I started chatting with David Deal of Razorfish after reading their brilliant 2009 Digital Outlook Report, which has been quoted many times on this blog.  

To say Razorfish is tops in the agency world is an understatment.  I’ve always been impressed by the powerhouse that they are in the marketplace–the braintrust they bring to the industry.  They’ve helped reshape marketing conversations by leading public, transparent discussions on how digital touches all aspects of the marketing enterprise.  They demonstrate this position every day in their work and on twitter, employee blogs, Slideshare, Vimeo and YouTube–a public sharing of information that inspires everyone to reach higher.

Razorfish has raised the industry standard for what’s acceptable and what digital marketing can and should be.

I think you’ll like David’s point-of-view, and hey, you gotta love a guy who lists Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page among his inspirations.  

David says of Razorfish:

[We use] digital to help companies build their businesses.  Sometimes building a business means repositioning a brand for a new audience, like what we’ve done with Mattel for the Barbie brand and for Intel with its Core i7 microprocessor.  Sometimes building a business means strengthening a brand’s digital presence, as we’ve done through with CNN through the redesign of CNN.com.  Or we might help a company create a digital presence altogether, as we did with Postopia.  Razorfish combines thought leadership and full services globally.”

1.   What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?

The aha moment for me occurred in 2006, when a Razorfish colleague asked me to help her improve her employee blog.  I realized that Razorfish needed to inject Social Influence Marketing into our marketing and communications outreach.  I also understood that marketing at Razorfish needed to involve the diverse voices of our employees more effectively – including my own. Not long after that experience, I helped create the Razorfish employee blogging program, which was a team effort involving some passionate and dedicated employees like Shiv Singh, Lauren Nguyen, Amy Vickers, and Ray Velez.  I also became a more active participant in the social world by launching my own blog, Superhypeblog.com, among other activities.  We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time.  I like how Razorfish is using Twitter as a means to disseminate thought leadership and to be responsive to the marketplace.  But we have a lot of work to do. 

2.   What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader? 

My nightstand includes Endgame, 1945 by David Stafford; The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers; Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller; and a Hardy Boys book that my daughter and I are reading together, The Secret Warning.  (By the way, I think marketers should frequently read books written for children. Seeing the world through the eyes of children is humbling, energizing, and eye opening.)  I regularly follow Razorfish blogs like FEED: The Digital Design Blog, and insights from the industry like Guy Kawasaki’s blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang, and Andrew Frank’s Gartner blog.  I’m also a sucker for Perez Hilton.  Because I blog myself, I look across the blogosphere for diverse ideas, especially content that doesn’t conveniently fit my job description.  I also gain inspiration from music.  To that end, I think the Facebook wall posts by Mikal Gilmore are better than anything I’ve seen in the blogosphere.

3.   Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.

I think the Barbie 50^th Anniversary celebration is outstanding because Mattel is taking advantage of the interactive and social nature of digital.  Mattel’s business challenge is to reposition the Barbie brand to grown-up women while celebrating Barbie’s 50^th.  Instead of investing into TV, Mattel has created a digital lifestyle for Barbie that taps into our cultural affinity for Barbie and recasts her as a fashion icon.  For instance, a YouTube channel features Barbie’s show from the Mercedes-Benz fashion week, among other content.  Through the YouTube channel, a microsite, Twitter account, popular Facebook page, display advertising, paid search, and a blog written in Barbie’s own voice, Mattel has worked with Razorfish to connect with women across the entire digital world.  I also like this example because it shows how you can embrace Social Influence Marketing in a strategic way – it’s not just about creating a Facebook page but stitching together several touch points in context of a larger digital marketing effort.

4.   We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken.  Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches.  Do you see an alternative to this process?

The RFP process will always be demanding.  Making a decision to partner with an agency takes careful consideration.  I think the bigger issue is making sure clients and agencies ensure they are the best fit for each other beyond the RFP process.  Agencies should differentiate themselves more clearly, which makes it easier for buyers to choose among alternatives.  Agencies should also talk less about themselves and more about their clients’ business problems.  For their part, potential clients can increase their chances of finding the right agency partner by ensuring that the senior-most decision maker owns and leads the selection process.     

5.   What does the agency of the future look like?

The agency of the future is a hybrid consultancy and agency.  The agency of the future should challenge its clients with fresh ideas that improve the client’s business.  The agency of the future should also build experiences, not generate one-way messages.  The agency of the future also helps clients become more responsive to their customers through creative forms of marketing like Social Influence Marketing (or employing social influencers and media to meet one’s marketing and business needs). 

6.   What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

Agencies need to do a better job providing their clients fresh insights into consumer behavior.  Focus groups need to give way to ethnographic research combined with measureable web-based analytics.   My Razorfish colleague Andrea Harrison recently introduced Social Influence Research, a new approach in which we study consumer purchasing decisions in context of their social relationships.  We’re all social beings, right?  So we need an approach to understand our clients’ customers in context of their social worlds.  With ideas like Social Influence Research, Razorfish seeks to address marketers’ unmet needs.   

7.   Who do you admire and why?

I admire George Harrison and C.S. Lewis because they expressed their spiritual journeys through their art.  I admire Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page because of their passion for innovation.  Their legacies transcend their guitar playing.  Jimi Hendrix was the movie equivalent of scriptwriter, actor, director, and producer.  He didn’t break rules; he made new ones.  And Jimmy Page figured out how to use the studio to create layers of sound that no one else has touched.  Whenever I’m collaborating with a group to try out new ideas, I draw upon them for inspiration.

######

Share/Save

Next week after the Memorial Day holiday, check out David J. Deal from Razorfish on the Ad Industry Innovator series.  The following week, Spike Jones from Brains on Fire.  Then Scott Goodson from Strawberry Frog…and more. 

It’s a jam packed line up.  So tune in and don’t miss a thing~

Like this series?   Tell a friend.  Subscribe.

Know an agency or individual who you’d like to see profiled?  Contact me.

New series from the client side coming up soon along with a chance to win an autographed copy of Guy Kawasaki‘s new book Reality Check.

Until next week, have a safe and fun holiday.  Hope it’s sunny whever you are.  And for our international readers:  Happy Weekend of the 23rd of May!  What holidays do you have coming up?

Share/Save

So proud to announce to my colleagues, friends, peers, clients, and family that I just received the WGBM award for Marketing Achievement. 

Thank you for your continued faith in my abilities!

I am so happy to share the announcement with all of you!  

Click here to see a video of the award ceremony.

Share/Save

This week’s Ad Industry Innovator is Jim Harenchar from Richmond, Virginia based RightMinds.

I first became acquainted with Right Minds through LinkedIn and began emailing EVP, Jim Harenchar, as I was moving through the planning phase of launching Hitch.

RightMinds instantly intrigued me:  here were a bunch of smart, seasoned advertising people who were innovating by turning the traditional agency model on its ear.

Jim and my initial emails centered on RightMinds’ premise that “the traditional agency model is broken, if not dead”.  In Jim’s words “we’re about getting work done, out the door and at a competitive price point.

“RightMinds is made up of senior level marketing experts engaged under a common brand, vision, and empowerment system. More agile and effective than a traditional agency or marketing firm. More inspired than the smallest shops, and more fearless and prolific than the largest. Our tag line is, ‘You Can Do Anything When You Put Our Minds To It.’™”

1. What was the aha moment when you realized “our company needs to be doing things differently than we have been”?

After we give birth to every RFP, there’s a moment that may not be an “aha” moment as much as an “uh what” moment. You realize that agencies are asked to do much more free work than firms in other industries. That’s not to say that spec work should be avoided. But, it’s incredibly difficult to focus on existing clients and keep a number of RFPs in the air at the same time. If you take a step back and look at it objectively, no internal marketing team is staffed to cover all the bases. And, the idea of integrated marketing continues to expand. It just makes sense to broaden your offering without becoming so vertically integrated that you collapse under the weight of it all. A more virtual approach allows you to assemble a team that’s integrated for a particular client’s needs. That approach can often be more tactical than anything an agency of record could offer.

2. What books are on your nightstand or great blogs on your Google reader?

• Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide
• Sway
• David Meerman Scott’s World Wide Rave
• Matthew Leach’s St. Louis Cardinal blog, “Obviously you’re not a golfer”

3. Give me an example of marketing you think is brilliant and why.

The Burger King Facebook campaign was laser sharp. Dump your friends for a whopper? Perfectly viral. CP+B is looking like what a non-agency should be. If there’s such a thing as horizontal integration, they’ve achieved it.

The Dunkin Donuts campaign that is integrating every channel and medium to connect with “the common man” and drive share versus Starbucks. The ROI on that campaign is incredible and the marketing learning is priceless. Kudos to Hill Holiday.

Microsoft’s recent Lauren campaign which combats the Mac spots and really resonates with us in this current economy.

4. We’ve all read that the pitch / RFP process is broken. Many agencies aren’t even interested in competing in pitches. Do you see an alternative to this process?

The death of RFPs may be preceded by the death of AORs. As long as clients seek agencies of record, there will be RFPs. The irony is that the RFP process often makes the result irrelevant by the time itís completed. Things are moving too fast for RFPs. Really sharp marketing executives find a stable of partners and buy ideas on a much shorter cycle within an overall brand strategy. That ís where agencies like ours come in.  We’re fostering relationships where the CMO comes to us as a resource to initiate the inspiration process – not just a creative execution partner. Why pay for retained resources when youíre really not satisfied with the team youíve got?  We’ve moved towards an incubator of consulting, creativity and implementation and it’s being embraced by the market.

5. What does the agency of the future look like?

The agency of the future looks less structured and more agile. The large agency networks are assembling smaller groups of specialists instead of trying to incorporate them all under an agency brand. In the future, individuals and ideas will be more important. After all, it’s a relationship business that’s all about the work.

6. What do marketers need that agencies are not giving them?

Two key things;

1. Attention. Constant attention. The chain of communication between clients and agencies needs to be simplified. It’s going to be ever more important for one person to be both creative and strategic so that the client can go direct to the source instead of passing information along through account executives. We’re facing a much shorter idea cycle and tighter budgets. Efficiency is key.

2. Relevance. I don’t think most agencies are always providing relevant solutions. Everyone wants to jump on the new media, social bandwagon but the solutions that they are providing aren’t always grounded. Too often the solution is based on what’s cool or new instead of what’s going to be effective, and the solutions aren’t integrated in a way that maximizes the power of each media.

I had a drink with a friend the other night who works in the marketing department of a large international company that serves over 25 countries. He made the statement that his boss was all over social media and was focusing a lot of their efforts in Facebook and other social networks. Sounds great until you think about it – they are a mostly b to c company with very little name recognition. Without some kind of brand building campaign their efforts are likely going to fall flat.

7. Who do you admire and why?

I just read a story on Ray Kroc. And, while many folks swear they will never, ever eat another McDonalds hamburger, he was a great marketer. He bought the founders out for a million a piece and proceeded to turn the brand into the largest global consumer brand.

Bill Gates is amazing to me as well. Pretty good success for a college dropout. I re-read The Road Ahead recently and was blown away by the vision and the foresight he had. His philanthropic and humanitarian work stands to leave a more lasting legacy than his work with Microsoft.

Share/Save

Recently, I was asked by a European ad agency how to break into the U.S. market, what tools were available to research U.S. companies, and where they could learn about accounts in review.  Rather than dash off an email I caught myself in mid peck.  It was clear from their questions that although they prided themselves on being strategic, this agency was not thinking strategically at all.  Getting U.S clients was not the real issue.

They needed a gut check.  I suggested they start by asking themseves:

• Why they wanted U.S. clients?
• Had they fully explored all the opportunities in their country’s market?
• Was there a real basis for a relationship?  For example, tactically speaking, could they demonstrate cultural differences that would be a stumbling block if their prospect simply translated their existing English advertising?  Can you say Chevy Nova?  How about Clairol or Starbucks’  stumbles in Germany?
• With clients forced to do more with less, could they overcome the objection of the added cost to work at a distance?
• Had they identified specific companies they could help, had contacts in, or at least an affinity for?

It was clear that they hadn’t considered these issues (or many others).  My Euro friends seemed intent on a shotgun approach.  They would have been happy to dance with whomever said yes–not the basis for a good relationship, plus the “yeses” would have been few and far between.  Their strategy would have been frustrating, expensive, and demotivating for the entire team and would have impressed few, if any, prospective clients.

In addition to being strategic about new business, this  agency also needed to be selective.  This can be counter intuitive, considering that sales is partly a numbers game. But knowing who they were as an agency, understanding their real value to a client, and then acting in accordance with these values would increase their ratio of wins far more than a vague tactical move to expand into the U.S.  When marketing problems more closely match the agency’s                                                                                        strengths, wins increase.

Following established, logical and simple business practices seems like a no brainer; so why not do that instead of making things more complicated than they need to be? Instead, we approach business development like a peacock:  all flash and dazzle, squaking loudly to attract whomever will listen, as if brilliant creative will open doors otherwise closed. It’s style without substance; and with so many smart marketers out there now, and no shortage of good ideas, business is not won by simply presenting great creative.

I suggested to my Euro friends that they do some real soul searching, and then if it still made sound business sense to target U.S clients, start by researching  U.S companies with existing offices or with plans to expand in their country.  Or let another firm do the heavy lifting by developing partnerships with larger U.S agencies already working for international companies in their country.

New business has no magic bullets; it’s combination of diverse skills that include business acumen, instinct, strategy, psychology and more.  Missteps happen because we fail to engage all of these senses.  I think much of what I told this agency they already knew; theirs was not a gap in knowledge but a failure to be self-critical.  Marketing likes to quantify and qualify everything; it’s built into our DNA.  And even through they knew better, this agency ignored their gut. As a stubborn person once told me, “don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up.”

Share/Save