What Clients Expect From Their Agency

by Steve Fodor.

Another insightful article in BtoB magazine has captured my interest. In a special report, BtoB offers a list of the top attributes clients look for when selecting an agency partner. Here they are, with my own additional considerations for anyone looking for the right agency.

Ability to be flexible and work with tighter budgets.
Everybody needs to do more with less. But ask the agency to explain their process for quickly and efficiently developing customer insights. If the agency can’t give you an answer, or gives you an answer that requires a Ph.D. to understand, they may not be a good fit for you.

Understanding of the client’s core business needs.
I think it’s more critical to ask, “How would the agency go about understanding a client’s core business needs.” Solving business needs requires collaboration between agency and client.

Industry and B-to-B experience.
It may be more revealing to ask an agency, “Do you consider yourselves B-to-B specialists, B-to-C, retail, or a combination? Often, B-to-B clients, especially if their budgets are not “huge,” are treated like “unwanted stepchildren” by the agency. Find out what the agency does best and is passionate about.

Creativity in developing integrated marketing campaigns.
Can’t add anything to that. Creative thinking is what agencies are about.

Social media skills.
I’d ask the agency, “How would you develop a social media strategy that’s effective for our customers and our particular segment?”

Access to global resources.
If you need to develop an integrated global or multi-national campaign, this is important.

Good cultural fit, not just with senior executives.
I interpret this to be about agency size, as well. You don’t want to feel like a “little fish in a big pond.”

Responsive and effective account management.
I’d rather ask to meet your key contact at the agency and interview them. What kind of business experience does he or she have?

Proven method for measuring ROI.
I’ve been asked this before and my response is typically, “What do you need to accomplish?” Have clear campaign needs and goals established before you talk to an agency.

Experience in providing thought-leadership content and events.
Again, I think it’s equally important to ask how an agency would go about developing thought-leadership content. Do they have a strategic process? Or are they going to regurgitate and re-purpose content?

Selecting an agency is a big decision with many qualitative factors. I hope this has helped define your criteria even more.

Flickr Photo Credit: boliston

Brand Experience Trumps Selling Efforts.

by Steve Fodor

Remember the famous McGraw Hill ad from about 30 years ago? The one with the grumpy, old man saying, “I don’t know you. I don’t know your company. I don’t know what you stand for. Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?”

I had an experience today that reminded me how true that ad's message is.

Without getting into naming names, I saw an ad for an online Internet marketing degree from a seemingly-reputable university. The ad intrigued me enough to request more information. I filled in the required fields on the request form. One of the fields was for my phone number, which should have made me suspicious. Almost instantly, a PDF was downloaded to my computer and I looked forward to reading more information on obtaining a certified degree in Internet marketing.

Now, what happened next is still hard for me to believe. And I’m not exaggerating. Within 15 seconds of filling out the request for more information, the phone rang. It was a representative from the university. She talked very fast. I laughed and said, “I haven’t even had a chance to look at the information.” Her reply was, “I’m here to give you more information.” I said, “I can’t talk now.” Her snapped reply was, “Well, I’m here to schedule a time with you.”

My whole brand experience here went from interest to inquiry to experience to brand rejection in less than 60 seconds!

Savvy marketers understand that brand experience is the product of integrated marketing efforts, starting with publicity to create interest and extending through personal selling efforts. All of a brand’s touch points with a customer.

I guess that grumpy, old man in the McGraw Hill ad is still right. Even though we have so many new tools to interact with customers today, you still have to earn a customer's trust before they’ll consider your brand’s proposition. Understanding the customer’s buying process and their information needs will always trump efforts to “just close the sale.” Yet, I’m frequently amazed at how many marketers don’t make the effort to understand what their customer’s information needs are or decision-making process is.

"We Don't Need to Hire a Marketing Firm."

by Steve Fodor

I had the opportunity to discuss a new Web site project with a client recently. During our conversation, I heard something that I hear quite often: “We tried to manage our site ourselves. We gave it to our IT person. But, building content for the site kind of lost focus over time.”

The truth is, you can manage your Web site and social media programs yourself without the help of a marketing firm. There’s no “secret magic” for creating a branded presence with today’s plethora of new media venues. In the end, though, media (meaning social media, Web sites, blogs, publicity and paid media) is just a collection of tools. It is up to people to make real impact with these tools. A carpenter may own a wonderful collection of tools and even know how to use them. But a skilled carpenter may not be the best resource for designing a building.

Creating a positive brand perception comes from generating valued content for your audience. If you’re not generating branded content that is of real value, your brand perception won’t be of much value either.

A marketing firm can (and should) add value to your branded content efforts by:

1. Developing a message strategy for your brand.

2. Interacting with and researching your audience and the media serving your audience to identify trending topics.

3. Creating and managing an editorial calendar.

4. Writing, posting and managing relevant, branded content.

5. Monitoring and responding to audience interaction with your branded content.

Most of all, credible marketing firms are expert communicators. They are staffed by people with journalistic and marketing backgrounds that know how to research and communicate relevant content that will serve as a catalyst for your brand. Credible marketing firms not only understand and own the right collection of tools. They have the people and the expertise to design and build brands with those tools.

It’s not enough to have “quantity” be your branded content strategy. There’s enough clutter out there. Quality and relevance of branded content wins over quantity. Ask yourself this question: If you don’t have the people on staff with the time, dedication and expertise to manage your branded content strategies, are you really conducting your marketing efforts with the utmost efficiency?

The More Things Change...

by Steve Fodor

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I just read an article about branded content. How marketers communicate with customers, go to market and increase brand loyalty has changed dramatically in just the last year. In fact, 32% of marketing communications budgets were dedicated to branded content in 2009. That’s a heck of a lot of blogging, Facebook interaction, YouTube videos and other forms of branded content.

You could say branded content is the new face of public relations. The media dynamic has changed. You now can go straight to end users without the media controlling your message. That opens endless possibilities. But, it also sacrifices the implied endorsement from reputable editors and media.

So what’s the key to branded content as a marketing strategy? If I had the answer to that, I’d be out fishing now instead of working for a living. But one thing always stands out in everything I read about branded content: your content has to be valued information that customers desire and not just a sales pitch. In other words, you must become a valued information provider and not just a product purveyor to elevate your brand above commodity status. And the only way to do that is to employ good, old-fashioned research to determine what information your customers and prospects need. In marketing “buzzword-speak” that means determining latent needs (there…now I can justify spending money on marketing books prior to the Amazon Kindle).

Even though the media dynamic has literally been turned upside down in recent years, that’s why I say “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” If you don’t understand your customer and if you can’t differentiate your brand beyond product features and price, you’re always going to be a commodity. Branded content has now become the most visible “face” of your brand. Think about that. And think about who is handling the face of your brand. Do they really understand how to generate valued content?

An Office is a Terrible Place From Which to View the World.

by Brad Smith

With over 30 years experience in B2B advertising, I feel pretty comfortable talking with most B2B audiences. And I consider myself a fair and impartial judge of how a certain message will be received and processed by various B2B audiences.

Did I say that, or am I just repeating what clients have told me over the years? Probably.

Which leads me to my story. We developed four conceptual ads for a new client recently, and we felt pretty good about them. All of them. But which ad would resonate best with our target audience?

We felt we knew, but we took the time to do a little investigating. We took the ads out and sat down with the owner of a company in the industry we were trying to persuade. We showed him the ad layouts and reviewed the text. We watched him react to the different ways we communicated the client’s main product benefits.

It wasn’t a sophisticated research survey. The results weren’t even projectable. But we came away confident we now knew which concept would work the hardest.

My point here is that no matter how long you’ve been doing your job, never presume to know how your markets will receive your ad. If you have the time (notice I didn’t say “if you have the budget”), leave the comfortable confines of your workspace and venture out into the real world. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you learn.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriza/

Branding, Bald Guys and Bluetooth

by Steve Badertscher

My colleague Brad Smith wrote a blog a little while back (Thursday, May 21 to be exact) describing an ad that made a lasting impression on him. It was about McGraw Hill Magazine's classic "Man in the Chair" ad created in the late 1950s. That particular ad has always been on my Top 10 list, as well.

That memorable "Man in the Chair" ad was brought to life -- literally -- with a live staging event at the June 2009 Conference of the Business Marketing Association (BMA). Be sure to watch the entire video as a little twist was added to demonstrate how the timeless message is still relevant in today's social media savvy world.

It's "Ugly" But I Love It

by Steve Fodor


Two things I love – fishing and great advertising.


This is another example I show people when they ask me, “What’s your idea of great advertising?”


I love this spot for Ugly Stik fishing rods. Truly, Ugly Stik lives up to its claim as “America’s most popular fishing rod.” And the positioning line they’ve stayed true to, “America’s strongest, most sensitive rod” sums up the product’s core advantage.


But what’s great about this spot? They resisted the temptation to focus on product features in a literal sense. All the benefits of durability, dependability and long lasting are implied and you, the viewer, make that connection yourself. The literal benefits are elevated into an entertaining story of how the “typical” fisherman feels about fishing. It’s empathetic, humorous and fun to watch. The folks at Ugly Stik (Shakespeare Fishing Tackle) “hook” you with emotional interest and then “reel you in” with the rational payoff (strength and sensitivity).


It would have been so easy to fall into the trap of explaining how Ugly Stiks are made, their proprietary processes and the like. I can also imagine some very trite and obvious creative executions playing on the “strong yet sensitive” positioning line. And Ugly Stiks do have some distinct product advantages (trust me…I research fishing poles). But this spot is a great example of understanding the customer in more than just demographic terms. This spot demonstrates an understanding of how the typical, recreational fisherman feels and how fishing fits into their life.


It doesn’t matter if you like to fish. And it doesn’t matter if you’re selling consumer products or industrial goods and services in the business-to-business world. No matter what, the principle of understanding your target audience as human beings first is the foundation of creating effective communications in any medium. I commend the good folks who have made the Ugly Stik brand such a strong one. Enjoy the 30-second clip.