Maybe you should reconsider using them. After all, if they are in charge of your marketing- and people searching for your business end up at your competitor’s site, they aren’t doing a very good job for you, are they?
Every month, our web stats show the same thing- lots of people looking for our competition and ending up here. There is a reason for that- yes, we’re smart.
We understand that people searching for answers on the web don’t always know what they are looking for- at least until they’ve found it. Sometimes they just can’t get the right terms in the search box- or know what will get them the right answer.
That’s why content always beats pretty pictures.
It’s probably what got you here reading this.
So, if you were searching for Graphica in Dayton OH, or Buchanan and Associates in Columbus, or Sunrise Advertising in Cincinnati, the question is are you still sure they were who you were searching for?
Here are 134 agency search phrases that brought people here in Jan 2006 instead of to the agency they thought they wanted:
(more…)

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Posted in: Advertising, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything you want to know about advertising, Guerrilla campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

We won’t know if we’ve won silver or gold (the infamous head) until Feb 11 2006, but we’ve at least won bronze for 2 of the 3 entries we submitted this year.
We still haven’t hung the awards from 2003 or 2004 since we’ve run out of wall space in the bathroom, so we’ve cut down on entries this year.
Typically about 90% of what we enter gets in- and most of it wins silver (the gold is a best of category).
This year the Zen Windows direct mail ad is in the running- as is our guerrilla campaign at the ad club “guerrilla marketing” seminar.
You can see the work by following these two links:
Zen Windows: http://www.thenextwave.biz/zenwin-ad.html
Guerrilla: http://www.thenextwave.biz/tnw/index.php?s=guerrilla+seminar

what do you think?

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

macXware.com Online Store
It’s good to know, that for only $39.95 you can buy “LogoDesignStudio” to brand your business (Mac not included). No need for any brand insight or strategy- just fire up the software- pick your typeface, effect and clip art- and there you go.
What will they think of next?

What do you think, really?

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Posted in: Design

Steven Soderbergh is my new hero. By releasing his new movie “Bubble” simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and on HDNet he’s about to change the way content producers control their product forever.
The movie theater chains are boycotting the film and calling him the anti-Christ. Ad agencies that do “movie marketing” are probably crying about their lost revenue from staged release dates, and TV network execs are probably scared to death- that maybe, they won’t have jobs if this keeps up.
Welcome to content distribution 2.0, where the middle-men are about to be cut out as hard as Wal-Mart cuts costs of distribution. Does this spell the end of movie theaters? Probably not- teenagers will always need someplace to go watch a flick away from the kids- and date night just isn’t the same at home- no matter how big your plasma tv is. But what it does do, is give people the option to see what they want, when they want it, how they want it- and that’s the future of all content.
As IBM says- it’s an on-demand world, and consumers are a demanding lot. The only thing truly missing from Soderbergh’s distribution revolution is online delivery. Right now, some cable companies will offer VOD services that will deliver “Bubble”- but a true multi-pronged attack would also allow downloads to your computer- at higher resolution than the iTunes store.
What the current distribution network doesn’t realize is that not everyone is within a 30 minute drive of a movie theater in this country. How many times have they teased the entire country with releasing a movie in only NYC and LA and making the rest of the country wait. Consider this payback time from those of us in the flyover states.
What Soderbergh is doing is delivering content to the people- making it as easy to access as this post- and that, makes him my hero.

See this c-net article

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

adverlicio.us | online advertising archive | World’s Tastiest Collection of Online Advertising

We have sites that archive TV spots like www.adcritic.com and multitudes of sites that showcase print and design ads- but here comes James Gardner (not the movie star) with his collection of online ads- you know the ones that break your browser- or annoy the living daylights out of you- yeah- those ads.
Online advertising is still in its infancy- much like TV ads of the 1950’s – and while it may look cool- most of it is still intrusive and unwelcome.
I go back to Howard Luck Gossage with his famous statement “people don’t read ads, they read what interests them- and sometimes it’s an ad.”
So- if online ads are your thing- the adverlicio.us site is your place. And while adcritic.com charges a subscription to view content- this site will be ala carte- just fork over .49 per ad if you want the full effect.
In my ideal world- agencies would get paid by networks for supplying ads that people actually liked- so best of luck making a dime James, because with the current state of online ads- I think most people would be willing to pay not to have to deal with them.

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Posted in: Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

Battle of the ad blogs 2006!

Well, The Next Wave blog isn’t in the list- and the reason- well, it’s because we build a blog targeting gaining readers who may be clients- not attempting to get the attention of the advertising junkies already in the business.
As you can see- there are quite a few ad blogs out there (and I’m sure this list is far from comprehensive). So if you aren’t finding what you need here- go to one of the competitors in the Battle of the Ad Blogs site presented by Ad-rag.com

I can say this- Ad-rag shouldn’t win because they do stupid things like use SMALL CAPS TO SET TYPE (I admit I don’t know how to do this on the web- and wouldn’t want to) – and the site is about as ugly as the way my hockey team got spanked last night.

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Posted in: Advertising, Marketing & the Web, Web strategy

Adrants » Kodak Introduces New Logo

That’s right – in another one of those we can’t figure out what to do- so let’s change the logo. Kodak did away with the classic- for a mark that takes a name that meant nothing- to a mark that means nothing as well.

The secret of great brands marks- is to stick with classic typefaces- never something too trendy- too avant garde. Look at how Apple has thrived on their version of Garamond- or IBM with their custom Bodoni- the “a” in the new Kodak logo is sure to be short lived.

If you have brand equity- be careful what you do with it. This is a step backwards.

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Posted in: Advertising, Design

In my parents’ day, doctors didn’t advertise. They didn’t need to. If you just moved into a town, you’d ask your neighbor, the Realtor or a co-worker whom to use for a general practitioner and that was that. If you needed a specialist, the GP would refer you. This was before “Managed care” and specialists for everything. Before direct to the consumer drug ads that told us to “ask our doctor” about problems we didn’t know we had (or could have). And it was before doctors had to invest in new and expensive technology that needed to be paid for by “customers” – instead of patients.
Some doctors have adapted to the new market economy, specializing and differentiating their service, branding it and building a business that proactively positions their business in the minds of consumers so when the time comes- they are likely to get the call. Others have let their affiliated hospitals take over the responsibility of bringing patients to them through negotiated provider status with health insurance companies. What was once a class of independent entrepreneurs who sold their many years of education and considerable skill for a deserved premium have now become mere cogs in a multi-billion dollar machine called the “Health Care Industry.”
What was once a high touch service is now delivered with assembly line style treatment with interchangeable personnel. (more…)

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