Month: March 2006

As I was driving home last night, I happened to catch a spot on the radio from Commerical Home Furnishings. It turns out that the entire spot was a recruitment piece for a sales/designer position with CHF…

On one hand, it was a great move on their part — the spot ran at roughly 5:45 in the evening, as a good percentage of the 8-to-5ers were on their way home. It hit on many of the emotions that many of those same people are no doubt feeling – unhappy/unsatisfied in their current job, feeling that they could/should be doing more with their career, etc. The spot encouraged peoplel to email – not mail, not call, email – their resume to Sue at CHF. Smart. Very smart.

On the other hand, however, hearing this on the air got me thinking… Has the cost of placing the traditional “help wanted” ad in the newspaper gotten so out of hand that it is now cheaper to create a help wanted commercial? Or, have those help wanted ads in the newspaper really become that ineffective? Food for thought.

If you work in or around an agency in Southwestern Idaho, you should make it a point to attend this conference, presented by BlueLine, Boise State University and others. In today’s agency environment, the “interactive business” can no longer be pushed aside, or passed off to the “interactive group” within your shop.

Everyone in and around the agency business should be at this conference, regardless of whether you’re on the creative side, account services, business development or operations. This is the direction that the business is heading. We all should have, at the very basic, a working knowledge of blogging, podcasting, and the next wave of “new media.”

Now, for those of you who do business/have a relationship with an agency in the area, if I were in your shoes I’d be on the phone asking my agency questions such as: Are they going to send someone to this conference? What is there take on blogging, podcasting, etc? Also, if you can make the time, go to the conference yourself — the more educated the client and the agency are, the more effective the message can be, regardless of how it is delivered.

Yes, its that time of year again — award season. True, the Oscars have come and gone, but around here there’s still time to get ready for the advertising industry’s local love-fest, er, awards show. And by that, of course, I’m referring to the Rockies.

While it pains me to even look at the Boise Advertising Federation’s website right now (can’t someone step up and offer to redesign the site? anyone?), you must RSVP if you plan on attending the awards show. And, in spite of the self-congratulatory pats on the back that will undoubtedly happen that night (my money is on at least one visit to the St. Lukes emergency room to cast a broken arm), you will have a chance to see some pretty good work that has been produced locally.

So mark the date on your calendar – April 8th, 2006. The show/spectacle starts at 5:30.

The “Agencies in Idaho” list on the right sidebar is in no way meant to be a comprehensive list — rather its a few of the agencies that first came to mind. Are there others that should be included in that list? Of course there are. Can I think of them at the moment? Not really. As I do, however, I’ll add them to the list.

In the mean time, if you think there’s something that should be included, by all means let me know.

Just a quick note to say welcome to the Idaho Ad Agencies blog.