This is a huge thing for us right now. Clients are asking us to “create media for me” – “we need to do more with less”. We are producing a ton of original branded content to be distributed on the web.  Whether it is short or long form videos, tutorials, demonstrations, or simply branded entertainment for sites like YouTube, or Facebook Apps, and widgets. Clients are much more educated on the power and value of these tactics

We have all read about the decline of media spending across most mediums. The online space has not gone unaffected this time. If fact we have seen quite a few of our clients reduce their overall media spend. What may be counter intuitive to some given how negative consumer sentiment is that the media we are buying is performing better from an ROI perspective for many of our clients. The dramatic drop in the cost of premium online media, but only a slight decrease in response rate drive this effect.  This means we are buying much more for less on our client’s behalf and they are getting better results, which in turn means they decide to increase their spend. We see this as a very positive indicator of what’s to come.

This past holiday season was an absolute bloodbath for retailers. Industry analyst reported a 31% drop in retail sales through traditional channels in Q4 2008 vs. Q4 2007 – ecommerce only dropped slightly by 3%, but was up by 7.5% for the year from 2007 according to Comscore.  That said Retailers are scrambling to invest in bolstering their ecommerce capacity for next season, and the clock is ticking. They have a small window from now to July or August at the latest to be ready for the holidays.

We are seeing, and Forester confirms increased demand in this key area for us. 

That’s enough doom and gloom for now people. This week I will focus on positive trends I am seeing in the market.  While the economic downturn has slowed things down for most, it has actually accelerated some much needed retooling within marketing organizations. This spells opportunity for agencies that are prepared to retool themselves too.

Stay Tuned…

As a marketer, I recently found myself in an interesting situation. I was in the market for a new car for my wife, and was involved in pitching a car account all at the same time. In every single interaction we had with the potential clients they made reference to the sales funnel, and I wanted to call bullshit. The sales funnel that you are most likely familiar with (awareness, consideration, lead, conversion etc.) is not entirely wrong, but it drives the wrong type of thinking. I bet some business school professor who never spent much time with real prospects and real customers designed this funnel. This stuff resonates with the “I run the marketing department on a spreadsheet” types, but does not work well for those of us who understand that understanding consumer behavior is a prerequisite for manipulating their behaviors.

Buying a car is 80% emotional, 20% practical. I’m much more likely to buy a car that fulfils most of my emotional needs, and a few of my practical needs. I am far less likely to pull the trigger on one that fits most of my practical needs and few of my emotional ones. Love is blind.

 If you fall in love with a car, not unlike a girl you will stop seeing the flaws. In fact you will start to justify your choice with flawed logic.  “If I buy a two seater I will save gas since I will drive it less” – In today’s economic environment we can’t pull any punches. We need to create emotional demand.

Here is my new funnel (well it’s much more of a loop) 

Buzz, intrigue, explore, experience, crave, cave, flaunt. Which in turn creates Buzz.

Enjoy!

OK this rant is bound to sound like I’m contradicting half of what I’ve said in the past. Let me be clear, I’m not one of those creative types who denounces all research and refuses to have their work tested or measured; in fact I’m usually the poster child for embracing it and informing my ideas through observing people. This post is about the value of a fresh perspective and intuition. It’s not about whether or not we should pay attention to client’s research, but rather when it should be introduced into the ideation process.

So I’ve always preached this simple process for developing big ideas.

Define the Intent, inform the idea, Develop the Concept, Verify it, Realize the idea, and Evolve it.

I swear to you guys, this works every time.  The formula works, but only if you follow the process to the letter. Very often teams choose to cut corners to save time and money, but that’s a mistake. Often we rationalize skipping a step, because the client seems to have already done all of the up-front work for you. Don’t get yourself get caught in that trap, specially if the client hands you a 400 page, 25 pound leather bound research brief that they call the Bible.

Remember why they hired your agency; the odds are they did not have all the right answers. They may have an idea of what they want to say, but you can be assured they don’t know how to say it. Remember David Ogilvy’s famous quote “why buy a dog, if you intend to do your own barking?”

So before you crack open that brief do your own thinking, only after you have developed a bunch of rough concepts should you read the clients research to help validate that one or more of your teams ideas align with the insights. Those initial uninformed ideas tend to provide the best foundation for the final campaign.

Our team gets in a room and starts to throw ideas around. We come up with a bunch of uninformed answers, and even more questions. We then go out to the world and observe consumer behavior, we talk to their customers and even their competitor’s customers, but most importantly we want to hear from the people who don’t even buy the stuff. This is the most important bit, all this happens before we have any pre-conceived biases that could be created by their research.

Take very good notes, then dive into every single page of their book. You are more likely to develop breakthrough ideas this way.

Big pitches are one of my favorite things.  For those of you, who have never been part of a big pitch, let me tell you it’s the most brutally draining and yet most rewarding part of this business. I love it. I thrive on it.

It’s also incredibly risky. Although you do definitely come out a smarter person after each sleepless two-week Red Bull induced creative deep dive bender, there are some big risks involved outside of the physical ones.

These things are risky financially, but most importantly they can be devastating emotionally.  We put ourselves, and our agency on the line every time we step into the competitive ring. There is nothing like a big win to create momentum and to elevate morale, but on the flip side a big loss can be a big deal too.

Looking back at my career. I can trace back every major shift in the business to two types of events, people and pitches.  Regardless of how big or small we were, -pushing the trigger on that one key hire could changed the trajectory of the whole business, while introducing just one bad hire can do the same. The exact same goes for competitive pitches one win can change the vibe of the agency, and one loss can stop you in your tracks.

I prescribe to the idea that in a “creative People” based business, team camaraderie and passion for the work translates directly into growth and profit.

For this reasons some agencies refuse to participate in competitive pitches. I could not imagine taking that stance. Perhaps it’s because of my competitive nature, or some other Freudian complex I need to tend to. I am noticeably shorter than the other creative hot shots you know. J

That said my advice for those who wish to fight is not to jump to put on the war paint every time you get your hands on an RFP. Make sure the business is worth fighting for before you mobilize your troops.

Assessing whether it is worth fighting for is actually quite simple.  You have to answer three questions.

1.    Do we like these guys?

You should always ask to sit down with the client before committing to investing a ton or time and talent into a big pitch.

2.    Is it a fair fight?

This one is harder to answer, and even if you ask (which does not hurt) they are unlikely to tell you. Detective work required.

I have many war stories related to question number two. The CMO’s Frat brother owns the other agency. The procurement guy plays golf with your competitor. It does not matter how good your team is some of these gigs simply can’t be won, so make sure you are not wasting your time. The most egregious example I have is one that involves finding out way too late that the CEO of the company has a lovechild with the owner of one of the competing agencies. Yes this really happened!! So word to the wise, do your homework.

Now for the most important, yet often overlooked question.

3.    Do these guys know what they want and why?

The fact they wrote a 50 page RFI does not mean they know what they are doing. – Here is the drill. You probably would have gotten a very prescriptive RFP, which typically goes a little something like this. “We are or want to be the premier blah, blah, provider of certain services or products, this is our target market, and we want you come up with a new campaign, design a website, and throw in some of that social and mobile media stuff. Please submit your ideas, and pricing by next Friday – if we like it, you will be asked to come in with your dog and pony”

Remember that meeting we insisted on? Well, in these meetings we always ask the same question – why? This is a powerful question. So incredibly important that you would be surprised how many of your people forget to ask it, and you would be even more surprised with how many clients choke on the answer.

I typically ask a question like “Why that target audience?”- If they choke, or give you some lame answer like “it has always been that way…” run. Ask a question like “Why do you want to redesign your site?” if the answer is something like “We are highly dependent on retail distributors, and are looking to diversify by going direct to consumers” or frankly any other intelligent answer, then strap a riffle to your back and fight to win that account.