Today, the Dayton Daily News decided to deride the Dayton Public Schools for their “ad splurge” (Page 1, lead story- “Schools defend ad splurge”- Scott Elliott). While half a million dollars over three years is hardly a huge buy, before Daytonians get their panties in a twist, this is what happens when you turn education over to free market economics.
Colleges and Universities have advertised for students for years- and the for-profit career schools spend considerably more. When you stop giving the public schools a monopoly- advertising isn’t optional, it’s a requirement, especially when you dole out State money on a per student basis.
While the Dayton Daily News stood pretty much mute while the School Board purchased the former Reynolds and Reynolds headquarters building- without an appraisal or an operating cost evaluation, they are quick to jump on this measly expenditure.
In fact, not advertising for “Count week” would have been a really stupid move. Typically attendance runs 93.39% – by spending $58,000 on advertising and their in-school reward efforts- they got attendance to 96% a 2.61% improvement- with 16,500 students this means they had an extra 430 students in their census- when you multiply that times the State per pupil reimbursement of somewhere around $5000 the Dayton Public Schools gained about 2.1 MILLION dollars in annual funding!
I’d say that expense is justified.
In fact, the true issue isn’t the ad budget- it’s the quality of the ads that are the main problem. The Dayton Public School brand is still a brand in distress. Instead of clearly communicating the progress that has been made in the last 4 years under Superintendent Percy Mack, they are still trying to use the weak transitional campaign “a new day is dawning” which almost begs to ask- when will we get to lunch?
If there is any doubt that the brand message hasn’t done the job, why else would Donice Gatliff from the “Kid’s First” School Board team have lost her seat in the last election? Voters don’t believe the Dayton Public Schools have any success stories over the last 4 years.
As a bit of full disclosure, we’ve tried to talk to the Dayton Public Schools about their campaign, and even went as far as to do a spec ad to show the difference a good campaign would make. Here is what they ran “Don’t be late, School starts August 8”

Compare that to: “I can’t wait, school starts Aug. 8” with a focus on the positive story of the Stivers Jazz band that won first in the country last year.

Note- you can click on either for a larger view. I Can’t Wait- is only a comp- we used stock photos- it is for concept only.

What do you think?

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising

If you look at the name of this firm- you see Peter Drucker stamped all over it. I first read his quote “a business has only two functions in society: marketing and innovation” in a Tom Peters book and it hit me like a two by four to the forehead.
When I named this firm, it wasn’t supposed to be an “ad agency” which really confuses a lot of people, it was supposed to be a resource for companies that understood that quote- and were looking to be ahead of the curve.
The problem that Drucker couldn’t tackle, was that most leaders in business don’t fully understand either- with maybe the exception of Steve Jobs at Apple computer. When Drucker came up with this statement, he thought a company could survive on one or the other. Times have changed.
Marketing isn’t something done in a department, and innovation isn’t done in a lab, it has to be in the DNA of the company, full court press marketing and innovation. With the pace of business quickening and product lifecycles shortening, and supply chains becoming an on-demand world, Drucker’s maxim is even more important today.
I got to sit in on one of Drucker’s lectures at Claremont University a few years back, he even autographed one of his books for me. It’s always nice when you get to meet the people who’s mind you admire.
Unfortunately, today, little emphasis in the corporations that Drucker studied is on either marketing or innovation- it’s on playing with the financial numbers for maximum short term return for the grossly over paid CEO’s. The company that gave Drucker his start: General Motors, has forgotten about both marketing and innovation and lost over half its market share in the last 20 years.
One thing that I still laugh at, is that Drucker, who had a school of management named after him- couldn’t have gotten tenure at my University because he lacked a PhD. Sometimes I think the world is totally upside down.
Drucker died Nov. 11, 2005- but, what he gave us will live on for a long time. At least part of it will live on here, at The Next Wave, Marketing • Innovation.

For what Tom Peters had to say about Drucker see this link: http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=53137468&pageid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&query=Peter+Drucker

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising

We have three television news organizations in Dayton OH. Some city’s may have more- some less. Even with the cost of ENG (Electronic News Gathering) cameras and remote technology, there are only so many reporters available at any time.
Enter citizen journalists armed with cell cams, digi-cams, camcorders and an Internet connection- they can post their story on their blog or site faster than a news director can get a crew on the scene.
The cell phone pictures out of the London Underground bombings were front-page news- globally. You don’t even need standard NTSC quality if your content is compelling. So, what are local news operations doing to counter this threat- not a thing.
Instead of building a community of news gatherers- or even a community online to support their broadcast news, they are still doing the same thing they’ve always done- and still advertising as “The Leader” or “StormCenter” or something else totally unrelated to building a 2-way relationship with their viewers.
This is so absolutely critical since local news is the ONLY thing they actually serve as a content provider on- and as any reader of this news section knows- content is all there is to distinguish you from your competition.
What’s more interesting is the site www.scoopt.com, where anyone who happens to be the next Abraham Zapruder (he’s the one who shot the home movie of the John F. Kennedy assassination) can upload their content for sale to the highest bidder.
This could be the next big things in local TV ENG- enlisting your community and paying them for the hottest story tips and shots instead of carrying a load of reporters that can’t be everywhere at once.

What do you think?

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Posted in: Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of TV, Guerrilla campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

There has been a lot written in the trade press about Procter and Gamble, one of the worlds largest buyers of advertising, looking to improve their haul at creative awards shows. Quite frankly, this isn’t difficult to figure out. P&G is famous for testing- testing and committees introduce the CYA (cover your ass) factor that kills “award winning creative” instantly.
Now, while we have soldiers dying in Iraq, the idea of using Marines in an attempted comedic P&G TV spot for “Tide to go,” a stain removal pen is an insult to the military and to those who have sons and daughters overseas.
The spot goes something like this:
A Don Rickles type drill Sergeant is yelling at a line of five “Marines” and one has a red stain (metaphorical blood?) on his shirt- one Marine slips the other the pen- he eliminates the stain- which seems to confuse the DI- and the spot finishes with the DI yelling at the camera- in a pleading voice, for you to go to tidetogo.com to win a trip to the Martha Stewart Apprentice finale.
What is P&G thinking? The days of “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” went away a long time ago.
As our young men and women are dying in Iraq, tying something as inane as a spot remover to people who are about to risk their life for their country, seems about as stupid as tying your product to a convicted felon (I don’t care if she has her own tv show). How this helps to engender trust and lust for this product, I don’t know. All it does is disturb me. Maybe it’s because I spent time in the military, maybe it’s because I believe that advertising should be interesting, stimulating, entertaining, intelligent. This is not.
It’s certainly not a “big idea” or an “award winner.”
As to the concept in general- it has no chance of having any kind of legs- this DI isn’t “Mr. Whipple” and even if he was, “Mr. Whipple’s “ day’s are long gone.
If P&G was smart, they’d pull this stain of an ad faster than their stain remover appears to work.

What do you think?

[note- update 20 Aug 08] The spot I saw is not available on YouTube- but a newer one is- where they identify the stain as catsup and eliminate the pleading at the end:

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising, Procter & Gamble Advertising

We review a lot of portfolios. We meet a lot of people. We don’t hire very many.
The reason all these people don’t get hired is generally, they aren’t prepared to get hired.
My first question is always- before I look at the work- do you want me to be nice- or do you want the truth?
Truth almost always wins, and many times, I lose.
In this day of self-actualization and self-esteem coddling, it’s not the best way to win friends and influence people even if you give “constructive criticism.”
So- I turn to my friend Sally Hogshead’s blog for: 83 things I wish someone had told me while I was learning how to be creative.
I’ve added a few in the comments-
But, if you are looking for a job in advertising here in Dayton, or in the big city Mecca’s these suggestions will do you well.
As to knowing what work is good enough to put in your book- I quote my hero’s at Chiat Day- “Good enough is not good enough.”
Good luck.

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Posted in: Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising

The Next Wave will host our second Blogosopher seminar Friday November 18, 2005.
Information about the course is on www.blogosopher.com
Register now for maximum savings- and to reserve your seat.

This course will teach you how to use a blog to maximize the number of hits to your website- and to build relationships with your clients.

The first class was well received- the next one will be vastly improved thanks to class feedback- and a reorganization of the material.

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Posted in: Everything you want to know about advertising, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

November 14, 2005 issue- Business Week, with IKEA on the cover- in the letters to the editor:
“Soon, TV advertisers will be thanking Steve Jobs”
It’s not movies Apple Computer Inc.’s (AAPL ) iTunes Store will revolutionize — it’s TV and the ad industry that fuels it (“Hollywood holds its breath,” News: Analysis & Commentary, Oct. 24). Now you can buy last night’s Lost for $1.99. Next you’ll be able to get it for less in exchange for watching and interacting with targeted ads. The return-on-investment model Google Inc. (GOOG ) has championed, combined with the customer profiles of an Amazon.com Inc., (AMZN ) will let advertisers buy the exact eyeballs they want, with a feedback mechanism. Bandwidth and digital- rights issues will be solved as the $46 billion TV ad industry realizes that this is the future. Hollywood may be the last on this bandwagon, but there’s no question that once again, Steve Jobs is leading it.

David Esrati,
Chief Creative Officer
The Next Wave
Dayton

This is the second time I’ve had a letter published in Business Week. The first one was on “mass markets“

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of TV, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy