You’re here because you want to do great advertising, or at least are interested in it. That’s why we’re here- to help business create positive connections and community with people who may want to buy or use their product or service-

so- low and behold, there is a site called, ready:

Commercials I Hate!

And the owner of the site says:

Hi, welcome to Commercials I Hate.
I started this site in 1997 because the advertising industry thinks we’re stupid.
Commercials assume the worst about us.
Commercials use ugly stereotypes to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
That’s nasty and insulting. Lucky for you, my reader, so am I.

Enjoy,
Nathan Alexander

This is where you don’t want your ads to show up. Luckily, for advertisers- Nathan hasn’t fully discovered the power of web 2.0 and outside of the message boards- there are no RSS feeds.

If you start seeing inbound links to your site from his URL- you may want to consider hiring a new agency (but that would only happen if you follow our rule and have all your spots online, with complete searchable text, and a unique URL which rules out most companies).

In case you are wondering if your ad agency is presenting work that may possibly end up on “Commericals I hate”- Nathan provides a list of cliche’s to avoid here:

http://www.commercialsihate.com/offenses.html 

Luckily none of our TV spots are on his site, and hopefully, none of yours are.

What other industry has websites like this?

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, How to select an ad agency, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Web strategy

Of course every agency wants your account- especially if you spend a lot of money. But what about the smaller client, who has a limited budget? Search firms are out- as are many of the suggestions in the following article:
Choice of ad agency like marriage — pick wisely – Charlotte Business Journal:

They do start out with this comparison:

Picking an advertising agency can be like dating. It all boils down to chemistry, gut feeling and finding a relationship that works for you.”The process starts out as a linear, logical one. It ends up with gut feel and intuitive fit,” says Cleve Langton, chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. “The best process is the one that most closely simulates a marriage. Chemistry is what decides it at the end of the day.”

We agree with the idea of a marriage- but it’s not chemistry that makes the difference- it’s mutual benefits- chemistry just makes it easier.

Just like a marriage- trust and respect are key- as is honest open communication and a willingness to try new things.

Afterall, you didn’t hire a new agency just to continue doing what you were doing with the old one, did you?

But as you read further into the article, the suggestions start going south:

The process has three parts:

1. Contact agencies and find out the minimum size budget for its client base.
2. Inquire about the areas in which an agency has the most experience before you say what industry you’re in. If an agency doesn’t have experience in your industry, look elsewhere.
3. Metrics refer to the increase in sales or foot traffic that an agency has generated for a client in the your industry. If an agency will not disclose that information, that’s a bad sign. A client should seek an agency that’s not afraid to make projections of benefits based on their experience.

Start with up to 20 agencies, experts say, and then whittle that to six or fewer. The final round should include three agencies. Avoid limiting your options to two, just in case one of them backs out late in the process, Langton says.

In the final stage, the agencies should come up with some creative ideas for you to see.

We think there is a better way- and it doesn’t start out with your budget size now. Afterall, when you get married, often times you don’t have much to work with do you? The idea is to grow together- shared risk, shared rewards- because if there is no risk- there is no reward (at least not in business).

So- instead, start identifying the type of work you like. Things you are comfortable with- and put together a “portfolio” of aspirations for your companies marketing. Write your business plan- and show what you hope to achieve through the relationship- so that you and your potential new agency can both be looking toward the same thing. Advertising isn’t instant gratification- it all takes time and patience. If you both start out with the same vision- you have a better chance of reaching it.

Next, identify agencies who have clients similar in size to you- then look one step below. That’s right- look for the one who needs your account more, because you will be higher on the priority list. Then look at the work they’ve done- does it look like the work you’ve got in your book? Look at their website- is it up to date, how does if feel? Is it about the work, or about the agency? Agencies that talk too much about themselves- are just like a bad date.

Then, and only then- ask for a meeting. Be totally honest about what the meeting is about. Ask to see some work they’ve done for other clients- and discuss the process, the restraints, the budgets (if they’ll share) and get a feel for how the agency approaches a project. Don’t ask about what they would do for you- or any kind of spec campaign. You wouldn’t ask for sex on a first date, would you? At least not from someone you respect.

At the end of this meeting, you should know if their vision for growth, could be part of yours.

The next step is to offer a small project, with a small budget to the agencies you felt most comfortable with. Better yet- give them all the same project – and see what they come up with.

Remember to evaluate the qualtity of the ideas- it’s more about the process at this point- and the relationship. How well they listened- and how well they shared their ideas.

For this marriage to work- communication is key.

We have a page of “agency search firms” on this site- you can check many of their sites for their methodology- or you can try it our way.

Either way- the cost of a failed relationship can be huge- there are no such things as pre-nups for hiring an agency.

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Posted in: Advertising, Everything you want to know about advertising, How to select an ad agency, Practical Marketing 101

This “news section” of our site is a blog about advertising- it’s our way of letting clients and potential clients what’s on our minds when it comes to advertising. It also gets us to the top of Google and improves our search results and brings a lot of visitors to our site. Can’t beat that.
We are students of advertising- we pay attention to what is happening in the business. We believe it’s essential for us to know what leading thinkers are thinking about, who did what campaign, what the strategy is, and if it’s working. To do that- we read other advertising blogs- and often, we’re disappointed- not in the content- but in the tools they use.
Web 2.0 depends on “building community” with your readers. That’s what the little comments section at the bottom of each post is all about. It’s a way to become part of a discussion- and to build connections with people who share your interests. Unfortunately, many of the ad blogs don’t include tools to keep those conversations going- and it frustrates me no end. (more…)

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Posted in: Advertising, Change the world, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, Marketing & the Web, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Web strategy

FREEWAYBLOGGER.com – Free Speech: Use It or Lose It

It’s political speech- and it’s protected- and you may or may not agree with the content- but if you want a primer on how to get your message out without spending big bucks- the video on FreewayBlogger shows you how to use paint, cardboard and a few overpasses to get your message out. Wild posting is common in big cities- but, you have to be careful of local laws and regulations.
Check out the link above.

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Posted in: Advertising, Change the world, Creativity, Everything you want to know about advertising, Guerrilla campaigns, Low budget advertising, Practical Marketing 101

The Movie Business Challenge – Blog Maverick – www.blogmaverick.com _

Mark Cuban- the guy who owns the Dallas Mavericks and HD Net- uses his blog to make him money. Not that he’s lacking it- he’s got enough to buy half of Dayton- and then some.

While offering jobs seems to be the thing for billionaires to do (Donald Trump and the Apprentice, Richard Branson and “The rebel billionaire” and Mark Cuban with “The benefactor”- c’mon- try to be more original) Cuban poses a very real question: How to market movies for less and drive people to the theaters.

Answer the question- and get a job.

So far- 568 applicants (give or take)- including The Next Wave. (more…)

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Posted in: Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Change the world, Creativity, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of TV, Future of advertising, Guerrilla campaigns, Low budget advertising, Marketing & the Web, Media, Viral Marketing, Web strategy

JS Online:Miller Lite Man Laws rewrite the book on beer commercials

Our stud intern, Jeff Swartz is now in the ranks of quoted ad critics- all from the Blog we require our interns to keep. Jeff’s favorite topic is beer ads- and his comments about the “Men of the square table” campaign for Miller Lite got him quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Then there’s blogger Jeff Swartz, a Dayton, Ohio, college student whose age and gender land him squarely in Miller Lite’s targeted demographic.

“The commercials are funny and effective,” said Swartz, 21, who’s pursuing a career in advertising. He posted an item about the campaign on his Web log, www.swartzonmedia.wordpress.com, after repeatedly hearing friends quote lines from the TV spots.

Although Jeff didn’t know it when he wrote about it- it’s another campaign by Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Once again there is a website to go along withi it: www.manlaws.com that allows the consumer to write their own manlaws.

While some critics have questioned the selection of the men at the table- Jeff has his own opionon:

Swartz, the University of Dayton student, said the ads stand out in a crowded advertising landscape. He also said critics of the ads are off base when they claim Burt Reynolds, 70, is too old to be relevant for 20-something beer drinkers.

“People my age know who Burt Reynolds is,” Swartz said. “Our moms had crushes on him, and stuff. He’s a man’s man, and that’s what (Miller) is going for.”

And so far- he’s already got a call from Miller marketing guy trying to get him to switch brews (Jeff prefers Bud light).

At this point there are 27,990 Man Laws on the site- which says to us, it’s doing the job:connecting drinkers with Miller Lite in a way that isn’t “advertising.” Other beer companies should take note: no chicks wrestling in the mud- no “drink this beer- get a babe” etc.

We were also huge fan’s of Crispin’s “Twin Label Technology” campaign for Molson which actually made the beer packaging more valuable than the beer. No matter how you look at either campaign- Crispin shows insight into connecting with beer drinkers- including- our intern Jeff.

So, here’s to you, beer blogging Intern-

congrats.

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Posted in: Advertising, Brand relevancy, Careers in Advertising, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything you want to know about advertising, Great ad agencies, Marketing & the Web, Viral Marketing, Web strategy

So the client looks at the proposed budget for the TV spot- and swallows hard. Those are big numbers- especially on the FX (effects) – green screen, miniatures, models etc- big cast- and then- they see- almost as much cash to make a “Making of the spot” documentary- and the clients says “Over my dead body.”
So the agency account exec whips out a pistolo, shoots the CMO and off they go to make the spot- plus the documentary- which by the way- is only available online (not even on the clients site- click image on right to view in a new window)- and you have what Ad Age calls the most liked spot of the month: The Burger King Stackers spot- made by the hottest shop on the planet: Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
So- was this little documentary a wasteful indulgence? Not if it gets people to sit through 3.5 minutes of entertainment featuring your brand.
Would this have happened on a conventional compensation plan- where no media is bought to run this bit of agency extravagance- no. Would the brand have the buzz that BK is enjoying now? No. Is there hope for other fast food feeders to still own a piece of the “Meat head” market segment of men, aged 18-25 who are likely to eat fast food 3+ times per week? Not if you play it safe, and worry about offending some segment of the market. I can just hear a brand manager at P&G worrying about offending small people with this spot. Hence, P&G hasn’t been able to master the buzz machine of the Internet.
There is a burning question on my mind about Crispin’s Internet delivery strategy:

• Are they purposefully avoiding putting work onto the client site so that it doesn’t seem to be delivered by the client (as a sort of distancing mechanism) and forgoing the measurement tools from the site stats-

-or-

• is it that they don’t care about utilizing the information that can be gleaned from having the customer on their own server- watching where they go- and what they do?

To someone who believes in the power of webstats to provide insight into customers minds- the first option seems reckless. However, if the focus is on velocity of concepts- which seems to be a key to Crispin work (the factory concept)- measurement doesn’t matter- until they have a client that is actually selling online (like Gateway- who didn’t listen to their advice to streamline their product lines).
Either or- how a client justifies the expense of these can only be by one method- have sales increased – and word on the street is that Burger King is seeing results at the registers. Was it worth the extra money- absolutely, would most clients spend the extra money- no.
What do you think? Is Crispin missing out on opportunity to connect with customers by using Google video to distribute content instead of their own site?

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Posted in: Advertising, Brand relevancy, Change the world, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, Great ad agencies, Guerrilla campaigns, Marketing & the Web, Media, Practical Marketing 101, Search and Business, Viral Marketing, Web strategy

how to choose the right ad agency – Google Search

Just another example of Google magic by The Next Wave- we’re number 3 with our post on selecting an advertising agency- something that seems to bewilder so many clients.

The saying in the business is companies get the advertising they deserve- but many times, they get the wrong advertising by picking the wrong agency. It’s not just a question of size, or expertise- many times it gets down to passion.

Does the agency have a passion for your product or service- and are you spending enough to make that passion translate into a mutually valuable relationship?

My neighbor works for Iams, manufacturer of premium pet foods. He worked their before P&G and after- and as we were painting his carriage house- we agreed on one thing that hasn’t changed: Iams still has bad advertising.

Of course, the moment P&G bought the company- big agencies took notice- and Satchi now has the account. There are also “Brand managers” and “Assistant brand managers” running aroung all over the place. Does this make for better ads- or better strategy? Of course not- and for all the gains P&G has made with their distribution might- one may consider that they’ve actually lost customers by losing their cool cred. Much like Ben & Jerry’s lost their cool when they sold out.

Satchi looks at Iams as a piece of the P&G world to service- and reap the revenue- a smaller agency might look at the account as a stepping stone to bigger things- the right agency would look at it as an opportunity to spread the word about a great pet food- and how it can make your relationship with your pet last longer and keep your four-legged friends healthy and happy.

If you aren’t happy with your advertising- take a look at why you picked the agency you picked- and how you work with them.

Maybe there should be a new career field counseling agencies and their clients- to bring the passion and love back into the relationship- just like marriage counselors?

Or, maybe you should just divorce your agency and get back on the ad dating circuit- since you’re reading this- you are obviously shopping.

What do you think?

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Posted in: Advertising, Careers in Advertising, Change the world, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, How to select an ad agency, Practical Marketing 101

bmw motorcycle advertising – Google Search

If you search for “BMW Motorcycle Advertising” in Google- we’re the first hit- out of a lot (1,400,000) of search results. It’s not something that we write a lot about, but it showcases how we can get our subject matter to the top of Google- something that can be critical in being part of the evoked set for a buyer shopping for your product category.

If your company wants to get to the front page of Google- even when people are searching for your competitors- and, are interested in great marketing/advertising- instead of just search engine optimization, you would do better hiring The Next Wave than one of those big NYC agencies that BMW’s motorcycle division chief Laurence Kuykendall hired.

These days- brand relevancy is often accompanied by a lot of chatter on the web- and having people find your site, before finding someone who is not so kind to your products or service is one key to staying competitive.

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Posted in: Advertising, BMW Advertising, Brand relevancy, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, Marketing & the Web, Search and Business, Web strategy

Welcome to Room 116: Alex Bogusky says…
Alex Bogusky says…

• To creatives: “This is your company. What are you going to do to make it famous?”
• On approach: What’s really going on here?” If you can step outside your own culture, you can get an angle on what’s going on inside it.”
• “We always say, ‘Have faith in the process, even though you have to go through a period where you’re confused,’”
• “We don’t really believe in advertising”
• Bogusky uses a visual analogy to describe CP B’s methodology. At the center of his schema is the product destined to become famous, and around that are concentric circles that represent different means of marketing and advertising. The outermost circle–the one that takes the most effort to align with the essential brand message–represents traditional advertising. “We push the marketing toward the product,” Bogusky explains. “We spend all our time in the center: the product.”
• “The process is finding the questions first and coming up with answers,” says Bogusky. “After you come up with the questions, that leads you to finding the core [strategies].”
• “With MINI, it’s less about doing an ad and more about making it a part of the culture,” says Bogusky. “If we can come up with a lease that matches the personality of the car, that’s probably better than advertising.”
• Not from Alex, but still interesting: “[CP B] helped us look at all these consumer touchpoints, [and] mass marketing is just one of them,” Martin says. “The agency doesn’t call their work advertising, they call it creative content. They don’t call it media, they call it creative-content distribution.”

From Creativity, Print, Business 2.0, and Adweek.

Thanks to Brian Chiao for gathering these. This isn’t really supposed to be an all about Crispin Porter + Bogusky site- but, if the idea is to stimulate a discussion between our potential clients and The Next Wave- they need to know what interests us.

We used to require all clients to read “Ogilvy on Advertising” to have a common ground to begin discussing their brand evolution through advertising- now, we hope they read our site.

Is “Product focused Brand culture” the secret of great marketing?

One of the things Chuck Porter shared at a Cincinnati Ad Club meeting is that anyone can do a better price and product ad- just by having a lower price. Seems so obvious- but try telling that to every local car dealer, grocery store or window salesman.

If you think competing on price is a solution- you don’t need better advertising- you need a lobotomy.

Advertising and merchandising as a entertainment? Nothing that hasn’t been talked about before. Tom Peters showcased Stew Leonard’s grocery store in “In search of Excellence” in the early 80’s- the problem was- most in advertising never bothered to read many business books.

So- is Bogusky and company formulating the next eveolution of advertising or not?

What do you think?

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Posted in: Advertising, Brand relevancy, Change the world, Creativity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Everything you want to know about advertising, Future of advertising, Great ad agencies, Practical Marketing 101, Retail