Today Sapient is announcing plans to acquire Nitro Group, a leading global advertising network with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and a highly coveted client list that includes Mars, ConAgra, Volvo, Nike and Foot Locker.

This is an historic acquisition in the advertising space in that it represents the first time a digital agency has moved to expand beyond interactive in a meaningful way to include brand-led broadcast advertising, often referred to as “above the line” advertising. 

Actions brand louder than words

Agencies large and small, from the traditional to the digital, all claim to having discovered their own, unique brand of secret marketing sauce that will integrate every experience into one compelling consumer connection and solve all marketing woes.

Some take the design du jour approach, clumsily pushing traditional ad approaches into emerging, channel  environments like mobile or social media.   Others avoid the question altogether and simply abandon traditional channel options to blindly follow the migration toward digital opportunities with more buzz.

It’s not that they don’t get it.  It’s that they just don’t get it all. 

We always believed the Internet would change everything

The $500 billion/year communications industry is in the midst of a dramatic upheaval as brands and their marketing partners struggle to keep up with today’s ever-elusive, technology-empowered consumers.  In fact, this is the main reason traditional advertising agencies are so focused on digital -- because media consumption is moving away from television and into digital media in record numbers.  However, while the role of television is changing, it is not going away; it’s evolving to become more digital as advances in TV sets and set boxes enable a more interactive experience.  Couple this shift with the rise of online media and advancement of mobile and in-store displays, and you quickly see that a) advertising is increasingly more digitally enabled and b) creating connected experiences across all of a consumer’s touch points is increasingly important.

The acquisition of Nitro Group, coupled with the tremendous success and evolution Sapient is experiencing within our marketing services and e-commerce business, yields a “one-of-a-kind” brand engagement offering.  We have the opportunity to help our clients shape their customers’ experiences -- from the moment a brand’s attributes are expressed in advertising, through to deployment via digital media and then in sales and service with cross-channel commerce. 

Sapient stands alone as a company capable of connecting these component parts in one holistic, integrated and powerful way.

No other company can lead with strategy and deliver multi-channel marketing combined with multi channel commerce on a global scale.

The acquisition is referenced in our press release) and discussed in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. You can also follow us in LinkedIn (Sapient Interactive Group) and on Twitter (SapeInteractive.) 

Last but not least. We have produced about a dozen  IPhone apps in the last couple of months alone, and a couple of Android initiatives are in the hopper. We see this as a booming opportunity, a completely new market ready to explode.

 Makes me want to dust off that old tag line "Architects for a New Economy" - I think I still have a mug with that on it :)

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.

It’s no secret most advertisers are reducing their 2009spend. This means choices have to be made on what to cut down on, and what tocut out altogether. We are experiencing a trend in which client s are reducingthe total number of agencies the work with, therefore although their overallspend dips, the “per agency” piece of the pie is growing. There are winners andlosers of course, but fortunately performance focused digital agencies like oursare ending up on the winning side of this more often than not.

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 so I try to never blatantly promote the agency on my blog. I rather stick to my rants than sell Sapient, but that said I couldn’t resist today. Check out our new site. http://www.sapient.com

There are basically three cool components to this thing.

Publishing Model – Our site will effectively change every week. One week we may feature a cool new technology we are playing with, another we may choose to feature a new project, or simply support one of our favorite charities.

Our Portfolio – We recognize regardless of whether you are looking to hire us, or looking to come work for us  - you want to see the work. We have just begun to scratch the surface on publishing our entire portfolio. This thing will go back as far as the 90’s and will feature great projects like the original Apple Store we designed, and many more. – Look for more work to be added every single week.

Our thinking – we will share insights from some of the worlds most talented marketers, and technologist – all of which happen to work on our teams.

Last but not least – this thing is far from being done or polished

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.

I don’t often plug books that I like on this blog, but perhaps I should start. I just read a little advertising book on the plane titled “Bang!” by Linda Kaplan Thayer and Robin Koval. Once you get past all of the self-promotion and incestuous name-dropping, you will find some great nuggets of advertising wisdom.

The chapter that prompted me to buy a hundred copies of this thing to hand to some any account person I happen to run into this week before I forget I wrote this was the bit surrounding the Aflac Duck.

Service marketing is challenging, much more challenging than selling products. A service is not something tangible. We are effectively selling a promise, and a promise cant sell itself like an iPhone or a Bentley. I have worked on a number of financial services accounts over the years, and frankly those are the toughest brands to produce breakthrough work. It’s hard to find something memorable to say about retirement planning, and even harder to find a risk taking client in this line of work.

So back to the Aflac story the author points out “What’s sexy about Cancer insurance? This is serious stuff. Imagine the reaction when the creative director walked into the account person’s office and said, “what if we used a duck?” – what do you think the account guy said – “we are not showing this to the client, it’s inappropriate, silly, irresponsible etc.”

In fact the concept never made it to the client. Fortunately a creative who pushed to sneak the duck ad into testing effectively ran the agency. The rest is history.

So ask yourself this question. How many ideas have been killed before they hit your desk, let alone made it to the client because of an overly controlling account person everyday?

The Aflac Duck ads have an unprecedented recall of 92%, in fact most Americans can’t say Aflac without quacking. I hope they fired that account guy.

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. 

In doing a search on CMO, looking for some information about chief marketing officers, up popped a story about Disney’s nationwide contest for its first ever Disney Parks CMO – a chief magic official. 

The CMO job responsibilities: traveling to Disneyland and Walt Disney resorts to help create magical experiences for guests, participate in events and be a behind-the-scenes wizard with the Walt Disney Imagineers.

More than 1,300 people entered the contest. Peter Yu, one of the finalists, got high marks for his infomercial promoting a fictional CMO College called the Magical Institute & Center for Knowledge, Education & literacY (MICKEY, sort of.) Classes included “How to Whistle While You Work,” and “How to Fastpass Your Way to the Top.”  Not bad ideas for we marketers. But it was high school teacher Justin Muchoney who won based on his ideas on how to connect people with the Disney Magic.

His wining idea came down to five concepts that he believes can be shared with people in many ways, big and small:

1.     Exuberance.
2.     Optimism.
3.     Vision.
4.     Passion.
5.     Innovative Magic.

Explaining why he’s the man for the job, Justin wrote, “It is my supreme goal in life to create unforgettable experiences that draw people closer together. I aspire to build deep and meaningful relationships and to help people experience the awesome wonders life has to offer. I constantly dream up new events experiences or even moments when the people I encounter can join together and share in a memorable adventure.”

Justin may be more experienced in leading the high school marching band, but his concepts are as relevant for today’s chief marketing officer as Disney’s chief magic official. Create experiences for people that are memorable. That they rave about with other people. That they keep coming back to in order to buy more of.

Justin also may be onto something about the potential value of the five concepts to how we think of ourselves as marketing leaders, in shaping marketing strategy, and in creating focus for your people and agencies.

• Be passionate and exuberant about the value your brand is providing to your customers. (If you can’t be – is it you or do you need to improve the brand?)
• Be innovative and visionary about constantly improving the current offering and customer experience. (Blockbuster brought a more innovative approach to traditional video rental stores, but then go eclipsed by Netflix.)
• Above all, be optimistic in believing what’s possible. People follow optimists, get energy from them, want to buy from them and work with and for them. 

One recent study in the US suggested more than two thirds of marketers had zero formal marketing training or education. Zero!

We at Sapient also recently did a survey and asked marketers whether they thought too few people in marketing have strategic marketing competencies. An incredible 77 percent of those surveyed strongly agreed this was a problem.

This may not surprise you, but it disturbs me. Imagine if 70% of the folks in your finance department did not have a finance degree. Would it make you nervous if 70% of the folks in your legal department did not pass the BAR exam.

Marketing is a discipline like finance or law; it’s not a sensibility people are born with or a god given talent. Have you ever heard “She is a good person, very creative, and great with people, she would do well in marketing don’t you think? Next time you hear this, Run.

Now I'm not saying some degree in marketing deems you competent, my point is more around being a student of marketing. Someone who reads, pays attention to trends, appreciated good work and participates in new media.

People think Marketing is easy. It’s not. We have to work hard at it. A good doctor studies as much now as they did in medical school. There are new procedures to learn, new theories, new medicines etc.  A good marketer should have the same thirst for knowledge to stay on top of their game. Consumer behavior, media markets, channel mix, and technologies and analytics evolve every day.

Look around your marketing department. How many people have been doing the same thing the same way for over two years? How many marketing professionals are truly among you?