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Getting a new creative assignment can be really exciting. Any idea can be considered and you begin to see the potential of the project. And brainstorming is my favorite part of the job. Sharing ideas and developing something great as a team is why I love being in the creative group. But there is also, at least on my part, a bit of nerves that come with presenting my ideas to others in a meeting.
I always have a small fear that while I’m sitting at my desk, brainstorming alone before the meeting starts, that what I’m coming up won’t have that “wow factor.” And if that’s true, how can I make a case for something that’s just mediocre? What if my idea is totally shot down? What if everyone points and laughs?
But, as always, once the meeting begins, and the brainstorm starts rolling, and conversation starts flowing, fear can transform into excitement and anticipation. I think that any creative person hopes (at least a little) that their idea will be chosen and that it will become an award-winning masterpiece. And whether it does or not, if the ad or campaign is a success for the client, there’s nothing to worry about. Until next time.
Vicki Treptow, Copywriter
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Are you a good listener? Next time you are in a casual conversation with a friend, try something different – repeat what your friend says before you respond. This will feel very awkward, but it will definitely test your listening skills.
In the business context, listening to customers and employees is important because these groups are full of useful information, from innovative product ideas to suggestions for making processes more efficient. It’s difficult to address their needs, wants and ideas without taking the time to capture their thoughts first.
It can be challenging to measure how often a business listens to an audience. Can you list the steps your business takes to obtain feedback from both internal and external audiences? You may find it easier to count the number of times you communicate information to these audiences than to count the number of ways you open the lines of communication.
At Movéo, we recommend listening to different audiences when developing a brand strategy. It is common to overlook the opinions of an important group, employees, during the research phase of brand development. Bringing employees into the process does not mean asking their opinion about a group of logos or taglines. I’m talking about gauging their attitudes and opinions about their company long before any graphic design software is opened or catchy slogans are created.
Listening is not the end-game. The information gathered from an audience needs to be translated into action. Otherwise, listening becomes a waste of the audience’s time and your time. When Movéo conducts an employee study for a company, we often compare their management’s perception of the brand with their employee’s perception of the brand in order to identify any gaps that the business needs to address. If the new brand is misaligned with employee perceptions of the company, it may create confusion for employees and make it difficult for them to deliver the intended brand experience to customers.
If the list of steps your business is currently taking to listen to audiences is minimal or unclear, your next step may be to create a plan to keep a pulse on customer and employee ideas.
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Google began a private beta of Google TV Ads last summer, and released it to the public in May. However, for many agencies and advertisers tracking held them back from trying the distribution service. By adding tracking through Analytics to Google TV Ads in June the Internet Info-product marketers jumped in. I’m sure you saw more than one commercial from a crazy fox selling you the latest Internet get-rich-quick-scheme. But seeing as the system itself and offering have both been in the development stage traditional advertisers have shied away from Google TV Ads.
At the beginning of September Google and NBC announced a partnership involving several of NBC’s cable networks and Google’s TV Ads Platform. On the surface this looks lke Google just trying to offer broader TV choices to advertisers, and NBC looking to pick up falling ad revenue.
Really what this is all about is data, accountability, and Google trying to develop the same level of real time information for traditional media outlets as it currently has with the AdWords Platform. One of the first steps in their partnership is to work with the service provider Dish Network to more precisely measure viewer activity through tracking with the subscriber’s set top receiver.
Also in the works, is to work toward local targeting of ads through this network as well. Google and NBC intend to work together to increase the information advertisers can receive about viewers, increasing the advertiser’s and agency’s ability to optimize advertising campaigns.
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While the Mac is probably a designer’s most important tool, facing the
computer screen is the last place you want to be if you need to dream up
some big ideas. The best thinking still comes about the old fashioned
way–with paper, pencil and "thoughtful discussion" (a polite way of saying
passionate, heated debates).
When it comes to how and where creatives think best it differs for everyone.
For me, ideas flow most naturally when I’m physically doing something
else…driving, walking, showering, etc. Once the information is digested
and allowed to settle the most obvious ideas are quickly discarded and more
complex ones begin to take shape. The exciting part is how quickly they rise
to the surface. This remains the most unpredictable, yet incredibly
critical part of the creative process.
The greatest fun lies in bringing fresh ideas to life (I’ve coined the
phrase "giving birth to the brand") in ways that make them unique and truly
ownable. Only after careful thought has been given to copy, color, graphic
elements, typography, imagery, etc., should the computer be used. Even
though Adobe’s Creative Suite makes it easier and faster than ever to make
someone’s vision a reality, you still have to tell it what to do.
Angela Costanzi, Director Creative Services
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I recently had the misfortune to endure yet another dreaded annual doctor’s visit. In the exam room, I sat on the uncomfortable exam room bench awaiting a knock on the door to indicate the doctor’s arrival. To rid my mind of the inevitable pokes, prods and looks of consternation to come, I became absorbed in my surroundings.
I noticed many medical devices – blood pressure monitors, diagnostic instruments, microscopes and disposable syringes to name a few – neatly packaged and placed around the room.
Packaging is undoubtedly important in the B2C world as evidenced by Martin Jelsema’s recent commentary, “Packaging Your Brand: Do You Give it the Attention it Deserves?” Less obvious, but just as important, is packaging for physicians and healthcare systems. The messaging that healthcare packaging needs to convey is simply different.
“The private sector has long recognized the importance of image in both
selling services…the packaging of the message is usually more
influential than the content of the message.”
Healthcare packaging may not need to reach mass audiences and spur impulse-buys akin to that of the B2C world. Instead, it needs convey a sense of ‘a quality product within’. Healthcare packaging should be built on more than customer acquisition; it should also convey a sense of credibility and efficacy through packaging integrity, which will reinforce customer brand loyalty. In a June 2008 article from Healthcare Packaging magazine, Pat Reynolds stated that:
“…poorly designed packaging may make it easier than ever for someone
to compromise your brands.”
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Marketing agencies come in all sizes. And I should know –– I’ve worked at places that employed multitudes and others where the phone list could have fit on an index card. And what I’ve noticed is that agencies of different sizes tend to have different strengths.
Small Agencies (25 or fewer people)
These tend to be places that are highly adaptable and focused on service. That’s probably because the staff has a great deal of face-to-face contact –– with one another and with their clients. Say what you will for technology, but in my experience, the fastest way to get things done is to simply get everyone together in a room. Another small agency advantage is that leaner companies tend to have very little bureaucracy, giving clients more access to the most senior people.
Big Agencies (100+ people)
These places tend to have extensive resources. There can be more brains to put on a project and more ideas generated. And because they have lots of people on hand, there’s little chance of not being able to get someone on the phone. (It just may not be the senior account executive the client wants.)
Medium-Sized Agencies (25-100 people)
If you noticed that I saved this category for last, then my bias is definitely showing. No matter. I honestly believe that MSAs (medium-sized agencies) combine the best of both worlds. They can be agile and service-focused like the little guys, but they have large enough staffs to deliver a range of thinking.
The bottom line? Choosing an agency is like anything else –– you have to pick what fits.
Irene Wescottt, Associate Creative Director
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The Atlas Institute (the research and education arm of Microsoft Advertising, formerly Atlas) has spent the past several months promoting its ideas for a new measurement standard in digital marketing.
Back in May, along with Dan Murray (Manager of Emerging Media at Movéo), I attended a breakfast seminar, hosted by the Atlas Institute. The topic of the event was Engagement Mapping, a measurement model that allows marketers to attribute credit to multiple advertising impressions–not just the last one (where the click occurred). In addition to clicks, Engagement Mapping would (they claim) provide flexibility for advertisers to consider other important factors such as ad size, frequency and rich media interactions.
The premise…there is a fundamental flaw in the way we [the online advertising industry] attribute credit for actions that take place as a result of online advertising. In short, that monitoring clicks is a shortsighted way to calculate ROI, and assumes you don’t care about what interactions happened before the click occurred.
As a member of the expert panel held during breakfast, Greg Schwartz, VP of Sales at Zillow.com, had a very reasonable concern. Understandably, he feels that his site–and the company’s product development efforts–has been designed to deliver content this is highly engaging. But unfortunately, Mr. Schwartz suggests the high degree of engagement among users on Zillow.com has actually become a barrier for him in selling the site’s inventory at a premium rate.
Since his site’s visitors are less likely to click on advertisements (because they’re too busy enjoying the site’s content), Mr. Schwartz has trouble proving campaign performance against the click-based measures that have been established under the "last ad" standard. As a result, he’s been forced to sell a relatively high % of his advertising inventory as "remnant" inventory to the ad networks (at a greatly reduced price).
Although I appreciate the rates I’m able to obtain for my clients as a result of the "last ad" standard, I can sympathize with Mr. Schwartz and Zillow.com (and every other premium online content publisher). The current "last ad" model actually forces media planners, like myself, to give more credit to those online properties that deliver a transient audience. Less sticky environments whose visitors are all too willing to click on a message that will take them away from the site’s content. I would argue that, as media planners, in many case we are being forced (by our clients) to ignore the importance of the advertising environment, in exchange for lower CPMs.
To further highlight this trend, a recent study (August 2008) from the IAB and Bain & Company found that the use of ad networks has increased dramatically, from 5% of inventory sold in 2006 to 30% in 2007. And, average CPMs on ad networks ranged from $0.60-$1.10, versus $10-$20 in direct-sold display inventory
I believe that last click attribution is about to become a thing of the past…and in my opinion, Multiple Attribution Protocol (e.g., Engagement Mapping) would be a better lens through which to view a campaign’s performance (both DoubleClick and Atlas have active testing going on in this arena). Unfortunately, I also think it might be too little, too late (for publishers anyway).
Resource
I was recently forwarded a post from David Szetela of Search Engine Watch, Killer PPC Ads: The fundamentals, and I was a little disturbed. He was talking about ad copy and CTR.
“But first: let’s agree on one thing: the objective of your ad. Is it to sell your product? Get a sales lead? Nope. Your ad’s objective is this, and only this:
Get the click.”
This is why many companies do not trust PPC marketers, if ads do not disqualify you are wasting your clients budget on junk clicks. This is outdated thinking, clicks if they do not convert can be counter productive. Ad copy needs to be written to disqualify those who you do not want to click or that 25%CTR is just wasting your client’s budget. A myopic view of the role of PPC advertising can lead to a lot of waste.
CTR was weighted much heavier in the old model of Google Quality score, welcome to the new model, good luck keeping clients who look at conversions happy. Just because there may be a $0.25 difference in click cost due to quality score because of CTR who cares. It is all about the bottom line ROI. Executives care about conversions and return, not the smoke and mirrors of Click-through-rate.
For those just learning PPC marketing this is the road most marketers take, and they are giving us all a bad name. Next thing you know, he will be telling us that even with tightly grouped ad groups dynamic keyword insertion is a good idea, instead of writing great ad copy. Short cuts are never a good idea, and neither is only worrying about your stats. One of the advantages of having the whole marketing process integrated and on the same page is that the short cut of relying on CTR to prove PPC advertising’s worth becomes obsolete. When the entire online sales and lead process is handled by Movéo we are able to ensure that the SEM department doesn’t just pass the buck and blame your web copy for bad conversion. We work together to ensure our client’s get the results they demand and deserve.
When evaluating PPC campaign performance concentrating on conversions and transactions allows us to do exactly what our client’s want…
…get them new customers whose lifetime value far exceeds the value of a click-through that never converts.
Resource
In an earlier post, I mentioned a finding from a study Movéo conducted, which suggested that buyers in the Far East companies were interested in working with companies that could serve as a single source for a wide variety of products. Today’s prospects are interested in not only "breadth," but also in "depth" –– they want an offering that matching their needs coupled with great technical expertise and support. This interest among Asian specifiers and buyers to pursue partnerships with a single source is also undoubtedly due to cultural influences. As expected, our studies found the greatest needs among respondents across all regions were "product quality and reliability," "product availability/on-time delivery" and "product performance specifications/benefits." While all OEMs are actively working to reduce costs, respondents in the Far East expressed a significantly higher need to partner with a "low cost manufacturer" than those in the U.S. or Europe. As companies in the Far East continue to fight the threat of intensifying competition both from within their region and beyond, they will assert pressure on vendors to reduce costs. Marketers that craft messaging to convince these targets that they deliver a better "value" will have a greater chance for success. When considering the opportunities in Asia, it’s important to recognize the many differences that exist within the region. For instance, findings from Movéo’s studies indicated that the concept of "global capability/local support" was much more important in China than in other regions around the world, including Japan. Multinationals that have the ability to "think global/act local" will have a message that resonates with this audience. For a brand to succeed globally, it must be flexible enough to meet the varying needs of each region, while at the same time being true to itself. The differing needs of valued audiences in the Far East highlighted in our studies clearly indicates the importance of the old maxim "know thy customer" –– no matter where you are in the world.
— Bob Murphy, Managing Partner
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It’s no secret that Asia has been an emerging force in the global economy for a number of years. A recent cover story in The Economist carried the headline: “How China runs the world economy.” The article states that “the entry of China, India and Russia into the world economy has doubled the global work force, with China accounting for more than half of this increase.” And while the Japanese economy has experienced a series of downturns over the past decade or so, it will continue to be a major influence in the development of many innovative, new products and technologies. The key for U.S.-based companies marketing to the Far East will continue to be understanding the distinct and rapidly evolving differences between the needs of Asian specifiers and purchasers versus those of their counterparts in Europe and the U.S. Recently, Movéo conducted two significant studies that included input from over 3,500 specifiers and buyers of technology products around the world. Over 1,500 respondents were Asian residents. While both studies focused on a specific market segment, I think the findings are relevant to other a wide array of manufacturers looking to build their brands and market share in Asia. One key insight from the studies was the fact that over 60 percent of Asian respondents were more interested in working with companies that could serve as a single source for a variety of products within a specific category. However, this same concept of “breadth of line” or “one source” did not resonate as well with targets in Europe or the U.S., where less than 40 percent of respondents expressed an interest in it.
— Bob Murphy, Managing Partner
