Category: observations

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The Realities of Business

The topic comes up from time to time — local agencies doing work for local clients, particularly the larger clients that just so happen to be in the area.

Unfortunately, fairly or not, the fact of the matter is that the larger local clients do not always see the value that a local agency can provide.

Case in point: Blue Cross of Idaho.

Earlier this year, Blue Cross of Idaho chose the Minneapolis office of Weber Shandwick to help launch its new web-based health and well being initiative. The folks over at Red Sky PR first noticed this decision, and made comment about it on their PR Musings Weblog.

Another recent example: Balihoo.

In March, Balihoo named Affect Strategies as their Public Relations Agency of Record. Now, given Balihoo’s focus on large-scale media planning and buying, I can understand this decision. It is in their best interest to work with an agency that can provide the best exposure possible, particularly to media buyers and agencies that buy in large volumes, and a PR agency out of New York is certainly a wise choice. The cynic in me has to wonder, however, how much of this decision was driven by the addition of Michael Browner to their Board of Directors two days prior to the announcement. Pure speculation on my part, but the timing just seems suspect.

So without laboring on too much longer with the same old ‘poor us’ mentality, I’ll pose this question: What do local agencies need to do differently to either attract or retain these types of clients? Is it just a fact of life today’s business environment, or are there there areas that local, or even regional shops can focus on to differentiate themselves?

Now, the same question to those on the client side: What do out-of-town or out-of-state agencies offer that local or regional agencies don’t? Where are the local shops lacking?

Now that I’ve stirred the pot, I’m going to go ahead and duck for a while…

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How to see the award-winning work

One of the most frequent comments I’ve heard since the Rockies Awards Show, and several others, is ‘where can I see the work’? Given the fact that the American Advertising Federation has changed its submission guidelines and no longer requires entries to be mounted for display, that poses a new challenge.

The Austin Advertising Federation came up with a solution for The Austin Show, and I have to say – I like it. They created a program for the event which featured the winners’ work, as well as the respective credits. Not only was the program available at the show, but it can also be viewed online, as a PDF.

To the folks at the Austin Advertising Federation I say “well done.”

Think something like this could happen locally?

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The devil is in the details

This seems to be a recurring theme, but the devil really is in the details. It’s what makes the difference between good work and great work. And too many times, there seems to be examples of what not to do.

This is another one of those.

While watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game on Monday evening, I caught part of a spot for RC Willey at halftime. Pretty standard fare, overall, until the offer (paraphrased): Purchase any big screen TV, and we’ll deliver it in time for the big game. Again, I caught this spot at halftime of ‘the big game’.

Okay, let’s step back and take a look at this for a minute. Was it a good, compelling offer? Yes. Was it good media placement? Yes. But did they play well together in the sandbox at halftime? No.

Now I’d be willing to guess that this was one the tail end of a very effective media buy, and RC Willey probably had some brisk sales as a result. But given the size of the audience for the game, nationally as well as locally, wouldn’t it make sense to double check, and make sure that your creative is a good fit for the placement?

Am I being too critical? Probably. But put yourself in the viewer’s shoes. If you were to see that spot and hear that offer, would you be more or less likely to shop at that store? What would your reaction be?

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Billboards – in a whole new dimension

For most people, seeing billboards around town is nothing new. Extensions above the top of a board? Neat little gimmick, but after a little time those get ignored as well.

The new digital billboards are, admitted, pretty slick. I think there’s a lot of potential for those, and that’s worth its own conversation with Lamar one of these days (but we’ll save that one for another time).

If you’re in the Boise area, you may have seen a series of billboards up recently for Paramount. They were a continuation of the [BLANK] is Paramount concept, which in and of itself has been very effective from what I understand.

But these most recent boards were a little different. There was no image of a child swimming or a striking roof line. This time, the visual was coming right off the board.

Literally.

These latest boards added a third dimension, featuring mannequins depicting scenes or activities that one could expect to have happen in Paramount, such as lighting a barbecue or diving into a swimming pool.

The boards were designed by Stoltz Marketing Group in Boise. They’re currently out of rotation, but I’m told they’ll be going back up again in the near future. Pictures are below.

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Burying a persistent rumor

I don’t really know exactly how it got started, but there’s been a rumor flying around the Treasure Valley for the past week or two (at least) that North by Northwest is leaving Boise. While I was 99% sure that I knew the answer, I went to Lorena Davis at NxNW for the official word. Here’s what she had to say:

It is 100% fact that NxNW is NOT (no way, no how) leaving Boise. The exact opposite is true—2007 was a record breaking year. We have grown in personnel, purchased a bunch of new gear, and are now shopping for land to build a new studio.

So, there you have it. Let’s move on, shall we?

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