How to Be a Good Client

Here's an early Christmas (or a late Hanukkah) present for those of you out there who hire agencies.

Ryan Greives writes a quick primer on what it takes to be a good client (click here) for a PR firm. Almost all of this is certainly applicable to ad agencies, design firms, and interactive shops as well.

If you hire any type of marketing communications firm, this Top 10 list is required reading. By following these simple suggestions, you will get your firm to work harder and to always do their absolute best for you.

If I might add an additional point: Know that all we want is to make you look good. We are not out to take your job (we are on the "agency side" because that's what we love to do). And we are not out to grab the glory. No, our "glory" comes from having a satisfied and appreciative client who pays our bills in a timely manner. Making you look like a superstar to your CEO, your Board, or whomever signs your paycheck is the best possible outcome for us.

Hope you have a very happy holiday season, and my best wishes for a very successful and rewarding 2010!

Posted by:
John Lonsdorf
President
R&J Public Relations
www.RandJpr.com

Asset Allocations for Dummies Book Site

With today's financial market in flux, the Wiley book Asset Allocation for Dummies makes a great holiday gift for the 'do it yourself' investor or for anyone who wants to better understand investment vehicles. Murray is thrilled to have designed and launched this microsite for author Jerry A. Miccolis, partner at Brinton Eaton Wealth Advisors.

In typical Wiley 'break it down' process, Jerry reviews every aspect of asset allocation and management of taxes, finance, investing, stocks, bonds, retirement strategy, corporate benefits administration, generational wealth, foundations, trusts, and much more. The Asset Allocation for Dummies book makes an affordable gift and a great investment for a loved one, or for yourself!

Google reinvents the Internet, again

They dare other search tools to keep up! Install Google Sidewiki to your browser today and enjoy the power of wiki on every site you touch. http://www.google.com/sidewiki/

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

Measuring the Right Metrics

I'm reading through the October 2009 issue of Destination CRM (I know, you're fascinated) and enjoying the article called "Mistaken Metrics" by Lauren McKay. An interesting article about CSR satisfaction measurement, and something that resonated with me.

You don't realize how critical the CSR part of a company is until you deal with a firm where the CSR is deliberately trained to manipulate the conversation to 'supposed' service, without actually solving the problem. You can see this type of training all the time (not to bad mouth companies or industries)... insurance providers, tv providers, auto or appliance warranties. If you've ever had a problem in those areas, you know exactly how frustrating the call can be.

That type of customer service model must cease to exist.

How can you continue to grow a brand and great culture internally if you are frustrating and infuriating customers? In an attempt to minimize out-of-pocket expenses in correcting mistakes or making good on promises, these companies focus on the fact that their call center folks can use several tactics to make certain NOTHING gets fixed. Here's some of the all-time low CSR responses:

• I'm not showing any record of that account
• Can you hold please
• I can have my supervisor call you back some time in the next 72 hours
• I can only give you my first name
• I don't have a direct extension
• You'll have to call a different number for that
• I can transfer you to that department if you like, click
• I'm sorry, I'm not showing any record of that account
• My computer is slow today
• I can't give you my supervisor's name, but he will call you back within 72 hours
• I can't credit your account, you have to call a different number for that
• I can't see your payment information
• Was I able to answer your questions?
• I can't schedule that service directly, I can only put in a ticket
• I can't credit your account until the ticket is resolved
• I see someone canceled that ticket at 4 am
• No, I can't see who canceled the ticket at 4 am, just that it was canceled
• You must have canceled the ticket
• I only have available people Mon-Friday 9-5
• I see here that we previously gave you the opportunity to schedule that service
• It says here that you canceled the service
• We are going to have to charge you for canceling your service
• If you want to contest the charges, I can't help you
• There is no one to address your complaint to, just write to our address
• It says that you ordered the service, so we will charge you for it, and there will be a surcharge for canceling
• I'm sorry that no one called you, but we can re-schedule your service now
  

If you're one of the companies that participates in these carefully crafted anti-customer care tactics, I recommend some great suggestions for marketers from David Raab, author of The Marketing Performance Measurement Toolkit. (Obviously, I'm having a difficult time trying to be constructive, and David does a great job).

The only point I could make is that no amount of $100 offers for referring a friend could ever influence me.

I would NEVER do that to a friend, or even an acquaintance.

Mobile Media gets interesting and useful

Things are starting to move in mobile media.

Chuck Beardsley, Soal Marketing, points out that he now uses www.jott.com quite regularly to update facebook and twitter through voice translation on his mobile.

www.layar.com was recently featured in Advertising Age highlighting their developer platform that allows layers of statistical information to integrate with any media. Geotagged information will feed through real-time mobile video, seeing links, photos or text projected over specific locations, pulling information from flickr, wikipedia, twitter, yelp and more.

Social Media: Ethics and Workplace Survey from Deloitte

"While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences, and observations to social networking sites is personal, a single act can create far-reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as organizations. Therefore it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership."

Sharon L. Allen
Chairman of the Board
Deloitte LLP

Deloitte has recently released a 2009 survey on Ethics and Workplace in relation to Social networking and reputational risk in the workplace. With the rapid growth and acceptance of social media and networking, the ways people choose to communicate and collaborate are varied and beyond the normal control of business. Even workplace policies banning the use of FaceBook or MySpace cannot stem the personal use and chatter existing on the Internet.

"Deloitte LLP’s 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey shows that there is great reputational risk associated with social networking as 74% of employed Americans surveyed believe it is easy to damage a brand’s reputation via sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube."

The Deloitte survey reveals that only 15% of executives have elevated this discussion to the board room, although 58% agreed that it was necessary to do so. And, more importantly, one-third of employed respondents never even considered how their boss would feel about content posted, indicating that it is none of their business (freedom of speech anyone?)

Although our natural response, as communicators, is to put policies in place to serve as guidelines for social networking and publishing, only 50% of respondents indicated that such guidelines would impact their behavior.

How does your company manage the new rules of social media?

Wendy Flanagan

AMA B2B Sig Chair
Co-President, Murray

908-362-8174 x111

cell 908-619-7204

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

Chairperson, NJ MarCom Council
Board Member, NJAdClub
Member AMA, MENG

Upcoming lecture: Using Social Networks to Leverage Your Networking and Drive Your Business on behalf of the charitable Garden State Woman’s Education Foundation on September 17 at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Register Online

CBS/Pepsi Max to Use Video in Print Ad

--As appeared in this week's PROMO Magazine online--

Aug 20, 2009 6:05 AM, Patricia Odell for PROMO Xtra

CBS and Pepsi Max have partnered in an exclusive marketing partnership to use video in an upcoming print advertisement. The two claim the ad marks the first use of such technology.

The technology, called video-in-print (VIP) uses a paper-thin interactive video player that will be packaged in a co-branded spread in the fall TV preview issue of “Entertainment Weekly.” The player is developed and manufactured by Americhip, Inc.

The ad talks up CBS’s Monday night comedy lineup and new dramas, and promotes the diet cola for men, Pepsi Max. The video in the Sept. 18 issue includes five channels of CBS and Pepsi Max content.

--end--

What I like about Americhip is their "Multisensorize(R)" approach to marketing, embracing sound, sight, touch, smell and taste. By engaging human senses, they make messages more memorable in experience marketing and nostalgic emotions. Only by generating favorable emotional response does a brand break into iconic stature.

I'll be first in line to pick up my copy of "Entertainment Weekly" to see this video in print for myself. How sturdy will it be? How big can they make it? How thick will it feel? Americhip is touting 45 minutes to an hour of content. How smooth will it run? Check them out on YouTube.

While we advertise, the law works to shut us down

We do our jobs to bring online marketing and advertising to meet the needs of business and consumers. While we are diligently trying to turn results and make numbers, the forces of politics can sometimes be working to negate the freedoms that NetChoice.org refers to as "Convenience, Choice, Commerce". The following is an excerpt from their site.

NetChoice is dedicated to fighting these attacks on core Internet principles. Through this site, the Internet Advocates' Watchlist For Ugly Laws (iAWFUL) will track dangerous legislation and mobilize citizens to defeat bills and proposals that threaten the future of ecommerce and online communication. The list will be continually updated to reflect the most immediate dangers, based on regulatory severity and likelihood of passage.


I encourage you to review the legislation that has been pushing into our world, to keep an eye on what is and is not legal for yourself and your company. If you have other legal insight to add from your industry, I encourage you to add to this discussion!

New Jersey Business Still Fast According to Fortune

I am thrilled to see New Jersey rank in the Fortune Fastest-Growing 100 Global Companies (even more poignant because we currently have an all-time high unemployment rate).

Congratulations to:
Celgene, #22 out of Summit, NJ;
Foster Wheeler, #29 in Clinton, NJ;
Schering-Plough #54 in Kenilworth, NJ;
NRG Energy #60 in Princeton, NJ; and
Cognizant #90 in Teaneck, NJ.

Such incredible performance continues to highlight NJ's relevance as business, advertising, marketing and communications leaders in our 'State' community. That 5% of the Fortune Top 100 are here in NJ is a huge tribute to the hard work and innovation that resonates throughout our workforce.

Where sales and marketing converge

Sales and marketing have a great deal of overlap. From a business operational view, sales is viewed as a revenue center and, sometimes, marketing is viewed as a cost center. This is seen in times of economic downturn as costs get cut and marketing is tasked to do more with less.

However, logic and metrics demonstrate that the impact of marketing and advertising increase the funnel volume for sales, provide consistent messaging, and help target the right audience for conversion. Sales force management tools and CRM systems are a great place to start in establishing the ultimate question, “Who is our best customer?”

Typically, there is not a single answer. If you are interested in the rest of this post, click here.

Time to "Re-Balance?"

OK, so the economy sucks, and we've all lost a good amount of money in our investment portfolios. And yet, a whole lot of television commercials, billboards, print ads and radio spots are hounding us about "re-balancing our portfolios."

It got me thinking. Shouldn't smart marketers also consider re-balancing their marketing budgets as a result of these trying economic times?

Just because you've ALWAYS done something one way doesn't mean you need to go on repeating the same thing over and over. Remember Einstein's definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

If you want to change your marketing results, it just may be time to re-balance your marketing portfolio.

Several new and existing clients have come to us recently asking us to take a look at their overall marketing expenditures. In every case we were able to point out a large number of wasted expenditures -- primarily advertising buys that remain on schedules because they've "always been there," or because "the ad rep buys me a bottle of Maker's Mark every Christmas."

But the world has changed. Unless you are confident that ALL of your marketing and communication expenditures are delivering a real return on your investment (and not just another cost headed straight to the wrong side of the balance sheet), it's probably time to change your way of thinking too.

In flush times, it's easy to just continue doing what you've always done, because, well, we were all making good money, right? And what "worked" from a marketing standpoint wasn't nearly as critical as it is now, during the "Great Recession."

Posted by John Lonsdorf
President
R&J Public Relations
www.RandJpr.com

Riding the Social Media Wave

The wave of social media options is very real and connected. Why would you blog... unless your insights might change the thoughts and patterns of behaviors, generating traffic to your offering.

Why would you need a podcast... unless you are a speaker and your off the cuff presentations go undocumented. Why would you want to tweet... unless your prospective customers are identifying themselves with quick keywords showing their need. Why do you need a youtube video... unless your sincerity and knowledge, whit and humor transcend the attention-span of an over-saturated audience. People like the spontaneity, accessibility and control of the Web. the ability to click where they want... surfing in a seemingly random pattern.

...But we know the truth about the Internet. True randomness evaporates under the crush of data-driven marketing and user pattern identifiers. If you doubt that randomness is gone, think about the google of yesteryear. When you used to be able to search something and get various papers, and expert opinions from academia, researchers, and government resources. Now, paid placement exerts its muscle, racking up the first 500,000 organic returned searches. (Oh, it's not 'paid' as in, 'I bought an ad'... but certainly paid to an individual or firm that specializes in ranking.)

You might think, in reading this, that I object. Not a chance. For every media that becomes commercialized, my work evolves. My company's offerings are adapted to meet the constantly evolving needs of marketers for strategy, design and technology combinations that accurately convey their offerings to their audiences. Marketing plans are more diverse, integrated, and results-driven. In a very short time, marketers have changed from asking, "How do I get a Content Management System (CMS) for my Website?" to asking "How can my CMS drive my mobile, print and eNewsletter promotions?"

Social media marketing supports sales basics. Like, trust, use. It takes the giant funnel of people and, based on data, drives the connections to the ones who might use your product or service. the creativity, language and design allow an individual to like the offer (or the person). The virtual connections and validity of network can demonstrate a foundation on which transactional trust can exist. The online user is lulled into thinking they ever had a choice which way the current was headed... Truly strategic marketers have taken this into consideration. Money once spent on prime time advertising has been diverted to virtual currents.

I'm certain the next wave is rapidly approaching.

Wendy Flanagan
Co-President
Murray
http://www.murraymedia.com
908-362-8174 x111

Ad agency increases client base using Social Media

Here's another interesting article by the same guy as my last post. In this article he writes about a small ad agency in Lafayette, LA which is increasing their client base by leaps and bounds using social media. They are not going on pitch meetings, but are fielding calls from all over the country due to their expertise in leveraging social media.

Check it out. Interesting case study.

Social Media Impacts Ad Agency New Business

Here's an article that had a name and subject that jumped off the page as my first post for the Ad Club Blog-an article about Social Media and Advertising. It's an article by Michael Glass from his Blog "Fuel lines-fueling ad agency new business."

Fuel Lines

This is a guy I follow on Twitter-and today he twittered this article. So, thanks to me, you don't have to follow him or figure out Twitter to get the benefit of this work-just take a look at his article.

As you can see if you go to his page he has a lot to say about how social media and advertising are changing together. He compares how social media marketing and "traditional marketing" gain a prospects attention, control the message, and how important measurement and ROI are in the new scheme of things. I found this little article to be a good start if you're wondering what's happening to ad agencies as a result of social media marketing.

Chuck B.

A Reputation is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Ted Pincus, founder of The Financial Relations Board, as well as a finance professor at DePaul University and a business columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently published a paper on the deepening financial mess. It appeared on the O'Dwyer's PR website. While Pincus doesn't offer much hope for a quick fix by the Obama administration, he does conclude with a cautionary tale for anyone considering cutting their marketing budgets to save money in the short-term.

Pincus writes:

"I sense that the short-sightedness of old has been replaced by a new recognition that a reputation — the most prized asset of all in the long run — cannot be turned on and off with the flick of a budget, and can only be protected by the one specialist who knows how to achieve sustainability."

Sure times are tough. But if you want to be ready to blast out of the gate when the inevitable economic revival comes, make sure you keep your good reputation intact.

And remember the words of Warren Buffet who once famously said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

NJAdClub President's Message

’Tis the Season. Not just the holiday season, but the season of New Beginnings, for making resolutions and planning the future. These are exciting times we are living in, no matter on what side of the fence one resides. Certainly, the market made this past year a turbulent one that we’re happy to leave behind. Yet most people, I think, sense anticipation in the air for a brighter future on many fronts. And NJAd Club folks did have some terrific moments: winning Jersey Awards and celebrating three new inductees into the New Jersey Advertising Hall of Fame!

Permit me to remain philosophical for just a few more lines as I think it is important to realize that whatever times we live through, these are our finite times, and we have a responsibility to ourselves, our families and perhaps God and country too, to make the best out of every moment.

So what does all that have to do with NJAdClub? Simple. This is one of the best organizations and “group of people” providing support and the means to make the best out of all things. Our varied programs, including Wake-Up Call Workshops and Smartalk events, help members and other guests experiment with the latest industry know-how, sharpening new tools for being the best at our jobs. Through our educational outreach efforts, such as the Advertising/MSU Career Day, we help up-and-coming young professionals discover what advertising and marketing is all about, a mentoring event that satisfies our need to give back. Then there are our Marcom networking events (summer and winter), where we mix and mingle with new colleagues and longtime acquaintances. Without such a support network, I don’t think anyone can function successfully. Maintaining a network is a lifelong and enjoyable process — an NJAdClub specialty.

Best of all, organizations such as ours provide the stage so we can accomplish things that are infinitely bigger than our everyday jobs and lives. Pause with me now to remember such giants in our club who are no longer with us, in particular Lew Kraut and Pat Tesman. There are many others, individuals who really believed in this club and what it stood for and helped make it what it is today. We are all better for knowing them.

Looking ahead to 2009, there are, without exaggeration, exciting plans in the works, which I think will make a memorable year for NJAdClub — such as redesigning our website to expand our influence in the NJ advertising community and beyond. And you can be a part of this excitement! Without you, without our members, strategic partners and sponsors, we could not do all that we do. So thank you for your continued support and for your time, our most precious commodity. Happy Holidays to all — those celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just the New Year! However we celebrate, be sure to share the good cheer! ’Tis the Season.

Michael Schumacher
NJAdClub President
Marketing Communications Manager
The Newark Museum