn’t come into the discussion – it happens, there are no rules.
3. When you say you want 100% honesty in business, do you really mean this?
4. Corrupt and self-serving people have always existed and will continue to do so – do you know which of your colleagues, clients and prospects are like this?  And how do you adapt your behaviour to deal with them?

As an aside, This weekend I read the Vanity Fair article (Feb 2011) where they interview the Guardian Newspaper Editor, Alan Rusbridger.  He gives the contextual background to how they were brought in to add reach and publicity for the three caches of documents released so far; including the row when Channel 4 TV was added without consent and the delays in publishing the diplomatic cables in order to allow El Pais and Le Monde into the group with the NY Times and Der Spiegel….. all gripping reading and rather more insightful into the working methods of Assange and his team.

So what gave you the idea for the book?

The idea began with a video I did for the Institute of Chartered Accountants called “The 12 Golden Rules of Online Reputation Management”. I realised everyone was beginning to have to come to terms with the fact that their online reputation might affect them. It also seemed like a good way to introduce some of the amazing and easy-to-use tools and services on the web to a wider audience.

What was the tipping point for your realisation that online reputation management was going to be important in the future?

It was when I noticed I was ever more frequently giving the kind of PR advice I was used to giving to clients. Even with very experienced digital professionals, I would find myself saying things like “You’re never off the record online,” and “You should think about being the best, first source of information about yourself on Google”.

What is the number one reason for reading the book?

To get a clear idea of how you can manage your personal presence on the web and what it says about you. It is an “everyperson” guide to looking after your reputation on the web, but it has also been very useful for experienced internet users who haven’t necessarily thought about their own web shadow in a methodical way.

What questions does the book answer?

Me and My Web Shadow answers three big questions in three sections:

1. Why is the web changing the way reputation works?
2. How do we go about living with the web and managing our reputations?
3. How do we practically go about managing our online presence and personal reputation?

You have a full time job – how do you find the time to write a book?

Most of the work was done at weekends and in evenings, although towards the end I took a couple of weeks of holiday to finish it. It was only possible because I had a publisher’s deadline looming, otherwise it would have been really hard to do it like that.

If I read the book, will I have the tools to manage my own reputation online?

You should have a good understanding of why and how to manage your reputation on the web. We shouldn’t confuse “manage” with “control” however. No one, from the biggest brands to private individuals is able to control what is said about them on the web. But they can learn how to influence it, have a say in what the web says about them, if you like.

How can I find out what my online reputation is?

The simplest way is to log out of your search engines and social networks and research yourself as if you were an employer or business associate. Look in all the places you would expect to find information about you, ask what it says about you.

Buy a copy of Me and My Web Shadow

Rebecca has been asked to speak at a Cambridge University Careers service recruitment evening about our industry.

I’d like to give them a decent informational talk with a bit of humour thrown in.

Here’s the brief.

You may remember we met back in the Spring and amongst other things I mentioned that I may run a Careers Evening of talks around the Advertising and Marketing sector. Unfortunately, this hasn’t come to fruition. However, the Advertising and Marketing Communications Careers Fair is happening on Thursday 29 October and I am putting on some talks during that event.

We talked about the possibility of your doing 20 minutes on understanding the family tree of the sector, what job titles really mean with some jargon busting. Would you still be willing to come along and do this?

Questions:

1. List all the different types of Advertising and Marketing Communications agency specialisms
2. Create a ‘family tree’ of the sector
3. List all the main job titles found in agencies
4. List all the main job titles found in client-side marketing departments
5. What does each title REALLY mean?

Sounds like an A-level exam….. but can you help me out?

I’ll get going with some of the lists.  More tomorrow.

Please post your suggestions below.

They have been under fire following a BBC article by Rory Cellan-Jones here , SpinVox's response   and his latest rebuttal here .

Kevin has followed the clear rules of how to diffuse a crisis by sticking to the plain facts in his post.

I guess he's also contacting key bloggers direct and answering their specific questions via comments on their blogs.

Best of luck, my friend.  Tough times.

With the recession beginning to affect agency businesses I sought out those sessions that might be useful learning and training tools for you, the readers of Creative Agency Secrets.  Most of you run or work in creative agencies and will be considering how to plan for your future business development, growth and survival.  I hope that some of these posts will be useful reading over your Easter holiday.

Firstly – the panel I spoke on was called My boss doesn't get it: championing social media to 'the Man'.  With well-known B2B blogger, Peter Kim and the Small World Labs team we had a good discussion including taking questions by Twitter!  The panel is
summarised by several bloggers.

If you have an interest in Advertising and Branding – read about how Alex Bogusky from Crispin Porter+Bogusky is introducing new collaborative partnership business modelsto their repertoire.  Chris Heuer speculated on  The Future of
Advertising ng and 'hot' agency boss Pete Lerma from Click Here/The Richards Group led a great talk on
Models for agency integrationread this if you are a traditional agency adding digital teams to your offering.  

British Filmmaker Jess Search of C4 Britdoc facilitated a discussion on how Brands are driving content for branded entertainment. It seems Advertiser funded programming has come to maturity. 

The PR and Marketing communications world came under attack at the session "Are PR agencies a dying breed? " which was very animated – the common view was that social media is natural territory for PR folk but that we've got to get out and claim it for ourselves.  Building online commmunities in B2C and B2B were covered in two separate gigs:  Nerd network: building a B2B online
community
and Building your audience online .

Design and Digital businesses spoke about pitching and how to win work via the internet.  This focused on some of the 'free' pitching websites in the session called Is spec
work evil?   Probably the hottest argument of the conference occurred here and the debate continued in the comments on my blog post.  Please join in and add your views about whether agencies should do speculative work and free pitching. 

Thank you all for your time and please forward this email if it is useful for your team. 

P.S. I will be going to an event tonight hosted by the Cass Business School to debate solutions to the recession for the creative industries.  We'll be using the we20 method and I hope to publish the outcomes.  Join us  

 Hi Rebecca

Hope you’re well. I have included a release from Joshua G2.

Joshua G2 has conducted some insightful research into how brands talk to UK mums in the current downturn.

Compared to the research last year 52% of mum are now satisfied with the way brands communicate with them, this is an astounding 44% increase on last year.

Please let me know if the release is of interest for your blog.

Many thanks
Paul

I refer you and everyone else to the page listed on RHS that is called "Pitch Me".   In it I explain the areas that I write about and about which I am pleased to be approached.

 This does not and has never included information about Mothers' relationships with brands trying to sell them stuff.  Nor use of the word 'insightful'.

Just so you know.

Over the past 10 years we have seen  a bit change in digital. 

Integration = leveraging a variety of marketing communications platforms and using each to their maximum potential.  Digital doesn't have to follow the traditional creative lead.  

When you do it right the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

How are agencies addressing integration?  They use 'brand vision' as the highest calling for the brand and is a workshop with clients.  e.g. Disney – in the business of keeping alive the magic of childhood.  Around this core they add brand positioning, brand personality and brand affiliation. 

Models of integration

1. Generalist model – the agency says they can handle whatever is needed.  consistent strategy / excecution and convenicne but may not be best in class in both digital and traditional platforms
2. one agency but 2 groups – separate teams of digital and trad who work together seamlessly
3. Goodbey farms out 90% of the production of their digital projects.  The client sees one agency but it is hard to ensure consistency and who is responsible for what
4. multiple agencies – there is a 'holding company' model of having to work with others – geography issues and territoriality – a battle for control.  The agency doesn't want to lose the strategy but if you give up some control it benefits the client.  

Goodbey has mandated from the top that every employee needs to know interactive.  Creative people embrace the fact that digital is where their ideas come to life… "they are done with starting from the 30 sec TV spot – now they start with interactive".  It's about a mindset.

Brands are more open to finding efficiencies than finding best in class work from their agencies.  This is a concern.

We do want to get good revenues and how do you balance doing the right thing and making money for your company becuase digital earns less than traditional advertising.  We start with a principal and a creative head who run a client's business – we work hard to educate and convince the advertising team and it's their obligation to the client to put forward the most well-rounded ideas. 

Client side models

1. some one person in charge of everything
2. advertising group and online markeitng group – separate

How do you determin which portion of the fee splits between each team.  Lead principle on the business decides.  We do a lot of cross-training e.g. PR and social media platforms.  We try to be as co-operative as possible.  Their media group is still split between digital and traditional teams.  Online media buying and planning is so sophisticated nowadays and someone from the traditional side couldn't keep up with that.  So we have trained them on where to recognise that digital is an appropriate part of a campaign.  Weekly media directors meeting. 

Training – we've done creative, media and account handling.  It is a 12 week programme meeting for 2 hours each week and explained every aspect of digital – strategy, creative for websites and advertising, media, production, multimedia, back / front end production, QC.  This was mandatory – backing of CEO key. We also join other team meetings to show off recent work to keep them up to date.  We also started a shadowing programme for a couple of weeks so they can see the day to day reality.  Doing each team separately was important because they want to know different things.  Production was the team that caused us the most problems.

Integrated success stories at brand level – a client who manages their agency roster actively.  Whoever comes up with the idea we get the digital execution. The client sets the boundaries.

"creative hoarding" creates static and friction as one part of the agency grows faster than the other.  2007 Weiden + Kennedy lost part of Nike because they hadn't got interactive.  That year we let a lot of staff go while still growing the interactive hiring.  

The agency is built in layers – is this person a star, do they have potential to be a star or will they never be a star.  We assessed the whole agency.  By discipline, how do we get better – what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong, what systems do we have in place already (e.g. status meetings).  Now we know our gaps what do we have to do to close the gaps.  We did it first by discipline and then company wide.  Continuous improvement.  Using a lot of freelancers hits a cultural change project like this hard.

The future agency model – everyone will be a generalist and able to talk intereactive to some extent.  You will always need a specialist if you want to do best in class work.  

Digital integration spectrum - 

Big idea ———————————————————————–digital manifestation of the big idea

digital idea comes out / tech platform decided / visual design / technical development