A film about baseball history in South Bend, Indiana and an advertising campaign featuring local cancer patients have been announced as nominees for the 2009/2010 Emmy Awards by the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
We’d like to give a special thanks to the South Bend Silver Hawks and Michiana Hematology Oncology, respectively, for allowing us to help tell your stories.
by Ryan Faist
Big Idea Company, LLC
I heard a story this morning on NPR that made me stop what I was doing and write this post. It was yet another commentary about the future of the publishing industry, something that I pay close attention to because I’m a writer. But even if you don’t earn your living with words, this affects you. It may even change the way you read books, magazines and newspapers forever.
From the series What Not To Do
by Lou Pierce
So, there he is: Mr. CEO — the big desk, the secretary, everyone answering to him; sure, it’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of work, but sometimes it can go to person’s head. I’m the President of a company myself, and I know – just ask my colleagues at Big Idea Company. But, when you’re working with the press, you simply cannot afford to let what I call the “Big Desk Syndrome” foul things up.
By Jill Klinedinst
If you’re lucky enough to work with a professional media buyer – someone who subscribes to, pays for and actually understands the ratings and demographic data in your market – then you don’t need the following advice. But, if you’re not fortunate enough to work with an agency that offers this service, BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL! It’s easy to get burned. The following advice will help you avoid those too-good-to-be-true media packages that I call “fire sales.”
Too many times I’ve seen clients get sucked into bad media purchases because they were fire sales. You know the salesperson drill: “We only have three more media packages left, and today is the last day! With this amazing deal, you’ll get all these spots at this great low price! Should I sign you up?”
Not so fast. Usually these types of sales are urgent appeals, generally meant to sell inventory that is unsellable. Sure, you’ll get three prime time spots, but you’ll also get twenty-three that run throughout the night… or worse yet, what’s called a Run of Schedule (ROS) spot (which they might as well call a WTH spot, because it means the station can run them Whenever the Heck they want). But what portion of your target audience is watching a ‘Rockin’ to the Oldies’ infomercial at 2am? That’s when the majority of your spots will air with a ROS agreement. The only legitimate reason to pay for a spot that will air overnight is if you’re selling mattresses to people who wish they were sleeping. If you’re not appealing to insomniacs, stay away from ROS media plans. They’re worth nothing to you.
When it comes to purchasing media time, don’t be fooled by the numbers. Remember, most of these fire sale packages are designed to sell you the air time that nobody else wants. Sure, 250 guaranteed spots during the second quarter of the year sounds great, but if only a percentage of your audience will see them, what good are they to you?
So how do you get the most bang for your buck with your media budget? Just put your money where your audience is. The best thing you can do to determine the value of a media package is to assess what shows are WORTH paying for, and then compare that total with the price of the package. Here’s what I mean: let’s say a media package offers a ‘reduced rate’ for primetime or access (the hour before primetime shows). To assess its true value to you, add up the individual costs of air time for each show that provides good ratings in your target demo. Do NOT add the costs of the shows in the prepared media package that are of no value to you. For example, if you don’t want to air during daytime court shows, don’t add the cost of those spots. Then compare that total with the actual price of the fire sale. Chances are, you’ll find that your money is better spent creating your own plan.
These last minute sales are called ‘fire sales’ for a reason. You guessed it – you might as well burn your money. So use caution the next time one crosses your desk. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Jill Klinedinst is a professional media planner at Big Idea Company, where all media ratings and demographic data in the northern Indiana/southwest Michigan region are used on a daily basis to build effective media plans for large and small clients throughout the region.
Your Guide to the Most Popular Radio Ad Faux Pas of Our Time
by Ryan Faist
credit: bbaltimore
If you’re looking for a good way to ruin your next radio ad, just turn on the radio and listen. That’s the best place to find world-class examples of how to do it. I guarantee you’ll hear ads that may have looked good on paper, but somehow manage to just add more noise to the two minutes of indistinguishable and ineffective clutter that is sandwiched between the actual radio programs. So how does this happen?
Well, there are many simple ways to ruin a radio ad. Some people like to start with a bad idea. That always works well. Others prefer to kill a good idea with poor execution. But most of the time, it comes down to the strategy when writing. Addressing the wrong audience, speaking from your business’s point of view instead of your customer’s, and wasting precious time repeating a phone number that nobody will remember are all good ways to ruin a radio ad.
However, the best way to ruin a radio ad is the one used most often. It’s the trump card of ways; the easiest method to ruin your radio ad no matter how good your idea or how great your execution. And chances are, you’re doing it already.
First, you need to know that nearly every ad on the radio is overstuffed with information. That’s a fact. Sometimes you can actually hear how the voice-over has been sped up electronically just to fit it all in. Overstuffing your ad is the single most effective thing you can do when you don’t want people to remember anything about it – other than its bloviating. It’s also the most common way to ruin a radio ad because you can do it without even trying. Hell, most people overstuff their ad accidentally. They don’t even know they’ve done it!
All you have to do is write too much voice-over. That’s it – the trump card for ruining your radio ad. Here’s how it’s done. To be certain a sixty-second radio ad sounds like all the others, write more than 160 words of voice-over. If you can get it up to 200, you’re on your way. The more, the better. You want your narrator speaking so fast that he or she sounds like a tongue-twisting spokesman rattling off bids at an auction. What you don’t want is for your narrator to speak slowly and clearly. Radio ads rarely do this because it’s a good way to ensure that people actually hear what is being said. It also increases people’s chances of recalling that information later, which may actually increase sales. You don’t want that.
So you see, it’s not so hard to ruin your radio ad. There are lots of ways, and I’m sure you can find one that suits you. But if you’re looking for something that will work every time, something that promises to ruin a radio ad that otherwise might have been great, just write too much voice-over. It works like a charm for everyone else.
How Lazy Ad Makers Perpetuate a Self-Serving Myth At Your Expense
by Lou Pierce
What follows will be heresy to the dinosaurs of the advertising world. I shall make no friends there. Never- theless, allow me to address the most pervasive hoax that the world of advertising has ever perpetrated upon an unsuspecting corporate and institutional world. It is the industry’s self-serving myth of “creativity” – you know, that pretentious, self-important, ego-driven myth that ad makers are somehow gifted while the rest of us are not.
As an ad maker myself, I dare incur the wrath of professional colleagues by revealing that there’s nothing mysterious, Divine or magical about the “creative” process. Award-winning professionals in our industry are no different from over-achievers in any other industry. Our work is just that: work. “Great advertising” is always the product of very hard work. There are no shortcuts. And, anyone who tells you that there are shortcuts is either lazy, pretentious or both.
So why bring this up now? Well, recently a couple of advertising veterans have been whining publicly via blogs about their “creative” work being treated like a commodity. This perception of their work as a commodity is a serious issue for them. It affects what they can charge and even their long term viability in the business. So, there’s no question, no doubt that they need to be very concerned – but, concerned about their work.
Instead, their published opinions make preposterous claims that the entire industry suffers from this malady and that it is actually the clients who are to blame. That’s right, the clients! It is their published opinion that clients don’t appreciate “creativity” anymore and that they are not willing to pay for it.
Well frankly, that’s hogwash. In a September 11, 2009 interview at the annual Ad Tech Conference in Chicago, Cliff Kaplan, President and CEO of Design Back Office, one of the most successful wholesalers of design services in the world, pointed out that this is a time when smaller, more nimble agencies are actually growing, while larger “dinosaur” agencies with all of their overhead are having trouble meeting client expectations to do “more for less.”
“More for less?” That’s a real conundrum if you simply cannot meet expectations because your overhead prohibits it. But, blame the client? That’s unheard of in any other industry. Maybe the people who sold the self-serving myth of advertising executive superiority can get away with it. Time will tell.
But I’m not so sure. For me, there’s a mathematical problem with all of this. The excuses, the rationale; none of it makes sense. Products become commodities when they become common. It’s that simple. “Creative” work of a common garden-variety nature is most assuredly by definition, a commodity.
What is the fix if you’re really concerned about this “commodity” issue and are determined to do something about it? How can you get your work off the commodities list?
Stop pretending that the whole industry is suffering along with you. It’s not. Stop blaming clients for the common everyday advertising that you churn out. Stop pretending that Divine intervention makes for award-winning work. And, break a sweat. Remember sweat? It’s what the rest of us do. Make your common work uncommon. It won’t be easy. It never has been and it never will be. But, at the end of the day, it’s the only thing that matters.
Research Confirms Growth In All Forms of Video Use, Including TV
by Lou Pierce
Once again, we not only caution you about buying into the prevailing hysteria regarding the so-called demise of traditional media, but we back it up with research that makes our point. Don’t be a lemming. Lots of people are making money right now at your expense by convincing you that traditional media is dead. It’s not. In fact, it appears to be growing. And, here’s more evidence to prove it.
A.C. Nielsen, best known for its decades-long dominance in measuring local and national television viewing, has issued a new A2/M2 Three Screen Report. The Three Screen report measures video consumption of Americans across TV, the internet and mobile devices such as phones. The recently released report shows that mobile and online video consumption were up significantly, and I mean significantly in the second quarter of 2009 from Q2 08.
So, how can we say that these media are a bad investment? We can’t. And, we don’t. What we continue to say is that all of us should be prudent. The new media options are not wholesale solutions that will replace other strong media options. They are additional options in your media portfolio with different strengths and different weaknesses – for now, that is all that they are.
The recent Nielsen report makes it crystal clear that the increased use of mobile and online video consumption has not come at the expense of traditional television viewing. I repeat: Increased mobile and internet viewing has not come at the expense of traditional television viewing. In fact, the research very clearly shows that time spent viewing traditional television actually increased by 2 hours and 2 minutes in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the second quarter of 2008.
The increase in television viewing is even more interesting when you see that the mobile video audience jumped a whopping 70%, and that time spent watching online video increased 46%, or by 59 minutes during the same time frame (the second quarter).
The use of DVRs (time-shifted viewing) is also on the rise. Americans watched 1 hour and 11 minutes more time-shifted TV in the second quarter of 2009 than they did the year before. What does this mean for placing your ads on traditional media? At least two things: 1) Your ads better be utterly compelling or they will be zapped – “good” creative is not good enough. “Great” show-stopping creative is the only thing that matters. 2) A good media planner knows what the viewing habits of DVR users are. Some shows are simply not DVR’d by DVR users. So the ratings and demographics are now just part of the media planning equation. Later this month, we will have an article that talks more about the time-shifting habits of DVR users and how to address them with a good media plan.
So, what should we all take away from this new report? Simply this: American consumers appear to be adding video consumption platforms rather than replacing them. More people are watching traditional television today than ever before. And, media multitasking is part of the new media consumption pattern.
Again, we caution our clients and friends to always be careful about hype. Time will tell. Meanwhile, don’t be a lemming. Be cautious and optimistic like we are.
Ask the people who created the longest running ad in history
by Steve Lotter
Marketers take note: the lifespan of your television campaign relies solely upon the relevancy of your message. Sound easy enough?
Then why do so many ad makers continue to ignore this simple rule of thumb in an effort to be trendy at the expense of being relevant to their prospects? I’m talking about overuse of celebrity endorsements, inappropriate use of special effects, and humor at the expense of your core brand message.
What’s wrong with all the trendy celebrity endorsements? When done appropriately, nothing. But most celebrity endorsements are more seductive to the client than they will ever be to American consumers. Michael Jordan has brand-permission to endorse sports drinks and sneakers because he used them to become the greatest basketball player of all time. But he doesn’t have brand permission to endorse most of the other products and services he’s been paid for. More power to Michael for commanding high fees, but most of those endorsements are outside his field of expertise and, therefore, irrelevant to consumers. Their effect on sales is marginal and their shelf-life is short at best. And don’t forget – a popular celebrity today can become a PR nightmare tomorrow. (Exhibit A).
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