search is powerful

Search is powerful…if you think about it, the purchase process for most items above a certain price is advertising for awareness, Google to learn the truth, reviews, etc about the product and the store to purchase it. If positive information – or any information – is not available on the first page of Google your brand is in real trouble.

It is harder and harder these days to make it to the top of Google and other search engine lists organically, partially because blogs are such SEO machines.

I have had some pretty funny search terms that led people to my blog over the past week and had tucked in to type up a (hopefully) amusing post about the disappointment that searchers would have when they were looking for, say, “fat sex” and ended up at the daily (ad) biz blog. Those who searched for “dress code” would be disappointed but presumably less so (unless they were looking for the dress code during fat sex in which case their disappointment surely knows no bounds). The surprisingly large number of people who searched for “greatest pickup lines” need more help than this blog is capable of.

While I was cataloging the funny search terms for this post, I noticed that I was getting a lot of hits for “jenna fischer.” Also a lot for “Jenna Fischer naked.”

[ There is always room for a Jenna Fischer image. And besides, it's clearly what my readers want.]

Apparently, if you were to Google just about any Jenna Fischer term and decide to, you know, take a closer look at the suggestive picture that pops up in Google then you would be looking at said picture on this humble blog.

The point isn’t to brag. Nor is it to find a weak excuse to search for and post a picture of the Official Hot Famous Woman I Would Marry In A Second Even Though I Don’t Know Her (OHFWIWMIASETIDKH for short).

Rather, the point of bringing this up is to marvel at the power of a blog to shoot up the Google rankings. And to use that to mention that, you know, maybe ad agencies ought to think about what that might mean for the brands they are building…specifically that they should probably get their act together (Wieden, I’m looking at you) and stop ignoring it because it will only result in an EFFIE and the ECD thinks that EFFIES are for “fucking douchebag accountniks” and he would rather pitch TV so he has a shot at a free week in Cannes.

If this blog can do it without trying very hard, one would think that a brand could do it with a little help from their agency.

Right? Eh? Oh.

the advertising ivy league

There is an Ivy League in advertising. That is, there is a small group of shops that if you happen to get a job at one you will be shopping that experience and using it to open doors the rest of your career.

The Ivy League group does change from time to time as shops fade and upstarts blow past the competition, but a shop’s reputation counts for a lot and even if it’s fallen on hard times it still means something to say “I was at Fallon when Pat Fallon was there (or, even better, when Tom McElligott was).”

My number one piece of advice to newbies, be they creative, planning or account, is to get an Ivy League shop on your CV.

Like now.

The advertising Ivy League is a lot like Premier League soccer in that there is relegation – poor performance and you will be replaced – and a lot of people who start to hate you if you’re on top of your game for too long.

The current Ivy League is:

Crispin, Porter + Bogusky:

This agency is so hot, they could take a crap, wrap it in a ’64 Beetle, put a German accent over it and sell it to Volkswagen as advertising. Which they just did.

Goodby, Silversten and Partners:

Adweek’s Agency of the Year has a long history of top drawer work, San Francisco is a great location and when I was last there everyone seemed to drive a Mercedes. So…yeah.

TBWA/Chiat/Day:

Lee Clow, the work for Apple and a bunch of really good looking employees sort of sum up the positives of this Ivy Leaguer.

Wieden + Kennedy:

Best known for their Nike work and for Dan Wieden’s principled refusal to join the 4A’s, they have faced recent encroachment on their key account by CP+B but are still a place with “wow” factor.

Fallon

This may be a contentious one (and they are in danger of falling out of the Ivy League) because of the recent account losses and other upheaval…but Fallon is still a place that opens doors because of its history of greatness.

There are a lot of agencies that are hanging around just on the outside of this select group. Shops like Arnold (which was recently in the Ivy League on the strength of their better-than-Crispin VW work), The Martin Agency and Butler, Shine, Stern need only that iconic campaign to be in with a shout while other, larger places like your DDBs and BBDOs are places where you can collect awards and do great work…they just don’t have the same cachet.

Though, to be fair, a Pencil looks good no matter which shop you won it at.

spanning the globe with a single brand message

Two agencies are better than one, at least that is what the Wall Street Journal is reporting about Nokia’s decision to utilize creative hotshop Wieden & Kennedy as the lead creative agency with JWT (and their 196-office global network) adapting Wieden’s work internationally.

I know that it is padding the bottom line, but that arrangement can’t make the creatives at JWT all that happy.

And it doesn’t really burnish their brand.

At any rate, the major challenge with a shop the size of the House of Biz is that we do not have the institutional credibility of a bigger name place (not to mention a global reach). There is something to be said about the comfort that bigness gives to clients, especially clients that are big themselves, and Nokia has found a way to feel good about that while harnessing the creative abilities of a smaller, more creative-driven agency.

The Nokia arrangement bodes well for shops like mine.

The real question is the need for global advertising of the type that looks to adapt core creative to different markets around the world: it’s not a good idea.

The difference between the positioning and communication needed to succeed in 3G South Korea, for example, is different than in 2G America and different again for sub-Saharan Africa. The consumers are different, the marketplace is different, even the products offered are different. Something more than mere adaptation is needed.

Even though something more than mere adaptation costs more money.

office pep talks will pump you up

There is a big presentation today here at the House of Biz and nervous tension is high as we wait for the actual presentation to commence.

Luckily, we had a nice little pep talk from Bozo the Clown, the lead CD here at the agency, who informed us that we had all worked hard, had great work and that if we gave it 110% in the presentation we would bring it home. Boilerplate stuff. But since it is so boilerplate, what if the other agencies are also going to give 110%? We won’t have that 10% edge!

So I suggested that perhaps we give 111%…and it’s odds even that Bozo the Clown kills me in my sleep tonight.

To really get the adrenaline pumping I have been watching old Nike commercials:

But even these pose a bit of an issue because if we leave nothing but are expected to have leave-behinds and…oh wait, I get it.

Go team.

old spice slides in with another good spot

When I was first getting into the business my aunt, a planner at a big Chicago agency, always delighted in telling me that I couldn’t judge an ad until I considered the target. It didn’t matter if I didn’t like it if the target did.

Of course, she cared about effectiveness. And, as Ad Broad correctly states, there is often a reason that ad awards are not tied to sales.

Effectiveness should mean more than pure sales results and my aunt makes a good point about judging advertising. Your gut reaction is important, but if you are not the target it is critical to understand what they are looking for and seeing if the ad has it.

In the case of the Old Spice work by Wieden & Kennedy, they are spot in hitting the target and I just love the work. It is a classic send-up of traditional advertising for products in the category, is humorous, well-written and visually arresting:

This spot was easily the crowd favorite at the bar during the Giants game yesterday and, from having been in the middle of the bar crowd all game, I can confidently say that the men there were Old Spice’s target consumer.

A good ad and well targeted. Thank you Old Spice.

here’s hoping that wieden retains nike

Some clients deserve a kick in the head. BMW is one of those, for firing Fallon because the new guy wanted his own agency and replacing them with GSD&M and their turgid work.

Nike is going to be another just as soon as they dump Wieden & Kennedy for Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Not only has Wieden done fantastic work on Nike for years, and not only was Crispin’s first effort for Nike about the worst that advertising gets for that brand, but your are (assuming all the rumors, including this one from adrants, are true) getting rid of an agency that has a history of great work for your brand. Why trade that for one that just might not be the right fit.

For all the Crispin is hot as the Miami sun right now, they haven’t exactly blown doors with VW or Miller, have they?

I do like both agencies as they both do exceptional work, but the proof is in the pudding with Wieden and Nike.

This billboard in New York is simple, clean and inspiring (and it hits deeply at a human truth…I said “tomorrow” yesterday too):

Classic Nike. Classic Wieden.

Why break up that partnership?

coke strikes the right tone for 2008

It’s a new year and (despite the gray, rainy day in New York) that means it’s all hope and blank-slate possibility for what could happen this year. For all I know, I could clean up at Cannes, strike it rich, and marry The Pretty AE.

This great spot for Coca-Cola by Wieden & Kennedy catches my mood perfectly:

It’s all to do yet, but it’s all to happen as well. Happy 2008!

why do agencies hit the skids?

When I was a young pup, the list of agencies I would have died to work at included names like Arnold, Wieden & Kennedy, Fallon and GSD&M.

All agencies, at one time or another, hit a bit of a rocky road, whether it is because of difficult clients, the loss of key talent or struggles with their meteoric rise.

With the news that GSD&M has been scythed to half of its size at its 2006 peak, the question was begged: why do some agencies keep on keepin’ on while others hit the skids?

And while others wither and die.

Part of the reason that some agencies hit the skids is clearly the loss of talent. Fallon alone has fathered (not in that way, sicko) Toy, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy and Brew. That those agencies exist is down to the exiting of top creative talent from Fallon, including Ari Merkin, Bob Barrie, Stuart D’Rozario and Bruce Bildsten…which has really hobbled Fallon. As you would expect it would.

But Crispin Porter has succesfully weathered the loss of some top creative talent (the guys who started Goodness Manufacturing). Which leads to reason two that a top agency might struggle: the stepping back of the founder. This has clearly affected Fallon, too, but from what I hear out of Austin, the stepping back of Roy Spence is the proximate cause of GSD&M’s struggles.

The third major reason that agencies hit the skids is the mix of ownership by the big four holding companies and getting bigger. The holding companies, being publicly held, need to squeeze revenue out of their agencies so, however much an agency might say they are about great creative work, once they are publicly owned they are really about making the quarterly numbers. A balance can be struck, but it’s not easy. And, as an agency grows, there are inevitably more layers and approvals and satisfied creative directors who have already accomplished things to drown out the creativity of the young guns. Inertia takes over and the agency gets institutionalized. It’s possible to fight this, as Saatchi has done lately with Tony Granger in New York and Harvey Marco in LA, but it’s also hard.

The final reason is luck.

axe isn’t making a claim, it’s making a joke

I am usually adamantaly against overpromising in advertising, especially in this day and age. Interconnectivity is so fast and easy that the word gets out quickly…and all the lovely advertising and all of the frantic PR in the world is not going to make up for the fact that consumers think you’re full of shit.

As Tangerine Toad says:

“More than anything, we need to be honest. To tell consumers the truth without bragging and with the realization that they’re going to fact-check us. So that lines like “it’s got the best rear bumper washing system of any car in its class” won’t cut it if that’s because it’s got the only rear bumper washing system of any car in its class because all the other cars in its “class” have bumpers that never need washing.”

Yet, sometimes, overpromising is good because it is so ridiculous, so over-the-top that it makes the product relevant, irreverant and considerable where is once wasn’t. Like those Old Spice spots from Weiden and Kennedy, or the Axe body spray ads:

These ads are so outrageous in their “claim” that it doesn’t overpromise…while sort of overpromising. If I am a fourteen year-old guy I know that no girl is going to come up to me in the grocery store and start dancing for me. For that matter, I know that no girl is going come up to me in the grocery store and talk to me. In fact, as a fourteen year-old, based on past experience, I know that it is unlikely that a girl will talk to me anywhere. But if anything is going to help me make that happen, Axe is.

Plus the ads are funny and tonally perfect for the target.

Compare that with GOT2B Magnetik hair gel which claims to be infused with pheremones. They, apparently, will make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

I remember this plotline. I saw it in a movie once and it even made me interested in chemistry, until I realized that real life didn’t work like the movies. So I turned to advertising.

Adrants thinks that this claim is similar to Axe’s claim, but has it wrong. Axe isn’t making a claim, it’s making a joke. It says that its product has added “Bom chicka-wah-wah” which, I am pretty sure, is not real. Magnetik actually talks about the chemistry of pheremones. They are completely serious about this.

I don’t know for sure, but based on my limited knowledge of chemistry, Magnetik’s is a clear case of overpromising.

And their “make your own sex molecule” idea is boring.

ban drops a stinkton (heights) on america

Today is a busy day at the House of Biz, especially since our server crashed and took all of today’s snazzy work for my CPG client with it.

But, playing like the champion I am, I came up for air only to be confronted by Ban deodorant’s Stinkton Heights – with commentary by both Adrants and AdScam.

Though Adrants gives this site leeway because “[personal hygiene ads] walk this terrific moral and social line that’s bound to result in lots of misunderstandings and wince-worthy ads,” it still makes the Daily (Ad) Biz’ bad advertising list.

And not just because the site failed to re-size to my laptop’s screen size and the load time was excruciating.

Nor because Weiden is able to do great work on Old Spice deodorant (different target, yes, but still a deodorant and you tell me which work you think is stronger):

And not even because Stinkon Heights is awful similar to this Filthington.org idea by Drew Shaman that won a Merit award in the Student One Show awards last year:

Mainly I don’t like it because it is too obvious.

The eye-watering color-scheme, the teeny magazine copy, the faux-Blair Witch expose (still can’t do the thing over the “e”) of Stinkton Heights…as if anyone would want to expose something like stinky people.

I certainly don’t think that it deserves the vitriol that George Parker sends its way, but I do think that too often ho-hum ideas get through agencies and clients on the back of being executed via “New Media/New Technology.” An interactive microsite is a tactic, not an idea. Online videos? Quizzes? Advice columns? MySpace? Also tactics, not one of them an idea.

And I don’t think that Stinkton Heights is a good idea.