Idaho Ad Agencies

The Idaho advertising community lost one of it’s founders with the passing on John Givens on Monday, February 1st, 2010.

Not familiar with the name?  Unfortunately, neither was I until last week.

John Givens was a third-generation Boisean, a graduate of Boise High School and after service in the United States Naval Air Corp during World War II, a student at the Boise Junior College and the University of Idaho, among others.

John began his career in advertising in 1947, and in 1952 he founded Givens-Davies Advertising, Inc. with Kenneth R. Davies.  He helped grow the agency to become one of the largest and most powerful in Idaho, and a major player in the Pacific Northwest.  Note: Givens-Davies would later go on to become Davies-Rourke, and in its current form is known as DaviesMoore.

Later, he went on to form John Givens Advertising, Inc., and in 1988 was awarded the Silver Medal from the Boise Advertising Federation.  John retired from advertising in 1987.

Among his many accomplishments, John was instrumental in coordinating public relations and fundraising efforts for the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts, and creating the Idaho Governor’s Cup golf tournament scholarship fundraiser.

John is survived by five children, two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

A memorial service was held on Saturday, February 6th.

While I never had the chance to meet John Givens, I would like to offer a belated ‘thank you’ to him on behalf of the entire advertising and marketing community in Idaho for everything that he did over the years, and those that he helped guide and inspire.

A complete obituary is available here, if you’d like to read more.

Its that time of year again.

The time when everyone and their dog, cat and goldfish makes their predictions about what the biggest trends will be in the coming year.  And, like every year, its a shot in the dark.  Sometimes those predictions are right, sometimes they’re horribly wrong.

That being said, this year I say we crowdsource the whole prediction thing.  I’d like to know what you, dear readers, think will be the big trends in 2010, and any predictions you’d like to make.

Comment away.

From Adweek: Digital Billboards Safe, Another Study Says

Tantala analyzed eight years of traffic accident data — more than 60,000 accident reports from the Ohio Department of Transportation — for the same seven digital billboards it examined in a 2007 study. In addition to the two Cleveland studies, a separate survey was released earlier this year for Rochester, Minn. The conclusion for all three studies was the same: Digital billboards are not linked to traffic accidents.

Another interesting tidbit from this article: Lamar’s 1,135 digital billboards, now representing about 10 percent of the company’s revenue, are leading the recovery at the company.

While digital boards represent 10 percent of their revenue, I’d be curious to find out what percentage of their total inventory (total of all boards) that number represents.  Anyone have any insight?

Yes, the Idaho Lottery is always a subject that will get people talking.  It’s a high profile account and extremely visible work.

That being said, over the past month or so, what looks to be the first large-scale push for the Idaho Lottery from DaviesMoore has been making the rounds.  To date I’ve seen television spots, billboards and banner ads, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that radio is also running.

I’m going to reserve judgement on the work, because I’d like to know what you, dear readers, think of it.  Good? Bad? Indifferent?

The comment lines are open, but let’s keep things civil and professional.

That is the second half of a question that’s been bouncing around in the back of my head for some time now (we’ll get to the rest of it in a moment).  Allow me to explain…

When it comes to marketing and advertising, good is just that — it’s good.  It meets the client’s objectives.  It pays the bills and keeps the lights on.  Good work breeds good work.

But is it memorable?

Bad work certainly is.

Let’s play a little game called recall.  The topic: Advertising for local car dealerships.  Television spots, specifically.  Glamorous, I know, but it serves the point.

When I mention the following Treasure Valley dealerships, do you remember what their recent spots looked like?

Meridian Ford
Dennis Dillon
Edmark Superstore
Team Mazda Subaru
Lithia of Boise

Of the five examples above, which garnered the most immediate or strongest response?  I would be willing to bet that it was Team Mazda Subaru.  You know the spots.  You’ve seen them.  Thanks to some effective media buying they’re hard to miss.  And that leads to the rest of the question:

If you’re not willing to be great, is it better to be bad than good?

Bad, in most cases, is just that.  It makes people cringe.  It elicits a strong reaction.  But it’s also memorable.  Despite your best intentions, I’m sure you can rattle off at least a half-dozen examples of bad advertising that you’ve seen over the years.  And in each case, I’d bet you can remember exactly who the ad was for, and what it was about.  Try as we might, bad ads are unforgettable.

But so are great ones.

The great ones do more than just meet the client’s objectives.  They influence an industry.  They change a culture.  As those who study this business come to realize, it’s the great ads that set, and in many cases reset, the bar by which others are judged.

Lest you think this discussion is limited only to television, it isn’t — it applies to all mediums.  The Bad / Good / Great distinction can take place anywhere.  In broadcast, online, direct, even face to face.

In all cases, Bad is just bad — memorable, but bad.  Good is effective and meets expectations.  Great is a game-changer.

So how do you define the difference between good and great?  What are you doing on a daily basis to push your own work from good to great?  Does it matter to you?

That’s just what I did this past weekend.  And, while I was out and about, this was the view to the north:

and to the south:

We now return to our regularly-scheduled programming, already in progress…

Believe it or not, it’s true — there’s proof!

Kidding aside, during an appearance on Episode 63 of The BeanCast, George Parker had a few complimentary words for the work that Drake Cooper has done over the years for the Idaho Lottery.

The brief comment came in the context of a discussion that he and the other panelists were having about the PlaidNation Tour, their travels, and Plaid’s desire to recognize great work that comes out of shops in different cities.  If you’re interested in listening, the discussion surrounding the tour takes place just over an hour into the show.

P.S. – All in good fun George, all in good fun.

Or, put another way, confidence is everything.

WARNING: Stream of consciousness writing to follow.  Like that’s anything new, but consider yourself warned…

How many times have you seen this happen:  Two (or more) people are competing for the same job.  On paper, both are equally qualified.  In person, however, one comes off as timid – afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, while the other maintains a certain confidence.  Who gets the job?

Same goes for the agency environment.  An agency who is afraid to take some sort of action for fear that they might make a mistake is just as timid as the job candidate above.  And it shows.  A recent tweet from rizen creative sums it up nicely:

While the concept is not new, it’s worth repeating from time to time:  If you’re playing not to lose, you’ll lose more often than you win.  Letting fear stand in your way of doing something is no excuse for doing nothing.

It seems the City of Portland is experiencing the spec-creative backlash as we speak.

Yesterday, the news got out that the City of Portland has proposed a design contest to redesign PortlandOnline.

From Silicon Florist:

Now, you can try as hard as you might, but few things can be as insulting to people as telling them their work is worthless. Which is basically what the City is doing by asking for designers to work on spec.

Web developers, graphic artists and visionaries to transform the navigation and design of PortlandOnline, the city’s primary web presence. Winners will be fully credited on the website for their work – a website that receives over two million visits a month and includes over 140,000 pages.

That’s right. Or to paraphrase, that work that you do? It isn’t worth anything more than a link.

And today came a response from the Portland Advertising Federation’s President, Jerry Ketel –  The City Should Know Better:

This is simply the wrong way to go about designing an important communication tool in our fair city. The idea of this kind of contest is a perfect example of how much the city fathers value the contribution of the design community in Portland. I am certain that there is a very good Web design firm here in town who would work for pennies on the dollar to help the City of Portland to polish its presence on the internet. Not only would they provide design look and feel, but they would provide navigation and strategic expertise. This is Portland after all, craftsmanship is in our DNA. Our community wants to be a seen as a creative magnet in the world—it is a source of pride. So why don’t our elected leaders get that?

and:

Now is the time for the Portland creative services industries to rise up and plant a flag in the sand. We need to be recognized for the contribution we make to our city. We should start by writing letters and emails to the city about this disrespectful contest. And then we need to join together and strategize how we can become a force that cannot be ignored. It is time.

While this is not happening here in Idaho, it is an issue that shouldn’t be ignored.  I’d encourage those of you with contacts in the Portland area to get involved, and make their voices heard.  Contact the PAF or the City of Portland.

Jerry is right:  It is time.

Or, more specifically, the Portland Advertising Federation’s Rosey Awards:

This year, the PAF decided to have a little fun with the Rosey Awards website, throwing in a little ‘Our City is Better Than Your City’ attitude.

And Boise was one of their targets.

Now, the question to you, dear readers in Boise and beyond: Are you going to put up with this type of verbal abuse?  Should we engage in a war of words with our colleagues in Portland and beyond?

I say no.  And here’s what I suggest you do:

Make it better.  The strategy, the creative, the plan, the placement.  All of it — make it better.

If it’s good, make it better.  If it’s great, make it better.

The year is half over.  Now’s your chance to step it up.

When it comes down to it, the best way to get back at our friends and Portland is through the work.  That’ll be the best way to bitch-slap those granola-loving bike-riding hippies back into their drizzle-dodging cubicle world.

Oh, and PDX folks, nothing but love for you, nothing but love