Even if they do have money- medical office marketing, as practiced by most physicians maybe one of the boringest categories of all. A picture, a name, a location and “now accepting new patients” makes up 90% of the ads. A few might say something like “specializing in smiles” or provide a laundry list of services or accreditations. Of course, comparative advertising is verboten by the medical society- because as my friend who failed the bar exam 7 times and is now driving a truck says: “what do you call the guy who graduated at the bottom of his class from Medical school? Doctor.”

So, if you do happen to have an exceptionally talented physician, who graduated near the top of his class, and you’ve known since he was just an Air Force captain working on bomb carrying model airplanes and was the kicker for the Air Force Academy, and is a really nice guy with a down home touch… and a small budget to create ads- what do you do?

Have fun!

Who wants to go to a doctor who is already going to bend you over- who runs an ad that looks like he has a stick in his ass before he’s even met you?

Meet Doctor Christopher Blasy, DO, who will not only be your favorite general practitioner if you live in Hinesville Ga, right outside Ft. Stewart and close to Savannah Ga. Besides giving Dr. McDreamy a run for his money- Chris will make you feel comfortable- even if he does have a rubber glove on and is coating it with KY. We had to make that come across in an ad- before he even had his formal “I’m a doctor” picture had shown in our e-mail:

No photo, no problem. Dr. Chris Blasy opening office ad.

The people at the publication got the ad- and offered to insert a bad photo that they had of him- they didn’t get the ad.

When the “official looking” photo came in- with the white lab coat- a standard medical ad didn’t seem right either:

Find the Doctor. This is your first exam.

While it doesn’t exactly say “now accepting new patients” this ad also serves as a social filter- making sure that his patients have a sense of humor (science had already proven that people with a sense of humor live longer) thereby guaranteeing his patients will live longer than the competition. Good marketing can even improve your patient mortality rates- but don’t tell that to the hospitals who still like to run ads inviting sick people in for the highly risky procedures as opposed to working on preventative medicine.

There will be more ads for Dr. Blasy- but we thought we’d share some of our ideas for medical advertising to help other doctors realize your ads don’t have to be as boring as your med school text books.

When the Dayton Bombers called and wanted a 15 second spot, all they thought that could be in there was date and time. Had they had the station do it- they would have had some news footage, with graphics on top and the same announcer that does every single local spot on the air.

The reality is, no one cares about your hockey game that doesn’t already know about it. Advertising is supposed to make people who don’t care- care. Good ads get your attention, and suck you in. Bad ads tell you about a product you could care less about.

Simple connections between client and consumer happens when you grab a fundamental truth- and make it relevant. Here we use “hockey is painful” – complete with missing teeth, black eyes, broken nose and organ music more fit for a funeral than a hockey game.

Getting the message to resonate with something the customer already believes is a great first step to engaging them in your brand. Even in 15 seconds.

We’ve been graced with a little boutique in Dayton that wants to be Barneys New York- well, the mini-me version at least.

Barneys ad mantra is “taste, luxury, humor” and the store is known for it’s offbeat ways. The Pink Daisy hadn’t really established a brand voice when they met us through our www.websitetology.com seminar, but with a little help, they now have a new site, new business cards, new bag labels and now the first part of a new ad campaign.

They’re really happy with their site- and already have written about us:

A Big Thank you | The Pink Daisy Boutique in Oakwood Ohio
I can’t believe I finally have a website and it is all thanks to The Next Wave.

And it won’t be long before customers start sensing a new energy from the little boutique.

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.

Think of it as launching a challenger brand, with no money, no time, and a very absolute deadline to dominate the market (election day). Can you imagine Procter and Gamble launching a new detergent and having to have 51% of the market make a purchase in two months?

Here is our first shot at launching a local political activist into a National Congressional race. Please note, not only did the candidate star in the ad, he wrote it himself (unlike his competition) because of course, the candidate is the same person writing this post.

it is also available as a downloadable iPod version here: http://esrati.com/?p=490

One of the keys of viral marketing and leveraging your low budget campaign is getting others to talk about it- the “word of mouth” factor. You can’t count on this happening automatically. This is where your established network of customers can make or break you. First, you have to actively tell them that the campaign is out there. Digitally- this means sending e-mails, posting appropriate comments in appropriate places, and reaching out to people who think as you do. It used to be marketing to the influencer or early adopter- now, it’s to your social network either formal (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace) or informal as I did. Here is what creative genius Ernie Schenck said about the spot:

Ernie Schenck Calls This Advertising?
Seriously, people, show me a spot in this already tired political year that comes close to this simple little gem from Dayton ad guy, David Esrati, and I will eat my moustache. Attention, candidates: A little imagination, a little self-deprectation and a little ability to lighten up can go a long way. The man ought to get elected on the spot alone. Nice work, Esrati.

A client, and really smart guy, Charles Halton posted on his Awilum site:

it’s the funniest political ad I have ever seen. If politics were more like this it would make election season actually fun!

Another client, who happens to be a member of the Democratic Underground site posted it here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×82652
which quickly became the highest click through on YouTube- even though the numbers are very low for what it has to do.

Some key things to implement: Using YouTube to serve your video saves bandwidth for your site, it also is a part of a larger community. It gives stats, and links to track views. But, most importantly it makes it easy for your supporters to share it on other sites to other audiences. Yes, you lose control of where your ad shows up and what people say about it, but, remember the old saw “I don’t care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right” applies, and a link is a good tool to make sure that in the end, the viewer can track it back to it’s source.

Also, make sure to watch your webstats so you know who is linking to you, and watch what is said there. It helps to be proactive, thanking them for mentioning you (and building backlinks) and showing that you are on top of things.

Putting links in the video as a title/super is probably more important than where you make the video available- so that people can always reference the source. It’s one of the reasons YouTube watermarks and backlinks every video. In this attention-short market, it’s really important that you tell your audience to favorite the spot, to rate it, to link to it in support of your cause/product etc. or it won’t rise to the top of the “charts.” With so much to choose from, you need peer ratings to make it interesting. In politics especially, you have a short window to get people to look.

When I wrote this spot, I was keenly aware that I would get beat in fund raising by my opponents. I also know that media endorsements are strongly biased to the guy who raises the most money. It’s my biggest hurdle, trying to take on an incumbent with $750,000 in the bank. This was the opening salvo in the take down of a Goliath. The next spots will also look at raising a lot of money as being a reason not to vote for the opposition. Sort of the same as the upstart brand who wants to say they are the antithesis of the market leader, even if they are hoping to become what they warned against. Would Apple be as cool if they had 90% of the market? We may never know, but I guarantee you, Chiat/Day and Steve Jobs would be ecstatic if they were.

Sticking to one issue per ad is stronger than trying to do a laundry list. Ogilvy used to preach that. He wasn’t a big fan of humor, but, if the spot wasn’t funny, we’d have a lot less people watching it. When aiming for success with a guerrilla campaign, you have to give something back to the viewer for their time and attention- in this case it’s a little laugh. Remember, especially with “viral campaigns”- they don’t have to watch the ad, unless they want to, put something in it for them.

I was told it wasn’t “congressional” to pick up dog poop in a political ad. But, considering most of the ads are full of BS- utilizing a “universal truth” in an ad is almost a guaranteed way to connect with an audience. Find common ground and build on it, it’s a fundamentally sound creative strategy.

How well this campaign works will ultimately be judged on March 4, 2008, the primary date. But, in the meantime, let me know what you think marketing wise here- politically- please go to the esrati post: http://esrati.com/?p=490 also, don’t forget to go to YouTube and rate it and favorite it. It all helps.

But, kudos to Crispin Porter + Bogusky, they were able to bump Ask.com from a nobody to a better known nobody with their campaign (“Experience Instant Getification” and “The Algorithm”) more than any of the other also rans, up a whole one-tenth of a percentage point.

Guess Who Gained Search Share – Advertising Age – Digital
…scrappy little Ask was dropping millions on a high-profile, Crispin-designed ad campaign and telling everyone it had the best algorithm. So guess which company gained the most share in search this year. Yes, it was Google.

According to ComScore, Google’s share in January was 52.6%, and by October, the most recent month with available data, that number had climbed to 58.5%. Others peg its share as even bigger: Hitwise has it at 65.1% in November, up from 64.1% in January.

In the meantime, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL all lost share, and Ask was the only gainer, up one-tenth of a percentage point. (It’s not very likely, but things still could turn around in November and December, as those returns aren’t in yet.)

“Google has really become the verb of search,” said James Lamberti, senior VP at ComScore. “It’s a combination of viral and branding power.”

Pepsi vs. Coke
“If you did the equivalent of the Pepsi Challenge and had a blind taste test of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft results, I don’t think people would find Yahoo’s results are necessarily bad,” said Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Efficient Frontier, a search-marketing-technology company. “But it comes down to branding. Google has done a heck of a job continuing to build its brand.”

Absolute search numbers tell a different story. According to ComScore, only one search engine, AOL, declined in terms of total queries. Yahoo gained 5%, Google gained 37%, Microsoft sites gained 15% and Ask gained 24%.

So should marketers be worried? As the search category — estimated at $8 billion in 2007 by Forrester — becomes an increasingly important part of a marketing plan, the seeming consumer consolidation with one player arguably gives Google more control over the search experience.

“Marketers sure would like for someone to give Google a run for its money,” Ms. Siminoff said. “There’s lots of emotional support behind Microsoft and Yahoo.” But, she said, “marketers aren’t spending on Google because Google’s a nice guy but because Google works for them.”

It’s worth noting that the share gains didn’t manifest themselves only in consumer search-engine use. They carried over into ad spending. Efficient Frontier, which has $400 million under its management, said more than 73% of that went to Google in October of this year, up from 62% two years ago.

Looking for innovation
Google is not a monopoly — yet — but luckily for paid-search marketers, even if it were, price inflation is less likely thanks to Google’s market-driven, auction-based pricing.

“Marketers just want to see the innovation,” Mr. Lamberti said. “That’s why there’s buzz around Ask.”…

So even though Google spends less, their brand delivers more. Sounds like serious marketing judo doesn’t it. Here is the lesson to learn, and it applies to all those who want to effectively use Google to drive business to their site: in a land of similar products the only differentiation that you can control as marketer is the user experience – and that is what you should focus your marketing efforts on.

It’s why Apple is the only personal computing company that stands apart from the crowd; why no other online retailer has the customer base of Amazon and why Google is the winner in search. The focus is on the customer experience as much as the actual product. Google could have delivered banner ads- but at the expense of slowing the delivery of results. Amazon could have advertised, but instead chose to spend that money on free shipping. No matter what Crispin Porter + Bogusky does for ask.com, the problem is that search now depends on critical mass and massive investment on technology to refine results- and no one can catch up with Google.

Now, more than ever, there is a science to advertising: deliver answers instead of ads, experiences instead of excess,  and results instead of rhetoric. Everything can be tracked and measured either by clicks or by sales, so when looking at an ad agency to deliver customers via search, think twice about the creativity and look for the science behind the campaign. You’ve already found one agency that understands how to make this work or you wouldn’t be reading this.

We dare you to find another.

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.

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:

For the first time they had a donor pledge at each of the two highest levels- $10K a year for 5 years and $5K a year for 5 years. Total donations were higher than ever before. They took the concept of the “Fairy tale” gone wrong- and built the whole morning on the theme. While sometimes we wonder if selling more widgets is truly a noble cause, the opportunity to help a great social service organization headquartered a mere 4 blocks from our office makes us proud to do what we do.

As to the secret formula- yes, the whole one hour program follows a fixed script on how to manipulate an audience into giving money. It has worked like clockwork for our client, however, this year, it worked even better.

That’s why we are The Next Wave.

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.

The following months, his team conducted a study of almost 500 connected consumers to figure out how people were using marketer websites and forecast what would be important in web design during the next year…

‘Sanity check’
The report, out today, will serve as a “sanity check” for some early Web 2.0 adopters and technophiles. And, he said, “for more traditional marketers, there’s a whole new world we have to introduce them to.”

One of the most surprising things the team found was how many people are starting their online shopping with search – more than 54% of the study’s panel, in fact. The idea that more consumers are coming to brand sites through the side door of search means search engines are starting to circumvent brands when it comes to online shopping. While a consumer looking for a pizza stone offline might drive to her nearest Williams-Sonoma, in the online world she’s more likely to just type the product name into Google and see what comes up.

“Marketers need to stop thinking so much about their site and more about what’s happening outside their site, such as widgets, viral and search,” Mr. Schmitt said.

It also means home pages are becoming less important as search drives those visitors deeper into a site, meaning marketers need to treat product pages like home pages, adding navigation and sharing functions.

Bookmarking together
Speaking of sharing, social recommendations continue to grow in importance. More than 85% of people on the panel used “most popular” links on sites to decide what to look at and more than 55% made purchase decisions based on user reviews.

“Peers still drive consumer preference,” Mr. Schmitt said. “Nothing else even comes close.”

Another trend: Incorporating more data into design. While designers and developers have many rich technologies at their disposal, they also have better ways to mine behavioral data and adapt their sites in real time.

Four tips for digital design

1. Make content portable with widgets and RSS so people can interact with it anywhere.
2. Turn on consumer ratings and reviews and allow commenting wherever possible.
3.  Invest in online video.
4. Think outside your site — how do search, social media, offline ads and blogs relate?

Search logs, site analytics and behavioral data can provide guidance for design, as can offline channels such as call centers…

Oh, and what of those tag clouds Mr. Schmitt set out to analyze? Almost 65% of consumers never use them; a little more than 11% use them all or most of the time.
One of the first things we ask our seminar participants is “how often do you check your web stats?” We’re lucky if most even know what they are. While stats are a good starting point- they are also valuable to learn what’s working and what isn’t.

Right now, a post we have about an Apple TV spot is routinely drawing 90% of search directed traffic to this site- traffic that should be going to Apple’s site. But, the difference is- Apple built a pretty site, and we built a useful one. Spend millions on an ad to drive interest in your product and desire more information- but have potential customers show up here, instead of on the well known Apple is inexcusable.

Brand advertising and home pages are fine- but, in the end, it’s really about building a place online where your fans can find everything they want to know about each product you make (or have made in the past). That is the “Home Page” of the future- the home of your product.

What do you think?

And, when typing in Pizza it does a great job around my home. It also works for locating the nearest Apple Store quite well. But, when typing in “Advertising Agency” nothing even close to an ad agency got a pin in Dayton. So, of course, I had to fix that. Google informs me it will take up to 4 weeks before my listing is updated (unbelievably slow in the Internet age)- but, it was incredibly easy, and the verification by phone system worked well.

If you haven’t put your business on the Google Maps page, I highly recommend doing it as soon as possible- and, if you are a Pizza place, you can even put a coupon on it for free!  So, proceed to the following link and look for the “Add or Edit your business” part- make sure you are at your business phone and have a live internet connection at the same time.
Google Maps

For right now, it’s cool to show up on iPhone users phones- but, soon, this will be more important than the Yellow Pages ever were. And, before you select an ad agency, that claims to be digitally literate,  check out if they have a complete listing on Google Maps.

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.

I’m not sure who the independent restaurants hired, but the site by the Dayton Daily News isn’t helping them much.

How do I know, well, people searching for “Dayton Independents” are ending up on my personal site: esrati.com which has a section on great places to eat and drink in Dayton Ohio.

This is why an agency that knows web 2.0 is critical to the success of any campaign- test your agencies adoption of this new way of doing business by going to google and typing in: site:agencyurl.tld and see how many pages come up.

Here is a snapshot of the Google results for “Dayton Independents” – note Esrati.com is number three.

It’s not enough anymore to run an ad, have a site, and expect results unless you have a modicum of Search Engine Optimization under your belt.

That’s why we teach our websitetology seminar. We even offer to teach the competition!

If either the agency, Ogilvy, or IBM was tuned into this web 2.0 thing- they’d have it on YouTube to share- but they don’t. If you have access to Ad Critic, it’s right here: http://www.adcritic.com/content/ibm-deep-intelligence.html
I’ve always liked this spot- but tonight, it became relevant- someone searching for “mark cuban buys hotel chain” ended up finding us at number 4 in Google- and calling us to see if we could help them sell wine.

This wasn’t search engine optimization- he wasn’t searching for small creative ad agency, or ad agencies in Dayton OH, or even great ad agencies- he wasn’t looking for the next Crispin Porter + Bogusky, or how to pick an ad agency (all terms that we’ve ended up on the first page of Google)- he was looking to find independent thinkers in the hotel industry to market to them as outlets for wine from his LA County vinyard.

There we were: The Next Wave>low budget advertising at number four, because we had combined content in a category that managed to put Mark Cuban and the Drury Inn- into the same place.

Go figure- good technology leads to happy accidents. Once the potential client read that “Our job is to make you more money than you pay us” he was reaching for his phone.

Can you ad agency get you this kind of happy results?

So why am I feeling like a gambler for the first time in my ad career today? Because our client (of late) the Dayton Bombers, are playing game 7 of the Kelly Cup semi-finals tonight- and if they win, we get to do the campaign for the finals and if they loose- we don’t get the job. Money riding on a hockey game- who woulda thought?

As I said, it’s a first. We’ll know more around 10 pm tonight.

Because we believe we have to provide something useful in everything we post- a few tips on making sure your advertising doesn’t feel like gambling:

• Advertising is a more like a marriage, not like a date. Think about the long term, and invest in campaigns that will have “legs” – a concept, or idea that lasts. Think like Apples “get a mac” campaign instead of Burger King’s one shot “Manthem” (of which more was written about here).
• Branding is a shorthand for what your company stands for- make sure you think about it in everything you do, from what your employees wear, to how you answer the phone- and then get it to communicate clearly in your advertising.
• Consumers are getting very smart about marketing messages- never; lie, deceive, or talk down to them- they now have the ability to talk right back and it may come in higher in search than your message.
• Embrace the Internet, it’s everything you want your best employee to be- if you take really good care of it.
• The immortal words of Howard Luck Gossage are even more important today than 50 years ago: “People don’t read ads. They read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad”- so make your stuff interesting, make it art, make it entertaining- but what ever you do, stop saying things like “make the logo bigger” and start saying- “can we make the idea bigger.”

Hope that helps. Now, all the Bombes have to do is win tonight, so we get to keep building their brand.

or “Whazzzup”

- it sticks in your head like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth.
When you are in the business of advertising, and know a good ad from a bad ad, you can tell when you do something great- because you can’t get it out of your head either.
So, here’s the latest in the saga of pulling rabbits out of the hat for the Dayton Bombers- a client that no matter how vexing the time frame, budget, material to work with- brings out the passion from us at The Next Wave.
It comes from two things: we love ice hockey and, we love it when underdogs are kicking ass and taking names. The Bombers are in Florida right now- about to play the first 2 games of the semi-finals before heading back for 3 possible games at home. We were asked to put together a poster for the games- over the weekend- so far, everyone who has seen it has loved it. We hope you do too.
Come to the Game Saturday night- and maybe you can get one too.