The economy is tough. There are strength in numbers. But, advertising/design firms in Dayton merging is rare. Most of the time, they buy the assets like vultures over a carcass. From their press release:

Design District is pleased to announce that, as of January 1, 2009, we have merged with three other creative studios to form FORGE. After more than a year of close collaboration with Catalyst Creative Partnership, Jeremy Loyd Design and Chad Mullins Creative, it was evident that we could accomplish much more together than we could apart. Thus, FORGE was born….

FORGE
where ideas take shape

http://www.forgeideas.com
w 937.461.6560

via Design District Merges with 3 Local Creative Studios to form FORGE | Design District.

As far as I can tell, they are still at 411 East Fifth Street, Dayton Ohio 45402

Way to forge a new firm in Dayton. We’ll update our list of Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave right away.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH

Your business depends on the perception of value to your customers. Consumers or customers or patients or guests- whatever you choose to call the people you sell your product or service to, want to feel that they have made the right decision in hiring you to solve their problems.

When we say “Create Lust: Evoke Trust” we get down to the core of what makes people buy. They want what you have to offer because they are confident in your ability to supply what ever it is that they want. They should feel good about their purchase. They look for affirmation from others to justify their decision. Often, just a client list can instill confidence that they are dealing with a professional.

For small business, advertising has become almost cost prohibitive in these days of too many media choices, too many messages and too many options. Because advertising via mass media is almost an oxymoron, sponsored search advertising has become perceived as the only viable option for small business. I’ll define “sponsored search” for those of you new to the term: it’s having your ad appear when someone does a search on a certain keyword. Google is by far the leader in this market, and it sets it’s prices purely by auction- meaning the price of an ad depends on how much competition you have. This is very good for Google- and not very good for you.

That’s why we believe that social media (a good definition of social media can be found on the Radian6 website and on Wikipedia) and good branding are so important in this age of information overload. The Next Wave is one of the leaders in teaching social media/web 2.0 to it’s clients and to others across the country as well as one of the earliest adopters of the technology. It’s part of why we’re called “The Next Wave.”

If “fake it to make it” is really a strategy, and today, more than ever, it’s apparent that guru’s can appear from anywhere. If you want an example- just take a look at “The Evolution of Dance.” Needless to say, being able to dance your way through a meeting has taken new meaning.

Which brings us back to social media and small business. Experts are always nice to have around. If you want to grow your business, finding the right expert to solve your problem can make it much easier for you to do what you do best. Social media- or web 2.0 enabled websites (like this one- partially) allow you to demonstrate your value and knowledge to the world- and have a conversation with other people interested in your area of expertise. Building networks is still one of the secrets to getting your foot in the door- only now, the network isn’t built with closed communities (Harvard or West Point grads come to mind) but in open communities online. The more people you connect with in your field, the stronger your brand.

This video on social media has a whole bevy of people who have exploited the social media tools to build their value in the greater community. Proof positive was how easy it was to Google their names and come to a their site- on the top of the list.

We’ve even connected with a few of the people in the video- like Steve Hall from AdRants.

Their tips? Here is the search friendly run down of the six minute video:

The social opportunity
Brian Solis PR 2.0 FutureWorks
Grow communities around you by engaging them- you become an authority and influential

Rohit Bhargava- author “Personality Not Included”
Word-of-mouth and customer referrals- number one source- cheap, viral works.

Tim Ferriss- The four hour work week
Get offline to meet the people online.

Steve Hall publisher of AdRants
Reach out to  everyone in your industry 9 times out of ten there is someone else doing it- and you want to make friends with them and their friends.

Toby Bloomberg- Bloomberg Marketing
A better way for small business to scale and to grow because of relationships.

Ryan Anderson Overlay tv
Great way to bypass traditional filters and go direct to your core customer.

Darren Rowse ProBlogger
To get your content out there- join up with others to get your content out there.

David Alston- Radian6
Use social media to build a brand in a highly targeted way.

Mari Smith- success coach
Be seen everywhere- online.

Liz Strauss- successful blog
To become irrisistable- know your goal. Three kinds of visitors- readers, people who do things or offer things- and the info sources.

Paul Chaney- International Blogging and New Media Association
How to show your product being made in process- turning his business into a story – to help the customer get to know your business.

While being on Linkedin.com, facebook.com and other business social media sites, there is nothing quite like having your own site and strategy to spread your message. Once you get your potential customers to your site, looking like you have your act together is critical- and that’s where branding comes in.

We have a small confession to make: we’ve been so busy working on other sites, that we’ve let our own slip a bit- but, that’s going to be addressed soon.

For a great introduction to how the web, search and open source content managers work (the best friend of the social media pro)- we highly recommend taking our Websitetology Seminar. If you aren’t in Ohio- we can bring it to your city- just organize a development day for your professional organization and we’ll do a revenue share that will help you raise money for your organization and build your social media knowledge.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Low budget advertising, Marketing & the Web, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Web strategy

The Wilson Advertising site has been a holding page for as long as I can remember, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the latest ad agency spinoff in town picked a name (U! Creative) that is already taken as a URL by someone else.

And, of course, the Dayton Business Journal doesn’t include an address, phone or web address with a business story about a start-up, something that would seem obvious to almost any first year journalism student, so, I can’t add anything except a name to our list of “Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave” page.

Advertising trio launch new agency – Dayton Business Journal:
Three area advertising veterans have departed their jobs and launched their own agency.

Ron Campbell, Ike Imhof and Sheila Siefer opened U! Creative Inc. last week in a 2,000-square-foot office in downtown Miamisburg.

The trio are all former employees of Miamisburg-based Wilson Advertising and Design Inc.

As founders, owners and sole employees, the trio said they bring 70 years experience in the market.

The firm will handle advertising tasks including paper or pamphlet ads, newsletters, commercials and branding initiatives. It will also do media placement for radio, campaign organizing and “anything creative in the business world,” said Siefer, director of operations.

Company officials anticipate $500,000 in billings the first year.

As the business grows, U! Creative owners anticipate employment growth as well. By next year, Siefer said the company should have between six and eight employees.

Brian Wilson, president of Wilson Advertising, said he doesn’t expect the new agency to affect his company.

U! Creative executives said they departed to have more control with their own agency. They expect to be competitive in the marketplace, especially with overall pricing.

Siefer said most ad agencies charge markups on outside services. But U! Creative proposes to connect clients with vendors — such as printers and photographers — so the client can manage the projects themselves.

It’s driven by customer need, Siefer said.

“That is why we call it ‘U! Creative,’ and not put our own names on it,” she said.

Campbell, company president, proposed the business venture in late March. Despite rushing to budget financing, order equipment and find a location, officials are confident in the agency’s future success.

While it’s noble to talk about not marking up outside services, the idea that this makes them a better choice for clients is not exactly a ground breaking creative strategy, nor is not putting your names on the masthead.

Having a website that people can find, along with your phone number and address, now, that’s a good starting point.

If U! Creative needs help going online in a way that will actually show up in Google, we highly recommend our www.websitetology.com seminar.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, How to select an ad agency

One thing I love about hockey is how close the fans can get to the game. But, for most fans, they never get to go inside the locker room. It’s not easy to get great hockey action video in a hurry with one camera – the hits don’t always come where you are, the goals don’t always make great video because some noob (usually in stripes) is standing in the way- so we had limited footage of action. However, we had access to the locker room- and thought we’d give the fans a taste of the team- up close and personal:

Unfortunately (or if you are a fan of Bob Parsons and GoDaddy.com style advertising) the spot was rejected by channel 7- even though it’s ok on Channel 2.

It may not be the most polite way to get attention, but, it does get your attention.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Advertising case studies for The Next Wave, Dayton Bombers Advertising, Low budget advertising

P.T. Barnum famously said “there’s a sucker born every day” and that’s what the Dayton Business Journal must think when they sent out this e-mail solicitation:

Showcase your business on the Dayton Business Journal Business Directory for only $50 a month. We can immediately profile you in front of a local audience looking for your services.
Click here to start. Enter promo code DAY for discounted rate.
Try it for 3 months and cancel anytime afterwards if you wish.
If you have any questions at all please contact us at 800.617.9715 ext. 3.
Michael Powers
Sales Manager
DirectoryM
www.directorym.com

When you follow their link they tell you the following:

DirectoryM – Local Online Advertising
Subscription Listing – Single Region

Drive qualified traffic, buyer ready leads, and powerful brand affiliations through our partner network

• Drive qualified traffic, buyer ready leads, and powerful brand affiliations through our partner network
• You choose the category and the region and your listing will be featured on all of our partner sites
• You will have a full color logo, 750 word profile, and 5 links to drive traffic
• Three month minimum, cancel anytime thereafter

The Dayton Daily News is offering a free directory at Dayton B2B. There is no reason to pay for listings when you can generate your own traffic easily by understanding how customers search for your business.

Building a directory of all your peers and competition can have as much, or greater impact than any search engine optimization strategy. We’ve done that on our “Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave” page. You can also build a site that does well in search, with lots of pertinent, relevant and helpful content (much like the content on this site). So, before you decide to spend $50 a month on some directory listing (including phone books online or the Yellow Pages) consider spending $139 on our websitetology seminar which will show you how to make your site search centric for your customers.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Advertising case studies for The Next Wave, Dayton Media Options, Marketing & the Web, Media, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Web strategy

Claimed to be a “comprehensive directory of leading companies and organizations in the Dayton area” it only has 12 ad agencies listed.

Of course, they also have a party you can attend for being included- at $50 a head.

Dayton Business Journal:
Book of Lists Gala

When: Thursday, January 24, 2008 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: Schuster Performing Arts Center, 138 N. Main St., Dayton, Oh 45402

Let’s see, we have 124 ad agencies, marketing consultants and design firms listed on our Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave page, and then a good number of Columbus and Cincinnati ad agencies as well.

So if you are looking for a “comprehensive list of leading ad agencies in the Dayton Area- you’ve come to the right place. Not only is our list more complete and up-to-date, it has interactive links to the agencies so you can take a peek at the competition.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, How to select an ad agency, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Search and Business, Web strategy

Once a year the local runaway shelter, Daybreak, hosts a fund raising breakfast where they have table captains invite 9 people for a free meal.  Of course there’s a catch, you have to sit through a program that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about their charity cause. This year, the fifth year of using the “secret formula” for raising money- Daybreak asked The Next Wave to provide the 7 minute video for the event.

Yes, folks- it’s prescribed as 7 minutes, and you are supposed to make the audience cry 3 times. It’s near the close of the session, just before the gut-wrenching, heartfelt story of success despite the odds, and the final ask for donations.

After watching the four previous years videos, we knew one thing- we weren’t going to do anything like them: a montage of interviews, “recreations” and narration by staff. It was time for something totally different- something where you wouldn’t know what’s coming- or get caught up in the delivery of the story- just a focus on the story.

Our original idea was to draft David Chappelle to do the MC of the video- and I actually spent 20 minutes talking with him, face-to-face, and offering to pay him to help us out. The goal was to bring national attention to the shelter- and to make more kids aware that it was a positive place for them- instead of an option of last resort. Unfortunately, Mr. Chappelle isn’t reliable- so we found one of Daybreaks own to step in- Mr. Robert Neal Jr.

By placing the clients behind the screen- 60 minute anonymous interview style- we knew that our audience would focus on the story- not on the personalities, when the ending came, it would all draw together in a powerful close. We didn’t want slick production values- and the number of times we had to set up made it an even more daunting task- but the real payoff was the results- watch the video before you look to see how effective it was.

I watched the audience at the table next to me: totally riveted to the big screen, when the totals were counted:

(more…)

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Advertising, Advertising case studies for The Next Wave, Change the world, Everything you want to know about advertising, The Next Wave in Business

We teach a seminar called Websitetology to try to educate clients on web 2.0. We also teach a fair number of other ad agencies (even the local competition) because, well, that’s the kind of people we are.

One of the things we stress is that if you aren’t on the first page of Google you don’t exist, and that content drives traffic. Build valuable content and they will come.

Unfortunately, it’s falling on mostly dead ears. Even huge advertisers like Apple, Burger King and BMW don’t seem to understand how to port their marketing to the web properly. It’s not about how your site looks, especially your “home page”- it’s about the content on every page: every page is home for someone- about something.

So- it was good to see new media bigwigs Avenue A/Razorfish do a study to confirm what we already knew- excerpts from the Ad Age article follow- with a short primer on what we know works on the web:

Do Home Pages Have a Place in Web 2.0’s Future? – Advertising Age – Digital
Avenue A/Razorfish: Brands’ Main Sites Decline in Importance as Consumers’ Reliance on Search Grows
By Abbey Klaassen Published: October 01, 2007

Garrick Schmitt was sitting in a meeting, listening to a client talk about the need to make its website “Web 2.0-compliant,” complete with tag clouds and profile pages. “Tag clouds?” thought Mr. Schmitt, VP-user experience at Avenue A/Razorfish. “Really?”…

The request seemed curious to him — do that many people really use tag clouds that a brand marketer’s website needed to incorporate them? Surprisingly, he couldn’t find the answer to that question. So he decided to find out. (more…)

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Posted in: 1 to 1 marketing, Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Advertising, Advertising case studies for The Next Wave, Apple Advertising, BMW Advertising, Brand relevancy, Change the world, Differentiating your brand, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, Great ad agencies, How to select an ad agency, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Public Relations in the Web 2.0 world, Search and Business, The Next Wave in Business, Web strategy

In our effort to keep up-to-date with all the options for marketers trying to reach consumers in Dayton Ohio, we keep a media options for Dayton Ohio page as up to date as possible. Today, we found yet another out-of-home option- table cards in restaurants.

Run out of Portland Oregon, The Trivia Page is a low budget laminated single sheet that sits on tables in local restaurants.

Trivia Page Photos
The Trivia Page is an entertaining laminated booklet displayed at several restaurants throughout your city. It’s displayed in a variety of high traffic eating establishments, from Delis and Coffee Shops to Steakhouses and Sushi Restaurants. The reason it’s so popular with restaurant customers is that it’s filled with trivia questions, fun facts and other interesting reading material that keep the patrons occupied while they are waiting for their food.

The local option seems concentrated in the Kettering area, with 9 restaurants participating: Longhorn Steakhouse on Dorothy Lane,

Mcgillicutty’s
1980 East Whipp Road
Dayton, Ohio, 45440
Phone: 9374360057

Dublin Pub
300 Wayne Avenue
Dayton, Ohio, 45410
Phone: 9372247822

Dawg Haus
Wilmington Pike

Italian Oven
Kettering, Wilmington Pike

Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers
Jefferson Street Downtown and Patterson and  Wilmington Pike

The BullPen
Patterson Road

Carmel’s
Shroyer in Kettering

The price si $686 for the year, with your “Feature article appearing on at least 4 front pages.”

It’s printed quarterly, and you can reach The Trivia Pages at 800-299-4193. They are planning to roll out other areas.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Dayton Media Options, Everything you want to know about advertising, Media

The old cowhand expression goes “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is how advertising agencies often feel about our clients.

Coming up with the “big idea” is one thing- getting the client to buy it- can be infinitely more difficult. Sometimes, even when you have a client who thinks you are brilliant- they run into an “expert” who convinces them that their ad agency can’t possibly know how to make the web work for them- and that they should “trust” them.

This was the case with our client Zen Windows- a small business that we provided the tools to compete and win against much bigger and better capitalized business heavyweights. Our name, our tagline: Zen Windows, Relax, window quotes in five minutes, set them apart from the high-pressure, hard-sell, commissioned window sales companies in Columbus Ohio. Our simple web strategy involved using blog technology to keep Zen Windows at the top of search- for many terms- not just keywords. Unfortunately- the client drank from another cup- and so yesterday, when I saw we had gotten a google hit for “Zen Windows”- I checked to see what was generating the hit- and it was our post showcasing his logo. Considering “Zen” is the name of a hit MP3 player, and “Windows” is the leading operating system- the fact that our technology and our logo got first position in Google is a miracle. Considering that his company didn’t show up in the first 30 hits is a testimony to the snake oil salesman that told him he could build a better website for Zen Windows.

If you aren’t showing up in the first 30 results (or 3 pages) of Google for your own company name, you should be talking to an ad agency that truly understands integrated marketing communications and site construction for optimal search results (not just SEO or Search Engine Optimization- which we believe to be voodoo).

The funny thing is that the new site doesn’t look much different than the design we began with. But, the developer added Flash video to the home page. Flash, but no bang-for-the buck. You decide- what you want- snake oil- or results?

The Next Wave is marketing • innovation for a reason.

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Posted in: Ad Agenices In Dayton OH, Advertising case studies for The Next Wave, Brand relevancy, Change the world, Differentiating your brand, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, How to select an ad agency, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Web strategy